Paul Willis, leader of such fine Panther City institutions as Margie’s Italian Kitchen and Fuzzy’s Taco Shop, is teaming up with developer Justin McWilliams to bring five more new restaurants to Race Street, the new urban village that has long been something of a diamond in the rough and is now starting to see some life brought back to it.

There’s recently been a second Fuzzy’s open on Race Street, and now to be joining it are five restaurants that sound like they will all be great additions to the neighborhood. At Race and Retta, a steakhouse will be going in to a renovated house on the corner and should be open by fall. At the next corner, a historic building will be renovated into a restaurant featuring billiards and a rooftop deck. Across Race will then be a Cuban/Miami Beach themed restaurant in a historic post office building. Next door will be an Asian fusion restaurant offering up sushi, Japanese, Thai, and Korean dishes. Finally, near the Race/Belknap intersection, there’ll be a Hawaiian barbecue place.

These sound like great additions, and we look forward to trying them all (particularly the Asian fusion place – yum). We’ll keep you updated on the progress of the Race Street Village as things keep moving. For more details on these new restaurants, check out Sandra Baker’s Star-Telegram article.