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Al\u00e1ra is now open in the Dallas Design District. Start with mezze, chef-owner Onur Akan said: If guests are late to dinner, those who arrive on time can eat snacks.<\/p>\n
Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Does Dallas have too many<\/a> new Mediterranean restaurants<\/a>? We asked that question to Onur Akan, who recently opened Al\u00e1ra Modern Mediterranean in the Dallas Design District. He was born and raised in a port city in Turkey, one of the nearly two dozen countries that borders the Mediterranean Sea. If anyone would have opinions on Mediterranean food<\/a>, it\u2019s Akan.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re all the same,\u201d he said of Dallas Mediterranean restaurants that serve dips, skewers and seafood entr\u00e9es.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n To be clear, Al\u00e1ra has all of those dishes on its menu, too. But Akan believes his new restaurant has two differentiators.<\/p>\n One, he made his career as a chef cooking at luxury retail events and making prepared meals for health-conscious families. He believes his menu is made of digestion-friendly dishes featuring ideas from popular books Glucose Goddess and The Defined Dish.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou know when you eat a lot and the next day you feel horrible?\u201d he asked. Al\u00e1ra’s food is designed to make you feel good after you eat it, he said.<\/p>\n Make Dallas News a preferred source so your search results prioritize writing by actual people, not AI.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Two, he\u2019s leaning on his Turkish heritage for hospitality.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cIn Turkish culture, table culture is everything,\u201d he said. \u201cWe call it sofra. Some of the best memories I have are around the table.\u201d He wants to push back on the “aggressive energy in the Dallas dining scene,\u201d he said, where customers feel like they have to dress up for performative dinners.\u00a0<\/p>\n Chef-owner Onur Akan at\u00a0Al\u00e1ra\u00a0in Dallas wants his Mediterranean restaurant to feel comfortable, like his living room.<\/p>\n Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n The \u201cluxury\u201d at\u00a0Alara is not \u201cfancy ingredients like lobster and caviar,\u201d he said. \u201cOur luxury is warm hospitality.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy idea is, you\u2019re eating and you\u2019re filling your soul.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Deconstructed Baklava is made with mille-feuille crust, pistachio cr\u00eameux, lemon curd, honey creme fraiche and a za’atar pistachio crumble at\u00a0Al\u00e1ra\u00a0in Dallas.<\/p>\n Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News Tulips adorn most every table and shelf of\u00a0Al\u00e1ra, a new Mediterranean restaurant open on Oak Lawn Avenue in the Dallas Design District.<\/p>\n Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News The entryway to\u00a0Al\u00e1ra, a new Mediterranean restaurant open on Oak Lawn Avenue in the Dallas Design District, features wooden doors replicating the 105 year-old ones of the chef-owner’s Turkish grandparents.<\/p>\n Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News Adana Kebab is made with beef and lamb roulade, charred cabbage and tomato fonduta at\u00a0Al\u00e1ra\u00a0in Dallas.<\/p>\n Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News A variety of mezze dips at Alara in Dallas is a great way to start a meal. Chef-owner Onur Akan joked: If guests are late to dinner, those who arrive on time can have a snack.<\/p>\n Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News Tulips adorn most every table, shelf and wall of\u00a0Al\u00e1ra, a new Mediterranean restaurant open on Oak Lawn Avenue in the Dallas Design District.<\/p>\n Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News Tuna Carpaccio is made with cucumber relish, Fresno pepper, shallot and chive with a side of grilled sourdough and honey at Al\u00e1ra\u00a0in Dallas.<\/p>\n Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News Turkish Espresso Martini is made with organic Aspen Vodka, Turkish coffee, and cardamom at\u00a0Al\u00e1ra\u00a0in Dallas.<\/p>\n Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n The menu \u2014 noticeably shorter than some similar restaurants \u2014 starts with six\u00a0mezze, including\u00a0caramelized onion hummus, marinated olives and whipped feta with sun-dried tomatoes. Customers should order several, then dive in with veggies or ripped strips of pita.<\/p>\n The next section, \u201clittle loves\u201d are other shareable bites. Halloumi en croute ($18) is a rectangle of warm cheese in a handmade hot pocket drizzled with honey. It\u2019s more indulgent than many of the options here, and delicious. Other \u201clittle loves\u201d include charred broccolini ($18) and grilled romano beans ($16).<\/p>\n Salads could be entr\u00e9es, like the green goddess Caesar ($18) topped with fried anchovies instead of croutons.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The Green Goddess Caesar Salad is made with Gem lettuce, parmigiano, crispy anchovies, pistachio and pickled red onion at\u00a0Al\u00e1ra\u00a0in Dallas.<\/p>\n Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n Akan\u2019s signature dish is Turkish coffee-crusted Wagyu hangar steak ($55) served with potato pav\u00e9, a French-inspired side of thinly sliced potatoes. The menu also includes pan-seared fish with rose petal-saffron beurre blanc (sold for \u201cmarket price\u201d) and a vegan dish of \u201csteak\u201d made with lion\u2019s mane mushrooms ($32).<\/p>\n All dishes can be modified for vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free and other dietary restrictions.<\/p>\n One restaurant wall is covered in family photos welcoming customers into Akan\u2019s life. There\u2019s his parents\u2019 wedding in 1981 in Turkey, a gaggle of childhood friends and even Akan\u2019s 2-year-old circumcision party, where family friends gathered in his hospital room.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Photos from chef-owner Onur Akan\u2019s life are displayed on a wall of his new Mediterranean restaurant Alara in the Dallas Design District.<\/p>\n Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n Akan moved to the United States in 2009 with ambitions of studying IT. When he wasn\u2019t taking community college courses, he made a little money selling remote-control helicopters inside Town East Mall. He took a culinary class as he did some \u201csoul-searching\u201d in those early years. Then he watched the movie Julie & Julia and decided to become a chef.<\/p>\n His dad, a doctor who still lives in Turkey, didn\u2019t speak to Akan for six months when he learned he\u2019d changed his career path. Dad came around, and today, he likes to brag about the food his son is making in the States.\u00a0<\/p>\n The restaurant is named Al\u00e1ra after the popular female name in Turkey. \u201cIt means light,\u201d Akan said: \u201csomething that brings you joy.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n By signing up, you agree to our Terms Of Use<\/a> and acknowledge that your information will be used as described in our Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Al\u00e1ra Modern Mediterranean is at 1628 Oak Lawn Ave., Dallas. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Open for dinner only, for now. Lunch coming soon.<\/p>\n Other stories about Mediterranean restaurants in Dallas-Fort Worth<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Al\u00e1ra is now open in the Dallas Design District. Start with mezze, chef-owner Onur Akan said: If guests…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,87998,88947,89276,89307],"class_list":{"0":"post-252629","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-dallas","9":"tag-dallas-headlines","10":"tag-dallas-news","11":"tag-tp-dallas","12":"tag-tp-mediterranean-food","13":"tag-tp-restaurant-openings","14":"tag-tp-restaurants"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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