The holidays are here, and restaurants and bars around town have broken out their seasonal boozing menus. So I went on a pub crawl and explored some of Dallas’ best wintry concoctions over the past couple of weeks, stopping at The Library Bar, Windmill Lounge, Bolsa, Meddlesome Moth, Marquee Grill,…
What’s a Santa Rampage, you ask? It’s hundreds of Santas bar-hopping together spreading holiday cheer. They congregate, stick together (because 300 Santas entering a bar is much cooler than just three) and take the city by red, furry storm. Organized via Facebook and Twitter, this year’s rampage is planned for…
Deep Ellum Brewing Co. beer has been available in local bars since last month’s launch party brunch at The Common Table during Dallas Beer Week. Since then, its brews have been the stars of several beer dinners and other events at Cane Rosso, Holy Grail Pub and other beer joints…
Burger House turns 60 this month and is celebrating today with contests, giveaways and the only thing you really care about: 60-cent cheeseburgers. The deal will be available at all Burger House locations across Dallas, Plano, Rockwall and Lubbock throughout the day. The Observer has long had a bit of…
The holidays season is nigh. It’s a festive time when we get actual mail instead of just bills and Brookstone catalogs, when we can drink and eat to excess with minimal judgment, and we finally, hopefully get that bonus. (Editor’s note: Two out of three ain’t bad, right?) Still, it’s…
I headed over to the Libertine Bar this weekend to indulge in their weekend fish and chips special with a few cold Boddingtons. The move was a preemptive measure based an article published in The New York Times this weekend, which hints that cod fisheries could be in trouble. The…
Amidst his stops at Dallas’ well loved “dives,” Guy Fieri and his Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives crew filmed at the Middle Eastern restaurant Afrah in Richardson last week. Brothers Ayad, Youssef and Nabil El-horr, who co-own and manage the restaurant together, initially opened Afrah just as a sweet shop back…
Food & Wine anointed the country’s 50 best bars in its latest issue. The list, featuring swanky cocktail dens that pour upscale drinks, leans heavily on New York City, San Francisco, Chicago and Washington D.C.. Texas received mention for only one bar, the Anvil Bar & Refuge in Houston. Dallas…
Last year, Planet Earth sorrowfully asked mankind “Why, dear peoples, why?” after the invention of something sinister and bizarre: KFC’s Double Down. Well, congratulations, 2011: You are the mind-fuck of a fast food year that actually found a way to add to the Famous Bowl, to create McDonald’s mind-control television,…
The other night I stopped into the brand spanking new Tate’s on McKinney Avenue in Uptown. Once inside I saw dark wood and masculine décor plus shiny glass containers full of liquor, fruits and liquored-up fruits. Then I met Kirsten and JW, two adorable bartenders in mismatched (in a good…
The other night my wife, who’s pregnant, worked late. I knew the chivalrous thing to do was to take care of dinner — to have an idea, to hammer the idea through, to execute it without wavering. If I’m married 100 years I’ll never fully realize how much value there…
We’re all guilty of occasionally getting blinded by the relentless shininess of Dallas’ hospitality scene — by the craft beers, the farm-to-table restaurants, the chefs building their latest pantheon to the gourmet grilled cheese. Overexposure to these things sometimes makes me forget that I live in Texas, the southern Midwest,…
Ugh, indeed. I’m definitely still the new guy. I don’t know how I can be described as anything but the new guy when you take into account my antics at the Loon last night. Apparently they pour their drinks with a heavy, heavy hand, and I was the last to…
A while back Wilonsky told you that El Fenix honcho Mike Karns and the Firebird Restaurant Group LLC were gobbling up the old Luna’s Tortilla factory. Conventional wisdom was that another El Fenix outpost would slide into the spot, but it turns out Karns has another concept in mind for…
Maple and Motor, you’re not alone. This morning Il Cane Rosso posted this on their Facebook page: Cane Rosso is CLOSED at lunch today for a private Holiday Party. We will re-open for dinner at 5pm! Come down and try some of Deep Ellum Brewing Company’s beers AND a Lockhart…
Prospective diners could learn everything they need to know about Nick and Sam’s by walking through the parking lot. Valets squeeze in freshly detailed Mercedes, Audis and Bimmers and more — every luxury brand is represented. On weekend evenings limousines of various shapes and sizes park out front on Maple…
On Saturday Urban Acres will have a Holiday Market at their shop in the Oak Cliff, where local purveyors will be on hand to peddle their artisan foods and crafts. From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., bring along your holiday shopping list, because you’ll surely be able to scratch off…
Next Wednesday, from 4 to 8 p.m., the Flying Saucer in Fort Worth will hold its second annual Glasses-4-Groceries food drive. The event was created to get rid of excess glassware the location had on site after conducting numerous promotional events. “Every Wednesday night at the Flying Saucer we do…
Each week, the Cheap Bastard goes looking for a new place to eat a meal for less than nine million dollars. This week, she haunts Raul’s Corral, 200 Corinth St., 214-428-4500. Her mind wasn’t blown by the food, but it was kind of nicely felt up. Times I wondered if…
Back in September, when we wrote about Google taking a bite out of Zagat, we wondered if the Internet giant had plans to compete with Yelp. Google already allows users to give restaurants a star rating and to offer their thoughts on recent dining experiences. Zagat’s database, containing professionally written…
Don’t be the pinche gringo who jacks up your Christmas Eve celebration. It’s tamale ordering time, and while some places make a few extra bazillion to sell to all the assholes who don’t call ahead, others are more than willing to send you home tamale-less if you don’t pick up…
This week’s Top Chef didn’t overly Dallas-ize Dallas like last week’s — for that, we are thankful. Dean Fearing, the original chef at Mansion on Turtle Creek and the man behind Fearing’s at the Ritz-Carlton, met the chefs at Le Cordon Bleu kitchen, the alma-mater of Austin-based cheftestant Paul Qui…
