Lakewood's Most-Watched New Restaurant Still Isn't Open. The Neighborhood Changed Anyway.

If you have been checking the Serritella Instagram account every few months hoping for a firm date, you are not alone, and you are not going to find one yet. The Italian steakhouse, market, and speakeasy slated for the old Matt's Rancho Martinez building on Skillman Street has now missed two announced opening windows. It was supposed to open in spring 2025. Then early 2026. As of a May 2026 report, construction was still underway and no date had been set.

That delay has become its own kind of neighborhood landmark, the project everyone mentions when they talk about what's coming to Lakewood. But treating Serritella as the headline misses what actually happened this year. While one high-profile buildout stalled, three smaller businesses quietly opened their doors, and the lake at the center of the neighborhood kept its own calendar running without waiting for anyone's contractor.

Three Deadlines, One Still Standing

The scale of what Lakewood Hospitality Group is building at 1904 Skillman St explains some of the delay. The project spans 16,000 square feet and 250 seats across three concepts under one roof: Serritella Prime Italian Steakhouse, a grab-and-go Serritella Market with a cold case of steaks, seafood, and housemade sausage, and COSA, a speakeasy tucked behind it with a semi-private membership program. Co-owner Jason Gorsuch told the Dallas Morning News the project has hit "some hurdles to clear" but insisted it is moving forward.

The kitchen is the part worth paying attention to. Ryan Ferguson, the executive chef leading Serritella Prime, previously ran the kitchens at Nonna and Fachini in Highland Park, two of the more respected Italian rooms in Dallas. That pedigree is why the neighborhood has stayed patient through two missed dates. It also explains why the building sat as a construction site for so long. A 250-seat, three-concept buildout in a 16,000-square-foot space is not a tenant improvement. It is closer to a from-scratch commercial development, which moves at a different pace than a café taking over an existing shell.

Lakewood Hospitality Group's footprint extends beyond Skillman. The group also took over 6115 La Vista Drive, the former home of Chip's Old Fashioned Hamburgers after that restaurant closed following a decade in the space. Between the two addresses, the group is now responsible for redeveloping two sites that anchored Lakewood's casual dining identity for a combined 45 years. That is a lot of neighborhood memory riding on one company's timeline.

What's Actually Open While You Wait

None of that stalled progress elsewhere. Three other businesses opened in Lakewood this year, each filling a gap that had sent residents driving somewhere else.

The Total Wine opening matters more than a new retailer usually would, because the building had been empty long enough that a lot of neighbors had stopped noticing it. A 15,000-square-foot store with an in-store classroom for tastings led by visiting winemakers and distillers is not a small addition to a stretch of Mockingbird that had gone quiet.

My Dream Latin Cuisine carries its own local history. The space at 7260 Gaston Ave has been a Lakewood dining fixture through two prior concepts, first as Andrea's Italian for more than ten years, then briefly as Las Favela. Chef Salvador Gamón is not new to the neighborhood's restaurant scene either. He came to Dallas from Zacatecas, Mexico, in 1992 and worked his way from dishwasher to kitchen manager at Matt's Rancho Martinez, the same restaurant whose old space now sits half-finished as Serritella. He also spent time at Mattito's, Truluck's, and Hugo's Invitados before opening his own room.

Maman's arrival extended a brand that Dallas already knew from its first location near Preston Road and Northwest Highway. The Hillside Village café opened with the same menu that built the brand's following there, plus a few Texas-specific additions, including a Cheesy Brisket Croissant Roll and a Lone Star Cinnamon Bun. Co-founder Elisa Marshall said the Lakewood location was chosen because the neighborhood "has such a strong sense of community," which is the kind of thing brands say about every new market, but in this case it happened to land in a strip that had room for exactly that kind of gathering spot.

The Lake Doesn't Care What's Under Construction

While the restaurant corridor sorted itself out one delay and one opening at a time, White Rock Lake kept doing what it has done for decades. The lake covers 1,015 acres roughly five miles northeast of downtown Dallas and remains one of the most heavily used parks in the city's system, hosting a steady rotation of runs and community events that don't depend on any developer's permit schedule.

The Bath House Cultural Center sits on the lake's east shore at 521 E Lawther Dr, and it has been there far longer than any restaurant on this list. The building went up in 1930 as a municipal bathhouse, designed by Dallas architect Jon Carsey and now recognized as a Dallas Landmark and one of the earliest Art Deco buildings in the South. Inside, it holds a 116-seat black-box theater, three gallery spaces, and the White Rock Lake Museum, which opened in 2004 and covers the park's natural and cultural history.

Last fall and winter, the Bath House ran its "Lakefront Live!" concert series on Tuesday nights, bringing live music to the lakeside on a weekly basis through the change of seasons. The Center's other signature fall tradition is White Rock Rollin' the Lake, a steamroller printmaking event that has become a fixture every October, coordinated by Dallas artist Terri Thoman. Local and regional artists spend months carving woodblocks, then print them in the Bath House parking lot using an actual steamroller as the press, with the finished prints displayed alongside music and demonstrations later the same afternoon. It is one of the more specific pieces of neighborhood texture in Dallas, and it returns without fail regardless of what else is happening a few blocks away on Skillman or Mockingbird.

The lake added one more entry to its calendar this summer when the White Rock Boat Club held an open house, inviting the neighborhood to experience sailing and lake culture directly. Between the Boat Club, the Bath House, and the museum, White Rock Lake functions as the one constant in a neighborhood where the restaurant scene keeps shifting.

What This Means For Your Fall

The honest read on Lakewood right now is that the neighborhood's daily rhythm improved this year in ways that have nothing to do with the project everyone is still waiting on. You can already buy a bottle of wine at Total Wine, order from a chef who spent three decades cooking in this same stretch of Dallas at My Dream Latin Cuisine, and pick up a pastry at Maman without leaving the 75214 zip code. Serritella will open eventually, and when it does, it will likely be worth the wait given who is running the kitchen. But it was never the only thing changing here.

As the weather turns, the lake's own fall lineup is worth putting on the calendar independent of any restaurant news. Watch for the Bath House to bring back its Tuesday night concert series, and expect Rollin' the Lake to return to the parking lot sometime in October the way it has for years. That rhythm has outlasted every construction delay on Skillman Street, and it will keep going long after Serritella finally opens its doors.

If you are already living in Lakewood, none of this requires a decision. It just requires knowing where to look. And if you are the kind of person who pays close attention to which corners of a neighborhood are quietly getting better, that instinct tends to be useful for more than picking a dinner spot.

For questions about what a specific pocket of Lakewood or a nearby Dallas neighborhood looks like from a real estate standpoint, Adrienne Longoria Brown is always glad to talk through it. Let's Connect.