!Fabulosa!, the new restaurant in the festive Centrum spot that was once Jungle Red, seems little more than an attempt to rescue its predecessor’s decor from the scrap heap. As Jungle Red, this heavily windowed corner possessed a beached menu and bold, taste-be-damned decorative touches. Virtually every one of them…

Barking up the wrong stogie? Lone Wolf Lounge General Manager Bill Valentine, onetime general manager of 8.0 and Sambuca Restaurant in Deep Ellum, recently left the cigar bar and restaurant in disgust. He says that after several months of indecisiveness among the restaurant’s partners, who include actor Chuck Norris, the…

In one sense, Dragonfly Bar & Restaurant perfectly mimics its namesake. Like the insect, this lower Greenville haunt darts, ascends, turns sharply, stops on a dime, and drop-shifts into reverse as it travels a number of directions all in one flight plan. Is it a hip music venue? Is it…

Nana Grill, the aging eatery perched atop the Wyndham Anatole, has a new chef: 25-year-old Doug Brown, a Culinary Institute of America grad and veteran of such spots as Mark’s Place in Miami, venue of celebrated chef Mark Militello. A sous chef at Nana two years ago, Brown returned as…

Deli news Asher Investments, the partnership behind the successful Bistro A in Snider Plaza, is poised to launch a sandwich shop across the street from the restaurant in a former uniform service warehouse. Bistro A consulting chef Avner Samuel will oversee the deli’s food operations. Serving New York-style corned beef,…

Tei Tei Robata bar drives home the point that virtually anything constructed from the building blocks of life can be used as food. It’s squeamishness that prevents many worthy nutritious forms of biochemistry from becoming staples on the TV dinner tray. (How many times have you heard that earthworms are…

Greiser exits Gershwin’s Lauded chef George Greiser cut loose from Gershwin’s Bar & Grill last Friday to pursue an ambitious project in Austin dubbed Jake’s. Plunked on the shores of Lake Austin in the former Lake View Lodge, Jake’s combines casual American fare with a sushi bar and an upscale…

Fairmont ponders Brasserie fate Though some conclude its demise is all but inevitable, Fairmont Hotel management dances when asked to confirm the Brasserie’s rumored closing. “[The rumor] is not currently accurate,” says Fairmont’s director of food and beverage, Roger Hyde. “Though it is part of our current conversation.” Roughly two…

Stone crabs are colorful, hard-shelled beasts that come in precious Southwestern hues. The meat, though more fibrous and less delicate than that of other crab species, is sweet and rich. But there is another vitally important aspect to the stone crab. In theory, vegans can consume this animal flesh without…

Mysterious new venture Though he won’t disclose its location, ex-dani Foods Executive Chef Kent Rathbun says he, businessman Robert Hoffman, and award-winning chef George Brown–his former dani cohorts–have settled on a location for their new restaurant, tentatively set to open in May or June 1999. Rathbun adds that design work…

It doesn’t take more than a taste to realize that Indian cuisine is saturated with complexity and inspiration. So saturated that, until recently, many chefs have avoided its volatile mysteries. Michael Romano, executive chef of the Union Square Cafe in New York, says using Indian spices is akin to learning…

Jaco Pastorius, the late fretless electric bass player who revolutionized the instrument in the late ’70s with the jazz ensemble Weather Report, once said that good musicians borrow ideas. Geniuses steal them. Pastorius left little doubt as to his own genius. Incorporating sweeping melodic grooves, chords, harmonics, and percussive effects…

Texadelphia to blanket Texas Texadelphia operator Tom Landis says he has secured the rights to expand the Philly cheese-steak sandwich restaurant throughout the Lone Star state. In an agreement reached with Texadelphia founder and Philadelphia native Joel Stanley, who operates two of the restaurants in Austin, Landis and his partners,…

There’s one thing you can say about the best in Irish cuisine: If you drink too much of it, you completely lose the ability to enunciate consonants. Now, it would be way too easy to suggest that the Tipperary Inn is a great place to dine, as long as you…

Star Canyon to hit Vegas Dallas kitsch meets the paradigm of taste. Star Concepts Vice President Michael Cox says Star Canyon and the company’s developing taqueria restaurant will open in Las Vegas’ new Venetian Hotel–a re-creation of Venice–when the hotel development is completed next April. Star Canyon will be located…

Champagne shutters In the wake of collapsing food quality and a largely absentee chef, Champagne restaurant shut down its lunch and dinner service in mid-July. Opening chef Bruno Mella, who had been shuttling between the Firehouse and Champagne, will no longer have an active role in the restaurant. Sources say…

Al Biernat is a lot like Coca Cola, Disney, or General Electric. He’s a rock-solid stock, the kind you might sink cash into if you had any hope of realizing a clean return on the financial grease trap that is the restaurant business. Just walk into his place some evening…

There’s one thing you can say about Big Fish Little Fish, the new seafood boathouse on Henderson: It’s got a great hook. It’s cluttered with lots of kitschy seaside props such as a patio fashioned like a boat dock with a thick rope railing, a deck made with wide planks,…

Papercity won’t hurl barbs Targeting residents of Dallas’ high-income ‘hoods, Papercity, a clone of a slick rag spawned in Houston, will spare Dallas restaurants blood-letting criticism in its dining coverage, according to editor and former Dallas Observer reporter Rebecca Sherman. Instead, the bimonthly urban-lifestyle mag, with an expected circulation of…

A column appeared recently in The Wall Street Journal about the increasing tendency among writers and journalists to make full disclosures about themselves. These disclosures, which often appear parenthetically, are ostensibly made so readers won’t think the writer has a hidden agenda. The interesting thing is that they invariably confess…

Clive and Stuart’s closes After weeks of rumors that its demise was coming, Clive & Stuart’s Island Cuisine on McKinney Avenue gave up the ghost, closing down July 12. One inside source says trucks pulled up to the restaurant at 2 a.m. following dinner Saturday night to load supplies and…

Chef William Guthrie likes cookbooks. He maintains a hardcover collection with volumes dating back as far as 1796. Selected outcasts from his compilation can be found on a wooden bookshelf in the rear of his new “historical” downtown diner, Guthrie’s. Each volume has a price penciled in the upper corner…