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Old 04-24-2013, 06:16 AM
 
12 posts, read 16,918 times
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Hello, I am concidering relocating to the Northern Dallas suburbs (Plano to Allen area) and am interested in opening a restaurant. I am from NYC and am 100% Italian American so naturally an Italian restaurant comes to mind, but i am open to other options. My question is would a homestyle Italian restaurant/ Pizzeria do well here, and if so where should I look to open (looking for high volume of people with good cross street traffic)? Also I am open to other options that would be more needed in the area.

Thank you
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Old 04-24-2013, 07:27 AM
 
Location: Dallas area, Texas
2,353 posts, read 3,860,168 times
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Have you googled Italian restaurants in the Plano/Allen area? Looked at their menus? Located them on Google Maps or something similar?

I'm not sure that asking folks here is good market research. I would hate to relocate and base my livelihood based on a few real estate forum responses.
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Old 04-24-2013, 07:33 AM
 
12 posts, read 16,918 times
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Thank you for your response, yes i have done google searches and for the most part i only find large franchise italian restaurants like Carrabas, or Olive Garden and such, and a few family owned businesses that dont seem authentic from what i am seeing online. I am also heading down in 3 weeks to view the areas myself. I am just trying to hear from locals as well on here to see if my vision is warranted.
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Old 04-24-2013, 07:42 AM
 
2,973 posts, read 9,478,415 times
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By authentic, do you mean in-house fresh-made pastas? Because THAT IS the authentic Italian food that is missing in this city. Only a few places do it and they are high end. Believe it or not, we travel to Mexico, an area with many Italians and eat wonderful fresh made pastas and freshmade sauces for no more than $10usd/plate.
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Old 04-24-2013, 07:46 AM
 
Location: Forney Texas
2,110 posts, read 6,462,167 times
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A real NYC pizza place is always welcomed. Right now I cant think of a REAL one anywhere around here. My mother was born and raised in Italy and she taught me how to cook some great dishes so I normally cook my own Italian meals.
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Old 04-24-2013, 08:11 AM
 
Location: Dallas, TX
2,825 posts, read 4,460,531 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveG99 View Post
A real NYC pizza place is always welcomed. Right now I cant think of a REAL one anywhere around here.
There are actually a few, but you're never going to get it to taste the same unless you import the water.
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Old 04-24-2013, 08:24 AM
 
Location: North Texas
24,561 posts, read 40,266,317 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bencronin04 View Post
There are actually a few, but you're never going to get it to taste the same unless you import the water.
This. There are some excellent pizzerias in Dallas and the northern suburbs, but New Yorkers always complain that it's not quite right. I think you're right...I think it's the water. It's the same reason bread here tastes so god-awful...it's the water. It's not right. Believe it or not, homemade bread made with Evian or Volvic tastes completely different.

I think we have enough pizzerias here to be honest; you can hardly drive a mile without seeing one in some areas. What we lack is good authentic actual Italian food...that Italians would actually eat, not this noodle/meat/red sauce/gooey mozzarella abomination that passes for Italian food. It'd be nice to find an Italian restaurant here that serves more than one vegetarian dish (deep-fried eggplant parmesan doesn't cut it) and more than one dish where there's meat but no cheese, or vice versa (for the Kosher crowd).

A lot of what's served in "Italian" restaurants here looks no more appetizing than a Stouffer's microwave lasagne.
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Old 04-24-2013, 09:14 AM
 
Location: Dallas area, Texas
2,353 posts, read 3,860,168 times
Reputation: 4173
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vadha1 View Post
Thank you for your response, yes i have done google searches and for the most part i only find large franchise italian restaurants like Carrabas, or Olive Garden and such, and a few family owned businesses that dont seem authentic from what i am seeing online. I am also heading down in 3 weeks to view the areas myself. I am just trying to hear from locals as well on here to see if my vision is warranted.
Gotcha. Sorry.
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Old 04-24-2013, 12:19 PM
 
249 posts, read 330,003 times
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Alfredo's (::Alfredo's Pizza Pasta Since 1984:: DALLAS - FRISCO) is by far the best homecook non high end Italian restaurant around here. Go eat there when you come, if you think you can do better than I think you got a bright future here
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Old 04-24-2013, 12:24 PM
 
5,264 posts, read 6,399,224 times
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North Dallas has a very high restaurant to people ratio and several national chains are headquartered here, so the restaurant competition is pretty tough. There also aren't that many Italians or Italian-Americans, so I'm not sure authentic Italian is going to have a lot of takers. You would be creating the market.
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