Styrofoam

Bise Breaks it Down

Mary's Cafe: A Guide to Getting Fat(ter) on Spring Break

Spring break season is here. Even if you're an adult with a real job and you say things like "demographic" and, "my HMO is such an asshole," you can still pretend like you're granted that magic week in March sans responsibility. Because I've decided to accumulate degrees instead of typing up TPS r ... More >>

Outpost in Oak Cliff is Great, But Not Great Enough to Draw Travelers

Reviewing the restaurant that replaced Campo.

Here Are Some Dallas Places Where the American Camp Association Can Feel at Home

Starting today, close to a thousand members of the American Camp Association will descend on Dallas in flanneled and Teva'd droves, for what is one of the largest gathering of camping professionals in the country. As participants prepare to debate the merits of double-stitched tent seams, quote grat ... More >>

The Problem With Dallas' Lobster Rolls

The lobster roll has been fetishized in Dallas. What started as an obscure menu option offered most notably at Sea Breeze, Rex's and Cafe Pacific is becoming a full blown trend in Dallas. See Also: Lobster Roll Smack Down: Rex's Versus Sea Breeze Rex's Friday Lobster Rolls: They're Good, and They'r ... More >>

Mughlai's Gem

A North Dallas Indian restaurant captures the spirit of home.

The Coppell Deli's Stubbs Breakfast Sandwich Might Kill You, But What a Way to Go

The Coppell Deli is a shack-like restaurant on a quiet street in a quiet neighborhood of its namesake town. I walked in and was happy to see only four people in the cafeteria-style dining room, two of whom were behind the counter. It's a really plain-looking space: surrounded by white brick walls, ... More >>

My Top 10 Food Memories of 2011

​The last weeks of December always serve as an inflection point: We spend 1/4 of our time reflecting on the past year and 1/4 of our time resolving to make the next year a little better. The other half we spend getting fat and drunk. (After all, it's easier to lose five pounds and sober up af ... More >>

Starting Next Month, SMU Will Offer a Master's Degree in Sustainability and Development

I-BEAM DESIGN​That structure you see at left is called a Pallet House, made out of ... aw, you cheated. Anyway: It was initially built in Prince Charles' Royal Gardens as part of a sustainability confab, and on Friday it'll find its way to the SMU campus, perhaps as future housing for head-coachin ... More >>

Rudolph's Meat Market: Old-School Butchery Since Before the Art Was Cool

​A story that ran in the New York Times this week detailed the resurgence of artisanal butchery in New York City. I couldn't read it and not think about Rudolph's Market in Deep Ellum. While the new young butchers are fancying up an old world craft, Rudolph's has been breaking down meat since ... More >>

Listomania: Top Ten Songs About Ingesting Cough Syrup for Leisure

​Ahh, codeine cough syrup. It started off innocently enough, as a remedy for a sore throat. However, if it can get you high, people will use it to get high. And, if it gets you high, someone will at some point write a song about it. Purple drank, sizzurp, lean -- whatever you choose to call ... More >>

This Earth Month, Dallas City Hall Is Gonna Recycle Like It's 1969. Or Something.

Patrick MichelsCity employees sing their earth-loving granola tune in the Lakewood Whole Foods parking lot, near the hybrids-only parking. With all the planet's dwindling forests, contaminated waters and changing climate, it might take a 2012-themed recycling rally to scare new people into recycling ... More >>

ZestFest: We Found Some Good Spicy Stuff That Won't Send You to the Hospital

​I tasted a fantastic array of bracing and exhilarating hot sauces last week at ZestFest, but since I did my sampling as a judge for the Fiery Food Challenge, I wasn't privy to the names or brands of any of the products I tried. So this weekend I returned to the Exhibition Hall to see if I cou ... More >>

Murder, they typed at the Margo Jones; The Dog Problem's got problems at Undermain; and how to succeed in preschool at Circle Theater

Toque to Toque: 99 Ranch Market vs. Super H Mart

99 Ranch Bao​Years ago, few of my Caucasian friends ventured the into local Asian food markets, where they would have found incredible produce, fish so fresh it was still swimming, and meat counters with products that could stare back at you. It seems like white folks have gotten wise. And w ... More >>

El Tizoncito: From D.F. to Big D and Back Again

Photos by Jose Ralat Maldanado​When I walk into a Latino-operated or staffed establishment, I am inevitably greeted in Spanish. It must be something about my skin color, my black hair and black Vandyke. They must be indicators of my ability to speak the language. My sisters can pass as white. ... More >>

