Re: Experienced Dining Writer

How a U.K. Expat Shook Up Texas Nightlife

By Barrett Brown

Sometimes even the most accomplished nightlife scene needs a swift kick in the pants, if only to keep local operators on their toes. But after six years of Tristan Simon, many Dallas-area club owners may be having trouble sitting down.

Back in 1998, no one had ever heard of the soft-spoken U.K. native. Today, his name is among the best known in Dallas. Likewise, his firm Consilient Restaurants has come out of nowhere to run some of the city's most popular dining and nightlife establishments, and he has plans for more in the years ahead.

But Simon differs from what's considered to be standard archetype of the successful nightclub magnate, and as a consequence, the regional media have tended to linger on his unusually placid demeanor as the key to his insurgent victory. Simon himself rejects that idea, with a few qualifications: "I think the differences between me and my industry peers have been overblown in the media to create better narrative," he says. "The restaurant/bar business is inhabited by such a diverse array of personalities that it's impossible to determine a 'norm.' That said, I probably take a more cerebral approach to the business that most, but no one can be successful in any business over time without making well-reasoned, disciplined decisions."

To hear him tell it, the backbone of Simon's breakthrough is based on the nearly insurmountable "quality gap" that he set out to established between his properties and those of his closest competitors. And the sort of exceedingly upscale splendor for which the entrepreneur has thus become known is best represented in two of his more recent projects: Sense, which opened in 2002, and Candle Room, which followed a year later.

"Sense and Candle Room ushered a series of 'firsts' into Dallas nightlife," he says. "They were the first truly private, referral-based nightclubs; they were the first venues to introduce and popularize bottle service; and in my biased opinion they remain the only nightclubs in Dallas to deliver upscale, restaurant-caliber service."

And the only ones to benefit from Simon's "cerebral approach."

A Carpet Bagger's Leg-Up

Simon wouldn't have seemed a likely candidate for the nightlife industry to anyone who'd known him in the past. Having spent much of his early childhood in Britain and much of the rest moving from town to town in the U.S. as a result of a series of odd career moves on the part of his parents, the intellectually gifted young man with a penchant for Emerson and Faulkner rarely felt comfortable in social settings at least until he found his interpersonal niche while attending Duke University. There, he befriended All-Star basketballer Cherokee Parks, whom he promptly convinced to forgo the usual routes of agency representations and instead allow Simon himself to handle his affairs; those familiar with the deal would later describe how Simon managed to make his unorthodox case by way of sheer enthusiasm. And so it was that when Parks was signed to the Mavericks in 1995, Simon accompanied his pseudo-client down to Dallas.

Finding himself to be fond of his adopted city, the increasingly ambitious young man immediately set about looking for a way to conquer it. With the advantage of an outsider's eyes, Simon determined that this would be best accomplished not by taking into account the city's strengths, but its weaknesses. And Dallas' most prominent weakness, he recognized, was the transparent desire for exclusivity held in common by its residents.

Though only 23, Simon was able to convince an established local restaurateur to finance a high-end restaurant/bar concept in a major Dallas suburb with the understanding that Simon would be permitted to run it himself. But the unlikely duo found itself beaten to the punch; another local restaurateur had already begun construction on a similar project nearby, this being a steakhouse called Cool River. So Simon approached the potential competitor with the infectious enthusiasm that was fast becoming his hallmark, and after a few days of negotiation, the three men were partners, with Simon set to serve as manager.

Within a year of the restaurant's opening, though, Simon was bought out by his partners under circumstances that are something of a mystery even today, but which at any rate left him armed with several hundred thousand dollars with which to set about founding his own empire. Having become more familiar with the territory, Simon decided on the formerly unfashionable Henderson Avenue, which intersected Dallas' main artery Central Expressway and which had the further advantage of being located between downtown (where much of his target demo worked) and North Dallas (where much of his target demo lived). Even better, the area immediately surrounding Henderson was fast becoming one of the most densely-populated areas in the city and much of that population was young and well-funded. This would become the site of Simon's first solo project, Cuba Libre.

Casting the Castes

Cuba Libre was an unprecedented success almost immediately, stealing away the smart set from competing clubs and revitalizing the surrounding area almost overnight. But a clever location was only one aspect of Simon's nascent entrepreneurial philosophy; he was now coming to understand what he now refers to, pretty accurately, as "the Dallas caste system," as well as the particular manner in which the castes like to be catered. And however much he may downplay it, the inherently analytical nature of Simon's success becomes more evident the longer one listens to him talk about his properties.

