Dallas Design District restaurant The Charles made a dramatic move: Its owners scrubbed the restaurant’s Instagram account, deleting years of photos. They closed the dining room for 10 days without explanation.
In a quick turn, this eight-year-old Italian restaurant was redesigned with a moodier dining room and reimagined menu.
The Charles reopened Feb. 9, 2026, more confident than ever. But wait. Why?
“There was really nothing wrong with the space,” co-owner Benji Homsey said. “We loved the restaurant before we ripped it apart.”
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A new curtained entrance to The Charles makes your arrival feel less abrupt.
Tom Fox / Staff Photographer
It’s a surprising change, as restaurant margins are thin and diners have more options than ever, especially in the Dallas Design District. Nearby, flashy, new supperclub Delilah opened recently, as did modern Chinese restaurant Night Rooster. A diner called AM/FM is one of several new restaurants coming soon in the neighborhood.
But when The Charles debuted in 2018, Homsey and co-founder Chas Martin felt they took a chance on the Design District, a neighborhood some Dallas diners had to plug into Google Maps to find. The two thought they’d open one restaurant, for fun. Eight years later, their Duro Hospitality operates a half-dozen eateries in Dallas and Fort Worth, and the company has become one of D-FW’s boldest restaurant groups.
First-born son The Charles needed a new set of clothes. And a revised menu.
The Pie, a rotating savory dish made with puff pastry, has been popular at The Charles for years. Today, The Pie is Chicken Diavolo with Moroccan spices.
Tom Fox / Staff Photographer
“When we started The Charles, it was every good idea we had written down,” said J. Chastain. He was once executive chef for Stephan Pyles and executive sous chef for Bruno Davaillon at the Mansion. Chastain is a partner at Duro today, and the company has ballooned to 400 employees.
“Now that we’ve built six other concepts,” Chastain said, “we’ve put parts of The Charles in all these other restaurants.” For example, the puff pastry used at The Charles is now the base for the savory butter chicken pie, one of the best-selling dishes at their Fort Worth restaurant, The Chumley House.
Chastain and his team looked back at The Charles, its “good ideas” scattered like puzzle pieces across the other restaurants.
“So what is The Charles now?” Chastain asked.
The pink banquettes got pinker at The Charles.
Tom Fox / Staff Photographer
Banquettes and bathrooms
During a slow January, amid an ice storm, construction crews added gauzy, dark drapes to the windows and brightened the banquettes with pink fabric. They changed the entrance, which previously could have been (kindly) described as abrupt.
“You used to walk in, and boom‚” Homsey said. “You’re at the host stand.” (Or, if the bar was slammed and there was a wait for a table, you’re apologetically hovering over somebody else’s appetizers.)
The Charles is an Italian restaurant in the Dallas Design District. After eight years, it was time for a refresh, the owners said.
Tom Fox / Staff Photographer
Regulars at The Charles might be happy, or horrified, to hear the racy bathrooms did not change. Those walls covered in pages from Italian pin-up magazines were hung by the company founders in 2018, after a long night of drinking. Every once in a while, a customer complains about the lascivious photos in the loo, but The Charles’ owners brush it off. They like pushing limits.
The wallpaper near the bathrooms didn’t change, either: Those are prints of the owners’ wives’ boobs and butts, repeated in a pattern. Yeah, the blue circles you thought were artsy polka dots.
What to eat at The Charles
Eight years after The Charles was created, the Design District restaurant naturally became fancier, Martin said.
Wagyu short rib is served with sticky shallots, brown butter and jus at The Charles in Dallas’ Design District.
Tom Fox / Staff Photographer
“When we opened, we were relatively casual,” he said. “We’d make great food. Set it in the center of the table. Just like at our house.”
Refreshing the restaurant keeps it relevant, the owners said. Diners will notice about half of The Charles menu has changed, totaling 18 new dishes.
Chefs kept nearly all of the pastas that became so popular. The spicy shrimp pasta ($29), white Bolognese ($26) and amatriciana ($28) have been on the menu since Day One, and they remain. New is a $32 “snow crab 6-pack,” a fun name for seafood ravioli sauced tableside with vadouvan cream, then cut with a pizza roller. It’s decadent and a little showy, a metaphor for how the restaurant has matured.
Vadouvan cream is poured over the “snow crab 6-pack” at The Charles in Dallas.
Tom Fox / Staff Photographer
Flaming semifreddo affogato brings some drama to The Charles’ dining room.
Tom Fox / Staff Photographer
Chastain hopes the additions in the “wood-fired” section grab some attention. The shareable Wagyu short rib dish ($59) comes with “sticky shallots” and a brown butter balsamic dressing. And what are we tasting on the steak rub? Salt, pepper and a little coffee.
“We don’t always talk about the extra things we do,” Chastain said. He doesn’t want servers over-explaining the food; the owners pride themselves in an air of effortlessness, even with complex preparations. Most customers may not ask about the little details, Chastain said. But for those who do: “The coffee,” he said, “just gives it earthiness.”
Now that the company operates a contemporary Mexican restaurant called El Carlos Elegante, a Japanese grill in Norman’s, French-Italian fine-dining spot Mister Charles and others, rethinking The Charles seemed essential.
“Our confidence has gone up,” Homsey said.
The Charles is at 1632 Market Center Blvd., Dallas. The decor and menu at Bar Charles, attached to The Charles, has not changed. Evenings only. Closed Sundays.