Restaurant Anise to add lunch service Jan. 24

Since 2020, Restaurant Anise has been offering customers a fine dining experience that they can’t get anywhere else in Granbury.

But after almost three years of only serving unique dinner entrées, owner Megan Babineau is ready for a change.

“I just want more people to experience Anise because even though we've been here two and a half years, many people still don't know that we're here because we're tucked away off the beaten path,” she said. “So, I'm excited for more people to enjoy that experience.”

The hidden gem, located off U.S. Highway 377 near Best Western Granbury Inn & Suites, is often overlooked.

So, as a way of growing her customer base, Babineau has decided to open Restaurant Anise for lunch as well as dinner, beginning on Tuesday, Jan. 24.

The lunch service will be available on Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m.-2 p.m., offering customers the choice of four appetizers, three salads, three sandwiches, two entrée plates, and two desserts.

Appetizers will include miso winter squash soup, golden greens, crabcake, and whipped goat cheese.

For salads, an oriental chicken salad will be offered as well as an Italian market salad, complete with pepperoncini, cherry peppers, artichokes, olives, mozzarella balls, salami, pepperoni, and red wine vinaigrette. The shrimp remoulade salad, Babineau said, was inspired by the one formerly offered at Christina’s American Table on the square.

“That was the one good salad that was in this town, and Gary (Folger) took it off the menu at Christina's a couple of years ago, and it was like, the only salad in this town that I thought was worth eating, so I was like, ‘You know what, Gary? Your loss,’” she said, chuckling.

Sandwiches will include the braised short rib sandwich, the chicken salad sandwich, and the fried bologna sandwich that features confit garlic aioli, cheddar, pickles, tomatoes, lettuce, kettle chips, and toasted sourdough.

“It's going to be the best sandwich ever,” Babineau said, of the fried bologna sandwich. “I'm so excited.”

Lemon sole and bison sirloin will be the two entrée choices.

As for the dessert, customers can choose between an orange blossom crème brulée or a chocolate date cake, with a choice of vanilla or coffee ice cream.

“I make all my ice cream in house, but everyone's always asking me for like, a different flavor that's on the current menu, so I'm going to do a chocolate date cake, which is gonna be super moist, almost fudgy. If you don’t like one of those, you just don’t like sweets if you can’t find one of those two that you enjoy,” she said, chuckling.

Babineau also recently made the decision to remove the Thursday dinner service because it was typically the slowest night and didn’t bring in as much revenue.

“The second and fourth Thursdays of the month were good, but they still didn't carry the weight for the first and third Thursdays, so that's why with adding the lunch, we got rid of the Thursday dinner,” she said. “But I think it’ll be nice to know that when we’re open, we’re more profitable.”

The dinner service will still be held from 5-10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, but as of Jan. 13, Restaurant Anise will be offering a new dinner menu for customers.

"Initially, we were doing a monthly changing menu, but we’re going to be changing the menu quarterly now,” she said. “We don’t see enough people every month, so this way, it gives people a longer window to enjoy the (dishes). We will also have verbal off-menu specials, so even though the printed menu doesn’t change, there’s always gonna be something new every week that the server will be able to inform guests about.”

The dinner menu has also expanded and will now offer five appetizers, four entrées, and two desserts.

The appetizers offered will be the same as the lunch, but with the additions of the confit duck leg and the meat and cheese plate.

Dinner entrées will feature the red snapper, cornish hen, braised pork and scallops, and bison striploin.

“We’re kind of tweaking the menu a little to appeal a little bit more to the mainstream population,” Babineau explained. “I think my long term — and my long term being 12-to-15-months — vision for this place, is going back to maybe three or four dinners (a week) as our regular (schedule).”

She also hired a new staff member — who formerly served as the sous-chef and executive chef at Pecan Plantation — to help with the lunch service.

“We’ll add Monday if lunch is a success, so then we’ll be open five days,” Babineau said. “We’re just trying to tap into like, a broader market, but for now, we’re gonna go back to the two nights, four days (schedule). I’ll probably reassess after three months and see if we want to go ahead and add another dinner or two, because I have a feeling Monday is gonna happen. But I want to make sure that we do it right and take the time to develop it as needed. If it calls for more dinners or more lunches, we will remodel and adjust to those things.”

Reservations for the lunch service are recommended but are only required for parties of five or more.

For more information or to make a reservation, call Restaurant Anise at 682-205-3376, or visit the website at restaurantanise.com.