Today we’d like to introduce you to Cody Penton.
Hi Cody, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
Cicada started on New Year’s Eve 2018 with a tasting menu for a lovely group of folks at a client’s home in Mansfield. From there, we were fortunate enough to find Locavore in Fort Worth to host our dinners and make the experience more accessible for people who may not have a space to host something like this. Locavore, like so many others, unfortunately, had to close during the pandemic. Similarly, we halted operations in 2020 as well. It’s been a long 2 years for everybody, but we’re finally at a point where we feel comfortable serving our food again and couldn’t be more excited to do so!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Other than the obvious (the COVID-19 pandemic), I’d say our biggest struggle has been finding a consistent space to host our dinners that reflects the nature of our food, service style, and general aesthetic. We don’t want to serve food just to serve food; the cultivation of the entire experience is what makes it special. We recently moved to Las Colinas and are getting our home ready to host dinners more consistently, which I think will be the best iteration of Cicada we’ve done so far.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Cicada DFW?
We aim to provide an exquisite dining experience in an atmosphere that feels more like a dinner party than a traditional high-end restaurant. The menu is always changing, but the experience stays the same; delicious, comforting, and memorable.
Risk-taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
In this business, you have to take risks. Whether it’s a dish or technique you’re not sure will work until you try it, opening your home to strangers for the opportunity to serve them dinner, or even the bigger picture of opening a restaurant down the road. What’s the best location versus cost? Will anybody show up? Is DFW ready for a tasting-menu-only restaurant or a restaurant that only serves natural wine? It’s scary, but as they say: No risk, no reward. Creating something like this where we grew up and building something like Cicada would be a huge reward in and of itself. I’m admittedly not a huge risk-taker outside of what we do here, but it wouldn’t be fun if we were comfortable.
Pricing:
- $125 per person
- $75 supplemental luxury courses
- $75-125 wine pairings
Contact Info:
- Website: www.cicadadfw.com
- Instagram: @cicada_dfw
- Other: www.exploretock.com/cicada
Image Credits
Ashley Reneau
