viral SPAM commercial<\/a>. In 2018, the El Paso native uprooted his life in Los Angeles and returned to the other end of his home state for a gig on the aforementioned Bible blockbuster; six years later, he\u2019s had plenty of time to explore.<\/p>\nWe spoke with Abe at one of his favorite local spots just before production wrapped. So, it was kind of like a last supper. Sort of. Anyway, read on for his thoughts on the Dallas pearl-wearing \u201cvibe.\u201d<\/p>\n
DO: The North Texas movie and television scene is kind of exploding now, right?<\/p>\n
Sign up for the Food & Drink newsletter to get the latest stories delivered to your inbox<\/p>\n
THANK YOU!<\/p>\n
You’re all set.<\/p>\n
CLOSE\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Abe Bueno-Jallad: Back in 2018, I think [The Chosen] was among the first of what you are seeing now. There was only the idea that Dallas was going to be what it is now. I feel that the A-list actors who are putting their feet down and setting up shop here \u2013 you know, Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson \u2013 they\u2019ve always had a foot in Texas. Anybody can start a production company, but I think the amount of people that are investing in production infrastructure in Texas lets me know that it\u2019s a real movement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2026 Now, is it going to be like a renaissance? I have no way to tell. I think everyone\u2019s just kind of waiting to see, but I think that the people that needed to lead are leading now.\u00a0<\/p>\n
DO: You\u2019re from El Paso, but North Texas is a whole different place. Where do you hang out around here?<\/p>\n
AB-J: For the last few years, Bishop Arts has felt friendly to me. I feel like this area has a little bit of a big city feel with an early 2000s Austin vibe. Homes can double as restaurants. It brings me back, and gives me great memories of my youth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
DO: It\u2019s also interesting that you respond to Bishop Arts because it has more of an L.A. feel. Like, you can wear flip-flops to dinner here.<\/p>\n
AB-J: Right, right. Yeah, I\u2019d say Dallas feels a little more dressed up. People wear their pearls out here, you know what I\u2019m saying? It\u2019s a vibe. So yeah, Bishop Arts has such an L.A. feel about it, but it\u2019s still uniquely Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
DO: Where do you like to go in Bishop Arts?<\/p>\n
AB-J: For coffee, Davis Street Espresso. I\u2019m very big on community food, and they also have a little section with eggs and milk and other local stuff, so that speaks to my heart. This place, Taco y Vino, is solid, and Wild Detectives was our gathering point for a long time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Little Blue Bistro has an Americana menu. I think they are doing something really unique, and their menu is delicious. And, once again, I just love this idea of walking up to a place that doesn\u2019t present as something that you might think it is from the outside.\u00a0<\/p>\n
DO: You don\u2019t live in Oak Cliff, though, right?\u00a0<\/p>\n
AB-J: I actually live in Waxahachie. I love Bishop Arts, but I gotta admit, Waxahachie is very beautiful, and they do so much community outreach there. They have a little amphitheater in downtown Waxahachie where they bring local farmers and they give free books.\u00a0<\/p>\n
DO: The last thing, because we always have to ask, have you tried local barbecue and what are your thoughts?\u00a0<\/p>\n
AB-J: There are some really great hole-in-the-wall places that some of the cowboys who play Roman soldiers on \u201cThe Chosen\u201d have taken me to. They\u2019ve taken me out in the back country, like around Ellis, Alvarado, and then it\u2019s like, \u2018How\u2019s this place even here?\u2019 And then the barbecue is incredible! I couldn\u2019t tell you the name of those places, because I don\u2019t think anyone would ever go out there. I think one of them was on the way to Alvarado from Midlothian.<\/p>\n
Editor\u2019s Note: We would like to hear from anyone who makes the pilgrimage to find this mythical, Midlothian-adjacent, Roman soldier-recommended barbecue joint.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Actor Abe Bueno-Jallad, originally from El Paso, has spent time in North Texas while filming “The Chosen.” Photo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4895,102,104,103,1526],"class_list":["post-465886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-bishop-arts","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465886","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=465886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Abue](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Abe-Bueno-Jallad-Photos-courtesy-of-Thomas-Garza.jpg\")