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 the good or bad — over the years. It has been a steep and heavy climb for Chuck Cole. He’s the sole owner of Corner…
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 the good or bad — over the years. There are many categories of heat at Pepe’s & Mito’s. Depending on the Texas season and the…
Fuad Al Dawyma buzzes beef shawarma from the spinning grill with an electric shaver. It’s calming to watch. The meat cone twirls hypnotically, slowly. Dawyma shaves meat off into sheets, into his hand, then packs it into the pockets of soft Iraqi bread. The bread is piping steam into the…
Six years ago in April, Jason Boso found himself sweating away behind the kitchen of his burger joint, painstakingly separating meat from a beaver carcass. The process was arduous. He’d purchased around 60 pounds of the prehistoric rodents to grind into burger patties that he’d serve for $8 each. The…
After a long pause, Chili’s gazes deep in the centers of our eyes. Chili’s, after all, is Texas’ old friend. Chili’s whispers its big announcement in a primordial stirring, like wind jostling the canopy of a forest, swirling into a hushed chant that announces: “We have begun a New Chili.”…
When the first Liberty Burger opened in Dallas, there was an unexpected wave of chaos. It was a few weeks before Thanksgiving in 2011. The line at the register sprawled through the restaurant and shot out the door. Wait times for a simple cheeseburger hit one hour. “I had no…
When she was growing up, there were two versions of chicken-fried steak for chef Jeana Johnson. The upscale version was served at Palestine, Texas’ AAA Restaurant: a gravy-smothered, plate-spanning, deep-fried steak. The everyday chicken-fried steak options were handed through the car window from one of the Dairy Queens in her…
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 the good or bad — over the years. On a bright day, the front door to Benny’s Bagels stays open. It’s afternoon, and a strong…
Ten minutes after sunrise, if you time it right, you’ll hear the freshly ground burger patty hiss-sizzle on the flat grill. You might hear the clatter of metal spoons in coffee or the squawk of knives meeting plates beneath the steak and eggs, but you’re not at an all-night diner…
There are four items on the menu at Sky Rocket Burger: A single, double, and triple cheeseburger and a grilled cheese. On Scott and Tio Wagner’s 4-foot griddle, there’s little room for anything else. The restaurant’s walls are have little more than a coat of white paint: Photos of their…
Jimmy Niwa turns the knob, and the grill in the center of the table roars to life. Fire licks below the iron grate. A steaming bowl is walked to the table, and Niwa lights up. Buta kakuni, a stew of pork belly that’s been tenderized in rich, sweet-salty soy ginger,…
Host a straw poll that asks what go-to spot Dallas chefs hit for cheeseburgers in the area, and you are likely to hear Off-Site Kitchen as a quick response. At least a handful of chefs in the past year have conveyed this choice in interviews. It makes sense from the standpoint…
Before Anita and Octavio Avila opened their restaurant, there was the bungalow at 4714 Maple Ave. The front of the house was devoted to Anita’s beauty shop, which she ran until 1982. On Sunday mornings, three blocks away from the storefront, granddaughter Katherine Avila and the rest of the family…
There’s a never-ending breeze at the Cold Beer Co. It rolls in through the open bar, lifting menus out of their holders and skating potato chips around on their metal trays. The bar feels open and doorless, like any Dallasite could saunter in the dining room from any point in…
At dawn at 4724 Greenville Ave., they’re hunkered down in the back room dousing the beer with green dye. They get hundreds of orders for St. Patrick’s Day-green beer, chilling in the kegs that Parkit Market has rolled out for 56 years on the corner of Greenville Avenue. Most will…
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 the good or bad — over the years. A few minutes after noon, the line to get into El Fenix weaves out the front door…
dallas, seafood, fried fish, lent, chips, sandwiches
In the western wing of the Chevron gas station, Eduardo Mora sweeps up after the lunch rush. A load of customers had just whooshed through, making a serious dent in the trompo, the blush-red pork tornado spinning quietly in front of a wall of heat, as slow and balanced as…
The inflatable longhorn ripples in a punchy breeze. Cars swerve into the lot, gassed up for tacos, and music blisters over the loud speaker at the to-go window. The line doesn’t last long: Styrofoam-enclosed orders fly out of the tiny Fuel City window for $1.62 a taco, cash only. Two…
Every day, co-owner Susana Arce and executive chef MaryAnn Allen split up the routes — one spans from Northeast Dallas to Las Colinas, the other from Plano to downtown Dallas — to drive the food coming out of the Arepa TX kitchen to local companies. “We deliver our food in…
It is already known that you’ll order the dish. It’s predestined from the moment you step inside the original Snuffer’s. On a recent visit, a server filled in the words before they were uttered. “I’m going to need to have …” I said in a haze, and she finished for…
Just under nine years ago, before a salad of raw, cubed fish painted with soy sauce became everyone’s favorite food fad, East Dallas’ Urbano Cafe had poke on the menu. Chef Keo Velasquez, who helped owner Mitch Kauffman get his kitchen off the ground, sparked casual pasta dishes with his…
