That turned into a very legally mumbo-jumbo\u2019d complaint alleging that the managers \u201cunlawfully and knowingly\u201d violated the certificate of occupancy that lets them run a restaurant by turning the place into a bar, a violation of Dallas City Code.<\/p>\n
M\u00e1s Ching\u00f3n, which opens at 11 a.m. and has an all-day menu and a brunch menu and a late-night menu<\/a>, gets pretty good reviews, especially for the tacos and aguachiles. Four stars<\/a>, according to more than 300 Google reviews. A lot of fans. Just not at Dallas City Hall.<\/p>\n I called the co-owner of M\u00e1s Ching\u00f3n, Jesse Botello, but he didn\u2019t want to talk about any of this. He said only that he wants to do the right thing, \u201ctrying to work with the city.\u201d<\/p>\n Botello wasn\u2019t alone in declining an interview. Other venue owners also tangling with city attorneys didn\u2019t want to talk on the record. That\u2019s understandable. Because this is their livelihood. And, as one owner told me, they\u2019re worried about further retaliation by a city they fear is looking for any excuse to put them out of business.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cCity Hall is making everyone doubt their ability just to keep their businesses open, ones in which they\u2019ve invested hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more,\u201d said attorney Robert Miklos, the former state representative who once worked as an attorney for the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n Miklos represents more than a dozen venues wrestling with the city, and most of his clients would only talk on background. But the attorney confirmed what I\u2019ve been hearing for weeks, from venue owners all over town, from Oak Cliff to East Dallas.\u00a0<\/p>\n LadyLove Lounge & Sound owner David Grover had a question for Dallas City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert at the Halloween 2025 media event announcing the Hospitality and Nightlife Task Force. It was held at Revelers Hall, around the corner from Grover\u2019s venue.<\/p>\n Staff photo\/Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n The stories all contain the same echo: Long after dark-thirty, one or two or a dozen folks from code and other departments will show up unannounced to see if a restaurant\u2019s really serving food to the late-night crowd. And if they see anything suspicious \u2014 like, say, a DJ or more drinks than food on the table or two people dancing by a table \u2014 they\u2019ll issue a citation to the manager on duty, who then has to hire an attorney and go to muni court.<\/p>\n The tickets aren\u2019t cheap \u2014 $2,000 at most if a defendant\u2019s found guilty. And just getting three citations can lead to a place being branded a habitual nuisance.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a disconnect between code compliance, the city and the people of Dallas,\u201d said David Grover, co-owner of LadyLove Lounge & Sound and Spinster Records, both in Bishop Arts.\u00a0<\/p>\n LadyLove\u2019s been cited repeatedly in recent months \u2014 first for operating over capacity, most recently for being a bar rather than a kitchen, though just a few months ago the Dallas Observer included\u00a0LadyLove on its list of the \u201c10 Most Underrated Restaurants in Dallas<\/a>,\u201d in part because of a late-night menu that includes a pork-belly banh mi that takes three days to prepare.<\/p>\n \u201cIt just seems like instead of checking in with a couple of bad operators, they\u2019re taking a sledgehammer to the whole city, which is unfortunate,\u201d Grover said. \u201cAnd the risk is what they\u2019re about to lose. It\u2019s harder to come back if they scare off all the operators who want to try new things.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n