Used car salesman brings Deep Ellum a new restaurant

If you saw the Jeremy Piven film The Goods, you know that selling used cars is a ruthless business where nothing matters but the sale -- but if you didn't see the Jeremy Piven film The Goods, goods for you. Leaping into the kinder, gentler world of...opening a restaurant, the man behind The Boiler Room on Elm.

Now open for lunch (dinner Friday), Boiler's a resto, bar, and live venue dreamed up by a used-car lot owner who, before that, caught the culinary bug helming pizza joints; now he's poured his savings into a warehouse-chic, chandelier- and mirror-licked refurb of the ex-Daddy Jack's space, which was originally designed to be a bank but never actually tangoed with cash. Pulling from 'hood suppliers like Mozzarella Co. and Rudy's, the seasonal menu's kicking off with nine sliders (from the onion ring/bacon/bbq sauce "Western" to the pepperjack/'peno/avo/aiolo "Turkey & Green Chili"), six wraps including the turkey/egg/bacon/avo "Cobb", and apps like hand-battered pickles & jalapenos and bacon/pickle/'cado deviled eggs "just like your granny made them if she was super cool" (which you thought yours was, until now -- sorry, Nana). Mains range from fishiness (grilled salmon & tilapia, baked Nantucket cod) to landiness (white-gravy pan-fried c-f steak, grilled pork chops), plus Italian standbys like spaghetti & meatballs and chicken cacciatore -- but not Chicken Catch a Torre, because that old guy's still got wheels.

Because it's been a long day/part-of-a-day, the purple-lit bar slings a dozen Scotchs, 15-20 wines, 10 taps (Shiner to Redhook Long Hammer), and 12 bottles & cans, all of which'll be available 'till last call, when everyone must go go go!!!