After opening on Gaston Avenue (technically in Deep Ellum) in 2023, the Saint faced an uphill battle. That location, chosen for its proximity to the Epic—home to anchor restaurants Komodo and later Harper’s steakhouse, now rebranded as Paparazzi Chophouse—seemed promising, primed for a fine dining restaurant renaissance.
The restaurant renaissance didn’t come, but the clubs did—in the ensuing years, a half dozen bars, from Green Light Social, with which the Saint shared a parking lot, to Vice to the aptly named Cash Cow, all landed in the neighborhood, shifting the mood away from $150 a person dinners and towards 2 a.m. crowds of 20-somethings.
The owners, a collective including the Vegas-based Hooper Hospitality, opted to move the restaurant into a new building in the Design District in December 2025. The entire restaurant interior was moved and reassembled in the new space, creating the same moody feel with a few new light fixtures and the same irreverent artwork (see if you can find the collaged transformations of photos of Dolly Parton and Grace Jones), this time with large windows offering views into Victory Park.
The move was supposed to happen a few months earlier, but things stalled when their chef, Jacob Williamson, left the group to take over at the Devonshire Club. Happily, Sergio Esquivel—who was the executive sous chef when the restaurant opened—was available to step into the executive chef role.
“I worked with chef Jacob before at Harper’s,” Esquivel says. “A great chef like him, I would follow him anywhere he goes, because of his mindset, the way he handles a menu, and the way he works.”
Between leaving the Saint and returning as executive chef, Esquivel worked in the kitchen at Nuri Steakhouse and served as the Jones family’s personal chef at AT&T Stadium. Before that, he worked in notable DFW kitchens, including Del Frisco’s and Georgie when chef Toby Archibald was leading the kitchen.
Esquivel has begun putting his own mark on the menu of this Italian steakhouse, starting with a big expansion of the pasta program, with a focus on luxurious ingredients. There is spaghetti with a three-quarters-of-a-pound wagyu meatball, butter-poached lobster mezzaluna, and brisket and foie gras ravioli. The star of the pasta program, however, is the pulled duck and ricotta gnudi, an ideal dish for diners who love spicy rigatoni.
“Gnudi is an old-school approach to pastas,” Esquivel says. “Not many people know about it nowadays. I wouldn’t say it was lost in time, but it is resurfacing more now.”
The pasta is a more rustic version of gnocchi, a thick dumpling-like pasta stuffed with ricotta. While gnudi is from Tuscany, the chef gives it a sauce inspired by Sicily, with a robust ragu that includes some red chile flakes and a hefty dose of pepper, inspired by his Peruvian heritage.
Elsewhere on the menu, Esquivel gave the steak program a big upgrade by partnering with Heartbrand beef out of Flatonia—also the heart of the steak program at Nuri, where he developed a relationship with the ranch. Heartbrand raises certified Akaushi beef and is known for its wagyu steak offerings, and the Saint added a reserve Akasushi wagyu New York strip steak from the prestigious ranch.
“During my time at Nuri, we got to travel to the farm, meet the owners, the farmers, and the caretakers for these beautiful animals. For me, personally, not only as a Texan and as a chef, but as a human being, to see how well these animals were taken care of—it transfers into the final product.”
There is a quail piccata on the menu that is in the running to become the definitive quail dish in Texas—it was on the menu under Williamson, but Esquival has pumped it up, quite literally, by switching to jumbo quails that eat like a chicken, and fried in a tempura batter that doesn’t battle the delicate bird.
One more upgrade can be found in the antipasti section of the menu, where a seafood platter has been added. The ingredients read like any other seafood tower, but the presentation is simple: a silver metal bowl filled with ice, showcasing lobster tails, giant prawns, and oysters on the half shell, alongside halibut crudo. That’s due partly to Esquival’s desire to subvert those extravagant presentations and make it feel approachable, while also highlighting seafood elsewhere on the menu.
“It was my take on giving my guests a chance to be able to try the product themselves before [trying] my other renditions, like, our jumbo prawn scampi dish or our version of oysters with mignonette.”
More changes are on the way as spring brings new seafood and produce, but for now, the Saint’s refreshed menu and Design District home offer plenty to explore.
The Saint, 1000 N. Riverfront Blvd., Dallas, thesaintdallas.com
