Chef Misti Norris, owner of East Dallas eatery Petra and the Beast, is one of Food & Wine’s 10 best new chefs in America.
The magazine praises the restaurant at 601 N. Haskell Ave. for its menu, which echoes Norris’ mantra of farm, forage, fermentation and fire. Menu items includes a pork tongue ragu, fried chicken feet and chicken liver mousse that showcase her ability to cook a whole animal.
But perhaps the greatest surprise is that this fine dining is served in a repurposed 1930s filling station.
“If the setting strikes you as spare, consider the rest: disposable flatware, an icebox packed with Topo Chico and paper boats where china might have been,” Food & Wine author Jordana Rothman writes. “Lean in for the big reveal though: These populist trappings are a kind of Trojan horse, and Petra is a world-class restaurant in elaborate disguise.”
The eatery is BYOB and offers counter service Wednesday through Friday and Sunday. On Saturday, there is a reservation-only, single-seating tasting menu at 7 p.m. The menus change weekly depending on the season and availability of wild ingredients.
Norris’ appearance on the annual Food & Wine list, released Tuesday, is one of several accolades she has received since opening the restaurant in March 2018. The chef has also snagged a spot on Texas Monthly’s best new restaurants in Texas and Esquire’s best new restaurants in the United States lists.
She joins a host of prestigious Texans, who have made the list 25 times and six of the past seven years, according to Texas Monthly. The publication compiled a mast list of all the state nominees:
- 2019: Misti Norris (Petra and the Beast, Dallas)
- 2017: Yoshi Okai (Otoko, Austin), Diego Galicia and Rico Torres (Mixtli, San Antonio)
- 2016: Kevin Fink (Emmer & Rye, Austin)
- 2015: Michael Fojtasek and Grae Nonas (Olamaie, Austin)
- 2014: Matt McCallister (FT33, Dallas), Paul Qui (Qui, Austin), Justin Yu (Oxheart, Houston)
- 2013: Chris Shepherd (Underbelly, Houston)
- 2011: Bryce Gilmore (Barley Swine, Austin)
- 2009: Bryan Caswell (Reef, Houston)
- 2005: Tyson Cole (Uchi, Austin)
- 2003: David Bull (Driskill Grill, Austin) and Scott Tycer (Aries, Houston)
- 2001: Will Packwood (Emilia’s, Austin)
- 1998: Danielle Custer (Laurels, Dallas)
- 1997: George W. Brown Jr. (Seventeen Seventeen, Dallas)
- 1996: Monica Pope (Boulevard Bistrot, Houston)
- 1994: Michael Cordúa (Churrascos, Houston)
- 1990: David Holben and Lori Finkelman Short (both at the Riviera, Dallas)
- 1988: Bruce Auden (Polo’s, San Antonio) and Robert McGrath (Four Seasons, Houston)
