Phil Romano

Drama for Dinner: A Q/A with Kitchen LTO Creator Casie Caldwell

Even in reality TV-obsessed Texas, where there are more shows filmed about drunks, housewives, pint-sized beauty queens, gays, bling, dance moms and cowboys than you can count, odds are you won't score a cameo in one. Still, the more I hear about new Trinity Groves concept Kitchen LTO, the more it s ... More >>

Houston-based Ignite Restaurant Group Buys Romano's Macaroni Grill

Dallas restaurateur Phil Romano opened the first Macaroni Grill in 1988 and thus began the schooling of waiters around the country on how to write their name upside down. (That was a thing the waiters once did there. Not sure exactly why, but people seemed to like it.) In 1989, just a year after op ... More >>

Babb Brothers BBQ & Blues Is Serving 'Cue Just West of the Fancy-Pants Bridge

Babb Brothers BBQ & Blues opened two weeks ago as the first restaurant in the new Trinity Groves project, which hopes to one day energize the area just west of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. Investors Phil Romano, Stuart Fitts and Butch McGregor plucked cook Mike Babb out of the catering business an ... More >>

Interview with Mike Babb of Babb Bros. BBQ & Blues on Lessons from Phil Romano, Slow Smoked Ribs and Incubators

Driving over the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge and across the west bank of the Trinity River, one quickly enters the Trinity Groves Project. If you're not heads-up about it, you could easily miss the sign announcing it. But, most likely you'll sense a revival in a part of Dallas that has been left to i ... More >>

Hofmann Hot Dogs To Open Restaurant in Trinity Groves

Earlier this year we reported that the Zaccanelli Food Group, who includes Frank Zaccanelli, Phil Romano and Roger Staubach, purchased the Syracuse, New York-based Hofmann Sausage Company. See also: - Hofmann Sausage is Bringing Snappy Grillers to Dallas - Shepard Fairey Caught In the Act Hofmann ... More >>

EatZi's is Expanding to Grapevine and Plano, but It's Not Going National Again

Nation's Restaurant News reported yesterday that eatZi's will open two new spots in the 'burbs. The first will open on May 17 in Grapevine and will occupy 10,000 square feet "of freestanding retail space in a former Luby's Cafeteria site." The Plano store will be a newly constructed 10,000 square- ... More >>

Phil Romano on Plans Along Singleton: "We Want it to Be an Evolution, Not a Revolution."

​Spent a few hours today with Phil Romano, Stuart Fitts and Larry "Butch" MacGregor at their Singleton Boulevard HQ at the foot of the Calatrava bridge. It's the brick building painted red -- one of three on that side of the bridge now decorated with Shepard Fairey's handiwork. When I pulled up a ... More >>

Coal Vines Goes National

Image courtesy of Coal Vines​Five-year-old Coal Vines is going national. After a successful licensed launch in Kansas City, Missouri, the bistro concept operated by Nick & Sam's partners Joe Palladino and Phil Romano, has its eyes set on more Texas locations and a national expansion. CoalVine ... More >>

Tour Phil Romano's For-Sale House, Virtually

Sotheby's​Luxist directs our attention this afternoon to the Strait Lane home of one Phil Romano, which has been on the market for quite some time. But the '07 asking price of $17.5 million has come way, way down since then -- to $12.5 million, per the Sotheby's listing, which provides some two do ... More >>

Brinker Makes a Run for the Border and Offloads Yet Another Chain to SF Firm

​Surprising(ish?) news late today: Brinker International just announced that a year and a half after it unloaded its majority interest Romano's Macaroni Grill to San Francisco-based Golden Gate Capital, it's selling On the Border to the equity firm as well. For how much? The press release doesn't ... More >>

This Decade Saw Dallas Evolve Into A Major Player On The National Dining Scene

The Year/The Decade: Embarrassments

​Probably should issue this caveat to start: Unless you're speaking of Paris Hilton or Tex Cobb, the label of embarrassment implies the person in question possesses some talent.Nobody is perfect, of course. The Rolling Stones recorded Emotional Rescue, Babe Ruth lost half a season due to a "bellya ... More >>

And The Winner Is...

​This is our final working Friday of the year. The decade, too, I guess.Yep--taking the 25th and 1st off. The 24th and 31st, too. We're gonna lounge around at home, drink quite a bit and pass out on that futon we hope to buy at Target if we managed to save enough cash after that last Goody Goody ... More >>

And The Winner Is...

​A hell of a lot to wade through this week, mostly thanks to the state fair.Two things before we get to the non-winners. First, I think I found a way to rid my desk of some of the accumulated junk...uh, I mean, of the highly sought after prizes, which this week would have included a handsome coffe ... More >>

Short Orders: Who's Who Burgers

Who's Who Burgers69 Highland Park Village214-522-1980I'm almost certain Laura Bush walked by as I readied to try my first Who's Who burger in about five years. I say "almost," because if it really were the former first lady and only cognizant person in the White House, federal agents would have torn ... More >>

Nick & Sam's Grill: Where Everybody Knows Your Name, or at Least Acts Like They Do

Tom Dunning Goes Both Ways

There's That Eatzi's Lawsuit We Were Looking For

Romano Back in Business...at Eatzi's

Eatzi's Closing Everywhere (But Dallas?)

Avian Boo-Hoo

The Mayor of Boxville

Laura Miller to homeless: Get out of downtown. Homeless to Laura Miller: We've got our own mayor.

Pizza the Pie

New Romano/Palladino venture slated for November

Past Vs. Progress

We love the nightlife

Letters

Uptown Strikes Back

Medici and Il Mulino founders join forces

Flaunting Royals

"Sophisticated" Medici set to open in October

Kings of Clubs

The coke-drenched era of nightclubs is over, but now a new group of entrepreneurs is ready to reinvent the scene

Lobster Ruckus

When restaurateurs mix with lawyers, things get messy

Big Death

Fading flashiness marked the year in Dallas dining

Horton Heard What?

Find out Who's Who at Romano's latest venture

Fish Not Foul

Shannon Wynne scores with downscale seafood at Flying Fish

Lobster Crypt

Romano closes Lobster Ranch

Romano Flies Solo

Eatzi's founder breaks from Brinker International

Tropic of Groceries

Dallas' pent-up lust for exotic foods has finally been met with the opening of Central Market. Will shopping ever be the same? Will our appetites?

Frenchie Flash

Loosen up and enjoy the ride at Paris Vendôme

The Real "Goofball"

Plus: Circle of Pain, What a Guy, Tiger's Eye

The Romano Empire

The master showman knows how to turn theme-park dining into sensual drama

Everybody Loves Romano

How can Phil Romano, the "Steven Spielberg of the food business," become even more successful? By opening more restaurants, making more money--and feeding the homeless.

Party's Over

Dallas restaurateurs weather a year of many valleys, few peaks

Nick Gets Fired Up

Phil Romano stays cool when We Oui chef Nick Badovinus jumps ship

Colombo Pause

Reasons to drink

Poo Poo

We Oui is a no-no

Hash Over

Jeroboam flight; Panty wad; Hash mince

Hash Over

Rope twister; Mixed hash; List watch

Hash Over

PoPoLos reanimated; Nickety split?; Gorman goes

Close to perfect

Nick & Sam's is poised for greatness. Will it take the final step?

Hash Over

Hash Over

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At Cappellini's, more is not always the merrier