It’s such a good idea, darn it. We all want to take a summer vacation. Not all of us can do it, and certainly not all summer long.
So why not go to a summer-vacation-themed restaurant?
The staff at Rye just returned to Lower Greenville from their own summer break, relaxing over the holiday week. Now they’re fully committed to a totally new theme, menu, and look, at least through Labor Day. The restaurant we know most of the time as Rye is now Aguasal, its design and offerings modeled on the resort bars of the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.
Aguasal’s cocktails are citrusy, refreshing, and frequently rum-forward. The walls are covered in beach balls, surf boards, and Panama hats. The staff gets to wear short linen shirts. The food jogs all over the seashore: coconut shrimp, Jamaican beef patties, “arepjitas,” and a “not quite Cuban” sandwich.
“It’s drawing from a really rich food heritage that varies pretty significantly from the Yucatán down to Venezuela,” says co-owner Tanner Agar, who adds that some of Aguasal’s cooks have Caribbean roots they are delighted to express. “There’s so much to play with. The only thing I haven’t liked so far is cutting it down to an executable menu.”
I visited on only the fourth night of Aguasal, in late June. I tried to keep my expectations low. This was a whole restaurant that had just changed over, temporarily, without a break, into a wholly different restaurant. On top of that challenge, Aguasal Summer is a big practice run. The Rye crew plans to eventually open Aguasal as its own restaurant in McKinney, so this summer is proof that the new business can work.
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Tell you what, though. On the fourth night, the bar and kitchen were already totally locked in. For the next two months, this is a must-visit Dallas dinner.
A lot of people have already found out about it. When I visited, multiple guests were dressed in their vacation attire. One woman had brought her biggest, floppiest hat, the sight of which delighted me. Agar says he, too, loves seeing people get into the theme. His next-door bar Apothecary has seen a lot of interesting outfits, even costumes, during its Alice in Wonderland-themed menu run, but he wasn’t expecting the same reaction at Aguasal. “On Greenville Avenue, the only beach is in your mind. But we hope you dressed up for it.”
I wore work clothes but otherwise went for total immersion, sipping a wonderful sour made with an outrageous amount of Trinidadian bitters. All the classic pool drinks are here: margaritas, mojitos, daiquiris, a dark and stormy, a Cuba libre. Five options can be made non-alcoholic.
The hot crab and shrimp dip is pure ’90s nostalgia. It’s generously filled with plump cuts of seafood and peppers, and, of course, absurdly cheesy. Our Jamaican beef patties had wonderful spice—you can smell them before you taste them—and super-buttery puff pastry. Maybe the pastry can get a little greasy, but grease doesn’t count on vacation. (Agar says they tweaked the beef patties after my visit.)
The “not quite Cuban” sandwich gets that name because it’s served on a tall, rustic ciabatta loaf, not in a flat, crisp panini. But the pork belly, ham, and generous helpings of mustard and pickle make it a standout not-Cuban anyway. For $3, we added a side of vegetable escovitch, sliced onions and peppers that were nicely sweet-tangy.
Rye is famous for its eye-popping desserts, and I suspect Aguasal will be, too. One, “Oops! I dropped it again,” is an upside-down ice cream cone with the cone made from rum cake (perhaps inspired by Italian chef Massimo Bottura’s “dropped” lemon dessert). Another is a riff on Rice Krispie Treats, made with bright tropical flavors of hibiscus and Chamoy, and underlined with a hit of salt.
That was enough food for a first visit, but there are plenty more temptations to bring me back. I’m intrigued by the four main courses that are named after their places of origin. You can order a plate from Jamaica (jerk chicken, coconut rice, veggie escovitch), Puerto Rico (grilled shrimp, mofongo, garlic sauce), Trinidad and Tobago (curried fish, potatoes, coconut rice), or Venezuela (pernil pork shank, potato salad, black beans).
And—maybe I’m burying the lede here—weekend brunch is a real eye-opener. For a set $35 per person ($20 for kids), order as many dishes as you can for 90 minutes. Bottomless mimosas are $20 more. Doesn’t get more resort-like than that.
The Rye team told the Dallas Morning News that they’re shooting to open the permanent Aguasal in McKinney by the end of this year. But they still need to find the right space.
Agar says that the idea for Aguasal came about because of McKinney’s real estate limitations. Most of the spaces available in that city are just too big for a concept as adventurous and risky as Rye’s standard format. But the team is committed to McKinney because that’s where they started in 2018. So they started to ask themselves: what would be a fun, creative idea that could also excite locals enough to fill a much bigger dining room?
Then somebody suggested a resort theme, and we can now taste the results.
The plan is for Aguasal to run on Greenville Avenue until Labor Day, after which the kitchen will go back to Rye’s menu. The beach balls and linen shirts will get packed away. If Aguasal has proven itself a hit—and I hope it does—it will be on the way north this winter. But for now, you need to catch this tropical getaway before it’s gone.
“As fun as it is, you do have to stop at some point and go back to school,” Agar jokes. “We do love Rye! We just wanted a little vacation.”
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