I must confess that Booker’s is one of my favorite bourbons, so buying a bottle for this piece was hardly a chore.Part of the Knob Creek line, it is aged up to 8 years and bottled uncut at its natural proof, generally around the 125 mark. This makes Booker’s an…
This is mostly for Amy S., but a few others were interested so I asked mom to send the recipes. I’ll just leave her to explain:I am sending 3 gooey butter cake recipes. The first one was in this week’s St. Louis paper, from their files. This is not the…
It’s hard to say 2009 was a pivotal year in Dallas dining. The city did, however, tally a surprising number of new restaurants. We also saw a few venerable locations shut down.If it weren’t for the recession, this would all seem unexceptional. Establishments open and close on a regular basis,…
Now that yesterday’s Epiphany has come and gone, even those who hold onto the holiday spirit well past New Year’s Day have to admit that it’s time to get back into the workaday routine. But that doesn’t mean the spirit doesn’t linger a bit, at least when it comes to…
In 2006 we witnessed the death of a good friend in The Green Room. The classic gem of Deep Ellum was brash and ripe with imagination for its time. Since then, the diaspora of the alum that made the kitchen great helped rock the Dallas restaurant landscape. Now, as Green…
Canary Cafe5100 Belt Line, Addison972-503-7080I seem to remember a time, shortly after engineer-turned-chef Mansour Gorji bought the Canary Cafe space, when he served sushi at lunch.The previous occupant had been a Japanese restaurant and so many of that venue’s regulars dropped by hoping for a raw fish fix, Gorji couldn’t…
Recipe Demonstrated by Chef Chris Hughes of Tre Amici Prime Steakhouse & Seafood It’s a new year, and you know what that means: time for resolutions. People are signing documents for a new gym membership, throwing away their cartons of Marlboro Reds and eating more greens and less deep-fried tacos…
Some people insist a diet of fatty foods not only rounds out the waistline, it also invites a series of almost certain future ills. If they’re right, then Blaine Staniford must want to kill us—although with his arsenal of bacon, butter, cream and slabs of richly marbled red meat, ours…
Thanks to a deadline timing fluke largely of my making, this was my birthday dinner: half a bag of supermarket French fries.You know–those freezer burnt sticks one pops in the oven, checks after the recommended 15 minutes to find a batch of glossy, flaccid, half-baked things. So you leave them…
Few people write songs about pizza and beer, chocolate and peanut butter, or gin and juice. Foie gras and Sauternes? Forget it.Yet dozens–just a rough estimate–of hits and near hits have referenced the combination of tooth-decay inducing sugar water and tooth decay-inducing chocolate-covered marshmallow creme-filled cookies that became a Southern…
Weekend brunch exists, in my estimation, to assuage the appetites of those who have slept in past the breakfast hour and now must hunt down food as quickly as possible to alleviate the hangover. To have brunch on a weekday might be a meal worthy only of derelicts and food…
On The Range is a weekly exploration of the history and lore of Texas menu items.Steamed, not smoked. According to Rick Bayless, chef extraordinaire and author of Mexico: One Plate at a Time, that’s the primary difference in preparing Mexican barbacoa and traditional Texas barbecue. True, barbacoa is slow-cooked like…
Country Burger401 S. Hampton Rd.214-330-4743Dude Factor: 3, or Buckethead, on a scale of 1 (Axl Rose) to 10 (Slash)Last night in choosing a place to eat, I decided to stick to my New Year’s resolution. Fortunately, my resolution is to eat more bacon-cheeseburgers, which is a pretty easy promise to…
If Memory Serves chronicles moments from my dining past, perhaps explaining what’s wrong with me.Every year around the holidays, my mom sends a tin of what she calls “Secret Toffee.”Actually, I learned the name of this chocolate-toffee cookie thing just last week, having spent a few decades requesting it by…
The holidays wreaked havoc on my dining schedule these last few weeks, so today’s post is going to be a tad shorter. Gathering backup participants for fulfilling my cravings in faraway lands like Garland or Carrollton proved rather difficult. Reactions from my family and friends ranged from annoyed eye rolls…
A new year, another chance to set things right.It’s why some people announce personal goals this time of year, right? Few carry them through for the entire 12 months, however. In fact, only the easiest resolutions–add more flab, drink cheaper booze, exercise the credit cards–manage to hold our attention more…
We understand City of Ate is an, um, unusual blog.The Dallas market was already well-served, when we started up, by outlets breaking news tidbits, speculating on rumors, providing forums on topics of the day and such. So we conceived of a ‘magazine-style’ blog–a venue for recurring articles, some of which…
Village Burger Bar5700 Legacy Dr., Plano972-801-2772We love our chains, don’t we? Not the fast food giants, but those with a more original feel–Taco Diner, Houston’s, Mi Cocina and Village Burger Bar amongst them.What drives this popularity is a certain level of consistency. People know–hopefully–such places aren’t the best. But at…
Each week in ‘Knockers’ we order from a different delivery restaurant, assessing their efficiency and keeping a running score.Sal’s Pizza2525 Wycliff (Dallas)214-522-1828Second location:5700 Legacy (Plano)972-943-8600Promised delivery time: 30 minutesActual delivery time: 27 minutesScoring Summary:Real ‘guy style’ ordering (an economy of words): 52No-nonsense, no-frills delivery: 25Reputation points: 20’Meat Lovers’ pizza only…
Forbes Travel Guide, formerly the Mobil Travel Guide, has named six Dallas restaurants to its four-star and five-star hospitality ratings for restaurants and hotels. According to the comprehensive rating system, which uses more than 750 standardized criteria (which is approximately 748 criteria more than Dude Food uses), Dallas is far…
Back in the spring of 2001, I sat with a group of friends in the dining room of Cuba Libra. Just about a year ago, I found myself at almost the same table, looking at a space less crowded but otherwise barely altered. Sometimes it seems nothing much has changed…
On my way to NorthPark mall (hyped for my favorite game of “Find a Good Parking Spot and Sit in It With My Car in Reverse While I Eat My Lunch and Ignore Your Honking,” which is sooooo much better during the holidays), I stopped by Taqueria La Paloma at…
