Drink, be merry, keep toasty, repeat. As the shortest day of the year — which also marks the first day of winter, according to the astronomical calendar — approaches, it’s time to hunker down and stay warm. What better place to hunker than the Flying Saucer, and what better warming…
There’s a change coming to Dallas dining. A new generation of chefs is rising in the local restaurant business, bringing new ideas about local ingredient sourcing, preserved and fermented foods, pop-up dinners, fine dining in casual settings and the importance of Dallas’ rich heritage of migration from Mexico, Central America,…
It is no accident that this has been a stellar year for sandwiches in Dallas. From the boom of bars to skyrocketing construction, the city inflates with restaurants as if we’re inside a bubble made of butter. The byproduct of our little food boom is a growing movement throughout the…
Big hair. Tall hats. Bloody steaks. Food has always been a part of the Dallas myth, but as new neighborhoods ascend to prominence and a new generation of leaders prepares to supplant the old-money barons, a similar revolution is underway in the city’s culinary scene. Dining out in Dallas isn’t…
On Sunday, Donald Trump, Jr. posted to Instagram twice with photos from events in Dallas: One, a picture of a cowboy boot-shaped cake celebrating “a great friend’s 40th birthday,” Trump Jr. said on Instagram. The location on that post was listed as Dallas, Texas. But it’s Trump Jr.’s second Dallas…
This year, Observer food critic Brian Reinhart went on a very Eat, Pray, Love-esque pilgrimage around DFW, praying Google listed correct hours of operation while falling in love with strip-mall kebabs and Turkish ezme. In his soul search, Reinhart found a beautiful variety of cuisines and experiences, from Iraqi feasts in Richardson…
2017 will be remembered for a lot of uncomfortable societal change, such as the fact that Dallas barbecue is fancy now. Craft cocktails, mandatory valet, $28 chicken breasts, Ferris wheels: For some restaurateurs, a pile of meat on butcher paper isn’t enough anymore. Smoky Rose opened across from the Dallas…
Assuming you’ve done your Christmas shopping this year — and even if you haven’t — it’s safe to say many of us are a little tapped out right now. Gifts, travel, expensive sequined outfits we’ll wear to one holiday party and then never again — Christmas cheer doesn’t come cheap…
It is perhaps the world’s largest understatement that 2017 was a year filled with news — earth-shaking, head-scratching, social consciousness-raising news. The Dallas dining scene was not immune to such moments. This list, arguably, does not contain the city’s “biggest” dining news of the year, but rather the news that…
Just after Thanksgiving, you might have seen a sign on the door of Food From Galilee that caused a gravity-drop feeling in your gut. Under a red “help wanted” sign, a handwritten note on a sheet of yellow legal paper read, “Dear Customers: We will be closed due to a…
For the opening day of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi”, The Theodore created a specialty cocktail menu with four cocktails featuring the 86 Co. liquor lineup.
When you walk into The Statler, a distinctly Don Draper kind of aesthetic will greet you. Think wire-work chairs, marble galore and the kind of midcentury, swanky vibe that makes smoking seem like a reasonable choice. This fashionably vintage setting makes for an ideal brunch spot, and Overeasy — the…
What takes 180 pounds of powdered sugar, 60 pounds of egg whites, 15 pounds of butter and 48 hours? The crafting of the Ritz-Carlton’s 12 Days of Christmas gingerbread castle, of course. This Thursday, the castle will be shown to an adoring and well-fed crowd; complimentary cider, mulled wine and…
The old ways disappear in Mockingbird Station. Twin Peaks broadcasts its toxic breastaurant status from the second floor, there are parking wars in the narrow garage spots that seem to twirl forever downward, and lunch is a sea of mediocre salads. Music thumps from one of the outdoor patios as…
What’s better than sandwiches? Tiny sandwiches, that’s what. The tiny sandwich is finally about to have its day at a big new food festival: Between the Buns, a Dallas Observer Slider Event. From 4-7 p.m. Saturday, March 24, sliders will rain down from the heavens at the Dallas Farmers Market. The…
Once, any talk of Texas’ barbecue belt focused on Central Texas. That belt is now, well, Texas-sized. Good barbecue can be had anywhere between the Red River and the Rio Grande. While Austin and the small towns dotting the Hill Country certainly have the edge when it comes to barbecue…
When Markus Pineyro was thinking about a Mexican restaurant food concept 10 years ago, he wanted to do something different than what being done in Dallas. The city’s food culture, he says, has changed so much since he opened his Urban Taco concept. Now, Pineyro says, people are more educated…
Pho is the kind of dish that makes people love to argue over authenticity and tradition. But a world without weird pho is a world we don’t want to live in, which is what drew us to the new Lime Bar & Kitchen in Irving to try the restaurant’s already famous…
Dallas chef Tre Wilcox, formerly on Top Chef and at more restaurants than we could possibly fit in one sentence, is no longer consulting chef at downtown’s Don’t Tell Supper Club, according to a press release titled “Tre Ends Work at Don’t Tell.” “Today, Tre Wilcox announced that he is…
Within 2 miles of new Highland Park restaurant Sachet, there are, by conservative estimation, more than a dozen Dallas steakhouses serving pricey 22-ounce cowboy rib-eyes and pork chops big enough to derail a streetcar. The well-heeled bits of Dallas, particularly suit-sporting expense account holders, love meat. Not just any meat,…
A revamped shopping center at Central Expressway and Walnut Hill Lane is hoping to become an eco-friendly dining and shopping hot spot in North Dallas. The Hill, a “modern mixed-use development located in a historic shopping center,” opened its anchor tenant, forward-thinking sustainable home goods store TreeHouse, a few months ago…
2017 was an exciting year for new restaurants, boasting cultural and geographic diversity that bodes well for our city’s culinary future. Yes, it’s nice when great new fine-dining restaurants open in downtown Dallas, but neighborhoods all around the area need good places to eat, so it’s heartening that some of…
