The organizers of Dallas’ first-ever Beer Week say the city’s lack of microbreweries has proven to be a selling point in luring leading craft brewers here for the November event. “Because there aren’t a lot of local breweries here, other breweries stand a chance,” Cathy Clark explains. “Breweries are realizing…

As the Academy has expanded its list of Oscar nominees to a whopping 10 films, it’s become harder for even interested movie fans to see every movie on the Best Picture roster. So City of Ate today presents an edible shortcut: The 83rd Annual Academy Award nominees in dinner party…

Veal producers who worried their meat was bound to go the way of once-fashionable dishes like turtle soup say the future’s suddenly looking brighter for the embattled protein. The veal industry, which made a point of being omnipresent at the 2011 Meat Conference held in Dallas this week, is in…

American shoppers aren’t swearing off meat — 80 percent of home-cooked meals still include a piece of animal flesh — but they’d prefer not to buy their meat in packages sized to feed a baseball team. Reviewing a newly released study of consumers’ meat buying for a national meat industry…

The breastaurant scene in Dallas is about to get bigger. Bikini’s Sports Bar & Grill, which got its start in Austin, is opening its first Dallas area location in April. According to founder Doug Guller, the Arlington location is one of three DFW grills scheduled to open this year. “We’ve…

Trounced in his first two campaigns for a seat in the Virginia House of Burgesses, George Washington adopted a winning strategy in 1758: He bought booze for voters. Treating is no longer tolerated in political elections, but there’s nothing stopping contenders for Food & Wine’s People’s Best New Chef crown…

Sigel’s is giving customers 68 opportunities to challenge their assumptions that they don’t like scotch. There’s almost always a tasting happening at Sigel’s, but a release touting next Wednesday evening’s event at the 5757 Greenville Ave. store caught my attention because of the sheer number of whiskeys on offer. Distillery…

Abraham Lincoln had plenty of notable characteristics, but a healthy appetite wasn’t among them. Even his stepmother wasn’t impressed by his eating habits: “Abe was a moderate eater,” she recalled. Lincoln typically ate an egg for breakfast and an apple for lunch — if he remembered to eat at all…

For this week’s Dish column, rather than eat at another restaurant, I spent time in the company of people who will ultimately choose the meats served there. Many meat industry professionals — the experts who work at ranches, slaughterhouses, distributorships, groceries and chain restaurants — get their start as collegiate…

The James Beard Foundation this morning released its list of semifinalists for its prestigious restaurant and chef awards, honoring hundreds of culinary visionaries and their home eateries — including five in the Dallas area. Four entries on the list — Stephan Pyles, The Mansion on Turtle Creek, The French Room…

Smoke-Free Texas, a coalition agitating for a state law prohibiting smoking in restaurants and bars, this month released a study showing people would eat out more often if they didn’t have to contend with secondhand smoke. No offense to Smoke-Free Texas, but that’s hardly a surprising finding. Even most smokers…

A panel of judges at the National Meat Association’s second-ever University Cook-off this week was partial to the University of Idaho’s bacon sausage, but a stuffed pork loin created by Texas A&M took the people’s choice prize. “I ate it, and I liked it,” says operations manager Jen Kempis-Persons. Apologizing…

The federal holiday Americans observe next Monday was originally designed to honor George Washington. But when the government standardized its celebrations in 1968, they stuck the annual commemoration between Washington and Lincoln’s birthdays, figuring they might as well lump in Honest Abe. By the 1970s, a dozen states — including…

“Cupcakes will be out and muffins will be in,” a Central Market spokeswoman promised me in a recent e-mail heralding the grocery store’s newest line of baked goods. “You heard it here first!” I’m all for dethroning cupcakes, but haven’t muffins already had their moment? Even if Central Market’s muffins…

Proving once again that Austin has a Justin Bieber-like hold on culinary chroniclers’ heartstrings, chefs from the capital city scored four of the ten slots in Food & Wine’s online “The People’s Best New Chef” competition. For the first time ever, Food & Wine’s adding a democratic element to its…

Chef Dan Landsberg, who spent four years helming the kitchen at Tillman’s Roadhouse, has moved on — but his former employer’s been slow to make the changes promised in the wake of his departure. Landsberg left Tillman’s late last year, telling Pegasus News’ Teresa Gubbins he’d reached a philosophical impasse…

While riding a northbound train last week, I was struck by the conductor’s judicious use of his P.A. privileges. He pointed out the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo. He piped up again when we rolled past Lyndon B. Johnson’s alma mater. And he made sure everybody knew the train…

Valentine’s Day calls for chocolates and Champagne, but what’s the proper meal for marking a peaceful democratic revolution? Dallasites looking to express solidarity with protesters in Cairo have discovered traditional Egyptian food isn’t readily available in North Texas. There’s plenty of schawarma and tahini to be had, but meticulous celebrants…

There’s a new and affordable way for interested eaters to experience the Culinary Institute of America’s San Antonio campus. The school’s bakery, its first retail operation, was tentatively scheduled to open this week – although staffers were still experimenting with how to best position pastries in the display case when…

Before you click the comment box, I know, I know: I missed some phenomenal eating opportunities this week. I was on the road reporting a feature story, which meant interviews and transcription sessions took precedence over meals. Had I structured my itinerary around restaurant visits, I surely wouldn’t have showed…