Pumpkin isn’t a food, and you all need to deal with that. Whatever it is, though (decoration? eyesore?), it is really quite delicious. I used to go to a Thanksgiving dinner thrown every year by an American friend back in Cardiff, and always refused the pumpkin pie on the basis…
Gavin Cleaver, resident English guy, weekly eats his weight in smoked meat for City of Ate. After my meal at Dickey’s, my experience of BBQ chains has been bad, and thus I set out to slaughter the Spring Creek Barbeque in Lewisville. I realize that makes me a bad reviewer,…
I am taking burger week seriously, everybody. Very seriously. Do you know how seriously? Normally, I do no research, display a startling lack of expertise, write a couple of swears, tell a crass joke and then insult everyone in the comments. That won’t fly during this crucial period. I’ve got…
Turns out or resident English guy, Gavin Cleaver, who drenches himself in barbecue sauce and smoke for us over on City of Ate, is actually like a doctor. In politics. University trained and the author of a forthcoming book on political ethics. We did not know that … both that…
Let’s get a few things out the way up front. If you’re looking for a nice bar in Uptown, British Beverage Co. is perfectly good. The beer selection is gargantuan; it’s relatively well-priced, with Velvet Hammer for $5 or so; the bar is very attractively laid out and decorated; the…
Peggy Sue BBQ is the easiest barbecue restaurant to chant the name of. That is an undeniable fact. Go ahead and try it. I’ll wait here. Catchy, isn’t it? With an immediate marketing advantage like that, it’s a wonder this place is so deserted of a chilly Monday evening. I…
Editor’s note: Our foreign correspondent gives up the barbecue sauce trail this week to go where angels fear to tread, reviewing Alice Laussade’s stint in the kitchen at Il Cane Rosso. This meal cost more than $10, but it was for charity, the National MS Society Waiter with cool haircut…
My 12-year-old stepson, Lewis, whose favorite band is Green Day, had never heard Pink Floyd before. I’m not sure how he’s managed this — his grandfather plays in a Pink Floyd tribute band for goodness sake. So I thought we could sit down one rainy evening, have him listen hard…
I chose the saddest day of all to go the State Fair of Texas. The death of Big Tex (flame-grilled is the way he’d have wanted to go) cast a shadow over the whole event, which had Big Tex’s now non-existent face on every piece of merchandise, every map, every…
Spreading my barbecue wings (geddit!) this week, I ventured to the highly recommended Omi Korean BBQ in Carrollton for an all-you-can-eat spectacular feast. I was very excited, envisioning as I was a huge stack of barbecued meat that I could insert in my face without damaging the City of Ate…
My 12-year-old stepson Lewis, whose favorite band is Green Day, had never heard Pink Floyd before. I’m not sure how he’s managed this – his grandfather plays in a Pink Floyd tribute band for goodness sake. So I thought we could sit down one rainy evening, have him listen hard…
My expectations for this event were high. I was anticipating rivalry, clashes, fury, rib-flinging and to see at least one football. Instead I turned up to a semi-deserted park, with only one tent serving ribs, several big smokers along the sides, and a Rusty Taco doing better business than the…
This week, recently re-documented alien Gavin rolls with the chaps in Lewisville, where he recovers from his Dickey’s experience with some deliciousness at Dat’s Good BBQ. For those of you who haven’t ventured up into the frozen northern reaches of the metro area (it’s like how I imagine life is…
For every gourmet $20 cheeseburger, there must be a McDonalds. For every independent Mexican restaurant that cooks fresh to order, there must be a Taco Bell. For every $40 steak, there must be … a really cheap steak. You get the idea. So, barbecue food is popular round these parts…
Much of the time in this blog, I’ve been banging on about “authenticity” or “being legit” and trying to work out what that was in relation to the Texas BBQ experience. It seems that the less inviting a place is, the more authentic the experience. For example, Sonny Bryan’s (OG)…
Reggie Watts brings his bag of tricks, which includes beatboxing, loops and and songs about the interminable depths of a woman’s purse, to Denton on Saturday, as part of the Hot Wet Mess. It’s a rare chance to catch him in North Texas, and an even rarer chance to see…
See also: *An Englishman Reviews the Lunchtime BBQ of Sonny Bryan’s, Pecan Lodge and Soulman’s For the latest in my barbecue adventures, I hit up Deep Ellum. I really like Deep Ellum as an area. It reminds me of the grimier end of North London, all the places that are…
You see all those chain restaurants, Dallas? All those bright shiny lights, beckoning you in to eat products of a questionable providence at a price so reasonable there’s no need to go home and time-consumingly construct a meal for your baying, hungry, ungrateful family? You grew up around them (the…
The new English Premier League season kicks off this weekend, and what better excuse can there possibly be for getting down to a bar, drinking the cheapest beer you can find and joining in some incoherent chanting/possibly having a bar fight? The time difference might make for some early drinking…
I feel like I’m not the novice I used to be with these reviews. When I started out I didn’t know what brisket was, what heavenly planet barbecue sauce had descended from, why I could just suddenly order meat by the pound now (and why I’d never been able to…
Identity Festival Gexa Energy Pavilion Friday, August 10 See also: The fans of Identity Festival, parts one and two See also: Eric Prydz on Swedish techno, the future of dance music I think the Observer sent me to this in hopes I would feel as out of my element as…
Barbecue isn’t just a dinner food. Oh no. It’s a round the clock affair (although my mooted chain of restaurants Brisket for Breakfast is yet to take off). Many lunch-only barbecue venues exist around Dallas, and what nicer midpoint to the working day is there than an injection of hot…
