Restaurants in Flower Mound

In what they describe as both a "perfect business match" and an "ongoing battle," Johnny G's Restaurant owner Julie Ali and her husband, Aref, create comforting dishes that meld Italian and Cajun influences. Though they don’t always see eye to eye, the mother-and-son team often meets on the common thread that runs through both of their cooking styles: seafood. Their shrimp ravioli smothered in a spicy, creamy garlic pink sauce serves as a tasty example. All of Johnny G's dishes and sauces are made fresh in the kitchen each day with seafood that is delivered alive rather than frozen by the glares of vengeful squids.

Chef Charles Youts curates a menu of what he dubs “new American cuisine”—a culinary school that emphasizes farm-to-table dishes made from produce and meats sourced as locally as possible. Youts and his staff members cultivate an organic garden outside that acts as the chef's pantry, where they pick tomatoes, melons, peppers, and herbs minutes before they appear in entrées, a practice that gives dishes bright and complex flavor profiles. Based on what’s ripe in the garden, Youts writes up microseasonal dishes that back up menu mainstays such as radiatore with applewood-smoked salmon and tomatoes.

For carnivores, several cuts of beef from a 14-ounce ribeye to 10 ounces of beef-tenderloin medallions complement sauces that include horseradish cream and blue-cheese crust with port shallots. The Classic Cafe also produces homemade sausage that appears in a mixed grill dish with lamb, beef tenderloin, and a huckleberry demi-glace. A wine list that won the Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator complements the fare with biodynamic, sustainable, and organic wines.

The Classic Cafe’s interior balances rustic, elegant, and casual motifs with a burgundy and hewn wood bar beside a cluster of tables outfitted in white and maroon cloths. Paintings of wine by local artist Carolyn Riegelman hang in the dining room and above an intricate wrought-iron table at the entrance. Outside, a patio ringed in trees and flowers creates a pastoral atmosphere as diners look out onto the garden, where chickens peck and gangs of jack-o'-lanterns bully straight-laced pumpkins. On the patio, the restaurant also holds monthly cooking classes on seasonal topics that range from seafood prep and South American cuisine to cooking with the fall harvest.

Whoever said everything was bigger in Texas must have been referring to Fred and Dianne McDonald's company vision. As Fred says, they “put a lot of L-U-V” into barbecue that they hope will one day reign as the best in the state. It's on its way—the barbecue is so painstakingly produced that many customers don't need to sauce it, and instead sop up the eatery's tangy, housemade marinade with bread or use it to paint the faces of children sleeping at nearby tables. Aside from the ribs, pulled pork, and preservative-free sausage the McDonalds smoke over Texas wood, Fred ignites palates with tamales his grandfather taught him to make while growing up in the southern part of the state. On Friday nights, live blues musicians—featuring house band Kenny Strauther and Second Hand Smoke— take to a stage that has been graced by Jimmy “Preacher” Ellis and a former member of The Gap Band, both of whom, according to NBC DFW 5, also stuck around to nosh on the restaurant's eats.