Is Laurels history? A lot of rumors have been hovering around Dallas lately that the highly acclaimed restaurant Laurels will be axed in the wake of Starwood Hotels & Resorts’ $14.6 billion acquisition last February of ITT Corporation, Sheraton’s parent. “We’re at a place where anything could happen,” says Laurels’…

The one that got away A deal that would have duplicated Dallas’ acclaimed restaurant Fish across the country went belly-up at the last minute. Fish Executive Chef Chris Svalesen and his partner Steven Upright had been in talks with Starwood Hotels and Restorts, parent of Westin Hotels, to place Fish…

One of the best things about dining at Pearl Street Bistro is the surrounding scenery. Tucked downtown in the Plaza of the Americas and occupying the space that was once home to Trattoria Amore, Pearl Street is within shouting distance of the plaza’s ice rink. Ice rinks are standard equipment…

Fog rolling out? Thick rumors have been rolling in Dallas that Truluck’s Steak and Stone Crab in Addison has acquired Fog City Diner. Not true, says Fog City’s managing partner Jay Schimmel. At least not yet. “According to whoever runs their mouth up there…they’ve owned this restaurant since January,” he…

Strip malls are excellent places to get microwave burritos, spandex fashions, lessons in ballroom dancing, and salon-caliber hair gels and foams by the barrel. But this kind of excellence is not the sort one generally associates with fine dining. Plus, being in a strip mall can make restaurateurs–shooting for elegant…

Traveling man Highly mobile Dallas chef Avner Samuel has a new restaurant scheduled to open this week. Called Bistro A, his new venture in Snider Plaza will feature a broad range of Mediterranean fare. He says the menu will be unlike anything he has ever done in Dallas and is…

A recent Wall Street Journal article explored the debauchery throbbing through New Orleans, a phenomenon illustrated by the Mardi Gras Marathon. Before the race, runners carbo-load on deep-fried globs of sugary dough. They then smoke and drink over the entire 26-mile course. No one runs races in New Orleans for…

At-risk child Joey Vallone, the young scion of Houston’s Vallone family, which owns nine restaurants including the famed Tony’s, officially denies everything. But his self-named Oak Lawn eatery figures prominently in a series of dueling rumors–including speculation that it’s for sale. Joey’s, which opened two and a half years ago…

Extreme risk-takers are oddballs. They’re the ones that ride rhinos at rodeos, skydive out of Lear jets, shoot dice with the agents during IRS audits, and talk about the president’s seduction techniques on national television. But extreme cookery is a hard thing to define. What does a daredevil chef do,…

In the wake of the pomp and ceremony of the Academy Awards, it’s certain we’ll be seeing many more Titanic tie-ins, at least until the James Cameron flick hits the previously viewed bin at Blockbuster. Perhaps we’ll get a concert from the Dallas Symphony Orchestra showcasing the last pieces played…

Dining in the raw while landlocked can be a risky proposition, a deed best performed with a well-trained gag reflex and plenty of health insurance. Most of the time the raw sea flesh isn’t bad, just a little lame, blanched, or propped on little soggy wads of rice hemmed in…

What happened to Harper’s? When this Charlotte, North Carolina-based chain of six casual restaurants opened an outlet in North Dallas in January 1997, the crowds were so thick that getting through the door was almost impossible. By year’s end, it was closed. Clyde Gilfillan, Harper’s director of operations, says the…

The eruption of diner fascination with Cool River Cafe is one of those cultural tremors that I just don’t get. I don’t understand how this concept was made flesh–or at least river stone and kitschy cowboy mural–and how it got to be the size of the south flank of a…

There’s this odd little smell that thrives in cottages and cabins. It’s not a bad smell, really–although I’m sure that if we could figure out how to eradicate it easily, we’d send it packing with a cloying spritz of floral-scented Glade air freshener. The first time I was introduced to…

You don’t have to travel far to wallow in a good, thick sludging of theme restaurateuring. Downtown offers the always loudly entertaining Planet Hollywood in the West End, while Canyon Cafe covers the north with its slick Southwestern motif. And for a good choke on an exceptionally rich example of…

Procter & Gamble discovered long ago that you could breathe new life into a product, such as a box of Tide or a tube of Crest, by slapping the words “new” and “improved” on the package. The actual improvements may be little more than a sprinkling of little green “fresh…

A hole-in-the-wall can be dark, musty, grimy, and probably not the kind of place you’d go to impress someone on a first date, or to establish ties with a new boss or client. But if you rummage around those holes a little, minding where the corroded wiring and the rat…

Comfort food doesn’t exactly have positive connotations as far as I’m concerned. When I hear the words “comfort food,” I think of home-cooking. And when I think of home-cooking, childhood memories seep into my consciousness like a ladle full of lumpy powdered-cheesefood sauce. You see, the most rudimentary level of…

For the last few years, food-industry analysts have been babbling about a significant food-service trend emerging in response to consumer demands for freshly prepared packaged foods that can be reheated and eaten at home. The chatter has been on how this new trend is blurring the line between supermarket and…

“What the hell is this, and why does it cost so damn much money?” These are the only truly engaging questions that dining at Enigma provokes. Not that this place isn’t baffling on many levels. It’s just so strenuously contrived that instead of wondering what kind of eccentric mind is…

The cigar trend is dead. So it isn’t surprising that a spate of cigar bars are popping up in Dallas as fast as you can say Hoyo de Monterrey Super Hoyo–which might not be very fast. Last year a number of high-profile cigar salons hit Dallas: Avner’s at Preston Caviar…