Good news! A Texas restaurant from ‘Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives’ stays open after all
A quirky eastern European restaurant and import grocer known from TV’s “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” canceled a plan to move and instead will remodel and keep its location in central Arlington.
Taste of Europe, known to both locals and tourists for its sausages, potato cakes, borscht and pierogi, will take a break Aug. 18 for remodeling but will reopen Nov. 1 at 1901 W. Pioneer Parkway (Spur 303), owner Daniel Tsalko said.
Taste of Europe is staying because of the “strong outpouring of reaction” after the plans became public, Tsalko said.
“We have a good customer base here,” he said. “They told us we’re a staple of the community.”
The restaurant will upgrade the air conditioning, update the kitchen and improve the dining room, Tsalko said.
Taste of Europe opened in 2002 as an Eastern bloc restaurant, market and import gift shop founded by Tsalko’s grandfather, Mikhail Frumkin, an engineer from Minsk, Belarus.
The restaurant serves German, Hungarian and Polish foods along with Ukrainian borscht.
For “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” on the Food Network, the restaurant served kalduny, like stuffed potato cakes.
The restaurant, 2 miles from UT Arlington between Fort Worth and Dallas, is known to DFW Airport visitors and has helped the city build its reputation for small, unique, independent ethnic restaurants.
Jamaica Gates Caribbean Cuisine and Prince Lebanese Grill also have been featured on the show.
When host Guy Fieri visited, he called Taste of Europe an “Eastern bloc bonanza extravaganza.”
He described kalduny as the “creaminess of mashed potatoes with the crispness of a latke.”
Besides pierogi, blintzes and potato pancakes in a variety of flavors, the restaurant also serves beef stroganoff, chicken Kyiv, stuffed meatloaf, knockwurst and jagerschnitzel.
In 2022, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the restaurant dropped Russian import gifts and replaced Russian menu items with Ukrainian items.
Taste of Europe is open for dinner Wednesdays and Thursdays, lunch and dinner Fridays through Sundays; 817-275-5530, tasteofeuropetx.com.
