Today’s story about Fish McBites and my prediction that they don’t last past Lent spurred my curiosity into McDonald’s other historic flops. Attempts to regionally market bad food have typically done poorly for the chain. Crab cakes in the Maryland market and lobster rolls in New England states were all…

Update: Sabra Girard, a spokesperson for this event, let me know the comment in this post is not correct. While Saturday is sold out, Friday’s event still has 10 seats available. Call 214-679-0999 to make a reservation. Since closing York Street in the late fall of 2010, Sharon Hage has…

Lent is a time of sacrifice for Catholics, but McDonald’s wants to be sure they don’t give up grease. The fast-food giant created the Filet-O-Fish in 1962 to cater to Catholics who typically give up meat on Friday. The marketing paid off, and McDonald’s still sees increased sales of the…

The folks at Pizza Patron have nothing against Catholicism, really, but every year, starting after Ash Wednesday and continuing till Easter, sales across the chain have traditionally dipped 4 percent as people give up meat for Lent. Enter its “Pizzas de Cuaresma” campaign, which promotes the Spinach Clasico pizza (spinach…

My first brisket taco was a major disappointment. Not because it wasn’t good — the first taco in my two-taco order disappeared in just over a minute — but because it was so far from what I’d pictured when I first heard of brisket tacos. Brisket is a Texas thing,…

The margarita may be the greatest drink of all time, if only because it almost always comes alongside a free, bottomless basket of chips and salsa. Born out of desperation, the margarita originally provided a way to choke down bad tequila. At some restaurants this still holds true. At others…

Red Bull and vodka may be replaced by a darker, more silty caffeinated boozy beverage. The folks behind Deep Ellum Brewing Company posted the above picture on their Facebook wall, promising the the marriage of java and suds. Tait Lifto, who works on branding and sales, told me it will…

The James Beard Foundation just released this year’s semifinalists, and to be honest they’re a total snooze — at least as far as Dallas is considered. Stephan Pyles is a finalist for Outstanding Chef for his work at his eponymous restaurant; Bruno Davaillon (The Mansion) and Teiichi Sakurai (Tei-An) are…

It’s not every day that you find the world’s most expensive coffee in your mailbox. A friend of mine told me she’d received some kopi luwak from one of her friends in Indonesia. Then she asked me if I wanted her to send me some. Duh? I’m not sure what…

Poor, poor Tina. With just nine Yelp reviews under her belt she decided to report on her experience at Campo Modern Country Bistro. She wasn’t fond of her meal, awarding the experience a single star. Tina “really wanted to like” Campo but was upset that her chicken came with a…

That restaurants are using social media to get their message out is nothing new. As soon as any business owner realizes that networks like Facebook and Twitter provide an outlet and advertising at a low cost — only the man hours it takes to set up a feed and gather…

I once paged through a diet book that listed foods as good and bad. Salads dressed with not too sweet and not too fatty dressing were good. Steamed or boiled shrimp was good. According to the book you could eat as much of the good stuff as you wanted. Bad…

Am I in the clear yet? I just checked the weather report for the weekend and there’s a pollen alert, but I feel fine. I’ve never had allergies, yet everyone has told me Texas would be all to happy to provide me with some. So far I feel OK… How…

Finally. We’ve been covering the red tide outbreak and its effect on oyster harvesting in the gulf for some time now. Last week the news finally shifted toward the positive. Many regions of the Texas Gulf shore have been opened to oyster fisherman. I talked with Chris Van Deusen, spokeswoman…

A few nights ago I ducked my head into the Dram (2918 N. Henderson Ave.), Dallas’ newest drinking hot spot, tricked out in a sort of dark Victorian feel that is pretty stunning. It’s an impressive space, and that night it was filled with all the cool kids who love…

This is normal, right? You’ve sat down to a meal, you bang out your appetizers, then your mains come. And then because you eat slightly more quickly then the rest of your table-mates, you reach that portion of your meal where you start to feel full but they’re still eating…

Patricia Sharpe’s Where to Eat Now 2012 treats the Dallas-Fort Worth area well, with with of the ten restaurants in her list in either city. She also points out some interesting trends, opening with a confirmation that all the organ meat we’re seeing in Dallas isn’t just a local phenomenon…