"Sense and Candle Room are distinguished by target market," he said. "Specifically, Sense attracts an older, more mature customer that otherwise prefers to socialize in restaurants and residences rather than bars and nightclubs, while Candle Room caters to the traditional, younger set. Sense and Candle Room do share some customers - "tweeners" who enjoy both venues for complimentary reasons but the net effect is synergistic, not competitive."

Each aspect of every venue is determined by way of similarly intricate market methodology. "Music is an essential ingredient in all of our projects, and our music director tailors content to fit the particular requirements of each concept that we operate," says Simon. "Music is most important to Candle Room, which derives much of its reputation from the quality and freshness of its DJ-based music program." Even the most technical considerations are conceived and overseen by Simon. "Good, seductive, flattering lighting has always been a signature of our projects," he says. "It's plausible to say that no other single visual element contributes as much as lighting does to the overall feel of a space."

(Sidebar)

"Simon's Spots: The venues that makes up his unlikely empire"

Cuba Libre

The founding of Cuba Libre served as a catalyst for Henderson Avenue's transformation into the paradigm of Dallas cool that it is today. Outside, the bright yellow stucco does a fine job of promoting wholesale festivity; inside, drastically low lighting goes a long way towards reminding patrons to keep the festivity to a cool minimum.

Sense

Positioned just a block away from Cuba Libre, Sense boasts one of the most thoroughly futuristic interiors in Texas. Seven separate lounge areas and countless curtained alcoves manage to break down the club's 3,800 square feet into islands of intimacy while still retaining a general unity of design.

Candle Room

Like its sister Sense, Candle Room caters to the Dallas caste system with referral-based exclusivity. And though it brings in a younger crowd, the equally opulent nightspot manages to enforce a certain degree of customer refinement through sheer stateliness of design, with dignity being imposed by way of mahogany.

Genghis Grill

Lest he drown in his own pool of high-concept hipness, Simon recently acquired the Genghis Grill chain, a Mongolian barbecue restaurant with a decidedly different clientèle. Odds are good that CEO Simon has expansion in mind for the increasingly popular "interactive dining" concept.

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Roy's Restaurant Austin

Hawaii's hottest concept-dining export was born on America's own little island chain but draws on the culinary styles of the entire Pacific region. Roy's re-creates a palatial island atmosphere suitable for such subtropical snacking smack dab in the middle of downtown Austin -- enjoy your entrée in the air-conditioned, white-tableclothed splendor of the dining room or rough it out on the patio. Rack of lamb comes dressed up with two tropic-tinged sauces and a Szechuan-peppercorn crust; the Chilean sea bass is steamed with pesto and subjected to other, similarly tasty processes; and about a dozen other dishes incorporate some manner of tuna. You'll also find a full bar serving fruity, rum-based concoctions worth their weight in miniature cocktail umbrellas. The crowd (and there usually is one) is understandably festive; it's hard to be stuffy when the servers won't stop saying such things as "aloha." -- Barrett Brown

Noodle-ism

Many are the pleasures to be found within the walls of Noodle-ism, not the least of which are the walls themselves, done up as they are in the kind of superbly urban sort of avant-garde kitsch that would take a professor of humanities to adequately categorize. Those whose chief concern is with the actual menu will be similarly harassed with the myriad possibilities life has to offer. Consider, for instance, the dan dan mein a noodle dish topped with peanuts, scallions, grilled shrimp, and a spicy Sichuan sauce or perhaps the three cabbage ravioli with mushroom lime butter sauce. Less utensil-intensive is the shrimp and tofu cake sandwich accompanied by miso soup. Additionally, the mochi ice cream is the most novel dessert you're ever likely to encounter, consisting as it does of a ball of ice cream surrounded by a thick layer of dough. How this might be accomplished is left to the diner's imagination. -- Barrett Brown

