It started as nostalgia. Last year’s golden age of burgers was heralded by the breaking of an American cheese cauldron over the nose of a ship made with ground brisket, short rib and dry-aged beef. The wistful memories of the drive-thru, some amidst fine dining, are impossible to miss: A…
On a list of the stalest phrases in the history of food language, “guilty pleasure” must rank somewhere near two-week-old bagel. It’s stone-dead. In 2018, “indulging in guilty pleasures” sounds more like something Bobby Flay announces with a creepy smile before flame-grilling an eclair. It sounds like something TGI Fridays…
Peanut butter – found in unexpected places – is having a moment in Dallas right now. And you’ll want a moment with Off-Site Kitchen’s peanut butter bacon burger.
The bologna sandwich grows up (and glows up) at Lakewood Smokehouse.
What have we learned after two years of Nick Rallo’s All-American column? That there is no one way to create an indelible American restaurant.
On the night before opening their first coffee shop, Bob and Nancy Baker sifted through their checklist of to-dos. They’d spent two years prepping for launch, both head-deep in coffee grounds and the multidimensional needs of starting your own business, designing everything from the architecture to the heat of the…
You won’t make it more than a block before the smell of fried chicken and rolls finds you. It clings to the upholstery and hugs the molecules of your car seats and your hands. You will catch a waft, like a passing cloud in a blue sky, when you discard…
First, the Buffalo chicken pizza bested David Haynes. The Stonedeck co-owner could envision its insane construction like Dr. Frankenstein: He wanted to splash a slow-cooked cayenne pepper sauce over a base of actually-good chicken — not the frosty, processed nubs you find on chains’ chicken pizzas — with blue cheese…
Days after the Internet apocalypse, the line of cars at the drive-thru buckles awkwardly into Lemmon Avenue. Passing car horns begin their blurts immediately as irritated drivers zoom around the gridlock and mouth things from behind the wheel, but none of it deters those who are sandwich-patient. It’s the same…
Michael Luttinger is too occupied, at least for now, to coddle his Instagram feed. He’s just, as he puts it, nonstop busy running Dallas food truck Eggstand. His two daughters log in to help him out here and there, but at 59 — he was asked to resign from his…
The $15,000 pour-over coffee machine whispers awake. A tiny metal arm, situated directly over the coffee grind, whirls and dispenses liquid in a quiet rush that doubles as a good hypnosis act from a robot. Belly up to the counter, made of intimidatingly fancy laundry-white stone, in a daze watching…
Late into October 2012, Big Tex lost his jaw. It was a grim warning: Standing tall in the sky, unmoving, the lower half of his face erupted in roaring flames. Black smoke poured from his hat and into the sky over Fair Park. It was an omen. For what? In…
All-American is a series that looks at beloved, longstanding North Texas eateries and examines their histories while exploring how the food has changed — for good or bad — over the years. Find a counter stool, and you’ll see the signs: Steel guitar croons over the speakers. Across the street,…
Inside the Dulceria, it’s warm and quiet. The air, heavy with the scent of toasted cheese and griddled bread, seems to mute the sounds of the cafe like snowfall. Sure, there’s the airy splat sound of a mustard bottle occasionally, which is the yellow light that signals that you’re about…
It had never been about brisket. Prior to 1992, the Prichard family business had everything to do with crab monsters, butcher-knife wielding slashers, or, in one case, murderous, rampaging tomatoes. It’s the same old story: Jim Prichard had spent three decades in the movie production and distribution game, populating theaters…
It’s the middle of lunch rush, but Andrew Taherzadeh is working the register with an admirable calm. One customer approaches the counter, empty mug outstretched like Oliver Twist, and Taherzadeh fills it with glacier-cold root beer without any exchange of words. Two hands means you can hold two plastic baskets…
All-American is a series that looks at beloved, long-standing North Texas eateries and examines their history while exploring how the food has changed — for the good or bad — over the years. The first rule of Green Spot is: You should not feel bewildered by Green Spot. Stepping in,…
Niwa Japanese BBQ in Deep Ellum is about to launch lunch — and a fantastic Wagyu burger along with it.
Burgers begin, for chef Jeff Bekavac, with a Big Mac at grandma’s house. It’s his first cheeseburger memory. He was sitting at his grandparent’s table with the iconic, mountainous double cheeseburger with the special sauce and the sesame seed bun. Bekavac remembers ruining his appetite for grandma’s dinner by devouring…
It’s the heat. We’re not talking about the weather; food spice finds you like a brass instrument that’s played right in your ear. You feel an alarming jolt, your mouth and brain hurt and then go completely numb. Your eyes water and then the colors of the world – the…
Consider the sweaty effort that goes into one sandwich at this diner. Quinoa bubbles in vegetable broth. It’s hit with tumbles of carrots, onions and parsley. Nearby, cashew paste —when cashews get demolished, they take on a fatty, creamy texture — thickens from scoops of tapioca. The quinoa, the cashew…
The grass reached as high as her waist, and rogue chickens bobbed around in the backyard. Meri Dahlke was on the hunt for a good location for a “country tavern” — she’d never owned a bar in her life — and one of her first stops was a tiny, shed-looking…
