If you have lived in Preston Hollow for any length of time, you already know the rhythm. Preston Center anchors the west side of the neighborhood. NorthPark anchors the east. Preston Royal and Preston Hollow Village sit in between, quietly picking up what falls off the corners. This summer, that quiet middle is doing more work than usual.

Preston Center is under scaffolding. A $200 million redevelopment broke ground in March, and three long-running tenants have already cleared out. In the same season, Preston Royal opened its most talked-about restaurant of the year, Preston Hollow Village added two more names to its roster, and the Plaza at Preston Center wrapped a renovation with a bench of new tenants deep enough to fill a small downtown block.

The neighborhood's everyday life is consolidating into three walkable pockets while Preston Center itself pauses for a rebuild. If you want to know where Preston Hollow is going to lunch this summer, you can almost draw it on a map.

Here is what's actually opening, closing, and rearranging within a ten-minute drive of Royal Lane.

Preston Royal: a New York steakhouse quietly lands at Preston and Royal

The corner of Preston and Royal has traded a Spec's for something considerably louder. Palladino's Steak & Seafood opened Tuesday, June 16 at 5959 Royal Ln., in the former Spec's space at Preston Road and Royal Lane. The restaurant is the second location of a concept that debuted last year inside Grand Central Terminal, and its arrival here is not accidental. Palladino was approached by Preston Royal's landlords to open a restaurant at the center. Given his local following and celebrity draw, as well as the large local appetite for steakhouses, Dallas made sense as a second location, particularly at the highly desirable intersection of Preston and Royal.

A few details worth knowing before you book:

• The menu is a hybrid. Palladino's Steak & Seafood is his newest creation, combining steakhouse, Italian, and seafood, particularly sushi.
• The kitchen has depth. Palladino has assembled a veteran team that includes executive chef Sam Hazen, whose résumé includes stints at Michelin three-star Le Gavroche, Tavern on the Green, and Tao, along with chef de cuisine Henry Johnson.
• The design is by the same firm behind the New York room. The Dallas location was designed by Rockwell Group, the internationally known design firm that also created the New York restaurant.
• There are two private rooms. The restaurant also features two distinct private event spaces: The Aria, a dedicated events venue centered around a grand piano and stage for live programming, named in honor of Joseph Palladino's daughter; and The National, an intimate private dining room named for Dallas National Golf Club, where Palladino is a member.
• Hours skew evening. The Palladino's bar opens daily at 4:30 pm, with dinner service beginning at 5 pm. Hours are 5-10 pm Sunday-Thursday and 5-11 pm Friday-Saturday.

If you have been trying to explain to visiting family why Preston Royal is worth the stop, this is the answer for the rest of 2026.

Preston Hollow Village keeps stacking

Preston Hollow Village has spent the past two years turning into the neighborhood's most reliable weeknight destination, and it is not slowing down. Two openings bracket the summer.

The first is already serving. Cantina La Rosa is a new Tex-Mex restaurant in Dallas' Preston Hollow. Just opened in Preston Hollow (in the former Fernando's space), this new Tex-Mex spot comes from the owners of Dallas' Smoky Rose. The menu features tacos, enchiladas, bowls, a cheeseburger, carne asada, and so much more. The restaurant is open for lunch and dinner. The team behind it, per reporting in the Dallas Morning News, includes David Tripplehorn Cash (who also co-owns Goodwins) teaming up with first-time restaurateur Cameron Levine, as well as Smoky Rose executive chef Rolando Garcia and Smoky Rose co-owner Oscar Aroche.

The second lands in September. Exterior signage is up and DuWest Commercial Real Estate has confirmed that Fortune House will open on September 26 at Preston Hollow Village. Joining the original location on MacArthur Boulevard in Irving, as well as a three-year-old spot on Lower Greenville, North Dallas marks number three for the authentic Shanghainese eatery. If you have not made the drive to Lower Greenville for the xiao long bao, you will not have to anymore. Since launching in 2015, Fortune House has earned accolades, including a "Best Dumplings" nod from DMagazine, thanks to its signature soup dumplings. Available in traditional pork, as well as blue crab and black truffle, Fortune's artfully twisted take on the Shanghai classic has handmade dough and pork broth simmered for hours.

Ella, the bistro that took the old Chido Taco Lounge space last summer, is worth revisiting if you have not been. Ella at 7949 Walnut Hill Lane is "an intimate, American bistro with modern comfort food" in a refined setting. It will open on Tuesday, June 17. In addition to the dining room and bar, the space shares a lounge with Customs Speakeasy. Executive chef Kyle Farr came in from Michelin-recognized Sachet, and the Customs adjacency makes it one of the more grown-up dinner-and-a-drink combinations on this side of the neighborhood.

