Restaurant press kits can sometimes make for raucously good reading. Writing is crisp. Cliches are punchy. Quotes are pithy and ripe with unaffected wisdom. Skimming through press releases often reveals precious little nuggets from chefs. Phil Butler, former executive chef of Chicago’s acclaimed Havana Cafe Cubano and current chief chef…
Midnight snack “Mico” Rodriguez of the M Crowd Restaurant Group, operators of Mi Cocina, Taco Diner, The Mercury, and Mainstream Fish House, says the defunct Mainstream Fish House outlet on Oak Lawn Avenue will open as Citizen in June. Citizen will feature a lounge aura with diffused lighting filled with…
“I say it looks like Sputnik,” says one of my dining companions, sloshing a Modelo Especial in one of Taco Diner’s stubby square tumblers. “No, no,” says someone else. “A moored sea mine.” I thought it looked like the head of a mace, the spiked battle club used in medieval…
La Mirabelle woos suitors Chef-owner Francois Fotre is trolling for bidders on his upscale North Dallas French bistro La Mirabelle. No, business isn’t sluggish. Fotre insists he has built a devoted following. “My February is going to beat the pants off last year’s February,” he brags. Rather, Fotre wants to…
Rodizio means “rotation” in Portuguese. This definition, stated in a press release headlined “Totally Unique Grill to locate in the heart of Arlington,” proved significant after two visits to Rodizio Grill, a continuous-service Brazilian churrascarias, or grill house, because the quality seemed to spiral downward from markedly flawed to barely…
Simon does Brash 25-year-old deal wizard Tristan Simon has been busy since he cashed out his managing partner position in Cool River Cafe, the successful Los Colinas hot spot created by Stephen Hartnett (Fox & Hound English Pub) and Gene Street. Still a limited partner in Cool River, Simon is…
Years back, I was in a country western/rock band that toured the nation’s mid-section. This momentous opportunity came after long months in a dark, leaky basement attempting to replicate the lush orchestrations of Frank Zappa’s “Easy Meat” with a power trio, filling any melodic, contrapuntal deficiencies with generous helpings of…
On my first visit to the Chaparral Club, I brought Peter, one of my wife’s business associates. During the trip up to the 38th floor of the skyscraping Adam’s Mark tower, I mentioned that the structure used to be the Southland building, and that the Adam’s Mark spent $150 million…
Deli swap Asher Deli, the “New York-style delicatessen” that opened in Snider Plaza last fall, has been sold to the owners of Marrakesh, the Moroccan restaurant on West Lovers Lane. Sources say sluggish business prompted the move. The delicatessen was launched by Asher Investments, the partnership behind Bistro A that…
Famed bad-boy chef Avner Samuel is back in signature form. That’s assuming, of course, there was ever a departure. Notorious for incessant kitchen-hopping, questionable business practices, and colorful people skills marked by demeaning, profanity-soaked outbursts fired at employees and patrons alike, Samuel was thought to have undergone a dramatic personal…
Pomodoro/Arcodoro move? Rumors swirl that the owners of Pomodoro/ Arcodoro on Cedar Springs Road are attempting to work a deal to purchase a defunct Cedar Street bar location (at Stephan Pyles’ former Baby Routh) to house the pair of restaurants, which would move upscale after the location change. But Francesco…
I read a blurb recently in a Windy City magazine about actor Scott Jaeck. He was lovingly described as “movie star handsome” and “as wonderful [kind, sensitive, intelligent] as he looks.” Jaeck is poised to assume the role of Peck, the male lead in Paula Vogel’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play How…
Perusing all the splashy newspaper pix and verbiage gushing over the lineup at the 1999 Detroit Auto Show has been weird. It is, of course, an insufferable cliche to say “everything old is new again.” And “retro” is a term horribly worn and carelessly used. But there they were, all…
Jensen goes barley Mark Jensen–onetime chef of the Thomas Avenue Beverage Company and the Green Elephant, and chef-owner of the now defunct Mark’s on Henderson–has a new Dallas gig. He’s the new chef of The Barley House on Henderson, and he’s methodically tweaking its pubby fodder. “I don’t come in…
Living in Dallas, among shiny mirrored buildings, burgeoning mutual funds, and low unemployment, it’s easy to lose global perspective. The economy is acutely robust. There’s a Nordstrom going into NorthPark. The Cowboys didn’t do so hot, but there’s a new arena being built on the Dallas urban plain. Yet in…
Okianos goes SoHo Opening this past weekend, Okianos, the Mediterranean seafood restaurant on Belt Line Road in Addison, emerged as SoHo Food, Drink & Jazz following extensive remodeling begun in early October. Chris Finch, former sous chef of Chamberlain’s Prime Chop House, has gripped SoHo’s kitchen helm, creating a mid-…
In the fall 1998 issue of The Lone Wolf Letter, a promotional newsletter for tobacco retailers, television and film star Chuck Norris and comic actor James Belushi gush over the success of their 2-year-old cigar company. The actors call Lone Wolf one of the most exciting new premium cigar brands…
Just by their numbers and consistent rosters, steakhouses have inevitably become orgies of predictability. Everything is so much the same. No surprises. No skyscraper food threatening to puncture your chin. No bizarre sea creatures dressed in mango caviar hiding in the watercress. Wine lists are hefty enough to crush a…
Stinky stogie? There’s something funny going on at Lone Wolf, Chuck Norris’ and Dennis Overstreet’s restaurant and cigar and wine bar that appears to have been shuttered permanently. A rumor was circulating in late November that Lone Wolf was set to shut down by the first of the year. Then…
Don’t let your meat loaf Eating healthy is hazardous to your well-being. I can prove it. In the fall issue of American Outlook, writer Dennis Avery explains the inherent risks of poisoning your body with too much health consciousness. According to data compiled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control…
Bull rider Lisa Balliet, opening executive chef of Stephan Pyles’ AquaKnox before her sudden departure early last year, has turned up in Lakewood to undertake a new project: the transformation of The Cock & Bull. She’ll partner with Cock & Bull owner Noel Graham and sublease the kitchen to create…
On my first visit to Moonshine Cafe, the fine-dining divot below The Palace nightclub off Lower Greenville, my thoughts didn’t coagulate around the “New Creole” menu. Or the New Orleans street-scene mural smeared on the rear wall with real windows sculpted into the artwork offering a view of the kitchen…
