Chef Olivia López and Jonathan Percival, partners in business and in life, are opening two Mexican restaurants in Old East Dallas. First up, a refined a la carte restaurant called Olōyō.
Elías Valverde II/Staff Photographer
Long awaited Mexican restaurant Olōyō will open on Dallas’ Gaston Avenue on May 26, 2026.
Chef Olivia López’s 23-seat restaurant has a menu focused around heirloom masa and the small, mighty corn mill she bought a few years back for $2,000. The Dallas Morning News called Olōyō one of the most exciting new restaurants of 2026 in part because it is Mexican-born chef López’s first Mexican restaurant.
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“This is my food,” she said in a News interview in late 2025.
And the restaurant is her dream. “It’s what I thought would not be possible.”
If you know, you know: Some Dallasites bought Olivia López’s tamales from an industrial kitchen near Interstate 35 in Dallas. Despite the tiny operation, López and partner Jonathan Percival were James Beard semifinalists for Best Chef: Texas in 2023.
Leslie Brenner
López emmigrated from Colima, Mexico, to Dallas in 2009. Her first restaurant job was cleaning restrooms at TGI Fridays. “I didn’t like it,” she said, but she kept working while attending the Art Institute. Eventually, she scored a spot in the kitchen at Italian restaurant Mi Piaci under chef Ross Demers.
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Over more than 15 years, López held many fine-dining jobs in Dallas kitchens. But it feels like fate that Olōyō will open where her former boss Demers’ last restaurant was. His rebellious Cry Wolf closed in 2023.
The ‘dream’
Since 2021, López and her partner Jonathan Percival have been selling tamales and tortillas online and hosting private dinners in Dallas homes.
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“Jonathan started asking me, ‘What do you want? What is your dream?'” She’s the visionary, he’s the builder. She told him she wanted to open a Mexican restaurant obsessed with high-quality ingredients.
They were both James Beard semifinalists for Best Chef: Texas in 2023 — a feat, given that they didn’t even have a restaurant.
López was proud of the honor, but she was climbing a hill of her own.
“Everyone told me no one is going to pay for Mexican food, because Mexican food is cheap. I said, No, not for quality.” She’s been steadfast in that belief since her company was born in a industrial kitchen on the edge of Interstate 35 through today, when her vision of Mexican gastronomy has finally made it to a 23-seat dining room.
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Olivia López tests a recipe in late 2025 as she prepares for the Olōyō tasting room to open in Dallas.
Jason Janik/Dallas Morning News
What to eat
The restaurant will serve an a la carte menu with items like sope gordo, or fried masa topped with Wagyu brisket, beans and kohlrabi; enmoladas, or enchiladas with mole; and pulpo asado, or grilled octopus.
Most dishes feature heirloom corn, including the restaurant’s hand-pressed tortillas.
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López is approaching her first restaurant opening with intensity. Some ingredients are purchased from Mexico, like corn, certain peppers and salt. Much of the produce comes from Texas. She is committed to knowing as many producers and farmers as possible. “I know the person who caught the fish,” she said.
Dishes from Molino Olōyō’s pop-ups have included scallop aguachile with strawberry and red habanero jam, green coriander, Rio red grapefruit, strawberry juice and coriander flowers.
Elizabeth Lavin
Casual restaurant coming soon
Later in 2026, a restaurant named Molino Olōyō will open next to Olōyō.
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It will be more affordable, with dishes like Wagyu suadero tacos and churros on the menu.
“I love a tasting room, but I still love our everyday food,” Percival told The News in 2025 as the two-part restaurant was shaping up.
The idea of both concepts, he said, is to offer a refined version of López’s food in one place, and a more affordable “everyday” restaurant in the other.
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Olōyō is at 4422 Gaston Ave., Dallas. Opens May 26, 2026. Reservations required.
Opening date for casual restaurant Molino Olōyō next door is TBD.