Everything at Rise Soufflé is carefully curated. And if you take a walk around the restaurant, you’ll see why. Though located on the corner of a busy intersection, the restaurant’s meticulous attention to detail aims to transport guests out of the Plano suburbs and onto a French street.
The featured menu item — soufflé — requires an attention to detail most restaurants don’t touch. The silverware is hand-collected, antique silver. The tables in an area dubbed the “birch forest” are re-creations of 150-year-old French library school desks (of which Dallas’ location has originals.)
“When I designed this place, we wanted to have a lot of little nooks and crannies and private seating, so it doesn’t just feel like a giant cafeteria room,” Rise Soufflé CEO Chris Florczak says.
In one nook, a wall made of beeswax blocks collected from local apiaries provides a warm glow to a birthday party. If you look close, little wings and bee legs can be found in the wax.
A tour of the restaurant walks you through an antique door, into a retail area where items like silverware, cookbooks and linens are sold, into the bar area, main dining room, “kitchen theater,” “birch forest,” and adjacent patio.
“One thing we preserve at all the stores is the patio, matching Parisian dining,” Florczak says. “When you walk into Rise, you want to forget you’re in Plano, like you’re instantly transported to this European chateau. You’re consumed with the experience, not just the food.”
Details down to the lighting are thought out — no two lighting features are the same. They’re all purchased from chateaus in France, refurbished to fit wired lighting and fitted with lightbulbs around 2700 Kelvin, which Florczak says brings in a warm, yellow-amber light.
The Plano restaurant opened in March of last year, 16 years after the original location opened in Preston Hollow.
“Plano is such a lovely neighborhood that travels already down to Dallas, so it seemed like the logical next [step]. If we’re going to go anywhere, Plano is right in the backyard and guests are already familiar with the concept,” Florczak says. “It was the right thing to do. After years of serving in Dallas, the kindest thing would be to come to you so you can save all that time on the tollway.”
Florczak joined the Rise team with a hotel & hospitality degree from Pennsylvania State University and over 15 years at Hillstone Restaurant Group, where he worked his way up from a general manager to a regional supervisor.
“I wasn’t really looking to leave until the folks from Rise were like, ‘Hey, we’re interested in growing the company and we heard your name come up,’” Florczak says. “It was so uniquely different than what I’d ever worked with in the past … this was like this really unique way to appreciate Old World dining with a menu that features some of the oldest recipes.”
Nearly 10 years after Florczak joined Rise’s executive team, he still can’t help but point out the significance of every detail. The napkins made on an antique loom in France. The 80-year-old silverware gathered from around the countryside. Handmade pottery from Waco.
“The reason I’m in the business is because I absolutely love it. I love food and I love serving people,” he says. “I mean look: All these people are having celebrations around us.”
The menu reflects the same intentionality as the interior design. Forget having to order a dessert soufflé the second you sit down — here it’s the main event and the restaurant beckons you to stick around a while. Soufflé is prepared by separating the egg yolks from the egg whites, mixing with whatever ingredients, whipping the egg whites until they peak, then gently folding the two back in together. It’s both light and a sustainable protein, he says.
“Most restaurants won’t touch soufflés with a 10-foot pole because they’re so challenging to make, time-oriented and very fickle in the oven,” Florczak says. “So a lot of chefs or restaurateurs would say you’re absolutely crazy to design an entire concept around one of the most challenging dishes to make because if something’s in the oven for 15 minutes and it falls, unlike making more french fries in two minutes, you’ve got to start from scratch again.”
The menu is constructed with portion sizes encouraging an appetizer, savory soufflé and dessert soufflé. Ten savory soufflés line the regular menu, with flavors like jambon and gruyère or truffle-infused mushroom.
However, Florczak says, non-soufflé entree options (like seared Ahi Tuna steak or a choice of two large salads) and non-soufflé dessert options (like crème brûlée or a fruit tart) are available for guests preferring to stick to one soufflé or for those in the group who love the vibes but aren’t in the mood for the dish.
There are four appetizers on the permanent menu, but the marshmallow soup is a fan favorite. Despite its name, there’s no actual marshmallows. Instead, it’s a carrot and tomato bisque with mini goat cheese soufflé “marshmallows,” rounding out the restaurant’s desire for detail inside and outside of the soufflé itself.
“It’s nourishment for the body and the soul,” Florczak says. “It’s a feel-good food.”
Rise Soufflé, 2444 Preston Road, 469.331.8974
