Adam Loew spent every weekend cooking on an Oak Cliff street corner for 14 months.

The guy knows his stuff. He has a culinary degree and years of fine-dining and hospitality experience. But all those nights grilling up jerk chicken outside of North Oak Cliff Beer and Wine introduced him to the neighborhood.

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Loew and his wife, Thania, wanted to open a restaurant in the warehouse behind the beer store after they moved to Oak Cliff three years ago. But finishing out that space and obtaining permits would’ve cost about
$1 million, Loew says.

By the time they gave up on that, though, they had connections.

Elmwood residents Joe and Robbie Christopher offered them a lease in their building at 2109 S. Edgefield, and they opened Grassroots Kitchen about six months ago.

“I came here because I wanted to be a part of this neighborhood,” Loew says.

They built out the restaurant from an empty box, and it has a big industrial kitchen with tons of equipment purchased for their earlier warehouse plans. 

Loew and two employees make everything from scratch except the bread, which comes from Empire Baking Co.

Customer favorites include a pork or chicken banh mi, Cuban-style pork sandwich, gyro platter and meatloaf. There are also big salads, a hummus plate and house-made pickles and potato chips. The Jamaican jerk chicken is a popular throwback to the beer-store days.

While Loew’s street business was known for brisket tacos, that delicacy is banned from Grassroots. 

“There are seven taquerías within two blocks of here,” he says. “My wife said, ‘no Mexican.’ We’re not here to poach anybody’s customers.”

Did you know? Grassroots Kitchen is BYOB.

Grassroots Kitchen

Price range: $10-$17

Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Saturday, closed Sunday

2109 S. Edgefield Ave.

972.707.7226