From Craig Collins, the majority owner of Red Hot & Blue, comes Nazca, a South American concept opening this Friday. Located in the same plaza as Crossroads Diner at the intersection of Central Expressway and Walnut Hill Lane the new restaurant offers South American comfort food — kinda. There’s ceviche,…
Hang onto your pants. It’s time to lay out or favorite Tex-Mex restaurants — an endeavor that consistently draws as passionate a comment stream as any burger post. Pepe & Mito’s (Pictured above) This Deep Ellum mainstay won last year’s award for Best Tex-Mex in Dallas with homemade tortillas, great…
It may look rather gloomy right now, but the weather man says we’ve got a great weekend ahead of us. If you’ve been reading CoA all week you should have plenty of plans, but just in case you tuned out… here’s what you missed. This week I reviewed everything. There…
Jack Mac’s Swill and Grill opened earlier this year in North Dallas, promising an American pub menu and Texas beer, after sliding into a spot in a suburban complex that used to house an Italian restaurant. The menu incorporates run-of-the-mill bar fare with a few elevated and interesting dishes mixed…
Time for some more year end reflection. Next week we’ll look at the most notable openings, but right now I’m feeling glum. Did you lose one of your favorite restaurants recently? There were a number of notable closures over the past 12 months, some of which were expected and others…
It’s list season, in case you haven’t heard. I was going to spend today blogging about my top lists of the most listy time of year, but I decided I’d just point to what’s been my favorite list so far. See also: Our Favorite Dallas Dishes of 2012 You probably…
If you’ve been watching Top Chef you’ve probably noticed John Tesar’s quirky habit of perching is thick-rimmed glasses on his inquisitively wrinkled forehead. What you might not have noticed is the look may quickly become what is the dorkiest Internet meme I’ve seen in some time. Local chefs (and editors)…
I’ve had a good time watching Qariah come into its own as a lower Greenvile Avenue restaurant over the past two months. When I first dropped in, my service was polite, but terribly inept. Over my visits for this week’s review, it slowly got better. The bread became more consistent,…
A fellow food writer recently told me that food is one of the greatest pleasures of life you get to experience three times a day. If you followed this convention, you’d have more than a thousand opportunities to consume something beautiful every year. Our daily meals seem like an almost…
More than a year has passed since City Council’s specific use permit policies went into effect on Lower Greenville Avenue, shuttering many bars and crippling small businesses that depend on late-night alcohol sales as an important part of their revenues. The ordinance was sold as a means to clean up…
A few hours ago Monica Green posted a message to the Facebook page for her restaurant, Monica’s Nueva Cocina, announcing not just that she is leaving the restaurant, but that she’s been gone for an entire month. From her post: The rumors were true. I haven’t been a part of…
When I reviewed Ten Bells Tavern I was smitten with their wings. They’re still great, and I’ve included them in my Year of Eating Fabulously story that comes out today. Last week I ducked into the small Oak Cliff bar to relax with a pint and grab a snack, and…
Chef Matt McCallister is known for his love of foraging. He’s also known for having a bit of a temper. When a diner left some meandering and negative prose on Yelp after having dinner at his previous restaurant, Campo, the chef ate that Yelper for breakfast. On his Facebook page…
We love to drink here at the Observer. We take no shame in our excessively inebriated stories, and actually work hard to pack as much beer and liquor into every post possible. But as much as we love booze, drinkers gotta eat, too. And if you’re not careful, many bar…
Remember the Hypnotic Donut billboard I found so distracting last week? I’ve gained 3 pounds since I noticed the lime green banner outside our office window. I can’t stop thinking about doughnuts. It’s gotten so bad, editor Joe has sporadically started blogging about fruit to keep his mind off confectionery…
I’m sure you’ve been there before. You walk into a restaurant, take your seat and unfold your napkin. You place a drink order with your waiter, and while looking at the menu, you casually ask “So, what’s good here?” Sometimes you’ll get a great recommendation or two. Sometimes a waiter…
Another year has almost passed and I’ve yet to die of burger poisoning. And as the final weeks of the year play out, it’s always fun to look back at the meals that still remain vivid in my memory. This year a few were encountered outside of Dallas and two…
Did someone say Wintervention? Looks like a nasty cold front is on its way. Time to break out those dutch ovens and braise some lamb shanks, I’m thinking. Or maybe a hearty beef stew is more your style. Whatever you plan on cooking, cold weather dishes make your kitchen smell…
Last night, Meso Maya’s neon signs cast an indecent glow into the shadows of the nearby Perot Museum. Photographers hung outside the restaurant snapping pictures of guests, and inside a soft opening meal was followed by copious amounts of tequila drinking at the bar. I ducked my head in quickly…
The only time I attend media events is when I think I can blend into a crowd. Press dinner at a newly opened restaurant? No way. Four hundred drunk revelers running around a new science museum with drinks in hand? Sign me up. Catered affairs are usually a disappointment, though…
It was the Smackdown that lead me to reviewing Hopdoddy. I couldn’t believe how much work the small chain put into burgers they charged so little for. Most customers will likely spend a little more on burgers topped elaborately with gourmet cheeses and toppings, but if you want, you can…
If you’re noticing a light number of posts here on City of Ate, or on any other Observer blog, you should know we’ve been a little distracted as of late. It seems Hypnotic Donuts has installed a massive billboard just outside our news room window, and it’s making everyone a…
