The restaurant is expected to open in 2027 near the new Knox Hotel in Dallas, at Knox and Travis streets in an area developers are calling “the paseo.” El Camino Royale will occupy a corner spot that will allow customers to walk off the Katy Trail and onto the Tex-Mex restaurant’s patio.
“When you stand out there and look down the Katy Trail, it can really give you goosebumps,” said Dallas restaurateur Greg Katz. He is opening El Camino Royale with his brother, Nik Katz.
Unlike some of the other upscale restaurants announced in the Knox Street development — a project so large, its execs secured over $600 million in financing — El Camino Royale was designed to be casual, Greg said.
The restaurant is still in early stages, but Greg expects the menu to include fajitas, tacos, enchiladas, nachos, quesadillas, ceviche and margaritas.
“We’re not trying to get clever,” Greg said.
“We’ll give the people what they want, and we’ll do it really well.”
The Katzes recently hired Charles Olalia, former executive chef of the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek, to be the culinary director for the brothers’ growing restaurant portfolio in North Texas. (In a full-circle moment, Greg worked in the Mansion’s kitchen in the late 1990s and early 2000s, making Southwestern dishes for Dean Fearing, the restaurant’s chef at the time.)
The Katz brothers have not yet opened a Tex-Mex restaurant. But, Greg said, “I feel a connection to it.”
Joining El Camino Royale, these restaurants are expected to open in Dallas’ Knox Street development:
The Knox Street development has room for two or three more patio-centric restaurants near El Camino Royale that haven’t been announced yet, confirmed Hendrika Diehl, senior director of marketing and property management for Knox Street.
El Camino Royale will be at 3333 Knox St., Dallas.