Inside Scoop with Dallas: Menu Favorites, Future Plans, and More!

Get ready for a fun Q&A with our owner, Dallas! Discover her absolute menu favorites, exciting plans for the next year at The Dutch, and so much more!

If you could only eat one dish from The Dutch menu for the rest of your life, what would it be?

I normally eat very healthy, but I can’t resist the Dutch wings. I can take down a plate of 12 easily. They have truly turned me into a wing snob. Jim’s rub is amazing and makes a huge difference in the taste.

What are your plans for The Dutch for the next year?

More fun food! I always love tweaking the menu to add more classic dishes and use more seasonal local ingredients in a fun way. I want to do more beer pairing dinners if we can and really make them a fun event people line up for, featuring rare or special beers. Those dinners were some of my best memories in 2019.

What’s the most memorable or funny story you have from running the restaurant?

The first Fourth of July weekend, our oven broke, and after a couple of phone calls, we realized no one was actually coming on a Sunday to fix it. It was my first “oh sh*t” moment as a restaurant owner and certainly not the last. We had to redo the whole menu on the fly and then, of course, deal with explaining to customers. What can you do but make it all work!

Who are your culinary inspirations or role models, and why?

Danny Meyer, always. He is a beacon of what it means to love people with food and service. When we bought The Dutch, I read his book as a “study” of hospitality, and it rang true to me as what I wanted to exemplify in a restaurant.

What’s a fun fact about you that most people wouldn’t know?

I have a crazy love of Microsoft Excel. I think about everything in life in spreadsheet form.

If you could invite any three people, dead or alive, to a dinner party at The Dutch, who would they be and why?

I’m not a person who cares much about famous or historical people. Honestly, I would throw a big party with my close family and friends and be so full of love and joy. Feeling that love and joy is what put me in this business.

Do you have any guilty pleasure foods that you secretly love?

Anything with brownies, or I’ll just take the batter—who needs to cook it?

How did you both meet, and did food play a part in your love story?

The Dutch definitely played a part in our love story. When we started exploring upstate, our house was the first one we saw.

We put in an offer without considering the town or any other locations or homes. We then discovered the Village and fell in love, walking into The Dutch and knowing we found a piece of home. We went to The Dutch every single Friday and sat at the bar with Brendan pouring drinks.

When we got married in 2013, it made the most sense that our rehearsal dinner should be there, so we rented out the “new” side and celebrated. The rest is history.