Applebee's International Inc.

Chef Burning Questions: John Franke on Salads from Walgreens and a Bad Black Jambalaya

Each week (or thereabout) we ask a local chef three burning questions about their favorite culinary reads, food shames and best (or worst) meals. Front Burner's corporate chef, John Franke, is in charge of menu development for Whiskey Cake, Velvet Taco, The Ranch at Las Colinas, Red Dog Right and mo ... More >>

A-A-TRE-E-YU!

Chelsea Welch Shamed a Pastor, Now She Needs a Job

This story from The Smoking Gun is too good not to share. To keep it quick, a St. Louis pastor patronized Applebees and took issue with a mandated 18 percent tip for parties of eight or more. Alois Bell says she left a cash tip at the table, but it's the note she left on her receipt that's got the a ... More >>

Denton Musician Richard Haskins Attempted to Rob a Bank. He Was Also My Friend.

On December 7, in the diminishing dusk light of the parking lot across the street from Wells Fargo on University Drive in Denton, Richard Haskins sat alone in a red, 1984 four-door Mercedes. Wearing a black Misfits t-shirt, khaki cargo shorts and a pair of low-top black Converse, he looked at the ba ... More >>

How to Speak Republican: Decoding the GOP

The Secret Chain Restaurant and Fast-Food Shame of an Englishman

You see all those chain restaurants, Dallas? All those bright shiny lights, beckoning you in to eat products of a questionable providence at a price so reasonable there's no need to go home and time-consumingly construct a meal for your baying, hungry, ungrateful family? You grew up around them (the ... More >>

Club Applebee's: America's Next Greatest Bar Concept

Sure, laugh if you want. Their wonton taco appetizers are the bomb. And I'll stab anyone in the knuckles if they try to take one off my plate. (Full disclosure: I just lied. I haven't eaten at an Applebee's in 15 years.) Yes, Club Applebee's is a real thing. It all started in a grass-roots sort of ... More >>

Thank Goodness It's Del Frisco's Grille

More easy bar food for the Uptown crowd.

Food Blogging For Dummies: How To Eat Free and Rule the World With Your Very Own Blog!

​Imagine walking into a restaurant as management dotes on your every move out of fear you might blog about the greasy thumbprint on your plate. Imagine cooking and plating a fabulous meal for 10 friends only to not let them eat while you snap 700 photos of your accomplishment. Imagine all the ... More >>

Score Half Price Tickets To Iron Fork Today

​Maybe you've noticed the suggestive ads we've been running in the paper that feature a lady fondling a fork with her lips, but we figured it was time to remind you once again about our upcoming Iron Fork competition, happening on Wednesday, April 27 at Fashion Industry Gallery (1807 Ross Ave. ... More >>

Restaurants Support Philosophical Movement to Get Workers Out of the Office at Lunchtime

​A year-old project to encourage workers to "commit to a lunch hour of renewal" has found a new fan base in restaurant owners, who are enthusiastically backing The Energy Project's call for people to leave their offices at lunchtime. Tony Schwartz, founder of The Energy Project and author of ... More >>

Hall Pass: The Farrellys Fulfill Their Raunch and Goo Quotients.

Top 7 Most Irritating Food Commericals

Ritz Hey Guy, how 'bout never driving your exhaust spewing Ritz truck near our food. Capeesh? ​It's been a long day. You're at home watching Top Chef. After three-to-four minutes of actual show, you get an ad blitz (Yes, this scenario implies you don't have TiVo).There's the ad where Burger King's ... More >>

College students, in meat lockers across America, compete to see who's the best judge of slabs of beef, pork and lamb.

Victory Park Could Use a Niketown. But For Now, This Pop-Up "Victory" Will Have To Do.

Photos by Patrick Michels​First thing this morning, a Friend of Unfair Park directed our attention to a chat, with photos, currently taking place over at the Dallas Fort Worth Urban Forum, where posters are trying to decide of this new venue in the old Boardroom spot: permanent or temporary? One ... More >>

Newest Menu Items at Leading Chains Not Designed for Teetotalers

​Corporate kitchens are continuing to add wine and spirits to their dishes, apparently angling for sophistication and increased perceived value. Olive Garden is now pushing a pasta dish with shellfish "sautéed in white wine" and a stew "simmered in light white wine." Red Lobster's developed ... More >>

One of Sierra Leone's most beloved comedians took refuge in Dallas from his country's civil war. What could have turned him into a killer?

