Nor approaches all aspects of Dive with a sleek, modern mentality. (Michael Danse/ The Daily Campus)

It’s your typical “hole in the wall” restaurant: a small restaurant that may have gone unnoticed without the neon “open” sign on the glass window. It may not be a place for a first date, but everyone knows it has the best burgers in town.

It has that kind of a small, local restaurant appeal that owner and chef Franchesca Nor had in mind when she came to Dallas from Miami to introduce her coastal cuisine—just without the neon sign and the suspicion that the restaurant hasn’t passed a health safety test in a while.

“I think the best food you get is in a hole in the wall, a dive, you know. However, I didn’t want it to look like a dive,” she said.

Her hole in the wall, indeed, serves great food, and she thinks she chose just the right place. Nor brings her coastal cuisine to Snider Plaza with Dive, her new restaurant.

“I think Dallas has a lot of great startup companies that have done very well, and I think people in Dallas really appreciate a place that is neighborhood driven,” she said. “Miami is very trend-driven, and there’s a lack of interest in the actual food and the actual place itself. I would say Dallas has a good appreciation for that, and it makes a big difference.”

Inside the restaurant, brushed metal chairs surround tables stained to look like driftwood. The stripped floor looks like sand underneath the ceiling, which consists of wooden panels, making the customers feel as though they’re dining beneath a dock.

Large, turquoise art deco posters brighten the dining area. Nor designed them herself with vintage pictures of women on the beach dating from the 1930s to the 1970s. Nor carefully chose the design and colors to be “slightly nautical, but also very clean.”

The young, half-Brazilian chef grew up in San Diego, Calif., where she first discovered a love for food. Her parents, who were friends with many well-known chefs, took her to all the best restaurants.

As a child, she would come home from school and go to the kitchen where the family’s chef would be preparing food. She was a “foodie” since the beginning. It’s easy to tell that now, but surprising to some when she was just a girl.

“I would order things like—caviar—and the waiter would be like, ‘What? But you’re five.’ [My love for food] just formed really young,” she said.

Aside from the palm trees by the entrance and the Miami Beach feel, the best part of Dive is that when you walk in and look up, there is a chalk-board stretching across almost the entire front wall with columns of menu items.

Brightly colored chalk displays item categories, such as “Olympic Size Salads”, and Dive wraps and sandwiches. You won’t make it halfway through “Off the Coast” items before someone behind the counter asks what you would like.

As Nor points out, the walk-up ordering is something she felt was necessary in order to keep her restaurant casual. But after that, customers are taken care of from their tables.

The seared ahi tuna wrap has impressively fresh tuna, a subtle taste of coconut rice and a complimenting ginger slaw. The coastal tacos, served three ways, are one of the more popular items, perhaps because of the fried baja fish. However, the soy ginger-lime grilled fish or spicy shrimp is just as worthy.

The little neck clams are served with angel hair pasta, all mixed together with a freshly made pesto. Nor’s favorite on the menu is the mussels dish, served in a sauce made from chorizo, tomato, garlic and champagne (a lighter ingredient, compared to the traditional white wine).

The menu is dense, but it’s all food that Nor loves.

“It’s everything I would cook in my kitchen, everything I grew up eating,” she said.

She had a lucky upbringing when it came to eating, as this menu also features various hummuses, more than 10 salads, and a lot more seafood, like seared scallops and a fried codfish sandwich. Surf and turf is even on the menu, pairing churrasco steak and a shrimp skewer. Daily ceviches join the special board with items that change, for the most part, weekly.

Regardless of what you choose for your meal, Dive’s organic iced tea bar is a must-have. At first, the ginger is good, but if you let Nor take over, she’ll pair your tea with a shot of flavor and a squeeze of tartness.  

If there’s still some room left in your stomach, a list of deserts is also on the over-sized chalk-board. But after she made a few testers last week, Nor has added a new indulgence to list: key lime pie.

With the coastal approach in both décor and cuisine, it only makes sense that Nor add the Floridian desert. But this isn’t quite the typical version that many claim is simple and too tart.

Nor creates a creamy filling for the pie, still keeping it a light dessert, but pushing its boundaries towards an indulgence. However, it’s the crust that really makes this pie better than others.

While some restaurants make the traditional graham cracker crust, a layer of sand beneath the tart pudding, Nor makes the crust a thicker consistency, almost like a crumble, with granola—an ingredient which also takes a bite out of the tartness of key limes.

Dive has been successful since its opening this past summer. Nor plans to start a Sunday brunch in October.

Francesca Nor, owner and chef of Dive, Snider Plaza’s newest restaurant is focusing on coastal cuisine. The restaurant features tasty items at reasonable prices. Be sure to check out the Ahi Tuna Wrap. (Michael Danser/ The Daily Campus)