3. Velvet Taco group teams up for mashup
Hot Joy, which opened in San Antonio in 2014, is described by its owner as “a wild mashup of China, Texas, Vietnam, Japan, Louisiana, Thailand, Mexico, Malaysia and anything else that lights up our brain.” The full-service concept recently rolled out in Dallas, thanks to a partnership with Front Burner Restaurants, the group behind Velvet Taco, Sixty Vines, Whiskey Cake and more. Somewhat unusually, the Dallas Hot Joy is slated to be a pop-up in its current space for two years before moving to a permanent location. The menu leans heavily on Asian cuisine, with dishes like shrimp dumplings, Spam fried rice and twice-fried chicken wings with crab fat caramel.