The Grape

Lower Greenville's premiere destination for upscale dining and wine lays claim to that particular Holy Trinity of attributes common to all truly great restaurants: decades of experience, a menu subject to weekly rewrites and the sort of practically perfect front-patio ambiance for which the French so often take credit. But despite such virtues, The Grape provides an unusually straightforward selection, opting for such no-nonsense staples of Euro-hybrid dining as pasta, pork loins, short ribs, fried crusted shrimp and mushroom soup. Not that culinary complexity is abandoned altogether; one's fish entree is likely to be subjected to the sort of treatment that humans tend to receive only at expensive, week-long spa retreats -- which is to say, covered in cantaloupe-black pepper jam and scented with arugula and prosciutto. The dessert selection tends more towards permanence than does the ever-shifting array of entrees, and thus one can usually count on the availability of chocolate banana cream pie and vanilla bean creme brulee. -- Barrett Brown

Jinbeh

It's always exciting when one suspects that the evening's dinner plans might just involve some sort of octopus, squid or anything else once regarded by sailors to be sea monsters. But it's downright thrilling when one discovers that such multi-tentacled aqua-beasts rank among the least unusual items on the menu. Such is the happy case at Jinbeh, the Japanese restaurant where the sea urchin is just itchin' to be eaten and nothing escapes the hibachi grill except the sushi. Going beyond the pleasant predictability of tuna rolls and shrimp tempura, Jinbeh is probably the only establishment in the county that can claim to do a brisk business in raw quail eggs and Japanese pasta, much less green tea ice cream and Korean beer. And since nothing screams "Party!" like halibut sashimi, the Frisco restaurant has become quite a popular venue for the kind of get-togethers that seem to warrant heaping piles of clams and snow crabs. -- Barrett Brown

Enlighten the Vote  Currently serve as director of communications for New Jersey-based political action committee founded in 2005 and concerned with advocacy of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution. 2008 present

S.K. Oil and Gas  Currently serve as copywriter for Dallas-based energy finance firm. 2008 present.

Texodus Media  Currently serve as copywriter and marketing consultant for Brooklyn-based production firm specializing in marketing and game development. 2008 present.

Studio 2a  Currently serve as marketing consultant for Chicago-based architectural rendering firm, handling all sales letters, marketing copy, and long-term branding strategies. 2007 present.

PoliticalBase.com  Created content and served as paid blogger for online political news start-up founded by CNET. 2007-2008.

Fox Business Channel, Yahoo, Minyanville.com  Writer on freelance creative team for animated humor series Minyanville, which aired on Fox Business Channel's Happy Hour program as well as on Yahoo Finance. 2007

The Onion A/V Club - Freelance copywriting for The Onion's features department. 2006-2008.

Sterling and Ross Publishers  Authored nonfiction book of political humor, Flock of Dodos: Behind Modern Creationism, Intelligent Design, and the Easter Bunny, released in March 2007. Book received praise from Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, Rolling Stone, Skeptic, Air America Radio, Huffington Post, others.

Anglesey Interactive, Inc.  Produced online marketing collateral (web text, press releases, blogging, etc.) in support of firm's "" integrated search engine from June 2007 to March 2008 Riight.com

National Lampoon - Occasional contributor; past features included "Pick-Up Lines That Don't Seem to Work," "Craig's Conspiracy Corner," "A Guide to Dealing with Housecats," more. 2003 2006

Sullivan Perkins  Served as junior copywriter at Dallas-based advertising firm. 2003.

Evote.com - Weekly columnist and feature writer for political analysis site from October 2004 to November 2005.

AOL CityGuide - Web content writer from 2000 to 2004 Researched/ created coverage of event and entertainment venues. Served as regional correspondent for Dallas, Austin, New Orleans, Houston and Little Rock markets.

Additional magazine work - Ongoing, have contributed feature articles from serious political commentary to humor pieces to fine dining overviews for outlets including business-to-business publications Pizza Today, 360, Club Systems International, Destination Dallas, D.C.-based public policy journal Toward Freedom, London-based public policy journal Free Life, humor magazine Jest, regional publications The Met, Austin Monthly, Dallas Child, Oui, literary journal Swans, dozens more.

Additional writing projects - Created both print and online marketing collateral for New York tech start-up Organic Motion, Inc. Created online marketing collateral for New York corporate training firm Illuminata Global. Researched and wrote entertainment/dining/venue content for Dallas ad agency Avacata and clients' marketing collateral, including that of luxury resort real estate firm. Have produced website copy for design firm NPCreate.com, provided public relations pieces for Texas energy company EBS and Dallas real estate firm Dunhill Partners.