Subject: Soft Drinks

• Is The Simpsons Even Still On?

  July 2, 2007

• Halo 3: Dallas Finishes the Fight

  September 25, 2007

• Holy Trinity

  November 6, 2007

• See, It Does Pay to Visit Arkansas

  July 18, 2008

• (Un)sound Bites: Vitto Italian, An Offer You Can Refuse

  November 3, 2008

• Hot Dish

  July 6, 1995

• White-trash chic

  August 15, 1996

• Food For Thought...

  "A lot of people have left the category. Also a lot of young people have not entered the category, so these ads may help Coke both recruit new, young consumers and recruit some lapsed consumers." (Beverage Digest editor John Sicher, clearly excited over the soft drink company's new marketing campaign) An upcoming advertising effort hopes to boost soft drink sales, which had slumped with the emphasis on more expensive water brands. There's something wrong with this line of thinking...

  January 22, 2009

• Hot Dish

  October 24, 1996

• Rawhide Italian

  December 3, 1998

• Cola kids

  April 22, 1999

• Best place to buy juice

  September 21, 2000

• Scene, Heard

  June 7, 2001

• Best Soda

  September 20, 2001

• Best Root Beer Float

  September 26, 2002

• Best Non-alcoholic Watering Hole

  September 26, 2002

• Chewing the Fat: Carbonated Beverage Sales Going Flat

  Carbonated beverages sales are fizzing out, with reports showing 2008 as the fourth consecutive year of decline. Amidst a recession, fears of childhood obesity and the recent findings of BPA in soda cans, a 2009 comeback doesn't look like a very safe bet, either. With sodas long thought to be recession proof, this begs the question: What are people turning to for comfort? Conventional wisdom--and a poll of Observer staff--says booze, but FiveThirtyEight posts a downward trend in "take-out"

  April 2, 2009

• Best Meal in Less Than an Hour

  September 25, 2003

• Jimmy's Food Store

  July 3, 2008

• Duh-Nuh, Duh-Nuh, Duh-Nuh

  June 26, 2008

• It's Dr Pepper Time!

  June 5, 2008

• I'm on the All-Carb Diet

  Record Grill doesn't give a crap about fat grams

  September 6, 2007

• Laughs x 5

  May 4, 2006

• Park Life

  June 21, 2007

• The White Stripes

  Icky Thump (Warner Bros. /WEA)

  June 28, 2007

• Snow Bored

  Extreme sports may be fun, but First Descent is not

  December 1, 2005

• Love in Gloom

  Russia's stab at romantic comedy lands a tad on the dreary side

  March 24, 2005

• Best Mexican Soda

  Jarritos Tamarinda

  October 14, 2004

• Best Retro Candy

  Metro Retro

  October 14, 2004

• Best Convenience-Store Decor

  Flash Mart

  October 14, 2004

• Best Cold-Drink Store

  Ifs Ands & Butts

  September 26, 2002

• Dry Spell

  At Piccola Italia, the only hooch is in the rigatoni.

  February 8, 2001

• Food For Thought 4.8.09

  "Coke's messages were totally unacceptable, creating an impression which is likely to mislead that Coca-Cola cannot contribute to weight gain, obesity and tooth decay." (From a statement released by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission regarding an advertising campaign run by the Atlanta-based soft drink company. Coca-Cola's ads labeled as myths the belief that the product causes your teeth to rot, contributes to weight gain and so on. Coke admits the ads could have bee

  April 8, 2009

• Hophead: Uncannily Good Beer From Oskar Blues

  Jesse HugheyLast year, Oskar Blues added five 100-gallon tanks and increased its brewing by more 64 percent over 2007 in order to keep up with increased demand. That the Lyons, Colorado, brewery experienced such a rapid growth probably wouldn't surprise anyone who has tasted its excellent flagship beer, Dale's Pale Ale, or other offerings like Gordon's Ale (a Hophead favorite). What is surprising is that the Oskar Blues beers are primarily available in cans. Cans carry a stigma among the beer-sn

  July 16, 2009

• Kids Eat The Darnedest Things: SodaStream Homemade Soda

  Mikal Beth HugheyCarbonating water with the SodaStream machine.  We hear lots of things in this office, such as last week's notice of a "New and Fun Drink Idea:" the SodaStream home soda maker. Well, while the idea of making soda at home was new to me, it's not exactly a new idea to the world, sez Wikipedia (sorry--breaking our rules for the sake of a quote): the forerunner of the modern SodaStream, the "Apparatus for aerating liquids" (doesn't quite roll off the tongue like "SodaStream," d

  July 24, 2009

• Short Orders: Pizza By Marco, Addison

  This isn't the Addison sign, but I don't carry a camera.​I'll just say, straight off, that what I like about Pizza by Marco is their beverage price list. The new suburban branch of Dallas' most storied pizza joint opened not long ago along Belt Line in Addison. Here you can purchase wine by the glass or bottle, and the two price columns carry down through the beer options, as well. You find Brooklyn Lager at $2.50 per glass, $12.50 for a bottle. Same thing for Shiner and other labels.That's on

  July 30, 2009

• Dude Food: Burguesa Burger

  ​Burguesa Burger2222 Inwood Road214-350-7772Dude Factor: 6, or Dean Hodes, on a scale of 1 (Peter Scottson) to 10 (Andy Botwin).Back when it first opened in May, everyone around the Observer offices was buzzing about Burguesa Burger, the new Latin-targeted burger stand from Which Wich and Genghis Grill founder Jeff Sinelli. After all, it's just down the street from DO headquarters. We didn't make it over there at the time, however, mostly because we'd always forget about it at lunch and we

  August 11, 2009

• New Product Launches Have Us Wondering...Um...Why?

  ​The more things change, the more we find ourselves scratching our heads at the stuff the powers-that-be in the corporate food world come up with. Pop Culture Vita Food Products, Inc. is the number one brand of refrigerated seafood products, sales-wise, as well as an industry leader in the smoked fish category. Don't ask us how this translates into their new soda-pop flavored dessert toppings and barbecue sauces, though. We just report this stuff. The company's Vita Specialty Foods arm has

  August 14, 2009

• How 'Bout Them Knockers: Mango Thai

  ​Each week in 'Knockers' we order from a different delivery restaurant, assessing their efficiency and keeping a running score.Mango Thai Cuisine4448 Lovers Lane214-265-9996Promised delivery time: about 45 minutesActual delivery time: 48 minutesFriendliness of the guy on the phone: 11Ease of personalizing an entree: 25Reading back my order to ensure accuracy: 9Delivery dude's BMW: -5Fact that the BMW unleashed heavenly aroma of Thai food I could smell at my door as soon as he opened his: 15Cri

  August 31, 2009

• Numero Eno’s

  September 17, 2009

• Jen's Place Bakery & Cafe

  September 24, 2009

• Handle The Proof: Things I Just Won't Drink

  ​We can all come up with a list of drinks we deeply regret trying. Some of them were probably part of our repertoire at one point in time. For example, back when I was a high school n'er-do-well, groups of us sneak bottles of Cold Duck or, worse, Malt Duck for weekend bashes. If you're not familiar with either, be thankful.There are also plenty of flaming things and silly dare shots. A bartender friend of mine experimented for quite some time until he perfected something that both looked and t

  October 2, 2009

• John’s Seafood & Chicken: Don’t Drive Through. Just Keep Driving.

  October 15, 2009