Atomic Pie
Atomic Pie is expanding, with plans to add a full bar, more dining area and a private party room. The new addition, which will incorporate the empty space east of and adjacent to the restaurant at Walnut Hill and Audelia, will also include the new Lake Highlands Creamery.
“I’ve been feeling a need to help get more restaurants in around here,” says Tom Goodale, a White Rock Valley resident who is opting to invest in Atomic Pie along with his business partner, Ryan Nicholson. “I’ve been ordering pizza from [Atomic Pie owner] Tim Cole for more than a year, and we sat down for drinks at Offshore’s one night and started talking about it.”
They signed the lease Friday, says Tom, adding 3,400 square feet for a combined 4,600, which will include Lake Highlands Creamery. They expect to be open Nov. 1.
He’s counting on new Dallas City Councilman Adam McGough to get the growing business through the red tape of City Hall, he says. (Previous expansion discussions were apparently slowed by warnings about insufficient parking, despite a sea of empty blacktop surrounding the restaurant.)
Goodale, who says he’s open to menu ideas and other suggestions from the community, says he’s received some good feedback from social media and his neighborhood association messaging system.
“I’d say they are mostly do-able,” Goodale says with a laugh. “For instance, we’re not going to have fried cheese – they have that at Chili’s and Applebee’s – but we may do a Caprese salad and maybe some mussels, which were suggested. We have some definite ideas, but people are throwing out things we hadn’t thought about, and that’s exciting.
“Restaurants in LH have come and gone, and the quality has not always been there. There have been consistency issues, and we need to combat that. Tim Cole worked at Campisi’s Egyptian for decades. He knows food.
“At Atomic Pie, they’ve built the delivery and carry out business, but we want to capitalize on the dine-in and bar. We envision end-of-year soccer parties in the party room where you have 13 kids and all the parents. Plus, you can have Lake Highlands Creamery ice cream for dessert.”
Tom knows a thing or two about kid parties. He and wife, Julie, have 2 of their own.
“It’s always been my dream to build a restaurant and bar,” says Tom. And beginning Nov. 1, Lake Highlands will see Tom’s dream come true.
Atomic Pie’s Tomato, Spinach and Ricotta Pizza
