When you consider that most of the city’s obscenely massive steak palaces buy from the same purveyor, a comparison seems rather pointless. Unless…You see, III Forks serves prime New York strip. This will run you almost $46. Bob’s cuts corners, selling choice grade strip at the upscale rate of $35–at…
Dallas had been on a hot streak.The scoreboard of restaurant openings vs closings had leaned heavily to the positive all spring and summer. March, for example, recorded a 10-5 result, openings vs closings. In April it was 8-3 in favor–and things continued that way, including a 15-2 July blowout.Not since…
The time has come, once again, to reflect on three months of drinking…and art.Over the summer we paired wine with the good (bacon, deviled eggs), the bad (Boca vegetable burgers), but nothing really ugly. We even tried some classic American desserts–Chips Ahoy, for example.Long, hot days gave artist Patrick Michels…
This is sad: one of the greatest packaged cookie bars ever made died without leaving a visible trace.So I can’t find an image of Nabisco’s Hey Day bar, but just imagine: vanilla wafers covered with caramel until the gooey flavor of it seeped into the cookie itself, topped with chocolate…
If Memory Serves chronicles moments from my dining past.Eating in the Baltics is a series of gut-wrenching, ‘please let dinner end’ experiences punctuated by a few surprising moments when you think nothing could be better.For example, I barely survived a dish they call ‘zeppelins’–in this particular case a heavy mound…
Some have noticed that we use “corn dog” instead of “corny dog.”There are a few good (and at least one rather pointless) reasons for this. As far as we understand things, corny dog is part of the Fletcher’s brand and corn dog refers to the object in general. Before either…
OK, so you gotta have a corn dog. And you’d kick yourself if you didn’t try one of this year’s fried novelties.But the big event offers more than a line up of stick foods and wild creations. In amongst monotonous stalls selling Fletcher’s dogs, bagged cotton candy and grease-crusted Snickers…
Mardi Gras2720 N. Stemmons Fwy214-634-9669Three things that are difficult to figure, at first glance. Is it called Gators Mardi Gras or just plain old Mardi Gras? Their Website suggests the former, but everything else points to the truncated name. And just where the hell is this place? Until you pull…
There’s really nothing all that special about corn dogs. They are just pale, cheap sausages propped on sticks and wrapped in cornmeal. Yet Texans by the thousands–or more like tens of thousands–will shell out the equivalent of $4 for a sample of one at the state fair.Of course, it could…
This time around we hit the likes of Wang’s, New Big Wong and Piggie Pies. Under the circumstances, I think we showed remarkable restraint. It could have been the quarter we reverted to sophomoric dick jokes. As it turned out, a couple of these inched their way into our big…
This probably won’t shock anyone: I didn’t see Central 214 chef Blythe Beck’s television debut in The Naughty Kitchen.I did hand the preview copy over to one of our writers, who made it part way through the opening episode before, as this writer put it, “her [Beck’s] annoying voice forced…
Something came to the office this week that would make a fantastic prize–if only I could remember what it was and where I put it. If I find whatever it was in Wilonsky’s office (where my bag of Oak Cliff Coffee ended up somehow), I’ll be pissed.So, once again, we…
This bitter liqueur has been produced in five countries, been purchased by a French enterprise and fought it out in court against its original owners–without the distillery ever leaving the town of Karlovy Vary.Which means Becherovka is like a cork tossed around by modern European history. A brief history before…
Terranova Cafe(Doubletree Hotel)2015 Market Center Blvd.214-741-7481With the exception of, say, The Mansion or Nana, most hotel restaurants are a difficult sell. They are the purview of unimaginative old folks, frumpy business travelers and the occasional troubled loner. Maybe that’s why someone–I think on Doubletree’s end–called me to talk up their…
Appetite For Instruction has taken the day off (it will return next week) because…well, because we had a party to celebrate the Best Of issue last night and the thought of flipping through all those pictures of chefs chopping raw meat…we just couldn’t face it…
There’s a boundary, a set of criteria, something that delineates those who like appetizers from those who quiver at the mention of tapas. Wish I could put my finger on it—though judging from the number of times I heard “Oooh, I love tapas” from women in professional income brackets, I’d…
Each week, Pairing Off attempts to find just the right bottle of wine to go with ordinary food.There were no deluxe boxes with creamy, canned cheese goo when I was a kid. There were no cartoon-shaped pastas, either. All we had was regular old macaroni and a packet of salty…
Hollywood has provided us with any number of memorable food-related moments. The explosive restaurant scene in Monty Python’s Meaning of Life comes to mind, as does Woody Allen’s attempt to drive a lobster from behind a fridge by scaring it with a bowl of clarified butter in Annie Hall. And…
Had a brief conversation on Sunday with a woman named Banana (although it could have been Brianna, maybe even Bianca) about a newly opened spot on Trinity Mills at the Tollway.The place is called Malarkey’s Tavern and features a leprechaun on their marquee–so guessing Irish…though Banana said they had “good…
As most of you know, Smoke’s Tim Byres spent part of the summer tooling around America’s old south in search of small town chefs accomplished in the art of traditional wood-fired cooking. Until I saw their menu, however, I had no idea Byres also used some of that time to…
Norma’s Cafe3330 Belt LineFarmers Branch972-243-8646I love diners that serve breakfast all day long. There’s just something about pancakes in the middle of the day or an evening meal of sausage and hash browns topped with a rich, runny egg…except that you can’t order sunny side up in Farmers Branch.At least…
Last Friday I was sitting at Cretia’s, eating dinner and watching a crew set up for live entertainment. The space is small enough for amplified music to drown nearby conversation. Crank it up, the restaurant could obliterate all form of interaction. One of the guys even suggested moving a dinner…
