Coal Vines

Providing an intimate atmosphere with good food is the goal at Coal Vines, said Eric Faulkner, the owner of the Southlake restaurant.

“Joe Palladino is the one who started Coal Vines back in 2006, and he wanted it to be like a speakeasy-themed-style restaurant,” he said.

The speakeasy theme runs throughout the restaurant as a portrait of jazz singer Frank Sinatra hangs on the wall behind the bar and songs by Sinatra play throughout the eatery.

The kitchen features a coal-fired oven, which is used to bake the eatery’s New York-style pizzas, and it also bakes a number of pasta dishes.

“I always tell people coal for the pizza, vine for the wine,” he said.

Faulkner, who started out as the general manager of Coal Vines under local residents Paul and Lisa Pardo nearly three years ago, bought Coal Vines in February. Since then, he has made a few small changes to the menu and the restaurant itself. One minor change was to remove a table to create more space, as he said some customers felt too close to the table next to them.

Faulkner said he wanted the diners to be able to be “intimate with each other but not with the other people.”

The restaurant is popular for dates and other evenings out, Faulkner said. For customers who are dining together but cannot agree on a type of pizza to order, Coal Vines offers the chance to have two different sets of toppings on the same pie.