My physical is coming up in a few months and I’m trying to get all my burger eating done well ahead on any blood tests that may be on the horizon. For this week’s review I checked out Stackhouse on Gaston Avenue, a burger house built literally into a house…
Stackhouse sits on a knoll above the concrete expanse that is the intersection of Gaston Avenue, Malcolm X Boulevard and Fair Park Link, in East Dallas. With a pine-green exterior, large windows and a roof-top deck with views of the Dallas skyline, it’s a quaint little place for burger-eating. This…
Airline dining has been synonymous with substandard eats forever, as multiple decades of prepackaged, lifeless meals have graced our flimsy fold-out tray tables. We’ve became collectively aware of a basic and undeniable fact: This stuff is absolutely terrible. In response, airlines have taken three major tacks. They either charge you…
When Tim Byres visited Washington D.C. last summer in support of Share Our Strength, a non-profit seeking to end hunger and improve nutrition for American children, he bumped into R.J. Cooper, who was then the chef at Vidalia, a high-end concept devoted to Southern cooking. The two hit it off…
I’ve been looking forward to this series of posts since mid-fall, when our new Sportatorium folks joined the City of Ate fray. You see, I can think of no more perfect marriage than sports and food. And I consummate this union every year with an annual football-themed degustation. Before you…
Brandt Wood, owner of Trees and the Green Room, will open Mason Bar (2701 Guillot St), a new uptown concept featuring drinks and eats from the Lowcountry. And he’s tapped chef David Temple, known for his underground dinners, to design and execute the menu. Temple told me by phone that…
The last time I paid some attention to poorly designed restaurant websites, I cited as the hallmarks of a terrible home page poorly chosen music played in a loop, excessive flash and clunky navigation, along with lack of applicable information. Making hours of operation, location, a basic understanding of the…
Slow day here at the Observer. Slow week, even. It’s almost depressing coming to terms with the fact that the holiday season is coming to an end, you’re suddenly fat, your resolutions start next week and you have to at least pretend that you want to be a better person,…
We made it. Another year of writing, bitching and photo-taking, primarily centered around stuffing our faces. Only a few days remain before we strap ourselves in and start the whole process again. Before we welcome 2012, though, let’s take a look at what we’ve done with 2011. Here are City…
Yesterday I wrote about a New Year’s tradition based on German heritage, which is applicable considering the strong German population in the Dallas area. (Remember when Oktoberfest blew my mind a little?) But this post considers a tradition a little more native to Texas, and perhaps all of the Southeast…
New Year’s is pretty close. Time to take a good, hard look at our insides and decide what needs work, or at least what we think we can manage to work on effectively. I’ve got a few commitments I’ve made to myself involving exercise, giving up meat on Mondays and…
Francesco Farris needed a break. After 18 years working at his brother Efisio’s side, he was ready to strike out on his own. “I think I grew up,” he told me the other day, after I’d made a few visits to his new little Italian restaurant. “I think it was…
Rachael Ray thinks you’re quirky, Dallas. She thinks you’re friendly, too. Below you’ll find a clip from Rachael Ray’s Food Network show, Tasty Travels. You know the drill — lots of gesticulation, hand gestures, eye rolling and Rachael Ray’s crazy intonation. She visits Mariano’s and re-hashes the birth of the…
Yesterday I paid a visit to Rich Rogers, owner of Scardello Artisan Cheese, to talk Parm. The shop sells the cheese from a whole wheel they purchase every other month or so. When a new wheel arrives, Rogers gets excited. His wife Karen gets excited. Parmigiano Reggiano is after all,…
I am made of considerable German stock — my father was a Reitz, and my mother was a Schuster. But for whatever reason this heritage did not make it to my dinner table. We ate like the rest of America while I grew up. The only time our table was…
I’m a writer, not a photographer. And while I’ve certainly nailed some decent shots while out and about eating, there have been a lot of really bad photos to sift through. In my defense I’ve always tried to maintain a low profile while I eat, and it’s hard to do…
There’s a slew of press releases in my inbox about New Year’s Eve menus from various local restaurants. I haven’t written about any of them for a simple reason: Dining out on New Years Eve is invariably terrible. It’s almost certainly No. 2 behind Valentine’s Day for the worst day…
Y’all got your shopping done? I’m feeling the pinch. A few more items to check off my list and then I get get my egg roll on, all over Dallas. Things are scheduled to be quiet tomorrow so we’re wrapping things in iceberg a day early. Dipping sauces’ are on…
A NEW YELP IN TOWN? THERE COULD BE, IF YOU’RE DOWN TO KICKSTART IT FOR THEM Watch out Yelp. Three Dallas dudes are hoping a Kickstarter campaign will help them launch a new mobile app they’re calling Haiku Review. Stu Hill, Wes Hendrix and Brad Alesi are asking for $65,000…
I am not a Jewish person, but I like Jewish things. Latkes top my list. As does getting drunk. Gefilte fish doesn’t excite me very much, but Christmas does, which isn’t Jewish at all, but you know the drill: movies, Chinese food, drunk. I’m good at these things. These are…
On a brisk December evening, Highland Park Village is awash in light. Tiny white bulbs blanket every branch and every twig of every tree along the sidewalks, illuminating the high-end shops and storefronts in their golden glow. The scene’s almost akin to the Griswolds’ family Christmas, there are so many…
Shrimp and grits, the low-country fisherman’s breakfast staple, has been a mainstay on elevated southern menus for more than three decades. If you’re interested, Robb Walsh wrote up a history on the dish over on the Houston Press, but regardless of the lineage of the dish, its permanence as an…
