If you follow the Dallas food scene at all, Tiffany Derry needs no introduction. The Beaumont native has been one of the hardest working chefs in North Texas for going on two decades — a James Beard Award finalist, a MasterChef judge alongside Gordon Ramsay and Joe Bastianich, and the force behind some of the most talked about restaurants in DFW. Her T2D Concepts, built with partner Tom Foley, runs Roots Southern Table in Farmers Branch, Roots Chicken Shak in Plano and Austin, and two locations of Radici Wood Fired Grill — one in Farmers Branch and a second at EpicCentral in Grand Prairie, where Texas Monthly recently named it the number two best restaurant in the state. Today she adds another one to that complex.
The Landing opens this evening at EpicCentral, the 172-acre entertainment and lakefront district on State Highway 161 in Grand Prairie. This is her second concept at the complex and it is a departure from everything she has done before. No tasting menus, no wood-fired pasta, no elevated Southern plating. The Landing is a gastropub, a sports bar, and a social lounge all under one roof, and the whole idea is that you come for one thing and stay for three more. Game day, live music, cocktails with friends, a late bite after the show — it is designed to flex with the moment.
The menu is where Tiffany’s fingerprints show up most clearly. This is comfort food with a real chef behind it, and you can taste the difference. The smoked brisket egg rolls are the dish people are already talking about — the kind of thing that sounds like a food hall gimmick until you actually eat one. The fried bologna sandwich comes with cheddar and house-brined pickles, and the pork chop sandwich on white bread with hot sauce is a direct line back to Beaumont, the kind of food she grew up eating and has never stopped thinking about. The smashburgers are built for the room — shareable, approachable, and satisfying. Wings, a fried chicken salad, pasta roll-ups, a Caprese, and a spicy guacamole served with plantain tostones round out a menu that covers a lot of ground without feeling scattered. Craft cocktails run throughout, designed to move with the food and the energy of the room.
And the energy of the room is the point. The space is built around tufted couches, oversized leather chairs, and big screens that make it feel less like a sports bar and more like someone’s very well-designed living room that happens to have a lot of televisions in it. There is a lakefront patio, live music programming already in the works, and a vibe that sits somewhere between neighborhood hangout and destination night out. Tom Foley puts it plainly: it can be your go-to for the big game, a relaxed night out, or a gathering place for the community. That range, he says, is what makes it a destination…