As the curb says, “watch your step” when entering the front door at Mason Bar; the sudden step up could be potentially lethal for tipsy girls in heels. Inside, a couple occupies stools at one end of the bar, and save for them it’s empty — just a quiet Monday night…
Meatless Monday, oddly enough, has me thinking about meat more than ever. Apparently I’m not the only one. The New York Times recently held an essay contest for readers. The subject: “Is it ethical to eat meat?” A loaded question, no doubt, and one bound to inspire passionate responses from…
First introduced in the 1660s for Champagne, the coupe glass reached the height of its popularity in the 1930s with the introduction of Prohibition-era cocktails, and in recent years its popularity is on the rise again, namely with a special class of drinkers called me. The coupe shape is a…
Dear Potential Food Truck Entrepreneurs of Dallas,Please, for the love of Krishna, start an Indian food truck. Please park outside my favorite bars late at night (Deep Ellum would be a good spot) so I can fill my neglected belly with your spicy flavorful goodness. There’s just something about the…
Bust out the sombreros (and whatever other ethnically irrelevant garb you might have), because the second-annual Margarita Meltdown is coming to the Bishop Arts District. Last year’s event drew more than 2,500 people, and founders Nico Ponce of The Chesterfield and Tony Fernandez of OC’s Espumoso Caffe hope to capitalize…
Confession: I love cucumber drinks. Muddled with vodka, soaked in gin, even just sliced and floating in a glass of water, the addition of cucumber gives an unparalleled refreshing note, perfect for summertime patio sipping. Obviously I’m not alone in this — every cocktail bar in town has at least…
Attention all bourbon enthusiasts, gin guzzlers, Manhattan drinkers and budding mixologists: a massive four-day craft cocktails event is coming to Dallas June 14 through June 17; The brainchild of local booze magicians Brian McCullough (Smoke, The Standard Pour) and Nico Ponce (The Chesterfield), the event is brought to you by…
March has come and gone, which means that somehow three months have already passed since we began this whole Meatless Monday endeavor — I’ve eaten a lot of vegetarian meals over the past hundred or so days, some memorably delicious, others notably terrible, as well as some not worth mentioning…
Standard Pour, Uptown’s newest cocktail den, brought to you by Brian McCullough of Smoke and pop-up bar fame and the team behind Sfuzzi, opened last week in the old Lotus space at 2900 Mckinney Avenue. The patio was packed on a breezy Wednesday night, and inside was at about three-quarters…
The Dram, the local chapter of the United States Bartenders’ Guild and Campari recently teamed up for a cocktail competition showcasing many of Dallas’ finest bartenders. The game: to create an aperitif — that is, a drink meant to be enjoyed prior to a meal — featuring Campari, an Italian…
With food truck mania showing no signs of letting up, I figured I’d hit up the Arts District at lunchtime and see if there were any viable options for veggie-friendly eating. A rotating group of trucks cluster on Flora Street between Leonard and Crockett (right across from the Meyerson) every…
I was out running errands in the Old Town shopping center at Lovers and Greenville when I found myself hungrily eyeing the guinea pigs on display at Petsmart. Alarmed by my newfound taste for small domesticated mammals, I checked my watch and realized it was 4 o’clock and all I’d…
It’s a relatively quiet Wednesday night at Deep Ellum’s newest watering hole, Swallow Lounge (double entendre or just a hastily chosen name? You be the judge). I take a seat at the empty bar lined with bright red vinyl stools. Above the bar, back-lit swallows — those little birds that…
Chef Tim Byres, chef and owner of upscale meat palace Smoke and the latest recipient of Food & Wine’s People’s Best New Chef award, opened his new fast-casual chicken joint on Monday at Pittman and Fort Worth Avenue in North Oak Cliff. Chicken Scratch is a small, corrugated-metal-and-glass building right…
In the lowest depths of Greenville Avenue, Matador Tapas has risen like a phoenix from the ashes that were once the pretty lame Eight Lounge. It began its life as a matador-themed punk rock club (seriously), but that apparently was a bit too niche. So they reworked the concept and…
It would seem that spring is (kind of) here; the patios are packed, my thermostat has officially made the switch from heat to cool and all the grass is a lovely shade of emerald, at least until a freak snowstorm hits a week from now and life as we know…
After last week’s vegan pho fiasco, I wasn’t too jazzed about another meatless meal, but reading Scott’s V-Spot review inspired me, and I was encouraged to seek out tasty vegetarian options once again. El Padrino means “godfather”, and that awesome name was enough to get me to stop here rather…
With the deadline for this weekly blog post quickly approaching (and then passing — sorry, editor) and a very minimal amount of cash in my pocket after paying rent, I did what any responsible booze blogger would do: I went to the corner store by my apartment and purchased a…
Downtown’s newest palace of meat, Chop House Burger, opened quietly on Monday afternoon, exactly one day ahead of schedule. CHB is brought to you by DRG Concepts, the group behind Dallas Chop House and Wild Salsa, and is located in the Kirby Building on Main Street, across from Chase Bank…
The smell of brewing coffee filled the air, rich and fragrant with undertones of cocoa and nuts. The dark brown, slightly viscous liquid dripped ever so slowly through a paper filter into an oversized glass flask — a Chemex coffee maker, the likes of which I’d never seen before. It…
When it comes to pho, that glorious Vietnamese noodle soup perfect for curing hangovers and head colds, I’m almost religiously devoted to the huge steaming bowls served up at Vietnam Restaurant on Bryan Street. However, when I heard that the semi-recently opened Pho is for Lovers on Upper Greenville served…
In a recent episode of Anthony Bourdain’s The Layover, he and famed English chef Fergus Henderson bond over a shot of something called Fernet Branca, seated at a London sidewalk café for an afternoon pick me-up. “Steadying,” Bourdain declares after shooting the dark brown, slightly ominous syrupy liquid. Curious as to the…
