Restaurants Rush to Open Before Super Bowl

There's a restaurant blitz in Dallas as more than a dozen culinary newcomers scramble to open before the big game.

Steven Roberts, owner of Best Enchiladas Ever, or B.E.E., in Dallas' Bishop Arts District, said his goal was to open before the Super Bowl.

"The Super Bowl is the biggest event," he said. "Everybody wants to be open for that."

Mission accomplished -- B.E.E. opened to an overwhelming lunch crowd Tuesday.

But the new "build your own enchilada restaurant" will soon face competition from neighbor Lockhart Smokehouse. The owners tweeted Tuesday that they will "be up and running for the Super Bowl."

According to the Texas Restaurant Association, the Dallas area already has 7,000 restaurants, and the number is climbing, thanks to a flurry of recent and scheduled openings.

"I'm psyched," said Dallas resident Sherry Peel. "It's a perk for Super Bowl people and definitely a perk for us," she said.

Bernard Weinstein, an economics professor at Southern Methodist University's Cox School of Business, said restaurant owners are salivating over potential revenues.

"The Super Bowl will be the biggest external economic event that's ever occurred in the Dallas-Fort Worth area," he said. "There's never been anything like it."

Weinstein said he estimates out-of-towners will spend at least $100 million over a three-day period.

"If a third of that goes to bars and restaurants, that's $30-35 million," he said. "That's a huge chunk of change."

And the money will be spread out across even more restaurants than are open today. The West Village, Deep Ellum and Knox-Henderson neighborhoods are all scheduled to welcome new restaurants before Super Bowl Sunday.

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