Nothin’ says summer like a hot dog. Okay, burgers and ice cream do a pretty good job of getting the point across. Cold beer, too. But you gotta admit, hot dogs hold a special place in our hearts. Why? Because no matter how you dress ’em up, they’re always more…

2533 McKinney Avenue is one of those locations. Vaguely familiar yet often overlooked, the unusual Mediterranean-style building with the wrap-around patio has always suffered from something of an identity crisis. Expect a few rounds of “It was that French place, remember? Then the Italian place…didn’t they move?” when arranging a…

Ah, bragging rights. Everyone wants to claim them, over your brother, a co-worker, the guy you battle for a parking space every morning. Now two Dallas restaurants hold them over the entire city.Nana was just inducted into the Nation’s Restaurant News 2009 Fine Dining Hall of Fame. Established in 1980,…

Recipe Demonstrated by Chef Peter Gray of Cretia’s on McKinney Cretia’s on McKinney, the bistro-slash-bakery-slash-live music venue, reopened in March after a nine-month hiatus to, um, refresh and regroup. In addition to moving just up the road to the former Tijuana Bar and Grill location, a brand new Executive Chef…

Gabriela Pataro was just trying to follow the rules. In return she got dirty looks and arguments from a bunch of angry dog-lovers. “It wasn’t a very positive thing for us,” says the owner of Café Lago of her struggle to keep dogs off the property. Open since 2000 just…

The Paulas and the Bobbys and the (ugh) Rachaels better watch their beaters. A new crop of food stars are shaking up the old “if you cook it, they will watch” formula with new concepts, insider tips and sheer, unadulterated gluttony. Oh, and one of these up-and-comers is even giving…

Of all the perceived gaps in Dallas’ huge, yet largely homogenous selection of restaurants, none has received such passionate attention as the absence of a true New York-style deli. Acceptable and even exceptional versions have come and gone, and one passable local deli-style restaurant is packed all weekend long. Yet…

David Pedack is a live wire. Handsome, boyish and unpredictable, he’s the guy who knows everyone, the guy who can really work a room. We’d expect nothing less, given his many years behind-the-scenes (or behind the bar) on the Dallas nightlife circuit. But everyone’s gotta grow up sometime. In 2008,…

Recipe Demonstrated by Executive Chef James Johnson of Pappas Bros. Steakhouse Pappas Bros. Steakhouse is known for meat. Dry aged in house for 40 days and seared to sizzling perfection, you’ll find their Rib Eyes, New York Strips and Filets Mignon on just about any Dallas-area carnivore’s Top 10 list…

We always were a sucker for the ones who play hard to get. By most indications, La Michoacana Meat Market doesn’t really care if you want to shop there. Its low-key Greenville Avenue storefront (one of numerous area locations) sports an ancient-looking sign and the front door, covered in metal…

Top Cellars Connie Lewis has the job you didn’t know you wanted. The pretty 30-year-old blonde spends her days in fine restaurants, hotels and custom homes, helping wine lovers and experts design tony treasure chests for their precious bottles. And despite what you might think, her upscale niche profession has…

Let’s get this out of the way right up front: the cupcake wasn’t good. Billed as “magnificent vanilla cake…topped with vanilla and chocolate buttercreams,” The Cupcakery’s ‘Oh, My Gosh – Ganache!™’ cupcake was instead a bland, boring base topped with icing that tasted a whole lot like the inside of…

“I’m inexperienced. But my eagerness, I think, makes up for that.” It’s been almost two weeks since star Southwestern chef Stephan Pyles turned heads in the Dallas dining world by appointing Matt McCallister Executive Chef of his self-named restaurant downtown. The rumor mill’s been working overtime ever since, with whispers…

Recipe Demonstrated by Miranda Martinez On Monday we introduced you to Miranda Martinez, self-proclaimed “regular person raw foodist”. The Dallas-based actress went all raw back in 2007, after running through just about every diet known to humankind. She dropped 60-plus pounds and now she’s busy spreading the word about her…

Long before these dismal days of gut-busting King Size Snickers and 3 Musketeers Dark Chocolate Mint (an unholy creation, for sure), there were Goo Goo Clusters and Zagnuts and Squirrel Nut Zippers…uh…must…resist…Beavis and Butthead…laugh… Candy used to be cheery and novel, didn’t it?–a few bites of fun. Where did our…

A couple of new food-related sites caught our eye last week…while we maybe should have been working. Aren’t you glad we’re willing to procrastinate? [Editor’s note: you should have been working–and stealing stuff from the Internet to cover your tracks doesn’t count].SympathyFood.com: Why say it with flowers when you can…

“I’m a regular-person raw foodist,” says Miranda Martinez with a gleam in her eye. “I still live in the real world.” Coming from her, we actually believe it. Two years ago, the Dallas-based actress and producer turned off her oven and didn’t look back. Sixty-plus pounds later, she claims she’s…

Ben Verdooren might have been down, but he was far from out. Just weeks after the abrupt closure of his restaurant Zymology, this popular young entrepreneur is staging a comeback. And you might be surprised to learn just how far he didn’t travel to find a new gig. Bandera sits…

 Recipe Demonstrated by Scott Whittall of Buli The half-mile stretch of Cedar Springs from Oak Lawn to Wycliff has remained staunchly Starbucks-less in a world where corporate coffee shops are as common a sight as burger drive-thrus and SUV’s. But nobody on the block seems to care. Who needs one…

Summertime wine buying often leads to an irksome game tug-of-war between your mind and your wallet. You love your friends (well, most of them anyway; at least you want to be nice in hopes you’ll get something out of them someday), and you don’t want to serve them swill until…

Somewhere in the back of a darkened warehouse, surrounded by half-eaten buckets of chicken, a cartoon sailor and a country colonel are quaking in their boots…and no, that’s not one of those “don’t ask, don’t tell” scenarios. “Damn that Zaxby’s,” they’re hissing between bites. “Damn them and their plump, juicy…

The deserted parking lot should have been a red flag. Our trip to Mari’s Taqueria started out with a promising tip, and somewhere between taking the flyer from the taco-loving lady at the gas station and walking into the restaurant that day, we’d worked ourselves up into a lather, wondering…