Barbec’s8949 Garland Road214-321-5597Dude Factor: 10, or The Hangover, on a scale of 1 (Very Bad Things) to 10. A good friend of mine describes Barbec’s as “where East Dallas meets East Texas.” Walk in any morning and you’ll see what he means — you might rub elbows with contractors and…
For this week’s Dish column, rather than eat at another restaurant, I spent time in the company of people who will ultimately choose the meats served there. Many meat industry professionals — the experts who work at ranches, slaughterhouses, distributorships, groceries and chain restaurants — get their start as collegiate…
As tasty as some of the beers created by Quebec brewery Unibroue are, they may be almost as noteworthy for their awesome packaging. Names like Trois Pistoles and Maudite (Québécois for “damned,” a reference to legendary lumberjacks who made a deal with the devil) are complemented by artwork that is…
The James Beard Foundation this morning released its list of semifinalists for its prestigious restaurant and chef awards, honoring hundreds of culinary visionaries and their home eateries — including five in the Dallas area. Four entries on the list — Stephan Pyles, The Mansion on Turtle Creek, The French Room…
Smoke-Free Texas, a coalition agitating for a state law prohibiting smoking in restaurants and bars, this month released a study showing people would eat out more often if they didn’t have to contend with secondhand smoke. No offense to Smoke-Free Texas, but that’s hardly a surprising finding. Even most smokers…
We don’t like to brag, but we can throw some pretty awesome parties. From St. Patrick’s Day festivities to the Music Awards, our events are always memorable, even if you had too many Jell-O shots and passed out in a stranger’s yard on the M Streets. Tonight we’re throwing a…
‘Well, here’s the deal,” Davey Griffin, associate professor of animal science at Texas A&M University, told me when he learned I planned to show up at an Oak Cliff packing plant for the Southwestern Intercollegiate Meat Judging Contest. “It’s not a spectator sport.” Surely there’s a promoter somewhere who could…
BEE: Best Enchiladas Ever (brought to you by Monica Greene of Monica’s Aca Y Alla) calls itself an “enchiladeria.” To me, “enchiladeria” sounds like the immediate effects of eating one too many spicy enchiladas. “Dude, that meal gave me severe enchiladeria.” But, as it turns out, it just means that…
There is a pocket of coolness hiding out in Plano, and its name is Urban Crust. Dave Matthews and The Cure play over the speakers and both floors of the restaurant are packed with midday diners, couples and families and ladies who lunch. The walls are exposed brick and a…
A panel of judges at the National Meat Association’s second-ever University Cook-off this week was partial to the University of Idaho’s bacon sausage, but a stuffed pork loin created by Texas A&M took the people’s choice prize. “I ate it, and I liked it,” says operations manager Jen Kempis-Persons. Apologizing…
The federal holiday Americans observe next Monday was originally designed to honor George Washington. But when the government standardized its celebrations in 1968, they stuck the annual commemoration between Washington and Lincoln’s birthdays, figuring they might as well lump in Honest Abe. By the 1970s, a dozen states — including…
“Cupcakes will be out and muffins will be in,” a Central Market spokeswoman promised me in a recent e-mail heralding the grocery store’s newest line of baked goods. “You heard it here first!” I’m all for dethroning cupcakes, but haven’t muffins already had their moment? Even if Central Market’s muffins…
Honey Mussels, a specific strain of mussels named for their amber shell and unique flavor, may be garnering culinary popularity as they make their way to U.S. cities, popping up in places like New York, but they don’t seem to have made it into Dallas — yet. The mussels originated…
I grew up in East Texas in a predominantly Cajun family, so crawfish season always makes me nostalgic for the days of sitting in the back seat of my dad’s truck with a wiggling 20 pound burlap sack of mudbugs. At first, I was horrified for being responsible for sending…
Deep Ellum Brewing Company looks to be on pace to be the city’s first non-brewpub microbrewery, but it may not be the only one for long. Attorney and homebrewer Michael Peticolas was looking into investing in a new brewery in another city. Yet the more he investigated, the more he…
Let’s face it, you’ve been good to yourself. You’ve resisted the urge to patronize multi-caloric palaces of pleasure and instead have chosen to dine at Seasons 52, where every item on the menu is less than 475 calories. Well, now that you’ve polished off your ripe plum tomato flatbread and…
Breakfast tacos are as Texan as Waco’s unofficial status as Austin and DFW’s bathroom break along Intestate 35. Breakfast tacos are as Texan as football and the state’s other top sport, historical revisionism. I love Texas. I love breakfast tacos. Love led me to Taco Joint in East Dallas. The…
Burgers and fries will never be good for you. But the conceit behind Elevation Burger, a small chain that recently opened its first of three planned DFW locations in the Hillcrest Shopping Center, is that fast food could be good for the earth.Elevation Burger claims to be the only franchised…
Whether it’s eating food, drinking wine, watching reality television or sitting on furniture you enjoy best, Dallas has some charitable opportunities for you. The Event: Bonne Santé The Cause: National Kidney Foundation and North Texas community members Touted as a “showcase of wining and dining,” Bonne Santé will feature a…
Four years ago, Stephen Colbert and Ben & Jerry’s teamed up to create a new ice cream flavor, Americone Dream, and today the flavor is available at all Ben & Jerry’s locations. Today you can get two-for-one scoops of Americone Dream, vanilla ice cream blended with caramel and bits of…
Proving once again that Austin has a Justin Bieber-like hold on culinary chroniclers’ heartstrings, chefs from the capital city scored four of the ten slots in Food & Wine’s online “The People’s Best New Chef” competition. For the first time ever, Food & Wine’s adding a democratic element to its…
Each week, Happy Eating highlights a different restaurant happy hour food menu. This week, it’s dumplings and empanadas at Lumi. Where: Lumi, 3407 McKinney Ave. When: Monday-Thursday, 4-7 p.m., and reverse happy hour from 9-11 p.m. The Scene: Happy hour is available throughout the whole restaurant. It’s quiet until the…
