There is nothing better than consuming copious amounts of alcohol while being really, really high. And no, that doesn’t mean on drugs, you deviants, that means sitting on a roof with a beautiful view of the Dallas skyline. Now that the weather will be beautiful for at least the next…
For the past several months, I have been deliberately avoiding vodka-based cocktails. I’ve had a few great ones, like the Why The Long Face at Henderson Avenue Country Club, but for the most part, good bartenders seem to be ignoring vodka in favor of other, more interesting spirits. And who…
Picture your dream hamburger. But not as you know it now — go back to something like the early ’90s, when words like “arugula” and “house-made truffle aioli” were utopian fiction. A time when a greasy burger with American cheese and iceberg lettuce, served on checkered paper in a ramshackle…
When I interviewed Michael Peticolas about proposed beer legislation last week, the brewer mentioned he was nosing a special beer. Dubbed Operation Collaboration, the brew is a collaborative effort between Peticolas and Chuck Silva of Green Flash brewing Co. in San Diego. First and most importantly, the beer is available…
I wasn’t expecting much from the pizza I’d ordered at Modmarket. This is a fast-casual chain based in Denver, for starters, and they use an unimpressive gas-fired oven. But there it was on an aluminum tray, with a decent, if dry-looking cornicione. The basil had gone brown, but the tomato…
The Fort Worth Food and Wine Festival is this weekend and the schedule is jam-packed with all kinds of goodness. Thursday night gets things off to a tasty start with the BBQ Bash at Billy Bob’s, where pit masters will be slicing and serving the very best that smoke and…
I don’t get, nor do I deserve, a lot of sympathy in my work. As soon as my face winces — before I even get out a word of complaint — I’m met with a barrage of facetiousness. “Oh, poor food critic guy eats out on someone else’s dime.” I…
No other image better captures the Dallas dining scene: Under a cloudy sky, hungry customers wait their turn for one of the nine tables inside a restaurant that looks like it survived a recent bombing campaign. Six-packs of bottled beer litter the street, and a red and white cooler hints…
Food and music have always been inexplicably linked. Maybe it’s because cooks and musicians are generally the same sorts of surly, creative types, or because everyone regardless of profession loves great music. Either way, there’s a huge overlap among music nerds and people who spend their days cooking in the…
The neon is shining at Spork now, as long as you show up after sunset. The casual burger restaurant opened earlier this month at the hands of Eric Justice (former chef at Mexican Sugar) and other Dallas-area power chefs. Tim Byres and Katherine Clapner were among the chefs tasked with…
In Texas, a good bowl of chili is practically currency. It’s a way to warm up on a cold day, works well in fried applications and over Fritos, and can occasionally help mothers keep their delinquent children coming back home. Chili is certainly important in Texas, and the good people…
The talk around North Texas used to be of what new breweries are opening this month. Now it’s all about what local breweries are building and expanding and by how much, and how far ahead of their growth curves and expectations they find themselves. Lakewood Brewing held a ribbon-cutting ceremony…
When Yum! Brands, the fast-food minds behind KFC and Taco Bell, opened its first location of Super Chix in Arlington, we gushed. The obvious spin on the Chick fil A model served fast food just as good as fresh and addictive as Chick fil A’s, without all the weird politics…
It’s time for another Dallas Observer Iron Fork event, and while the participating restaurants are sure to provide another gustatory marathon of epic proportions, it’s hard to discuss the food until you’ve gotten past this year’s awesome competition chefs. Matt McCallister has been dominating the competition since he ousted Scott…
If you ask people who do a lot of work with outdoor markets, they’ll tell you that one of the most important components is walkability. It’s not enough that shoppers be able to walk around the market, exploring stall after stall — a vast majority of them should be able…
More Dallas restaurants are grinding their own beef, an attempt to differentiate their burgers from the rising deluge of patty grease. They’re also making the move because it results in burgers that are more delicious. Most recently, Braindead Brewery released a menu (pictured above) with a house-ground burger that’s said…
If you know anything about Dallas, you’ve heard Deep Ellum is coming out of its coma. After its bar and club scene peaked and plummeted, many wondered if and how it could be restored to its glory days of the late ’90s. Little by little, things changed; developers bought up…
That pleasant weather you’ve been begging for is finally here, and it’s in your best interest to soak up as much of it as you can while it’s available. It won’t be for long. Sure, you could hike, maybe pump up the tires in your bike and pretend you’re physically…
Kathryn DeBruler searches far and wide for DFW’s most interesting breakfast food. Come along. In Texas, Kolaches are a thing. There are at least four festivals honoring the Czech pastry in our great state alone. The most famous kolaches hail from West, where legend has it that city revenue is…
Last year, I predicted 2015 would be the year the burger bubble burst in Dallas. Since that article was published, no fewer than 37 burger restaurants have opened. Maybe burgers are invincible — the culinary equivalent of Kevlar and titanium — but I still argue that Dallas has too many…
For the longest time, Dallas was a macaron desert. There were a few pastry shops that offered the fancy cookie, but most iterations were crumbly impostors of their French counterparts. But then, there was a renaissance. As macarons quickly became the “it pastry,” macaron shops started popping up all over…
The methodology for creating money-making baseball dishes is simple. Walk into any 7-Eleven, grab three products, put them in a box and shake. The food objects don’t have to have any pre-existing relationship with each other and they can be savory or sweet. You get bonus points for anything that…
