The Spread.

Lower Greenville Makes Some Power Moves and Velvet Taco Heads West.

Welcome to The Spread, our weekly feature that aims to share all the area restaurant, food and beverage industry news that's fit to print. Except, this is the Internet, so space isn't a concern. Also: Good thing, because this is Dallas and this town always has breaking restaurant news going down like whoa.

Seems as if the various neighborhoods and areas that exist within our region are trying to one-up one another of late when it comes to making power moves in the food scene.

Take, for example, Lower Greenville, which finally saw the much-anticipated opening of The Blind Butcher this past Monday night (see cover photo) — after almost a year after the spot was first announced. Like most power moves, the initial action was quiet, with the news of the opening only appearing on Facebook or through word-of-mouth from the owners themselves — but the reaction was big, with most every outlet in town covering the opening in some capacity by the time things were all said and done. Although patrons still can't order food from the completed menu as of yet, the new spot is making up for things with its wide selection of beers and cocktails.

Lower Greenville scored another coup this week, too, with the announcement that Restaurant Vagabond will be joining the ranks of restaurants in the heavily foot-trafficked area, occupying the previous J. Pepe’s space. The menu will feature make-your-own burgers with an assortment of options available for meat, buns, condiments, etc. Tonight's opening of the space, which will also exist as a live music venue, will feature performances from legendary Texas singer-songwriters Joe Ely, Butch Hancock and Terry Allen, who are also part-owners in the new spot.

Also? Conscious Lower Greenville spot Sundown at Granada introduced a new organic and non-GMO menu this week. The spot also announce that it will be serving dollar bottled beers — some 50 varieties — next Monday through Thursday in celebration of its second anniversary next week.

Denton, meanwhile, seems to be making some serious food strides, too. While anticipation is already growing for the northern installments of Hypnotic Donuts and Cafe Herrera later this year, a Whole Foods opening in Highland Village in southern Denton County is currently slated for November 2014. Residents within Denton city limits, meanwhile, can rejoice in the news of a new food truck that's set to roll out on January 11: The Waffle Wagon will offer hamburgers, BLTs, fried chicken and other sandwich options to accompany their airy breakfast pastries. The truck's debut will come this Saturday at the East Side Social Club at 7 p.m.

Fort Worth, on the other hand, just got its own Velvet Taco. The second location in the expanding restaurant venture provides more seating space than the original, but will feature a similar menu mixing of world flavors. This week's initial service will feature dinner only, but plans are already in place to add a lunch service next week. Velvet Taco owners also have plans to opening a third location in Chicago this summer, with other plans for expansion coming in the future.

As ever, we close this week with some opening news: Fork in the Road, a new sandwich shop opened this week out in Arlington; Houndstooth Coffee will launch this spring on Henderson,replacing the shuttered Pearl Cup along that strip; Henderson Tap House will bring a sports bar to Henderson Avenue later this month; CrushCraft will open mid-January in Uptown; American F+B will open in late-January in Fort Worth's West Seventh district; Stock & Barrel will open in early spring in Oak Cliff; and John Tesar will continue his utensil-themed restaurant-naming bit with the opening of Knife at the Hotel Palomar in March.

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