Perch Bistro and Bar, an Italian restaurant on Dallas’ Inwood Road, is slated to close April 4, 2026, the day before Easter.
Owner Lynae Fearing said the 2-year-old restaurant struggled to find enough regular customers to stay open.
“I just can’t take it anymore,” she said. The restaurant near Dallas Love Field hasn’t been profitable since it opened.
Fearing owns two neighboring restaurants near Perch: Shinsei and Lovers Seafood and Market. Shinsei has been a fan favorite of Devonshire and Bluffview neighbors dating back as far as the late 2000s, when its then-chef Casey Thompson was a contestant on Top Chef.
Years later, when Lovers Seafood opened, it took time to earn a following, Fearing said. She gave her pizza and pasta shop Perch the same runway.
Dallas restaurateur Lynae Fearing owns Perch, Shinsei and Lovers Seafood and Market.
Azul Sordo / Special Contributor
“I just kept thinking, ‘This is what happened with Lovers. I just need to give it more time.’ But I can’t keep investing in it. It’s taking too long,” she said.
Unlike the many restaurant closures The Dallas Morning News has covered in the past few months, Perch did not suffer from surging ingredient prices or from rent woes, its owner said. Customers didn’t seem to complain about costs, either, Fearing said.
Specials like $7 martinis on “Tini Tuesday” and half-price bottles of wine on Wednesdays enticed some customers, but not enough.
Perch just needed more business, Fearing said.
The Dip Dip Dip comes with choice of three: pimento cheese, caramelized onion dip, whipped ricotta and honey, eggplant caponata and pesto hummus
Azul Sordo / Special Contributor
Regulars liked its simple, shareable appetizers, like the trio of appetizers called Dip Dip Dip and the fried green tomatoes. Pizzas and pastas were comforting, like the prosciutto-and-pesto pie and a bowl of Bolognese pappardelle.
The address has some deep Dallas restaurant history as the long-ago Riviera, once called “one of the prettiest, most romantic settings in Dallas” in a 2003 restaurant review. This space later became George and Fireside Pies, among others. Before Perch, this spot was Dea, an Italian restaurant Fearing owned with a former business partner.
Fearing said she’ll invite all of Perch’s employees to work at the other restaurants.
“I’m going to miss the people: my work family,” Fearing said. “And I’m really going to miss the customers. And I’m going to miss the food and the atmosphere.
“I’m going to miss everything about it. And that’s why I hung on for so long. It’s hard to let it go.”
Perch Bistro and Bar is at 7709 Inwood Road, Dallas. Dinner only. Open through dinner service on April 4, 2026.
