Navigating the social scene this time of year can be a challenge if you don’t drink alcohol. While the merriment looks different this year, options for sober celebrating still seem sparse at first glance. Sure, you can find apple cider and sparkling grape juice in faux Champagne bottles at your…
Like holiday decorations in retail stores, reminders to order tamales for Christmas start popping up around Halloween. La Popular Tamale House sold out their orders for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day pickup more than a month ago. If you need some of those lovely stuffed bundles of masa on your…
Honestly, get the grilled cheese anyway you damn please. Add a runny egg (over-medium or over-hard, too) or grilled jalapenos, just a few or a whole nest of them, and onions. Raw white onions? No, a spread of caramelized onions is my personal choice: Heavily peppered onions, grilled until their…
Remember those fascinating cake-cutting videos? Not the wine glass one, but the one where it looked like a real object, say a shoe, then a knife enters stage left and cuts through a two-layered cake? Synapses in your brain go off like fireworks trying to process it all. Is everything…
It’s tough to open a restaurant in the middle of a pandemic, and even more so following a controversy. After a brief closure following the surfacing of a recording with homophobic comments allegedly made by the bar’s owners, Redfield’s Tavern reopened Monday as Redfield’s Neighborhood Tavern. Redfield’s became a hot…
This is a season of looking back and looking ahead, and we’ve done so as we look forward to the best 100 restaurants in Dallas and recount some of the best dishes we had over the last year (most of which were in takeout containers). Another way to look back…
Twelve months ago, the Dallas restaurant scene was riding high on a wave of national recognition, including being named the “Restaurant City of the Year” in Bon Appétit. Our chefs were starring in splashy magazine profiles and raising funds for exciting new openings. Diners were falling in love with bold…
In its Dec. 9 meeting, the Dallas City Council approved a pilot program, Street Seats, which will allow for private or public parklet options and the use of up to two curbside parking spaces. “This approval is Dallas’ semipermanent parklet seating solution that includes options for restaurants and retail establishments…
There’s a new coffee shop in Casa Linda, just to the west of White Rock Lake. The shotgun layout has some seating for those who brave indoor eating and drinking and a coffee bar before the door to the kitchen. El Porton may feel like just another spot to grab…
Bucking the trend of closures, the originally pickup-only cheese and charcuterie board operation Amor Y Queso, which was previously housed at The Jelly Queens in Dallas, has recently put down more permanent roots in Deep Ellum. The pandemic has not been kind to the restaurant and foodservice industry, to say the…
Like many coffee shops, Opening Bell Coffee is more than just a place to get your morning caffeine. Is a place to congregate and a place for community, and the pandemic has, for the most part, put a stop to that. This was doubly true for Opening Bell, largely because…
After this extended season of partial solitude, it’s interesting to think about what long-term effects it may have on our tolerance for loud, crowded and tight spaces. After this passes, will it bother us if the next table is in our elbow space? Will large family gatherings roar back, or…
As the weather cools and a vaccine is still months away from being distributed to the masses, restaurants around the city are facing what could be even more bleak months ahead. Winter patio dining in Texas is typically a less-than-pleasant experience with temperatures in the 30s and 40s, leading to…
Every so often, Dallas gets a day in December that actually feels like winter. Many of us rejoice in the air feeling like the proper season before we realize we’re underdressed and the car’s heater just doesn’t work quickly enough. It’s days like those when we need a spicy guiso…
Though most of this year hasn’t been ideal for dining inside our favorite restaurants, there was still plenty to write about. And readers read. Here are some of the most-read food-related pieces in the Dallas Observer over the last year. Before we look forward to vaccines, getting together with others…
A new burger joint is sliding to Lowest Greenville next week. Son of a Butcher opens its first standalone restaurant Monday, Dec. 14, and will offer a variety of sliders, milkshakes and fries. Son of a Butcher first opened in Legacy Hall last March. With the new location, the slider…
The Second Floor at the Exchange is opening for dinner in the AT&T Discovery District Wednesday, Dec. 16. A news release says it’s two concepts in one (which we’re going read and say – there are two restaurants opening): Ounce and Ichi Ni San (the latter of which we briefly…
In a time when everyone is looking for something to feel normal, bars are closed, concerts are being canceled and festivals are postponed, the Dallas Observer’s Tacolandia found a way to move forward with the event. Due to COVID-19, Tacolandia looked a little (a lot) different: The normally packed festival…
The sound of the crunch from their fried chicken can fill a room. It’s as loud as a light bulb breaking or the spider-crack that happens when you step on thin ice. Whatever it is – it’s noticeable. It’s memorable. Kim Chanthorn stands guard on the secret to Saap Lao…
For a royal escape from the chaos of the pandemic, Royal 38 allows guests to sip quirky, fun cocktails on a spacious patio in The Union in Uptown. From the founders of HIDE — which has recently relocated from Deep Ellum to Lower Greenville — Royal 38 boasts a cocktail-focused…
Finding myself on Shady Brook for maybe the first time since I lived in The Village last millennium, I recently diverted to a tiny spot highly recommended by a friend of Ethiopian descent: Abeba Foods To Go, also known as Abeba Grocery. The first thing you notice upon entering is that…
Cheers to these bars that went all out to lift our spirits with their holiday pop-ups.