La Paisanita: Gas-Station Art With Gusto

​At an independent fashion-and-crafts art show/flea market in the Essex Street Market in Lower Manhattan, my wife chastised me for taking photos of some of the finer products available for sale -- noveau velvet paintings of the latest Brooklyn It band, shirts with images of unicorns sectioned ... More >>

Lion City Is Spare on Frills, but has Oodles of Noodles

Here's you, serving yourself, at Lion City.​I blatantly stole the idea to visit Lion City Chinese Café in Plano from the online events calendar for the Dallas Ethnic Restaurants meet-up group, which sounds like a fairly brilliant eating club. According to the organizer's description, the restaur ... More >>

City of Ate's 100 Favorite Dishes: #93 Elotes at Fuel City

​ 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 th ... More >>

Roasted Gets Buzzed On Danny's Motor Oil

Photos By Daniel Rodrigue​When it comes to getting a major jolt from a single cup of straight, black coffee, there's really nothing in Dallas that gives you a bigger caffeine bang for a buck than a 12 oz Styrofoam cup full of what's known around the Lakewood/Lower Greenville area as "Danny's Moto ... More >>

Risking Smoke Saturation, Our Intrepid Reporter Ventures Into The Dangerous World of Barbecue Cook-offs

​Over 30 teams of smokers from around Texas competed on Saturday for the chance to win the Taste of Mesquite Barbecue Cookoff at the Real.Texas. Festival. hosted by the Lone Star Barbecue Society (the punctuation is theirs not ours).The winner, Tom Hoefer from Allen, received a $500 Grand Champion ... More >>

Victor Tango's vs. Mama's Chicken and Waffles: The Fried Chicken Fracas

Alex Flores​My research takes the famous Chicken and Waffle phenomenon back to 1930's Harlem to Wells Supper Club billed as "Home of Chicken and Waffles Since 1938." They claim to be the first to sell the dish during the Jazz Age, when late-night diners would order breakfast or dinner to soak up t ... More >>

Uptown Players' Revival of Equus a Rough Ride: Circle Theatre's Opus Goes Full Gallop

Pocket Sandwich Theatre's Fangs For The Memories Revives A Biting Comedy; Artisan's Swing! Falls Flat

No Idea Festival To Be Held At Phoenix Project Next Sunday

​Last year's performances at Lola's Sixth in Fort Worth marked the first time the improv/experimental music No Idea Festival came to the North Texas area. This year the event will be held in Dallas at a far grittier venue, the home base of the non-profit art- and music DIY collective known as Phoe ... More >>

How 'Bout Them Knockers: Pizza Xpress

​Each week in 'Knockers' we order from a different delivery restaurant, assessing their efficiency and keeping a running score.Pizza Xpress3355 Trinity Mills972-307-6600Promised delivery time: 35 minutesActual delivery time: 29 minutesScoring Summary:Handily beating promised time, though by not en ... More >>

Three Dallas Stages Find Dark, Smart Humor in Murder Mental Illness and Fatal Diseases

Texaco: Fill Up With Gas--From the Tacos, Not Petrol

Trinity River Corridor Project Creeps On, 10 Years and Millions of Dollars Later

Bolt

Disney's latest toon is a starry dog story

Waste Management Issues at a Texas Stadium Demon-Burning Festival? Seriously, Who Saw That Coming?

Big-Screen Sex and the City Is A Poor-Man's Knockoff

The Best Little Icehouse in Texas

Tacos! Beer! Bikini babes! Life at Fuel City is a gas, gas, gas.

Politics as Usual

Make martinis (and music), not war

Theater Critics Camp Diary, Day 1

The Love Belo

Steve Austin, Headkrack, Sir James & Vitamin D, King

Sunday, November 22, at Liquid Lounge

Let's Make a Deal

Crescent Court in negotiations for new restaurant

Sure Feels Like 80 Days

Jackie Chan takes a long trip, and it feels like déjá vu

Capsule Reviews

Our critics survey the local art scene

E-I-E-I-whoa

Betsy Odom's Barnyard is a surreal romp on the old farm

Kiss and Makeup

Lone Star politicians work together

Hang Around

This circus is dreamy

Big Tent History

Leftovers from The Greatest Show on Earth

French Kiss

Paris in Plano

Her Whey

Paula Lambert parlays a love of cheese into fame and life among the jet set

Grub trees

Carrabba's Italian Grill sheds the chain stigma

The shape of things

Form, function, and abstraction blend in sculptor Anthony Wright's new show

Art, Nouveau

A sizeable serving of New Texas Talent

Frozen fantasies

The Angstrom Gallery's chilling display of Erick Swenson's snow creatures is making the cityscape a lot cooler