I want to love it like Alice does. I’ve been looking out my office window and noticing how all the tree buds have filled out; Dallas is awash in a sea of green, and it won’t be long before the sun bakes everything into a mottled brown. Why not throw…
Any time St Patrick’s Day falls on a weekend, you know you’re in for trouble. It’s just like that friend you have whose birthday always seems to stretch into a week-long celebration while everyone else is content to have a single dinner out with friends. St Patrick’s Day on Saturday…
This week I review 303 Bar and Grill, an Oak Cliff newcomer with macabre decor and grim cooking. I wasn’t excited about the time I spent in this interesting space, but I was very excited about the neighborhood. Oak Cliff has been a hot bed of innovation for the Dallas…
While the big restaurant money continues to flow north toward Highland Park, Preston Hollow and Uptown, Dallas’ most interesting restaurant scene continues to slowly grow and diversify on the other side of the river. Lucia brings five-star Italian and Campo offers ravioli stuffed with brains. Hattie’s updates Southern comfort, giving…
Before I was a food critic I was a recipe tester. I worked with Bonnie Benwick at the Washington Post, who would send out a handful of recipes to her team and demand resultant dishes be brought to the office for sampling and photography. She would yell at us testers…
Like many food writers I’m sure, I’ve been watching Pulitzer-winning Jonathan Gold’s transition from the LA Weekly to the Los Angeles Times closely. The death of the star system at the daily publication has gotten a lot of attention, too, but it’s Gold’s first blog post that has invoked deep…
Last week we told you about Food and Wine’s People’s Choice Contest featuring two local chefs, Tim Byres and Tre Wilcox out of 100 chefs across the nation. Yesterday, the news came out that Byres took the big prize. Not just best chef for the Southwest (is Dallas really the…
I was hoping that eating a Doritos flavored taco would inspire a few grafs of humorous prose, but instead it just spurred sorrow. Now, sitting at my desk after enduring my arterial assault, I feel depressed. I won’t call Taco Bell’s creation good or bad. It tastes exactly like what…
During the day, Holly Muller is a food nutritionist who runs My Private Chef, a service that cooks, packages and freezes well-balanced meals for customers who don’t have time to cook or are looking for a simple way to lose weight with food that doesn’t suck. At night time, however,…
College kids are a specific type of drinker. They like to shotgun or funnel cheap beer and do shots of every color of the rainbow, and they are driven primarily by volume and cost. That’s why ice beers are best: They have the highest percentage of alcohol by volume, which…
“Wolfgang Puck at Hotel Bel-Air gives the hotel a serious restaurant and the chef an ideal California spot.” How many stars is that? The Los Angeles Times recently ditched its star rating system. Russ Parsons, the food editor at the Times, says the system is dated, especially considering the rapid…
Another week has come to a close, this one under a shroud of dark gray clouds. Not really looking that inspiring yet, is it? Maybe this is your last good weekend to stay at home and make a big pot of chili. You could even put beans in it. I…
I started thinking about this project last Sunday whilst at brunch. I’d just hit Vickery Park’s brisket sandwich with a healthy dose of cock sauce and noted how well the flavors worked together. Spurred by the famous Frank’s Red Hot tagline, “I put that shit on everything” I asked my…
Dear Grilled Chicken Sandwich, You suck. I mean you really, really suck. I’m not just picking on The Blackfriar’s version pictured above — the McKinney Avenue pub just happened to be the unlucky subject of this food critic’s rant — I’m talking about all grilled chicken sandwiches everywhere. All of…
“I’d like to get the Chili Bomb,” I told my bartender moments after I’d taken my stool. “The pepper bomb?” he asked, confirming my order. I was staring right at the menu, clearly the 11.75% ABV Leviathan Quad I’d sipped was working its magic. It tasted of burnt candy. “Yeah,…
Yesterday, Zagat released their 2012 Texas restaurants guide. Here are their top five most popular restaurants. Abacus Fearing’s Al Biernat’s Stephan Pyles Del Frisco’s Steak Look familiar? These restaurants have been dominating Zagat’s list for years. The survey, a system employed by the authors of the burgundy book, skews towards…
I’d just walked into my local 7-Eleven to pick up a six-pack of beer. While walking back from the cooler, I saw a round and wobbling man standing in front of the cheese and chili dispenser. He had One hand on the chili dispensing button. The other was cupped below…
For some time, Central 214 was known as the restaurant led by Blythe Beck, the chef with the big personality who made her dishes “naughty.” Beck plated chicken-fried Kobe steak, whipped potatoes weeping butterfat and cream-laden gravy served not in some country kitchen, but in an opulent hotel dining room…
Jeff Kloster has struck again. Back in January we told you about Dublin Bottling Work’s move to bolster the Dublin soda industry. Maple and Motor still serves their sodas, and they’re becoming more available by the day. Now Velvet Taco plans to add more of Kloster’s offerings. They’ve been carrying…
While sitting at Central 214’s bar, the subject of this week’s review, and snacking on some blistery shishito peppers and crispy pig ears, I became very excited about the state of bar food in Dallas. Instead of cheese sticks, chicken wings and Reuben sandwiches served with paper napkins (I love…
This Sunday at Vickery Park the weather was warm, the breeze was stiff, and the brunchers were out in full force. I joined a small crew late in the afternoon and tried to make sense of their Crispin and whiskey lubricated ramblings. (They’d arrived several hours before me.) I was…
Every once in a while someone mistakes Scott for a food financial expert and risks ruining dinner by trusting him to answer to a burning question. Got a question about food or restaurants? Send it via Twitter @scottreitz, Facebook @ Cityofate or in the comments. This question came in by…
