Sit down for breakfast, lunch, coffee or a cocktail at new Dallas diner AM/FM and pretend you’re a musician. You’re on the road, away from home and craving something familiar.
AM/FM in the Dallas Design District was created so artists — plus the people who love their music — feel like they have a reliable, relatable place to eat. Co-owners Matthew Harber and Annette Marin are first-time restaurateurs and long-time concert promoters. They have produced about 50,000 indie concerts in North Texas featuring The Flaming Lips, Leon Bridges, Maren Morris, Fitz and the Tantrums, Bleachers and more, under their company Spune Productions. They also book the concerts at venues around Dallas like Club Dada.
For years, Harber wanted to open a restaurant, he told The Dallas Morning News. Instead, he and Marin started with what they know: They took over the live music venue in AM/FM’s backyard, which has a light-up Ferris wheel that offers vintage charm during evening concerts. Next, they took over the restaurant in front, formerly Ferris Wheelers BBQ, and changed it into a diner that better suits the music venue’s needs.
AM/FM, with its quiet corners and Pulp Fiction vibe, feels like a singer or a songwriter might have slid into a booth for eggs or masa pancakes. It’s a wood-paneled wonder in a neighborhood with some of Dallas’ priciest new restaurants, like Delilah, Carbone and Jo’Seon.
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For its uniqueness, The News called AM/FM one of the most exciting new restaurants coming to Dallas in 2026.
Avocado toast at AM/FM in Dallas is topped with salsa macha, a Mexican chili oil.
Juan Figueroa / Staff Photographer
Marin and Harber hired Anastacia Quiñones-Pittman, formerly of Dallas restaurant José, as AM/FM’s consulting executive chef. Quiñones-Pittman is known for her beautiful contemporary Mexican dishes, and she said AM/FM’s menu was a nice departure — to make relaxed food “like we eat at home.” She took inspiration from the Southern food Harber grew up eating in Tennessee and the Mexican-American cuisine Marin’s family eats in California.
All-day menu items include chilaquiles ($15), avocado toast ($14), fried green tomatoes ($11) and grilled cheese with crab bisque ($20). Hungry customers might go for the meatloaf stuffed with jalapeño poppers ($21).
Under the AM/FM neon logo is a stage for occasional live music at the new diner. Behind the restaurant (not pictured) is a bigger backyard concert venue with an Austin vibe.
Juan Figueroa / Staff Photographer
Chicken soup with soul
Annette Marin and Matthew Harber co-own AM/FM in Dallas. It’s their first restaurant, after being concert promoters for 15 years.
Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer
One of Marin’s favorites is the Mexican CNS (Chicken Noodle Soup, $13 for a bowl). She sat down for a bowl of hot soup after feeling “beat down” by construction delays on the restaurant and by the weight of the independent promoter business, which Marin described as “not a lot of money and long hours.” Her voice wavered.
“And then I ate the food,” she said. She found Quiñones-Pittman had added fideo, or short noodles, into the chicken noodle soup. Marin remembers feeling her busy day stop for a moment. “We were working so hard to get this place done,” Marin said, “and there was this big memory from my childhood.”
She hopes AM/FM is a place where people can slow down and enjoy music or food. The outdoor stage schedule is set, and eventually, they plan for musicians to perform indoors, too.
“Artists are wanting to get back to their roots — to get back to the fans and not play these huge spaces,” she said. She looked around AM/FM. “Most bands start in small venues.”
The breakfast empanada at AM/FM has chorizo, potato, egg and cheddar cheese.
Juan Figueroa / Staff Photographer
Affordable happy hour
French toast is squiggled with sweet potato at AM/FM, a diner in the Dallas Design District.
Juan Figueroa / Staff Photographer
The restaurant was designed to be friendly to sober drinkers and gluten-free and meat-free eaters. With Quiñones-Pittman’s touch, the menu doesn’t appear to be trying too hard. A $5 side of spicy collards, for instance, skips the ham hock but still goes big on flavor using coconut aminos, which is vegan. Rather than a cheeseburger, there’s a veggie burger ($16) with a house-made black bean patty and caramelized onions.
The co-owners and the chef are lovingly obsessed with the Mozzarella LT ($16), a play on a BLT where slabs of bacon are swapped for a slab of fried cheese sandwiched on a panini with edamame pesto and black pepper mayo.
“If you’re a meat and potatoes girl like me,” the chef said, “you won’t miss the meat.”
(Those who want to stick closer to actual meat and potatoes should look to the pot roast guiso, a braised beef dish served with pozole grits, $22; and the green chile chicken enchilada pot pie, $18.)
A late-night menu will be available in the restaurant and outside during backyard concerts. It includes a Sonoran hot dog ($15), breakfast tacos ($5) and a chicken Caesar sandwich ($15), all Quiñones-Pittman’s creations.
Perhaps the best deal is at happy hour, from 3 to 6:30 p.m. weekdays. Diners will find $8 sandwiches and $7 cocktails.
Said Marin: “We are big happy hour people, and we wanted this to be a value.”
AM/FM is at 1950 Market Center Blvd., Dallas. It opened Feb. 9, 2026. The owners expect to operate AM/FM seven days a week, including on most holidays. Details on ticketed concerts can be found at amfmdallas.com.