Belal Kattan owns Bazaar, a pop-up and private dinner company in Dallas. While Kattan has grown used to one-night dinners that are rarely in the same place, he has agreed to spend the month of June 2026 cooking in the same downtown Dallas kitchen.
Daniel Gerona
For the first time in a year, Dallas chef Belal Kattan will stop moving.
Kattan is a full-time chef who borrows Dallas restaurant kitchens to serve fine-dining dinners for one night. Through his company, Bazaar, he has served about 20 pop-up dinners across Dallas in a year.
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In June 2026, Kattan will take up a residency at downtown Dallas’ Statler Hotel, where he’ll make fine-dining dinners in the former Sauvage tasting room for 14 nights. The menu will change after the first six dinners.
“I’m not necessarily looking for a 5-year lease,” Kattan said, “but a residency felt right.”
He said of the challenge: “I couldn’t be more excited.”
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It’s good news for Dallas food lovers, because Kattan’s one-night dinners are some of the most intriguing tastings in town.
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Kattan was raised in Syria and moved to the United States to escape the war-torn country over a decade ago. He worked as a chef at revered Dallas restaurants Gemma, Sachet, Georgie, Cry Wolf and Carte Blanche before starting his own business, Bazaar.
Kattan is invigorated by the pop-ups, and he has enjoyed infusing Levantine ingredients with fine-dining techniques. A recent menu featured ashta, similar to ricotta, inside handmade agnolotti with leeks. Laymoon jamid, the Arabic phrase for frozen lemon, was a palate cleanser served just before dessert.
Bazaar’s latest dinner at Quarter Acre on Dallas’ Greenville Avenue on May 11 sold out. Kattan and his team served about 70 diners a six-course dinner that included stone crab salad with uni miso, koji-cured scallop and lamb with pistachio chili crisp.
Kattan’s point of view on food won’t change as he moves into a temporary space. But the residency will show him whether his roving dinners could — or should — be contained to one location. The restaurant will seat just 22 people.
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Working in the same kitchen for most of June will be a change for Kattan, who is accustomed to starting his day in the middle of the night at whichever restaurant he’d be hosting dinners at next. He used to arrive around midnight, after the dinner crew finished a shift, and would work overnight and into the morning, until the restaurant’s next crop of chefs clocked in.
“It’s been crazy how everyone’s opened their doors to it,” he said. “I’ve probably been in more kitchens than anyone in Dallas.”
At the 14-dinner pop-up in downtown Dallas, Kattan will be joined by chefs Joshua Zacharias and Brenda Perez. The cocktails and wine will come from Max Dean and Daniel Ayala.
Moving to a semi-permanent kitchen will allow Kattan to cook and prep during daylight hours. He’s looking forward to little upgrades, like leaving his plates on the restaurant shelf instead of lugging them home.
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The appeal of one day operating a restaurant of his own “sounds amazing,” he said, but would he want to do that?
Bazaar is expected to open at 1914 Commerce St., Dallas, for a limited time. Dinners will be June 5, 6, 10-13, 17-20 and 24-27 and cost $135 per person for five to seven courses. Reservations open now.