The comment thread in the April 14 10 Questions with Jim Schutze, the Dallas Observer’s “investigative curmudgeon,” got City of Ate thinking about his hometown brew, Stroh’s. “Some people cry for the Old Country. I cry for Stroh’s. Many’s the Stroh, many’s the Stroh. Oh, Stroh’s!” Schutze wrote in a…
There was a time when basic vodkas roamed the barroom earth. They came in normal bottles–real glass when you stepped up to the Smirnoff or Stoli level. Clean, but with a warming, alcohol burn, they mixed readily into orange juice or ginger beer or whatever.But along came Bond (James Bond)…
If your pop is a little too generous with the charcoal starter fluid, there’s no need to recharge your fire extinguishers and update your will before Fathers Day this year. At 2 p.m. Sunday, June 21, Chef J Chastain will do the grilling this year at The Second Floor at…
Nothing like six hours in a bus to Beaumont and another six from Beaumont to make one rethink a food blog format. So over the next few weeks, we will be tweaking things a just a little bit…hopefully for the better. After all, we’re almost halfway through the year. Why not?…
This week Dave encounters a swingin’ good time at The Londoner in Uptown, where the menu faithfully recalls the Indian-influenced parade of a proper British pub menu–even if it’s a little too adventurous for the average happy-hour Uptowner palate.You can check out more photos from The Londoner in this photo…
“If you like Calvin Klein’s Obsession, you love Designer Imposters’ Confess.” “If you like Acqua di Gio, you’ll love Designer Imposters’ Mascolino.” Yeah, uh huh. And I suppose that Liza impersonator does Cabaret just as good as the real Broadway loon, and that Velveeta tastes something like actual cheddar. So…
Avanti2720 McKinney Avenue214-871-4955Some of those classic restaurant pasta dishes get a bit tedious after a few turns of the fork.Fettuccine alfredo, for instance, combines ribbons of flat pasta with Parmesan, butter and–often–cream. While there’s a familiar tang from the cheese and definite richness, the dish offers little intrigue. It’s just…
Part of the ferocious Dallas Diesel defensive squad in the process of shutting down the Demons in Beaumont last weekend. A certain food critic (#40) seems annoyed that his sideline is chanting “Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!”My time with the minor league team is done, but their season continues: 7 p.m. on…
In honor of our president’s ambitious trip to the Middle East this week , I’ve decided to undertake my own (and decidedly less ambitious) Middle-East-themed balancing act: ferreting out some good food from the region here in Dallas. Herewith, two of Dallas’ better Middle Eastern restaurants go head-to-head, with ratings…
Lisa Petty is on vacation–a much needed one, we presume. Although she mentioned something about building a school in some Guatemalan village when asking for the week off (the first time, anyway; the second time she claimed to be aiding flood victims in Azerbaijan), we found airline tickets to the…
Some 24 restaurants, including Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, Winslow’s Wine Cafe and Fletcher’s Corny Dogs (yes!) will be featured at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Fort Worth Zoo’s Third Annual Beastro tasting event. But if looking at caged animals while getting in touch with your inner carnivore, herbivore or omnivore isn’t…
The transition from waiter to bartender isn’t always easy. Neither is the discipline necessary to handle service industry responsibilities and a college class schedule. Leonard waited tables at Ferre. He started in the same role at Villa-O before shifting behind the bar. So far, everything is going smoothly for the…
“I’m going to wait until this one gets to court.” (Avi Adelman, addressing charges that he violently shoved a woman while trying to get through a crowd on lower Greenville to videotape yet another drunk. As quoted by the Dallas Morning News.)…
Some decades ago, there was this little chippy up on Hampstead High Street, a short walk from our London flat. It was here I first encountered Britain’s symbolic pub dish, fish and chips: a choice of cod—if memory serves—or plaice, battered and dripping grease, rolled with soggy fries in an…
I am a Chicano in Connecticut. I moved from Arizona to the East Coast for my dream job. I have to admit that I’m still homesick. Connecticut is a completely different world. To sum it up in one phrase, vale madre. It took awhile for me to find a Mexican…
When these things hit the market sometime back before disco–maybe even before streaking–Pringles canisters told a whole creation story: how machines shredded potatoes into a near liquid paste, reconstituted this mass into wavy wafers and such. It was all very appetizing.The process, in fact, remains so far removed from ‘normal’…
Goats helped settle America. Not kidding: According to Robb Walsh, author of The Tex-Mex Cookbook, goats were the preferred diet of common folk in Europe, so when Columbus sailed to the New World on his second voyage in 1493 he brought goats for meat, cheese, and milk–along with Spanish shepherds…
A couple of months, two chefs and a little bit of blog angst behind them, Lazare is ready for its Grand Opening…unless something happens, of course. Ramping up for Saturday’s event, the restaurant at 6 p.m. Thursday will be the site of Fashion After Hours, a Dallas fashion industry mixer…
After graduating from the California Culinary Academy, Landsberg cooked at restaurants in Sacramento and San Francisco. However, he became a star after moving to Dallas in 1996. Working alongside David Holben and Gilbert Garza, he helped open Toscana. From there, he worked high end places like Seventeen Seventeen, the Atruim…
“No one seems to understand why iced coffee costs so much more than the regular stuff.” (GQ magazine, pondering the expense added for steeping water and grounds overnight in a French press. As stated in their June issue.)…
Sonny Bryan’s2202 Inwood Road 214-357-7120Dude Factor: 9, or Nolan Ryan, on a scale of 1 (“Tom Hicks”) to 10 (“Tom Landry”)Sure, Sonny Bryan’s is a Dallas institution, but I can’t say I ever darkened the original’s door until the Observer moved to our current offices at Maple and Oak Lawn…
In a scandal very much like the one where French and Russian figure skating judges fixed Olympics results, I was robbed this morning of a cake decorating crown that was–by at least one account–rightfully mine.But first, the important stuff: The annual “cake-off”–in which the likes of Robbie Owens and Teresa…
