You’d think former Dallas Cowboys coach Jason Garrett had opened a restaurant before.
Sitting inside Caffe Lucca, the sophisticated, anticipated spot near Dallas’ Knox Street he co-owns with Dallas restaurateur Julian Barsotti, Garrett is at ease while plates of pesto-Parmigiano pasta and snapper with confit tomatoes are shuttled around him. Garrett has sat in this seat many times, as he welcomed a room of famous friends to Caffe Lucca last week during a cocktail party that included Dak Prescott, Barry Switzer, Michael Irvin and more.
Garrett will offer a warm welcome again this week, as Caffe Lucca hosts its first dinners in one of Dallas’ most notable dining districts, the bustling Knox area, home to a fleet of new buildings financed by billionaire Michael Dell.
But what made Garrett, a first-time restaurateur, want to co-own Caffe Lucca after spending decades as an athlete and coach?
Restaurant News
“I love hanging out at restaurants. Some of the best times of my life [have been] with my pals over a great plate of pasta,” he said.
Related
Caffe Lucca is on Travis Street. It shares a space with Grange Hall, the retail store and floral shop that remains open in the same building.
Chitose Suzuki / Staff Photographer
When Garrett wasn’t calling games on NBC’s Sunday Night Football, he was learning about Sicilian culinary history from Barsotti or picking patio chairs that would feel welcoming to people coming off the Katy Trail. He didn’t watch Caffe Lucca come alive from the press box; he stood on the 50-yard line.
“It reminds me a lot of being a head coach,” he said of opening a restaurant. “You deal with personnel. But also with,” he pauses, “awnings. And how much salt is in a dish. … The art. The wine.”
“It has been so fun to watch people who are really good at it,” Garrett said. “And Julian [Barsotti] is really good at it.”
History of Sicily
The two met at Nonna, the Italian restaurant where Barsotti started his culinary career in Dallas. Barsotti now also owns Dallas restaurants Fachini, Barsotti’s, Odelay and others.
At Caffe Lucca, the history of Sicily is at the heart of every dish. Barsotti took inspiration from the Byzantine, Roman, Greek, French and Spanish people who influenced the food in Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean.
A plate of Carte di Musica e Crudite is a light, bright starter for the table at Caffe Lucca.
Chitose Suzuki / Staff Photographer
Garrett, ever the coach, called Barsotti “a master” of connecting a centuries-old Sicilian culinary story to this Dallas dining room, where bouquets of sunflowers and tomatoes on the vine spill out of a vase. Food as art is everywhere.
For fish, Caffe Lucca offers branzino, a rotating fish of the day and snapper (pictured), with the choice of four sauces.
Chitose Suzuki / Staff Photographer
Caffe Lucca might be a place to spot celebrities, but neither Garrett nor Barsotti seem to care too much about that. They want to open a neighborhood restaurant that offers a taste of Garrett’s favorite place to visit.
“Every time we plan a trip,” he said, “I ask my wife, ‘Are you sure you don’t want to go to Italy?’” He’s been at least 10 times.
What to order at Caffe Lucca
Many customers will start with a pretty crudite plate “per la tavola,” or for the table, with hummus, olive-anchovy tapenade, poblano muhammara and more for $22.
Barsotti hopes the four styles of arancini are a good next step. The Tradizione ($19) are crispy saffron risotto balls with ragu and provolone on the inside, while the Sicilian American ($17) are stuffed with crispy spaghettini, marinara and mozzarella.
Busiate is one of two pastas on Caffe Lucca’s menu. It’s an ancient pasta shape that the new Dallas restaurant serves with the choice of four sauces. Here, it’s served with pesto Trapanese, made up of cherry tomatoes, pecorino, Parmigiano, almonds, mint and basil.
Chitose Suzuki / Staff Photographer
Then, it’s travelers’ choice. Go for a spicy Moroccan lamb meatball sandwich ($23) or for a New Orleans-inspired chicken-avocado-capocollo club sandwich with artichoke-pepperoncini relish ($22). Wait, how’d we get from Sicily to NOLA? Many Sicilians who came to America at the turn of the 20th century entered at the Port of New Orleans, Barsotti said.
Dinner might call for yogurt-marinated butter chicken ($38), which was added to Caffe Lucca’s menu because Sicily was on the trade route between Europe and North Africa. Barsotti’s version of garam masala — the warm spices typically used in butter chicken — include cumin, garlic and almonds.
The saffron rice, served with shrimp, peas and calabacita for $30, is a nod to Spanish and Sicilian traditions.
In one of the pages in his journal, Julian Barsotti sketched the many inspirations behind Caffe Lucca.
Chitose Suzuki / Staff Photographer
But if customers need one dish to consider, it’s the busiate, a pasta served with the choice of four sauces for $25 to $30. Each ringlet of pasta is wrapped around a thin rod, just like the earliest pasta makers did, dating back to the year 1,000, according to Barsotti’s research. He is proud to remake this ancient pasta in a modern kitchen, and a blurb on the menu explains its origins, for those interested in a short history lesson.
You can’t quite feel ocean breeze from the Mediterranean Sea here in landlocked Dallas. But Garrett and Barsotti hope Caffe Lucca’s cheery interior stirs up sunny memories of long dinners over seafood and wine with friends or family.
“In Dallas, we don’t have Lake Michigan, we don’t have Central Park. We don’t have a beach. The Katy Trail is it here. It’s the center of gravity,” Barsotti said. “And it couldn’t be a more exciting place to express this vision.”
Caffe Lucca is at 4445 Travis St., Dallas. Open seven days a week, dinner only for now. Lunch is expected to be added in April 2026. Reservations recommended, and they open on March 27, 2026.