Lava Catina coming to The Colony, Texas is the 2nd biggest announcement I have made in my career. (Only second to the Dallas Cowboys moving their headquarters and practice facility to Frisco!)

The easiest way to describe Lava Cantina in The Colony is a Hard Rock Cafe mixed with The House of Blues! What a great concept!

The Project Manager for The Colony Lava Cantina, Chris Harmon, said “This will be a game changer for North Dallas. A full size concert venue right at your doorstep!” I agree 100%!

Frisco, Plano, The Colony, Allen and McKinney has had a need for a concert venue for a very long time! To have an 18,000 square foot venue like Lava Cantina that brings high quality Mexican and Creole Fusion and Live Rock & Roll in a 1,800 seat venue right down the street will be absolutely amazing!

Until now, we suburbanites, have had to drive to Downtown Dallas or Grand Prairie for an indoor concert and now it will be such a convenience only 10 minutes away.

Who is behind Lava Cantina?

Steve Vaughn & Ian Vaughn.

Steve Vaughn has been in the music industry for 40 years and Ian Vaughn worked for Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers and worked his way up to the position of COO. (And as many of you already know that Cane’s has some of the highest quality chicken fingers you will ever find as well as a cult following!)

Lava Cantina in Baton Rouge

Steve and Ian Vaughn (father and son by the way) wanted the first Lava Cantina to open in the Dallas area but when they heard of the space available on Perkins Rowe in Baton Rouge, it just made sense. And boy were they right! It’s packed every night. They have live music every Thursday through Saturday nights.

When Lava Cantina opened in Baton Rouge in April of 2013, they were pleasantly shocked and surprised with how busy they were with the original crowds. Take that and multiply it by 10 and that is what I predict for the opening here in The Colony!



Since opening, the menu has been tweaked. Now the focus is on a “Creole Mexican fusion” — dishes such as boudin balls made with chorizo, enchiladas and burritos filled with alligator or smoked duck and tacos stuffed with fried catfish and shrimp.

The goal of Lava Cantina is to give diners an experience like being backstage at a rock concert, with live music and restaurant staff dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” Which sounds amazing!

The Lava Chef



Chef Patrick Stark, the Stark Raving Chef, is currently the Executive Chef at Sundown at Granada and he has been chosen to Rock Lava Cantina’s guests taste buds. From everything I have read, he will do just that!

The Stark Raving Chef started opening restaurants for a giant corporation after Culinary School. Patrick set up, staffed, trained, and operated new sites for several years and then migrated into food research and development as well as corporate site troubleshooting.



He then decided to get out of the the corporate kitchen world and moved to Dallas where he created his own private dinner party service called “The Stark Raving Chef”.

Patrick’s dinner parties entertained many Dallas celebrities and wealthy business personnel. The Stark Raving Chef’s private in house services included creating menus per customer desire/request, grocery shopping, cooking, serving, clearing, cleaning and of course entertaining.

At the Granada Theater in Dallas Texas, he planned to take dining and music to a whole new level, until Lava Cantina approached him.

Location of Lava Cantina





The Nebraska Furniture Mart made some big waves in DFW with their new store in The Colony. They decided to develop the entire 400+ acres with 3.9 million square feet of retail, entertainment, dining and attractions.



Grandscape is and will be one of the largest and most unique mixed-use real estate developments in the country.



Lava Cantina has 121 visibility and will be on a highly sought after water feature. Many of these sketches are what is planned for Grandscape.

Everybody deserves to be treated like a Rock Star from time to time, and I’m pretty sure that Lava Cantina will not only feed your appetite with high quality food but give you a one of a kind experience!





Brad Holden – Holden New Homes – Licensed Texas Real Estate Broker