Fuad Al Dawyma buzzes beef shawarma from the spinning grill with an electric shaver. It’s calming to watch. The meat cone twirls hypnotically, slowly. Dawyma shaves meat off into sheets, into his hand, then packs it into the pockets of soft Iraqi ...

Six years ago in April, Jason Boso found himself sweating away behind the kitchen of his burger joint, painstakingly separating meat from a beaver carcass. The process was arduous. He’d purchased around 60 pounds of the prehistoric rodents to grin...

After a long pause, Chili’s gazes deep in the centers of our eyes. Chili’s, after all, is Texas’ old friend. Chili’s whispers its big announcement in a primordial stirring, like wind jostling the canopy of a forest, swirling into a hushed chant th...

When the first Liberty Burger opened in Dallas, there was an unexpected wave of chaos. It was a few weeks before Thanksgiving in 2011. The line at the register sprawled through the restaurant and shot out the door. Wait times for a simple cheesebu...

When she was growing up, there were two versions of chicken-fried steak for chef Jeana Johnson. The upscale version was served at Palestine, Texas’ AAA Restaurant: a gravy-smothered, plate-spanning, deep-fried steak. The everyday chicken-fried ste...

Ten minutes after sunrise, if you time it right, you’ll hear the freshly ground burger patty hiss-sizzle on the flat grill. You might hear the clatter of metal spoons in coffee or the squawk of knives meeting plates beneath the steak and eggs, but...