The Blind Butcher Will Officially Open Next Week, with Lots of Meat but No Sandwiches

Matt Tobin, Josh Yingling and their partners will certainly not be remembered for the hasty opening of The Blind Butcher. The Greenville Avenue restaurant and bar was first announced more than a year ago, but the restaurant’s opening was stymied by permitting and other delays.

Earlier this January the doors finally opened for the first time, but only in a soft opening kind of way that could teach Barry White something about slooooow and soft. Over the past few weeks chef Oliver Sitrin has been slowly parsing out the menu as well. Last weekend the meat case was completely full of sausages and pâtés, but it wasn’t till this Monday that the “official” opening was announced — for next week.

The announcement accompanies a menu, and these guys weren’t kidding when they first referred to their restaurant as a meat mecca.

The menu is being billed as fine dining, but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily stuffy. There are pastrami egg rolls on the menu — the ones your eyes keep jumping up to as you try to finish this paragraph — pig ears and steak tartare. There are charcuterie boards in many sizes, and bangers, bratwursts, chicken and duck foie gras sausages. There are even tofu sausages for the vegetarians, as well as freshly baked pretzels and broccolini with black truffle fondue.

And there is poutine. More poutine than you’d expect from any restaurant on Lower Greenville Avenue to ever serve. Sitrin tops the most traditional version with mushrooms and green onions along with gravy and cheese curds, while other versions make use of pork belly and smoky gravy or duck confit and a duck egg.

But there aren’t any sandwiches. Despite the extensive beer list and casual setting, Sitrin continues to strive for a fine-dining menu, according to a spokesperson, who reminded me this is just the opening menu, and it’s expected to change. A lot.

Hopefully it will change with the addition of some sandwiches — during the day, at least. There are not too many places in Dallas that keep house-brined brisket and sauerkraut under the same roof. To not witness the two together between well-toasted rye bread would be a sin of the highest order. That’s just unacceptable, especially in the mecca of meat.

Blind Butcher, 1919 Greenville Ave., 214-887-0000