Since Manny’s Uptown Tex-Mex closed after a fire on Christmas Eve in 2019, many Dallas diners wondered what would become of the quaint yellow home near Lemmon Avenue.
The property at 3521 Oak Grove Ave. had been a reliable place for tacos and margaritas in the heart of Uptown for years. It sat vacant since 2019, the windows boarded up, gone but not forgotten. Still, it seemed like the little house could stay there forever, a memory of the storybook homes that once defined Uptown Dallas before towers sprung up around them
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Not so: Manny’s was bulldozed, its walls and windows hauled off this summer, without even a whiff of chile con queso left behind. What will replace it is not another little house or restaurant, but a 148-room Hampton by Hilton hotel, as reported by Dallas Morning News real estate writer Nick Wooten
That piece of real estate is rich in Dallas food history. Here’s a look at its last 40 years, as researched in DMN archives
This old house
Longtime property owner Mario Messina, now deceased, said he was sentimental about 3521 Oak Grove Ave. because of the unconventional story behind the old home. It was originally built in East Dallas and relocated to Uptown in the 1980s
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Restaurateur Jenni Messina, who owned a wine bistro called Jennivine a few streets over in Uptown, bought the house with her husband, Mario, when it was still located in East Dallas. It was scheduled to be demolished. They saved it and moved it to Uptown, where it would remain for decades
The Messinas added a 1,000-square-foot kitchen and a wraparound porch. The old home was cloaked in forest green and burgundy, The News’ archives said, which “turned the ugly duckling into a beautiful swan.”
Jennivine’s Culinary Centre
Messina named the old house Jennivine’s Culinary Centre. Dallasites visited there for cooking classes, afternoon tea, private functions and wine tastings starting in the late 1980s
Interestingly, it was also a chutney-making facility. “Being English and born in India, where chutneys originated, I’ve always had jams and chutneys in the house,” Messina told The News in 1988. She loved experimenting with them
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“Is this woman crazy or just plain smart?” The News asked in 1989 in a story about the British restaurateur “bucking trends” in Dallas. Jenni Messina told our restaurant critic Dallasites didn’t need the convenience of the microwave dinners that had become so popular
“People want to learn to cook from scratch,” she said.
Messina’s Restaurant and Culinary Centre
In 1990, Jennivine’s Culinary Centre got a new name, Messina’s Restaurant and Culinary Centre, when dinner was added. Classes continued for at least five years
Rooster
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Restaurant reviews dove deep into the nuances of plantain-crusted snapper, rabbit boudin and fried frog legs but didn’t mention the little old house much. Just that it had a “homey” interior with farmhouse prints of roosters and a “cocka-a-doodle-doo” red paint color
Guthrie’s
Next up, chef-owner William Guthrie opened a namesake restaurant with “upscale, homespun” food, The News noted in 2004. Smokers got their own entrance. A graffiti-ed patio gave the charming house an edge
Fish and chips were a common pick, made popular by Guthrie’s first restaurant by the same name in downtown Dallas. But this second Guthrie’s was fancier, with dishes like warm crab custard delighting our critic in 2004.
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Manny’s Uptown Tex-Mex Restaurante
For the next 15 years, starting in 2005, the little yellow house became a Tex-Mex spot selling brisket tacos and chiles rellenos. Manny’s was casual yet stylish — “spiffy,” one critic called it, “with imitations of Frida Kahlo paintings and bright Mexican pottery on the walls.”
The patio was both a blessing and a curse, lovely on the right day and hot as heck on the wrong one. Regulars avoided it in the dead of summer. Or glugged frozen margs to try to stay cool
Remember the fountain? A few pieces of its rubble are still stacked on the empty lot
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Manny’s is named for Dallas restaurateur Manny Rios, who is related to the team that started Mia’s and Mi Cocina, two other homegrown restaurants. After the success of the Uptown restaurant, Manny’s expanded to other parts of Dallas-Fort Worth.
The group is still pouring margaritas and serving enchiladas at Manny’s restaurants in Far North Dallas, Lakewood, Heath and Sachse, but the Uptown Dallas restaurant is now but a memory