Add Chefika, Centrale Italia, Broken Egg, and the recent arrivals, and Preston Hollow Village is quietly running the deepest week-of-dining bench between LBJ and Mockingbird.

The Plaza at Preston Center picks up what Preston Center loses

Cross Northwest Highway and the story flips. The Plaza at Preston Center just wrapped a top-to-bottom refresh. A prominent North Dallas-area shopping center recently started a $5 million renovation project, its largest in more than 10 years. The project at the Plaza at Preston Center, a popular shopping and dining destination at the southeast corner of Preston Road and Northwest Highway in University Park, will be done in phases throughout this year. The project is the largest at the 75-year-old shopping center since an underground parking garage and office tower were built from 2010 to 2012, according to a press release. The project includes renovating nearly every building in the shopping center, fresh paint and color scheme, brick pavers on all sidewalks and new trellises.

The renovation matters less than the tenants it attracted. In the past twelve months the Plaza has landed:

• Frances Valentine, the Elyce Arons brand co-founded with the late Kate Spade
• Luminary Lifestyle, apparel and home
• Trina Turk, its only Dallas boutique after leaving West Village
• Y-OHR, women's fashion
• Frenchie, a Travis Street Hospitality bistro in the old Corner Bakery space
• Viva Day Spa + Med Spa, the Austin company's first Dallas location
• Maman Coffee, the New York cafe's first Texas outpost
• Cozy Earth, its first Texas store, next door to Orvis

Two of those are worth flagging for daily-life purposes. Austin-based Viva Day Spa + Med Spa has secured its first location outside the capital city with a nearly 10,000-square-foot space above Tootsies clothing store and will open Oct. 9. The company, founded in 2005, offers spa services and medical treatments such as injections and laser hair removal. And Maman Coffee, a New York City-based French cafe and bakery, will open its first Texas location at the Plaza in a 1,031-square-foot space, near another French eatery called Frenchie, which opened this summer.

Preston Center itself: what to expect through 2028

The Plaza is the winner, in part, because Preston Center proper is under construction. Construction began in March 2026, with the first completed phase of the project expected in late 2028. The developers are big names. The neighborhood favorites will be replaced by a $200 million mixed-use redevelopment being spearheaded by RAMROCK Real Estate, Lincoln Property Company, and HKS Architects, as well as other collaborators.

Three familiar names are already gone, and two anchors are staying. As the redevelopment approaches, Wang's Chinese Cafe, Yolk, and AT Bistro have left the center. Major tenants CVS and Target are expected to remain. Residents are split on it. Some residents see the changes as overdue. "This corner has needed a glow-up for some time," said Nicole Scholle. Other residents expressed concern about the revamp. "I worry that much of our community's signature charm is being eroded little by little as locally owned businesses are replaced by national chains," said DD Rogers.

The practical takeaway is simple. For the next two summers, the Preston Center you knew is going to be a construction site. The Plaza across Northwest Highway, Preston Hollow Village to the north, and Preston Royal to the west are going to absorb the routines you used to run there.

NorthPark's summer, at a glance

NorthPark is running one of the fuller summer calendars in its history, keyed to the World Cup. If you host visitors between now and mid-July, you have a ready-made afternoon.

The KXT lineup is unusually strong. Performances from Academy Award nominees Abraham Alexander and Adrian Quesada, as well as The Toadies, Old 97's, Dezi 5, Paul Schalda and others will be highlighted. The Jimmy Choo opening consolidates the brand's Dallas footprint. The NorthPark store becomes the only Jimmy Choo location in Dallas; a smaller Highland Park Village store has closed. And the Breadwinners setup, for anyone bringing kids, is priced accessibly. The tournament menu includes $3 domestic beers, $6 glasses of house wine and $10 chicken tender baskets.

What this actually means for a Preston Hollow week

Pull the map together and a pattern emerges. Two years ago, if you were staying in the neighborhood for the weekend, Preston Center did most of the heavy lifting. This summer, the same weekend runs through three corners instead of one. A Thursday steak at Palladino's on the east edge of the neighborhood, a Saturday morning at the Plaza with a stop at Maman, dinner at Ella or Cantina la Rosa in Preston Hollow Village, and a Sunday afternoon at NorthPark for whichever KXT act is playing before the next match.

None of that requires leaving the 75225 or 75230. It also means the way buyers, sellers, and long-term residents talk about "where the good stuff is" in Preston Hollow is quietly changing, and probably will keep changing until Preston Center reopens in 2028.

If you would like to talk about what the neighborhood is doing in more detail, whether you have lived here for twenty years or are watching the market from further out, Katherine Roberts is always happy to compare notes. Request an appointment through the site whenever it's convenient.