Perhaps you’ve noticed that Dallas is growing. When it comes to living, working and dining in DFW, we no longer feel confined inside the 635 loop. Sure, we still have our food and drink favorites in Dallas proper, but our suburban friends are no longer forced to drive into the city…

Spend any time in and around the downtown McKinney area and you might find it hard not to wonder if this may be the area’s secret foodie destination. The square oozes with authentic charm, and the restaurant choices are plentiful. We’ve sung the praises of spots like Sugarbacon and Butcher…

It’s a fact of life in our capitalist society that workers come and go from jobs all the time, and in the restaurant and service industry, employee turnover is a fact of life. Sure, there are some restaurants with staff that have been with the establishment since they opened, but…

We were bothered by the name of Dallas’ new barbecue restaurant, Louie King BBQ, even before the doors opened last week on their Greenville Avenue location. You might think of Louie’s, the iconic dive bar on Henderson, or Bar Louie, the chain of drinking establishments with seven locations in DFW. For…

This is Texas, which means we all have an image in our head of what a tray of great barbecue looks like. There’s definitely some brisket in our tray, pencil-width slices fanned perfectly with a peppery black bark and a deep pink smoke ring. We’ve got some sausage, too, and…

We’re driving on a hot June afternoon through a modest neighborhood in west Fort Worth that looks much like any other, except parking seems to be something of an issue. Almost every foot of curb within the span of a half dozen houses has a car or truck parked in…

There’s already a lot to like at Bet the House BBQ in Denton. Co-owners Shawn Eagle and Cody Smithers just celebrated the four-year anniversary of their barbecue restaurant, and in our humble eyes, it’s a staple of north DFW barbecue. While the standards continue to impress, the owners’ willingness to…

You’re only three steps out of the car when the smell of barbecue smoke hits your nose at Panther City BBQ — possibly fewer, depending on where you park. It’s the olfactory signal that lets you know you’re in the right place. Barbecue fans familiar with this side of DFW…

It’s been 18 months since it opened, and we’re still thrown for a loop when it comes to Smoky Rose, the chef-driven barbecue spot across from the Dallas Arboretum. If it’s the barbecue basics you crave, we found the ‘cue at Smoky Rose to be spot-on during our first visit…

If you were drafting a dream team of Texas barbecue pit masters in 2018, your first two picks arguably would be Todd David of Cattleack Barbecue in Dallas and Aaron Franklin of Franklin BBQ in Austin. If ESPN covered this barbecue draft like it does football, hours would be spent…

The Box Garden, the self-described patio on steroids that’s the newest addition to the burgeoning Legacy West development in Plano, opened for business the weekend of May 18, with singer-songwriter Sarah Jaffe headlining the festivities. In addition to being a live entertainment venue, the Box Garden sports several bars and, for…

A good brunch offers a hodgepodge of traditional breakfast and lunch options, a boon for the indecisive among us. A hearty brunch is the first step to curing last night’s hangover, and the fact that drinking is encouraged at brunch gives you a chance to take the edge off the…

Maybe we should have seen this coming. It’s been six months since Zoli’s Pizza resurrected in on Midway Road in Addison, and there has been plenty of creativity from owner Jay Jerrier, chef Lee Hunzinger and their team. The gang that once gave us a knock-off Pizza Hut hot dog…

As fans of bourbon and barbecue, we like the premise of Barrel & Bones, the new smokehouse and cocktail spot in The Colony. We first spied the restaurant last year when we were checking out The Shacks at Austin Ranch across the street. The food and drink photography on B&B’s…

It’s hard enough to go to Cattleack BBQ and not over-order. Part of this is a mental thing. “They’re only open two days a week,” your inner monologue says. “We should get a little of everything.” Once you’re in line, the aroma of smoked meats fills your nostrils while you’re…

Five years ago, we sent our Cockney-accented barbecue critic Gavin Cleaver to the northern enclave of Frisco to check out 3 Stacks Smokehouse. After astutely noting that being forced take a toll road to get to Frisco could serve as some kind of metaphor for the town as a whole, Cleaver…

It’s nearly 40 miles from the Dallas Observer offices to Tender Smokehouse in Celina, a fact that spurred some internal debate before our visit. We can almost write the Facebook comments ourselves from readers who will think we’ve ventured too far north to be relevant. But North Texas food is…

In September, Chili’s told us that it was headed back to its roots. The burger joint that got its start on Greenville Avenue found itself as a global chain with a menu some 125 items long. Chili’s set out to refocus on “what we’ve always done best: our burgers, ribs…

Once, any talk of Texas’ barbecue belt focused on Central Texas. That belt is now, well, Texas-sized. Good barbecue can be had anywhere between the Red River and the Rio Grande. While Austin and the small towns dotting the Hill Country certainly have the edge when it comes to barbecue…

It’s easy enough to miss Top 5 BBQ if you pass through DeSoto. What started as a backyard smoker serving  smoked meats to the neighborhood soon grew to a food truck and now occupies a modest storefront in a strip mall adjacent to DeSoto’s City Hall. But driving past Top…

Our hopes are high that the Toyota Music Factory comes together as a food and live entertainment destination. On the live music front, the venue has had something of a rocky start, with canceled shows and questionable plumbing, but the i-dotting and t-crossing appears to be wrapping up for upcoming events…