It’s that time of year, when the sky clouds over, everything gets damp and everyone’s immune systems start to fall apart. The clerks at CVS are fronting the NyQuil section every other hour, noses are red and taste buds are shot. It’s inevitable that either you or someone you know…
Specials typically have a less-than-savory connotation within the restaurant industry. If a chef orders too much meat for Friday and Saturday night dinner services, he might throw what’s left in the grinder the next morning, creating the makings for a meatball special for Sunday brunch. Day-old fish covered in a…
A few years back, I set out in search of a great gyro for all to enjoy. It didn’t go well. My partner-in-tzatziki almost died, and neither of us was able to work the rest of the afternoon. We ate pounds and pounds of gyros, and when we finished we…
You may have heard by now of bulletproof coffee, the coffee drink doctored up with as much as two tablespoons of butter that’s gaining popularity for its purported health benefits. A bulletproof coffee in the morning will help you burn fat all day, they say. Bulletproof coffee will increase mental…
Greenville Avenue continues to add restaurants after the city widened sidewalks, added parking and generally increased the number of potential customers walking around the neighborhood. The latest to open, Clark Food and Wine, began serving customers last Thursday. See also: Bohemian Cafe, the New Kolache Restaurant on Lower Greenville, Is…
Last week, Knife announced a new lunch menu at the Hotel Palomar. In typical hotel-lunch fashion, the menu promises a number of classic sandwiches dressed up with luxurious, hand-crafted ingredients, presented with precision and care. How else could you persuade a patron to spend $18 on a sandwich you can…
Chipotle needed a better vegetarian option. Until recently, the only thing a meat-adverse diner could order in the restaurant was a set of tacos or a burrito stuffed with black beans and a mix of grilled onions and bell peppers. The results were filling (everything at Chipotle is filling) but…
It’s 9 on Wednesday night when I drag my friend out to Joyce and Gigi’s in East Dallas. She’s in nursing school and should be writing a paper that’s due the next day, but fortunately one of us has her priorities straight: half-priced drinks and dessert to share. The restaurant’s…
A few days ago, something disturbing happened to me. The image is seared deep into the folds of my brain: I ordered a salad as a side of my burger. It was trumpet bright, fresh with good olive oil, full of radishes, and still light years from being as awesome…
In “Shigging,” we ask barbecue experts to give us some specifics about how they smoke their meats. In the spirit of barbecue secretiveness and competitiveness, they’re allowed to lie once. This week, for Shigging, we’re switching meats. For the moment, we’re moving on from brisket, and we’ll be asking Jeffery…
I’m sitting at the bar at Proof + Pantry, which faces away from the hustle of the One Arts District, and the place is humming with its new lunch service. A man next to me is polishing off a lobster roll. He lets me know the salad I ordered with…
As sandwiches go, the meatloaf burger served at Urban Acres is a very good one. Filled with well-pedigreed ingredients, it tastes like a meat lover’s dreamwich. The puck of meatloaf in the center is made with 100 percent grass-fed beef, and it’s cradled in a sumptuous bun baked at Empire…
News reaches us that Lower Greenville’s fanciest coffee shop/bar/place to look at people using Apple products is to branch out to the previously uncool downtown Dallas in a redevelopment on the 1500 block of Elm. When it gets there, it’ll take one look at its new building and notice it…
After well-received stints at two Dallas institutions and her currently-airing appearance on Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen, Rosanne “Roe” DiLeo is seemingly up for anything. This time, Chef Roe won’t be dodging pans slung by a cursing Englishman or setting a new standard for bar food at The Libertine. Instead, she’ll…
There is, it seems, yet another burger chain ready to bloom in Dallas: Dugg Burger, a “deliciously simple yet innovative eating experience” coming soon to Casa Linda. The menu is straightforward and enticing because I’m physically addicted to animal fat. The restaurant says it “will serve burgers, fries & drinks…
Back in September, Urban Acres announced that it had hired David Rodriguez, the chef who’d jest left Oddfellows. In that short time, he’s turned out a new menu of impressive sandwiches and breakfast items to show off some of the delicious ingredients for sale in the co-op. Till then, the…
Unless your mother kept a five-pound bag of masa in her kitchen and scratch-cooked Mexican dishes every day of the week, your first introduction to tacos was likely crafted in part by the folks at Old El Paso. I bet you can still picture those pre-formed taco shells warming in…
A few minutes go by at Deep Ellum’s Local when I have the entire restaurant to myself. When I walk in, the music’s playing, candlelight’s on the tables and I can hear plates chattering in the hallway. It’s like I walked into someone’s duplex, too early for dinner. I made…
Snap Kitchen has been slowly invading Dallas since this summer, opening its first location in Uptown and then opening three more around the city since. Another location is planned for Fitzhugh. The latest location to open is on the corner of Preston and Royal, in the same shopping center and…
The Five Commandmeats Lesson #1: “sold out” signs at BBQ restaurants are what distinguish the truly hungry from the peckish. Bet the House BBQ is sold out. The sign on the front window says so in clear, authoritative lettering. Having never let a sign deter me before (stop signs? more…
Earlier this week, news that Chicago-based Al’s Beef would set up multiple locations in the Dallas area bubbled up like oil droplets in a pan of simmering jus. Much like Five Guys hired former Redskins player Mark Moseley to head up the burger chain’s expansions, Al’s Beef turned to Chicago…
It seems like the only people who don’t romanticize opening their own restaurant are people who have actually opened one. Home cooks are lulled into the fantasy by guests who gush over dishes that have been slaved over for a day. Diners see mistakes they’re sure they could fix with…
