The location formerly housed The Donut Kitchen at 205 W. Louisiana St., Ste. 102, McKinney. Since The Donut Kitchen closed in May, the building has transformed. A copper wall offsets the bar. Wine glasses and plate sets adorn the black tablecloth spreads. Light fixtures are framed in gold.
The goal, founder and general manager Manny Casas said, was to create a space that evokes a 1920s supper club mixed with a cocktail parlor.
“Around that time, it was just Americana,” he said. “Everyone has their own recipes, and they have grandma's recipe,s and they're coming from all around the world. And they were creating a melting pot of cuisine.”
Without the restriction of a “true definition,” Casas said the restaurant is able to get creative with its menu and have fun with it. It was this premise that convinced Carlos Mancera to come over from Front Burner Restaurants and be the executive chef for CT Provisions.
“The level of creative freedom and just having that freedom to be able to express yourself on the plate, or wherever it may be, is a lot more valuable for me, personally,” Mancera said.
Putting the concept together is a team of “service industry veterans who have all put our heads together to do something right,” Casas said.
The team, comprised of Casas, Mancera, owners Steve Terry and Bryan Gibson, proprietor Jeffrey Taylor and bar man Matt Walker put together the image of the restaurant piece by piece in-house, from sanding the wood on the tables to choosing paint colors and applying it to the walls.
“You’ve never seen so many dudes on Pinterest,” Mancera said.
The restaurant opened Oct. 1, and for its first two weeks, it is offering a limited menu and dinner-only service. Items include PEI Mussels with green coconut curry, Drambuie liqueur, fresh herbs and artisan bread; TX Redfish Crudo with mandarin, fennel, fresno chile, spiced popcorn and cilantro; and Wild Boar Bolognaise with egg yolk pappardelle pasta, lemon goat cheese and crusty croutons.
“The goal behind this menu is to keep it small and keep it evolving with the seasons. That keeps it constantly rotating,” Mancera said, adding that he wants to support local family farms as much as possible.
That is just one of several commitments to the community for which CT Provisions is striving. Before the restaurant opened, it was busy participating in McKinney’s Margarita Stroll in July and creating pop-ups around the community.
“Part of our blueprint before we [opened] was for us to start working with everybody,” Casas said.
Keeping COVID-19 in mind is necessary for any restaurant these days. With Mancera’s previous restaurant experience, CT Provisions has a plan to pivot operations to a pantry should that become necessary, and the restaurant also features a walk-up window for people to place orders.
Terry pointed out there is potential for the restaurant to do just about anything, from catering to planning special events, such as cocktail classes.
“We definitely have a clean slate and don't want to be kind of stuck in that traditional restaurant role where we just do service every day,” Manceras said. “Let's have fun with it. That's the thing that we want to do is have fun. We want to enjoy what we do every day.”
CT Provisions
205 W. Louisiana St., Ste. 102
469-631-0707
www.ctprovisions.com
Hours: Tue.-Sat. 5-10 p.m. (dinner service), closed Sundays and Mondays
