The noontime rush. "We have lots of regulars — people who come in here all the time," says owner and chef Francesca Nor. Here is Dive Coastal Cuisine in University Park, across from SMU.
"Before Flower Child and all that, I was the first fast casual in Dallas," Nor tells me. We're seated off to the side, watching the line of patrons. "My whole concept of this idea was to have people come and eat or leave with such good quality food in a fast, casual environment that you want to eat here five times a week — and I've definitely been a success with that. I have people here every day."
"I'm not one of those chefs that, like, puts a tweezer to things," she says. "Because what happened is I always worked in a five-star restaurant, and at those kinds of restaurants, all I wanted was the salad." But she couldn't grab one and go — fine dining gobbles up the patron's time. Dive doesn't.
But Dive Coastal Cuisine is not just a seafood restaurant — though, the seafood is delicious. It's fresh, honest, good food, drawing upon her childhood in Southern California, her Brazilian heritage and her time living in Miami as well as in Italy. But Nor wasn't in Italy for food. She was there for art.
"These prints and the restaurant's design are all me," she says. The restaurant is nautical cute, and the prints are colleagues, with Hollywood star-types in beach wear. "I went to art school in Italy and realized that it was not really going to be my calling forever." She was cooking more and going to a variety of different restaurants, and a friend asked, "Why don't you open a restaurant?"
"And I was like, that's it," says Nor. "Food is just another creative platform, you know? It's just a different medium."
Nor returned to the U.S. and entered culinary school at Johnson & Wales University. For ten years, she lived in Miami. "And during that time," she says, "I learned all the tricks of the trade of working for big chefs and big catering companies."
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This calling all made sense. The love of food went way back, further than Italy. It started in Southern California. During the 1980s, Nor's parents would take her to fancy LA places like Spago. Her mom threw extravagant dinner parties with caviar. "And I didn't realize how exotic my palate was at a really young age," she says. "But at restaurants, I would be like, I'll have the shark and the caviar. And the waiter would look at my dad and then look at me, and my dad would say, 'Yes, she's really going to eat it.'"
An older sister at SMU. A mom from Highland Park. Nor found herself in Dallas. Originally, the plan was to be here for a year. She worked at the original Neighborhood Services on Lovers. "Nick Badovinus inspired me with his monologues before pre-shift meetings," Nor says. Then, she realized the connection: "He was my neighbor — literally, my next door neighbor in Arizona when my mom was living there, and we were both babies," she says. "And we didn't know it until I got to Neighborhood Services. And I'm like, well, I guess I'm supposed to be here at your restaurant."
Nor struck out on her own and opened Dive Coastal Cuisine in 2010. "Basically," says Nor, "what I found in having this restaurant for 14 years and taking my time and not immediately, scaling it and not immediately jumping to another concept, was that the distributors and the food industry are counterproductive when it comes to your health and longevity in your family, in my opinion."
"I know that I can keep control of my food in my kitchen and in my house," she continues. "I know that I will make something pure and delicious in my house, but I can't say that about going out to eat ever — and this restaurant to me is my, my way of sharing that."
That means getting a pure meal without seed oils or GMOs and getting food cooked in gluten-free rice bran oil, coconut oil and ghee. That means even on the house-made soups, there aren't fillers or flour, and 20 of their 22 sauces are made at Dive and gluten-free.
"My desire to do high-quality stuff to the point that now I'm growing my own lettuces, and we're not just doing hydroponic, we're also doing outdoor," she says, as several plates of bright, delicious-looking food are brought out. I eye the seared ahi tuna wrap. Soon, my belly thinks, that will be mine.
"I really want to see a small version of Dive, which we'd call Divette Coastal Bites that is completely sustainable in a sense where you feel good eating there, it's good for the environment, it's good for you and your family, and it tastes good," says Nor. "I want anyone to feel like they can have a good, satisfying meal here, so there's no compromises for everybody and you're not making a compromise on the sustainability and also the flavor as well."
"It's just good, wholesome food from the earth," says Nor. "Like what happened to that?" At Dive Coastal Cuisines, that is served up fresh and delicious, Monday through Saturday.
Dive Coast Cuisine is located at 3404 Rankin St in Dallas.
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