Cuisine And Culture Transform A Dallas Neighborhood

Doualy Xaykaothao | The Salt | April 4, 2014

Can food revitalize an ailing neighborhood? In Dallas, global flavors seem to be playing a pretty big part in one area's transformation.

For decades, West Dallas was a ramshackle place: a Superfund site with a cement plant, some crime-ridden warehouses and a modest Latino neighborhood known as La Bajada across a potholed two-lane bridge from the glittery downtown.

This place was kind of like a desert with not so much to do, but it had some of the best views of downtown. Now there's a soaring new bridge that some called the "Bridge to Nowhere." But with a dozen new restaurants, nowhere is becoming somewhere.

Stuart Fitts is the principal investor in an 80-acre development project in the area that hopes to generate $3 billion. And it all starts with Trinity Groves, a 15-acre restaurant incubator that's designed to attract diverse chefs whose restaurant ideas might be worth taking national.