The women

CRAVEABLE FOOD, GREAT SERVICE

Resturant duo Tracy Rathbun and Lynae Fearing specialize in neighborhood favorites

Story by JEHADU ABSHIRO | Photography by JESSICA TURNER

REGULARS AT YAMAGUCHI’S, LYNAE FEARING AND TRACY

RATHBUN were sitting at dinner when they found out their friend Yamaguchi was planning on selling the restaurant in 2005. They had known each other for awhile — even tossed around the idea of opening a taco stand together, the kind that’s all the rage now.

“It wasn't that we weren't going to do tacos,” Lynae says. “It was just, opportunity fell into our laps and we both looked at each other at dinner that night, said we should do this.”

Their chef husbands Dean Fearing and Ken Rathbun told them don’t.

Lynae and Tracy weren’t new to restaurants. Lyane started at Dairy Queen when she was 14 in a small Texas town. Tracy, an Austin native, started at Beans, a chain similar to Chili’s.

When Lynae got to Dallas, her resume included Dick’s Last Resort, Sfuzzi and eventually Del Frisco’s, where she met now ex-husband Dean. After a stint at Hyatt, Tracy left hospitality to work at Park Place Porsche. Lynae started teaching yoga.

Opening Shinsei, a pan-Asian restaurant, in Yamaguchi’s old space felt right. They started calling banks for a loan to back the restaurant. It took them three months to sign documents and seven to launch their restaurant.

“We've always had the philosophy that if you're pushing something way too hard, it's probably not it,” Tracy says. “But everything fell in place.”

Formerly a classic Italian restaurant, Yamaguchi’s was gutted, including the black and white tile. Their husbands helped with back-of-the-house structuring and developing a menu.

Yama’s house salad and the tuna tartare stayed on the menu. Everything else changed. They hired Dean’s former saucier Casey Thompson as the chef de cuisine before she competed on Bravo’s Top Chef.

Eleven years later, Rex’s Seafood, a beloved Preston Hollow spot right around the corner from Shinsei, shuttered.

“We weren’t actively thinking, ‘Oh, we need to open another restaurant and start doing more,’” Lynae says.

But it just made sense. It was in walking distance, and if Lynae and Tracy didn’t buy the space, someone else would. Lovers Seafood and Market opened in 2017 with former Abacus chef Aaron Staudenmeier. The menu is all over the seafood spectrum — gumbo, lobster rolls and poke.

It was a slower start. According to Lynae, about a year before the pandemic started, the restaurant started gaining more traction.

“During the pandemic, we were one of the few restaurants open,” Lynae says. “So we got tons of new customers that had never tried us. And they loved it. And now they've become very loyal.”

We want it to be pretty, of course, but we want it to just be good."

Tracy and Lynae each spent three days a week working the restaurant. They usually start the night at Shinesi and walk around the corner to Lovers Seafood. They’re not above expediting dishes or waitressing, when need be.

“That's what we enjoy,” Tracy says. “We enjoy meeting our customers. We enjoy seeing the food go out. We enjoy the business endeavor. You know? It's how it all kind of comes together.”

In October 2021, Fireside Pies, right next door to Shinsei, closed. The location was too irresistible.

“I was fine with just Shinsei. And then Lovers happened. I'm like, ‘OK, now two is good.’ And now, three is going to be good,” Lynae says. “I was not dying for another restaurant, but the same amazing opportunity fell into our laps. And it was in the neighborhood.”

European coastal, Italian, Mediterranean — they describe their coming-soon concept Dea as all of the above wrapped up in the guise of a steakhouse. The planned menu features largeformat steaks, fresh handmade pastas and flatbreads out of the former Fireside Pies woodfire oven.

They’re not a hospitality company. There are no plans to build a huge brand to sell or franchise. They want to own neighborhood restaurants where regulars keep coming back.

“Since Shinsei has been up and 16 years, we've seen people's kids from babies grow up,” Tracy says. “Now they're driving, and they're the ones who are requesting to go to Shinsei or Lovers.”