Welcome to Dallas, Texas. We're glad to have you. We have explosive live music, exciting local beer, a Calatrava bridge, a crisp downtown park and cheese cheddar fries so good you'll go ahead and valet park.
Holy cheese dome, the Snuffer's on Greenville has reopened. In case you missed 2013 because you ate a large order of Cheddar Fries in late 2012, the timeline went something like this:
- Snuffer's announced they were rebuilding Snuffer's from scratch
- Snuffer's got eaten by a demolition crane
- Snuffer's sort of sued itself after Pat Snuffer announced the launch of the totally not connected at all Pat's Burger & Cheddar Fries
- Snuffer's settled and it was announced that Snuffer's would take Snuffer's place after Snuffer's was torn down
So, Snuffer's is back. And what a polished return: On a dreary Sunday at 12:30 p.m.--when there was a 45-minute wait for a table -- dedicated Snuffererers were brunching amongst clean wood and fresh forest green slats, and in the indoor-meets-outdoor bar was dotted with tap beers. The renovation sure tidied up the joint: The wood's splinterless, the new patio's got chrome heaters and the outdoor portion of the bar was quarantined with a clean, vinyl flap. Even the Lone Star Beer logos were polished on the patio tables.
On the iconic food:
I got the cheddar fries because this is where you get cheddar fries. Also, a burger. A man across from me at the bar was wearing a shirt that read "I Just Want To Love --" Couldn't read the rest. I assume it finished with "cheddar fries." Clay Aiken's "Isn't She Lovely" was playing, which was vaguely disturbing to hear as you're unattractively devouring hot, salty french fries.
Breaking news: The fries remain stupidly perfect. They still come with a fork, plate and three napkins because on the Titanic scale of cheese fries, these cheddar fries are way above steerage. They are at Unsinkable Molly Brown-level. They still come with a crisp dome of hot cheddar, and pickled jalapeños, and that -- help me, o food gods! -- too-tiny cup of ranch. At this point, the aura around the cheddar fries felt so iconic that I thought the Titanic orchestra would play me down as I crashed a fork into the crust.
I also had a burger. It was big and juicy (a medium rare came with a heavy red center), but lacked seasoning. But at Snuffer's II: Snuffer's Revenge, the crowd seemed to be there for the fries. Walking through the dining room, most of the tables had an order of fries in different stages of devour.
So, Snuffer's is back and is still 100 percent Snuffersy. It's much more polished, though, as pubs tend to be these days. I used to go when I was an undergrad at SMU, and I loved sitting at those splintering-away wooden tables. It was a little more raw. But what does it matter? Those cheddar fries, even after disappearing for a while, are still some of the best in Dallas.