Chains Serve Up Free Food for Vets

​Locally owned restaurants are typically hip to holidays. Any sort of celebration is an excuse for a scrappy restaurant to promote a thematic tie-in, as the Rangers' run for a World Series ring proved. But on Veterans' Day, the major chains have the mom-and-pops beat. The only local restauran ... More >>

Food Festivals Like Taste of West Village Aren't Necessarily About Food

​Since news about Texas food tends to find its way to my inbox, I know way more than I should about Texas Roadhouse happenings. I don't usually find too much in the Roadhouse oeuvre that's worth sharing, but I was oddly riveted by a recent announcement regarding the restaurant chain's partici ... More >>

Los Cabos: Okie-Mex is About What You'd Expect.

Down to the Chuck Wagon, for Some Fancy, Sloppy Cowboy Chow

Cowboy ChowThese buffalo tacos sure are awful fancy.Cowboy Chow 2801 Commerce St. 214-742-2469 Dude Factor: 7, or "The Cowboy," Mulholland Drive, on a scale of 1 ("The Cowboy," Innerspace) to 10 ("The Stranger," The Big Lebowski) Cowboy Chow's slick 'n' quirky take on upscale trail grub -- what t ... More >>

100 Favorite Dishes: Original Nachos at Fuzzy's Taco Shop

​As a countdown to the Dallas Observer's "Best of Dallas" 2010, City of Ate is serving up 100 of the favorite dishes we crave, savor and hope to scarf down again soon. These dishes are in no particular order. Some are little known, others celebrated. Some are pricey, others can be eaten on the ... More >>

Wrestling the Ghost of Jimmy Buffett at Preston Center's Flying Fish

Photos by Patrick MichelsI once at a fish this big.​Flying Fish6126 Luther Ln.214-696-FISHDude Factor: 8, or Don Knotts, on a scale of 1 (Kevin Costner) to 10 (Ernest Borgnine) I'd been too long on the turf, dudes, and got the hunger for a little surf. Fish Shack would have done nicely, but no way ... More >>

Question Of The Week: Should Small, Chef-Driven Restaurants Expand?

A Nick Too Far?​Last we we asked about chains. This time around, we were wondering about small-scale expansion. Word came recently that Nick Badovinus, chef and owner of Neighborhood Services, would soon open a second and third branch of the restaurant. Nothing wrong with this--expansion is someti ... More >>

Pairing Off: Wendy's Spicy Chicken Nuggets

Patrick Michels/Flickr user Photos8.comOh, no--the artist is entering a new and darker phase.​Each week, Pairing Off attempts to find just the right bottle of wine to go with ordinary food.National restaurant chains know how to stretch the limits of almost any word. Olive Garden tries to sell us o ... More >>

Question Of The Week: Why Do Some People Scorn Chains Yet Rave About Mi Cocina, Houston's, Etc.?

​Sure, Houston's is better than, say, Applebee's or Red Lobster, but it's still a nationwide chain. And if you admit to dining at Mi Cocina or Taco Diner because of the quality of their cooking, you might also like Chili's.So what's going on? If we love one and hate another, doesn't that suggest t ... More >>

Cheap Hookah

In its own way, Al Amir is smokin’

Review: Trinity Plaza Cafe

Tie to flip-flop ratio at the cafe: 1:3

Mooyah Burgers

Lincoln Slog

At Kitchen Dog, Man From Nebraska offers a muted vision of midlife angst

Sharing is Caring

Take the first step toward health

Green is Golden

Sinking Ships | Fantasy Grill | Grotto Gripes | California Dreamin' | Freaked | 'Tis a Pity

Wherefore Art Thou?

Coasting

Catalina Room is like a California Applebee's

Steppin' Out

Girl leaves the grind behind for a li'l two-stepping where the dry turns wet

Vegas, Baby

Plus: Mark Cuban's Dance Party; Check Her Briefs

The Day the Sky Fell

Plus: Waking up the Snooze, Anti-Semitic Morons, True Fanatic

Great Shakes?

Do expensive salts really make a difference?

Burning Question

Why do restaurants decorate with junk?

Scene, Heard

Todd Deatherage's newest up for grabs; Buzz-Oven reheats; New info on Centro-matic and Polyphonic Spree discs

Bugged By the Millennium

A computer glitch has some Dallasites predicting an apocalyptic meltdown. They may not be that crazy.

Whatta concept!

At theme-choked Canyon Cafe, a few things actually rise above the kitsch