California-born Ospi opens in Dallas, handmade pasta leads the menu

Ospi has arrived in Dallas with a clear pitch for Design District diners: a California-born Italian spot built around handmade pastas, crispy romana-tonda pizzas, and an address people already know. The restaurant opened May 1, 2026, at 1621 Oak Lawn Avenue, taking over the former Meddlesome Moth space and giving the neighborhood a new all-day dining option with a strong pasta identity.

Chef-partner Jackson Kalb is behind the first Texas outpost of Ospi, a concept that began in Venice, California, in 2020. That original location was framed as a casual lunch trattoria, a family-style dinner room and a weekend brunch stop, and the Dallas restaurant is carrying that same broad-use format into a market where restaurants often need to work hard beyond prime dinner hours. Ospi’s menu is centered on handmade pasta and source-driven Italian cooking, with the pasta treated as a main reason to book a table rather than a side dish to the rest of the menu.

Kalb’s restaurant group, Memento Mori Hospitality, has already built out a wider California footprint with Ospi locations in Brentwood, Costa Mesa and Montecito, along with Jame Enoteca, ¡Jaime Taqueria!, Jemma Hollywood and Jemma Pizzeria. That gives Dallas more than a one-off import. It gets a concept from an operator who has already turned a Southern-Italian playbook into a multi-restaurant brand.

The setting matters as much as the menu. The Design District has been in the middle of a major restaurant and real estate push, and Ospi is landing in the middle of that momentum rather than on the edge of it. HN Capital Partners says it owns nearly 1 million square feet across 19 buildings in the district, and HN Capital and McCourt Partners acquired more than 40 acres there in 2022. Nearby development plans include Hi Line Square, which is slated to bring 45,000 square feet of retail and showroom space, a 30-story residential tower and 300 units. In other words, Ospi is opening in a corridor that is being actively remade.

The new restaurant is also built for repeat visits. Toast lists Sunday hours from 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., weekday service from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., Friday service until 10:30 p.m. and Saturday hours from 10 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. That all-day schedule fits the broader Ospi identity, which is designed for lively dinners, leisurely lunches and brunch with friends. At a former Meddlesome Moth address that carried its own local history for 15 years, Ospi now turns the spotlight to handmade pasta and a new Italian anchor in the Design District.