Jeff Bekavac finally has a place of his own with Goodwins

Jeff Bekavac is a Lake Highlands neighbor with serious culinary chops.

He’s been at the forefront of some of Dallas’ most cutting-edge restaurants and hospitality concepts. Originally from Coppell, Bekavac studied marketing at Texas A&M University before heading to San Francisco for culinary school, where he staged at restaurants around town and tried to make ends meet as a young student. After leaving the Bay Area, he made stops in San Antonio and New Orleans before returning to his hometown.

Following a stint at Central Market as an executive chef, Bekavac landed a job with Nick Badovinus and helped open up Hibiscus on Henderson Avenue. When Badovinus struck out on his own to open Neighborhood Services, Bekavac followed, beginning a long-standing partnership that would eventually bring polished, technique-driven New American concepts like Town Hearth and Montlake Cut to the Dallas dining scene.

He’s also helped refine menus for PILF Restaurant Group (the company behind Cane Rosso) and opened Omni Hotels in Louisville, Kentucky and Frisco. Bekavac recently opened his own concept, Goodwins on Lower Greenville, with his longtime friend Austin Rogers, who also owns the Alamo Club. The restaurant has been met with widespread acclaim since opening in May and has been pegged as an “instant classic” by area publications.

Bekavac moved to Lake Highlands in 2010 with his wife, Jordan, who previously worked as an ER nurse at Parkland Hospital before transitioning to remote work a few years back. Well over a decade later, the couple still lives in Lake Highlands with their three children, who attend or will soon attend White Rock Elementary.

With all the recent buzz, we decided to catch up with Bekavac to talk about career beginnings, living in Lake Highlands, working with esteemed chefs and finally opening a place of his own.

After culinary school, where did you go?

I moved to New Orleans for a while. I lived there, then moved to San Antonio, where I worked with Jason and Jake Dady. Jason’s just a huge mentor to me. He opened his first restaurant at 25, and we were kids in there working, just trying to figure it out day to day. We worked six days a week. We did everything, pushing ourselves and trying to get better. Then I moved back up to Dallas, met Nick and opened Hibiscus with him over there. We just immediately hit it off. Then went with him shortly after he opened the original Neighborhood Services. I got in there at Lovers Lane, and it kind of just took off from there.

What worked well about that partnership?

We’re very similar. A lot of hard work and a lot of laughs, like, a lot, a lot of jokes. We still text each other just stupid little jokes all the time, and a couple one-liners and get back into it. Coming up with new ideas was fun. That was really, for me. Launching every new restaurant was such a big learning experience. Nick’s a guy that really just wanted to keep going, keep pushing, and I just always said yes. I’ll be forever grateful for him, for everything that he showed me and all the stuff that I learned from him.

Why did that culinary style you guys spearheaded at Flavorhook resonate with you so much?

A lot of the DNA for me and what I learned was being honest with the food and not trying to present something different than what it was. Listen, if the halibut is from Nova Scotia, here’s exactly where it’s from, it’s a great piece of fish, it’s expensive, we’re not going to mask it, we’re not going to touch it a whole bunch. We’re not going to do a whole lot of things with it, because the fish is kind of the star of the show, or the steak or the scallops, and I think people really appreciate that.

What do you enjoy so much about restaurant work?

You get that immediate feedback. There’s not a lot of delayed reaction. You know exactly if somebody likes something or not. Even now, it’s fun to watch people bite into something and kind of get a big smile on their face. If they’re having a shitty day or just an OK day, and now they’re here, and they take a bite, it transforms them to a happy place. A lot of times, you can see people just like they’re a little bit tense, and then they get a drink, or they get a first bite of food, and then they just relax and have a new time. There’s no better feeling than that, no better feeling.

How have things been since opening Goodwins?

It’s been a fun journey, even since May, seeing people kind of take this spot and what we wanted it to be. Sometimes when you open, it’s terrifying. You’re putting yourself out there, your ideas out there, and your idea of how you want people to use the business and how you want to kind of be perceived. It’s kind of gone above and beyond our expectations.We’re really proud of that.

With spring coming up, are there any ingredients you’re looking forward to using?

Tomatoes are always on the forefront, peppers and all that kind of stuff. When it starts to warm up, we’re not going to change the menu every week or every other week; we’re changing it seasonally. So we’re already kind of looking forward to when it starts to warm up, because as soon as that weather starts to get back in the 70s and 80s, people feel like it’s springtime. So we’ll change up some of the dishes to make it feel more spring, you know, take away some of the more braised stuff to make it lighter.

Your wife was an ER nurse at Parkland for a long time. What was comparing your days like when you got home?

She was really good at kind of turning it off when she left the hospital, because there’s so many intense situations and death. I’m a lot more extroverted than her. So for me, verbalizing what happened to me at work, somebody burned this or somebody didn’t show up for the reservation, or this guy was a jerk. In hindsight, when she’d tell me what happened in her day, it seemed small. Kind of like, ‘Oh, this guy got hit by a car and shattered every bone in his body.’ It’s like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s intense.’

What originally drew you two to Lake Highlands?

We like the area. It was close to where we worked. And then once we started having our kids and stuff and just the friends that they’ve made, and meeting the parents. We just love the community. It’s just a great place close to Downtown, you’re close to all different kinds of food and activities. It’s just a lot of fun.

Are there any neighborhood spots you’re a big fan of right now?

Obviously, Resident Taqueria, Goldie’s. I like Goldie’s because Brittany worked with me for a long time, and Matt, the chef there, I’ve known them for a very long time. We go to Cane Rosso just to support. Mariano’s, my wife could eat Tex-Mex like every single day of the week. We go to Vector Brewing a lot. I live right there, so I kind of keep it all in that little area.

Looking back, how rewarding has the last year or so been?

It’s been really good, I’m happy with it. I probably don’t say that out loud enough, because I’m always so focused on the tasks at hand. I don’t really take the time to stop and again congratulate myself for everybody. We’re always very thankful for all the people that work for us and try to give them big props, because we couldn’t do it without them. We’ve told them it’s like building a team and making sure that thing is running like the Chicago Bulls with Jordan and Pippen, that’s what we want. But I’m very happy with it. I’m very proud. It feels a little bit like an out-of-body experience. A year ago this place didn’t have all the walls up, and it wasn’t painted, and now we’re sitting here talking about it. So it was a very, very slow process, and then it’s gone by very quickly since we’ve opened. So I’m very, very happy, and it’s a lot of fun. Maybe something in Lake Highlands next.

Goodwins, 2905 Greenville Ave., 214.272.9677, www.goodwinsdallas.com

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.