Photography by Kathy Tran.
Melody Bishop and Dennis Kelley met in the kitchen of farm-to-table trendsetter Suzanne Goin’s restaurant Lucques in Los Angeles.
The husband-and-wife duo arrived in Dallas, Bishop’s hometown, nine years ago to open Lark on the Park, the highly regarded restaurant at Klyde Warren Park, which closed about a month after their departure in 2018.
Now they’re using their super palates to bring freshness and flavors to Written by the Seasons.
Its position at the corner of Bishop and 8th offers an outdoor cafe setting on the mini plaza, where a solo diner could feel comfortable with a book and a glass of wine.
Inside, it’s understated yet glamorous, with a Scandinavia-meets-West Texas modern feel.
“It’s a very approachable restaurant menu,” Bishop says. “If you’re vegan, you don’t have to be concerned here.”
Steak, pork, fish and chicken dishes are on the menu. But even items that aren’t listed as vegan can be modified, she says. The chefs are very accommodating to dietary restrictions and don’t mind special requests.
“We don’t sit down and say, ‘OK, we need to make a dairy-free dish,’” she says. “We just think of a way to make a dish that would taste good, and organically our menu tends to have a lot of options for a lot of people.”
As the name suggests, menus are seasonal, and they buy the best ingredients possible, leveraging relationships built over the years with farmers in Texas and California.
Small plates on the summer menu include wild mushrooms with caramelized pearl onions ($13) Texas melon with heirloom tomato and feta ($17) and summer antipasti with grilled veggies and burrata ($15).
Large plates include cold soba noodles with soy-ginger vinaigrette, bok choy and wild mushrooms ($23). Grilled roasted pork ($35) comes with orange-turmeric couscous, arugula and plum mostarda.
“We try and keep it as seasonal focused as possible and also use quality ingredients,” Bishop says. “If you use a high-quality nice olive oil and quality salts and fresh spices, then you don’t need a lot of powerful flavors to make it taste good.”
The cocktails are also works of art.
The “summa time tonic” is a gin and tonic with melon balls, cucumbers and herbs. The “summer lovin’” has tequila, house-made hibiscus syrup, lime and orange. Cocktails cost $15, but mocktails are $8-$9. The “kiss of sunset,” has carrot, pineapple, beet, ginger, cherry, lemon and non-alcoholic prosecco.
Juicing comes naturally here since this is the cousin of Tribal All Day Café. Both places are owned by another powerhouse, Brenton Phillips and Hailey Nutt.
The two couples met at farmers markets, before the café opened, when Tribal was still just a juice company.
After the café opened, Bishop and Kelley noticed they were buying jam.
“So we said, ‘We could just make it for you,’ and that sparked up a jam company that we now have,” Bishop says.
That’s R&O Pantry, which sells small-batch jams like Texas blueberry or strawberry-raspberry for $12 on its website.
Written by the Seasons opened in October, and the chef says the owners allow for an adventurous mentality.
“We have the freedom to try stuff out and kind of do what we want without a lot of restrictions,” Kelley says. “Of course, everyone wants it to taste good, but they’re not afraid to look at something weird and say, ‘I’m not sure what that is, but sure, let’s try it.’”
Desserts are by Rosemary Menendez, who also makes the desserts for Tribal. On the summer menu are a strawberry galette ($12), a peach crumble ($15) and a vegan vanilla crème ($12) with strawberry compote and graham crumble. There’s also gluten-free flourless chocolate cake ($13).
During happy hour, 3-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, bottles of wine are half price.
Dallas has come a long way since Bishop and Kelley relocated from the cradle of the country’s farm-to-table movement almost a decade ago.
“It seemed harder to get local produce before,” Bishop says. “Now you have all the little micro farmers popping up. You do see farmers delivering, and we’re seeing the same farmers over and over again at market. It’s fun.”
