It’s not all vodka out there. As mixologists keep reminding their customers, there are all sorts of interesting spirits to fuel happy hours. Here, City of Ate presents five still-underrated alcoholic drinks: Canadian whiskey Whiskey connoisseurs have a bad habit of scoffing at Canadian whiskey, Americans’ drink of choice during…
Argentinian wines make good sense in Texas. Like Texas, Argentina is big and dry and hot. Most important, it’s a beef-eating country — the average Argentinian annually eats more than 150 pounds of beef — and the wines are made to pair with steak. But the leaders of a session…
Ryan Fletcher will serve as executive chef for Texas’ first Seasons 52, the upscale grill from Darden Restaurants that promotes itself as a “change” rather than chain restaurant. Fletcher, who spent three years managing kitchens for the Grand Lux Café, previously cheffed for The Cheesecake Factory. “His expertise will prove…
Meddlesome Moth, which has already acquired a reputation for bringing interesting beers to Dallas, is now bringing to town a very interesting beer maker. Garrett Oliver, the Brooklyn Brewery’s brewmaster, is leading a late-afternoon beer dinner at the Design District restaurant on September 26. According to a press release, the…
Popeyes’ newest sandwich may be simple, but the rules governing an upcoming giveaway are fairly elaborate. The sandwich, described as “lightly breaded chicken breast marinated in a unique Popeyes blend of seasonings served on a freshly toasted and buttered bun with crispy pickles and mayo on the side,” is free…
More than 5,000 people gathered yesterday in Praha, a ghost town near Flatonia, for the 155th edition of an annual celebration that marks the traditional start of picnic stew season. Like polka bands and cake walks, beef-heavy picnic stew is a fixture of the Czech festivals that unfold across Central…
Food isn’t much fun when it’s unaffordable. Today, cash-strapped Americans tell survey takers they’re planning to eat out less and use more coupons. But eaters haven’t always taken such a passive approach: There’s a centuries-old tradition of demanding lower prices. Here, City of Ate presents five memorable food-related boycotts and…
North Texas has “poor clay soil, high humidity and really warm nights,” in the words of a tour guide at Delaney Vineyards, but that hasn’t stopped a few entrepreneurs from trying to jump start a wine tourism boom in Grapevine. Grapevine, home to seven wineries, has hosted an annual wine…
When Joe Campisi taught Gary Farina’s father to make pizza, he didn’t mention that some toppings were considered off-limits. So Farina didn’t hesitate to put spaghetti on the first pies he tossed at his Irving restaurant, which opened in 1951. The Irving restaurant and a Dallas spin-off closed years ago,…
(Editors’ note: Technically speaking, Hanna is NOT a dude, but since she’s capable of riding a bike from downtown Dallas to downtown Grapevine to eat a bowl of chili, we’re not going to be the one to tell her. She might kick our asses.) Peace Burger 1228 William D. Tate…
Industry analysts say Chili’s should shift its focus from burgers to burritos if the chain wants to recapture customers. Brinker International , which released its fourth quarter results today, has positioned Chili’s as a family-friendly watering hole. The Associated Press reported,”Excluding discontinued operations and one-time items, Brinker’s profit amounted to…
With so many restaurants now doing their own pickling, there’s a great opportunity for fruits and vegetables besides cucumbers, onions and carrots to enter the favorite pickle pantheon. We present here five terrific pickles that surely deserve a spot in the nation’s culinary mainstream:…
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…
Back when dinner meant a tough cut of meat and a plain starchy vegetable, nobody expected their entrées to entertain them. For amusement, centuries of high-style eaters looked to jugglers, jousters, fiddling minstrels, brassy big bands and swanky torch singers—not their plates. But in this age of farmstead chevre, it’s…
Business etiquette books typically advise job seekers to take their cues from their interviewers, but a new study suggests that dictum doesn’t apply when alcohol’s involved. According to a study released today by the University of Michigan, job candidates seen holding a frosty beer mug or glass of wine during…
It’s not just students who feel rushed to finish their summer reading lists in the last few weeks of August: Adult readers who’ve lugged the same books back and forth from the pool are hurrying their way through the novels and memoirs they had every intention of reading this season…
As a restaurant critic who works to remain anonymous, I generally don’t care what restaurant servers call me, so long as they don’t call me Hanna. But the range of pet names I’ve heard over the last few weeks in some very fancy restaurants got me thinking about how servers…
Chefs are notorious for yapping on about the pleasures of farm-fresh vegetables – and then opening a bag of something for dinner. The rigors of restaurant work and human nature lead even the most fearsome food snobs to occasionally indulge in mass-produced, highly-artificial, uber-preserved snacks. Here, a list of five…
The principles guiding classical yoga practice are pretty clear on the topic of recreational alcohol use: Basically, the Sanskrit texts say “don’t go there.” But yoga studios are increasingly incorporating food and drink into their programming, and this weekend provides an opportunity for them to do so with gusto. The…
An upcoming barbecue contest in Oak Cliff may be among the first nationwide to demand its entrants use sustainable, grass-fed meat. Teams participating in the September 11-12 competition will receive beef brisket, pork ribs, whole chicken or homemade sausage suitable for smoking from Urban Acres, a co-op that partners with…
The sign’s up for Kenny’s Italian Kitchen, the newest entry in chef Kenny Bowers’ collection of casual eateries. According to Brian Williamson, manager of Kenny’s Wood Fired Grill, the Addison restaurant should be open by November. “It’s still a work in progress,” he says. “We’re just happy we got the…
Dallas could have been a fried pie town. Simon Hubig, who put his name on the pies that define grab-and-go sweetness in New Orleans, opened his first bakery in Fort Worth during the First World War. But Hubig’s bakery failed, becoming one of the first great DFW fried pie ventures…
