Punk Noir was supposed to shake up Dallas dining. But maybe Dallas didn’t wanna be shook. Or maybe it just wasn’t in the mood right now. The restaurant, with acclaimed chef RJ Cooper at the helm, was more than dinner, but an artistic, evolving, multi-sensory journey.
The Design District restaurant opened on June 2 of this year and offered a 20-course tasting menu priced at $295 per person. Guests were guided through multiple environments over the course of an evening in the 7,800-square-foot space.
Today Cooper offered some personal thoughts on his Instagram page about the closure:
“Punk Noir was never simply about a 20-course menu, theatrical experiences, or the pursuit of Michelin recognition. It was about people.”
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The restaurant is owned by John McKeel and his sons, Cole and Clay McKeel. Prior to opening, Clay described the experience as blurring the line between drink and dish, and, based on what we pulled from a press release at the time, “effervescent builds and clarified expressions, ranging from frozen, aerated, gelled, and encapsulated formats. It will allow guests to do more than just sip, taste, interpret, and discover.”
Perhaps diners didn’t want to take their thesauruses and work so hard at it. Or maybe they did. We don’t know, we never got a chance to visit.
Chef Cooper, who received the 2007 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic, finished his note saying that his “belief in the future of this talented team … has never been stronger.”