Last week, on April 20 to be exact, The Grapevine reopened its main bar for the first time in over a year. The quirky Uptown dive, which was completely closed for a part of 2020 has taken careful steps in welcoming both employees and …
Vidorra has a new item on the menu that you and five of your friends need to try; unless you’re into competitive eating, then go solo here. The El Jefe is a four-pound 18-inch taco stuffed with chorizo, ground beef, shredded cheese, queso, pico de gallo…
Eataly is the new Italian food wonderland at NorthPark Center that opened late last year. It’s hard to put into words everything that this place is exactly. If you squint and tilt your head, it’s like Central Market for the Amalfi Coast. An Ikea of charming Italian goods, but in…
I’ve been the Dallas Observer’s food critic for five years now, and as you might expect, I’ve gotten some hate mail. After one editorial in 2019, an angry reader blocked me on Facebook (and one restaurant owner wrote a reasoned, non-angry reply for the paper). Restaurant owners and chefs have…
Wednesday afternoon Melody Vo ordered a Vietnamese coffee at Toasted in Dallas. When she took her first sip, she immediately knew it was a cold brew mixed with condensed milk, not the stronger espresso-like pour-over typically used in Vietnamese coffee. Vo took her coffee back to the counter, sure she’d…
Wake up, sleepyheads. Since we were old enough to eat solid food, it was drilled into our heads that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Without getting all preachy on you, research shows that skipping breakfast encourages poor eating later in the day, while a solid breakfast…
Here we are almost finishing up the month of April and, I don’t know if it’s me, but 2021 is flying by. I looked up and, boom, we are amidst the ever-so-amazing crawfish season. Now crawfish season is usually something you enjoy with a larger group or in a family…
The coronavirus pandemic has been good for parking lots. Well, it’s been good for people repurposing parking lots, for freeing ourselves from the belief that they’re only good for holding cars and generating ungodly summer heat. Across Dallas and its suburbs, restaurants are putting picnic tables in former parking spaces,…
This Saturday, April 24, the Lowest Greenville Collective is shining a light on the diverse restaurants, bars and businesses along their namesake street from Belmont Avenue to Ross Avenue. The fourth annual Experience Lowest Greenville will offer a variety of food and drink specials, yoga, flowers, lots of mimosas and…
Baseball is back, and nothing can stop us from being happy about it. Apart from the pandemic. And the All-Star Game controversy. And the Rangers being mediocre at best. OK, so this season probably won’t be one we tell our grandkids about. Nevertheless, the cookware company Le Creuset has given…
If you’re one who is, at least on occasion, motivated by food but hesitant to get the COVID-19 vaccine, we’ve got some potential gaming-changing news. The James Beard semifinalist baker Clyde Greenhouse of Kessler Baking Studio is offering a sweet incentive. Greenhouse started baking more than 20 years ago and in 2014…
Previously only in Los Angeles and New York, Wulf Burger jumped into the North Texas burger scene with a location in Frisco in December. There are plenty of good burger restaurants in North Texas, but one thing that makes a Wulf burger distinct is its loud, red bun. The color,…
Amid the pandemic, restaurants have seen devastating loss. While some have been able to stay afloat through curbside pickup and delivery, others have been forced to shut down. On a new show called Restaurant Recovery, streaming now on Discovery Plus, Raising Cane’s founder Todd Graves embarks on a cross-country mission…
The State Fair of Texas, United Way Dallas’ Southern Dallas Thrives, and Communities Foundation of Texas have collaborated with Atlanta-based Goodr to increase food access in South Dallas. The initiative launched this past Saturday with a pop-up grocery store at Fair Park. Now as part of a pilot program, for…
Bars and restaurants around the city are opening at a rather fast clip. In addition to the locations noted below, we also recently visited the new spot, me, in the Bishop Arts District. And Chris Wolfgang took a road trip to Smoke Sessions in Royce City. Plus, the underground downtown…
On Wednesday afternoon the long glossy black granite bar at SushiYa in downtown Dallas sat empty. Red lanterns floated over cushioned bar stools, which were precisely spaced in pairs of two. A rerun of a Rangers game played on mute on the large TV behind the bar. The setting was…
A new vegan Tex Mex restaurant, Casa Del Vegano, quietly landed on Jefferson Street in Oak Cliff this past February. Whether it’s flautas, tacos, or queso, every item offered is vegan-friendly. It’s the latest addition to a nascent vegan Mexican food scene in Dallas. It’s also the second entirely plant-based…
From galleries to street art and wacky giant sculptures, the Cedars/Southside neighborhood has it all. There’s live music at multiple venues and food and drinks along the way. And while the spring festival season is a bit off this year, there’s public art and a wide range of flavors in…
More than 1,500 people were drawn to the opening weekend of a new pop-up food park in South Dallas that launched this past Friday. The aptly named MLK Food Park sits at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Holmes Street, just a few blocks away from the…
When Salvador “Sal” Hernandez arrived in the United States at the age of 20 with a culinary passion, he knew he wanted to own a restaurant. His journey was not easy but after working in the restaurant and club industry as a dishwasher, prep cook and, eventually, executive chef, he…
The days of drink specials and entertainment every night of the week aren’t back yet, but Thursdays are looking good. Some of your favorite food and drink spots are bringing you outdoor live music events and movies, and the patio weather couldn’t be finer. Here are a handful of things…
This winter two of the Dallas area’s favorite barbecue spots suffered serious damage, one in a fire and another in the February snowstorm. They’re facing starkly different roads back to recovery. On April 10, Zavala’s Barbecue reopened its doors to customers in Grand Prairie. The spot had been knocked out…
