Nearly half a year into Café Momentum’s opening, it’s safe to say they’ve hit their stride. It’s no easy feat for any restaurant, but Café Momentum isn’t just any restaurant — it’s also a second chance. Here, young men released from the city’s juvenile justice department receive paid job- and…
When Daniel Vaughn reviews a barbecue joint on his frequent jaunts throughout the state in search of the Holy Barbecue Grail, he knows the only way to form a real opinion on a spot is to order basically one of everything. So he was glad I was tagging along this…
On-Premise opened recently in Deep Ellum. Of all of the remodels I’ve witnessed since I started covering the Dallas dining scene, this is by far the most transformative. Remember Lemongrass, the Vietnamese restaurant that served up an excellent bowl of pho in Deep Ellum? There isn’t a trace of that old…
Jefferson Boulevard continued its gentrification march earlier this week when Carnival Barker’s Ice Creams opened its first standalone business in the Jefferson Tower project. The small storefront with a walk-up window is now selling the crazy flavors creator Aaron Barker has become known for, and for the rest of this…
I get to Fort Worth a handful of times a year, usually to check out a performance at Bass Hall or to putz around the museums. Last summer my infrequent visits became permanently appended with a mandatory visit to Melt Ice Creams. I won’t leave Fort Worth until I’ve had…
Drinking at 3:30 in the afternoon is rarely a good idea. The bar’s a-team is not on duty, and you’re drinking before the culturally agreed-upon appropriate hour of 5 p.m. And yet! Sometimes that mid-afternoon cocktail is necessary, and sometimes you end up at a place like Service Industry. It…
It’s all acutely organized at K.T. Burger. Coolers, piled high with ice and evenly distributed beers, run alongside a long entryway. A server greets you, writes the number of your party and your table on a bordered, sticky slip of paper. Four of the latest flat screens, each seemingly equidistant…
If you’ve ever been to the Cane Rosso in Lakewood, you’ve probably seen a few parents losing their mind as children run free, and turn the front area/patio into a playground. Or just ignoring them entirely. For those of us that do not have children, the scene can be overwhelming…
Now that the weather has finally decided to get its shit together, we are now firmly planted in the middle of grilling season, which means that it is time to gather around the grill with beer, fire, and most importantly — meat. Whether or not you’ve scraped all of last…
When that hollow voice from my GPS instructed a turn onto Menefee Avenue and announced the final destination was a mere 1,000 feet away, I assumed I’d made a wrong turn. A thrift store, a vacuum cleaner repair shop and a collision center were all within sight, and the road…
If the Dallas bar and restaurant industry has one attribute that stands out, it’s a sense of community. If a chef, cook, waiter, bartender or any other service worker is met with an unforeseen challenge in this town, he or she will have a whole city’s worth of restaurant employees…
Barbecue doesn’t necessarily lend itself to the food truck. The extensive food prep, including overnight cooks in most cases, is usually best left to those with brick-and-mortar bases of operation. Barbecue truck operators are forced to decide whether to smoke offsite and keep the day’s prepared meat warm using a…
About half of a bar’s atmosphere lies in the hands of the people who choose to occupy it. At the Drunken Donkey, to give you an idea, I overheard a woman at nearby table ask for “one regular beer.” When the waitress tepidly asked for a bit more specificity, the…
Nooooo! News broke Monday that the original Off-Site Kitchen location would be closing for good. There is some comfort in that the new location in Trinity Groves will carry on the Off-Site legacy, but the change tacks on about two miles to a round-trip lunch commute from Observer headquarters. The casual burger…
It is (probably) in the Texas Constitution that the citizens of this fine state have access to Whataburger’s unparalleled breakfast menu after 11 p.m., which is why so many of us have vivid memories of drunken gluttony tinged with the shine of those white and orange lights. Regrettably, we must…
If I didn’t know what I’d ordered, I would have assumed the plate contained freshly sliced tuna. The fish was a deep and rich crimson, not from myoglobin stores, which tuna and other red fish have plenty of, but from beets. The fish was salmon that had been cured with the…
If you’ve been waiting for the right time to visit Chef John Tesar’s Knife inside the Dallas Highland hotel, now may be a good time to pull the trigger. For five nights beginning today, Tesar and pastry chef David Collier of Knife will welcome a different celebrated guest chef for…
The second of many more to come Top Pot Doughnuts opened recently — this one’s on Greenville Avenue. Customers can slip in for a cake doughnut and an Ovaltine latte, or a massive bear claw if more sugar and calories are required. They cannot, however, grab a seat at a…
Uchi means “naked” in Japanese. Makes sense, when you think about it. Not because every “foodie” (shudder) in town is all, “who do I have to sleep with to get a reservation up in here?” but because executive chef/owner Tyson Cole does magical things with each solitary, naked ingredient in…
What time is it? It’s time for hops if you’re listening to that bad-ass can pictured above: Big, bold, bitter hops, with those floral, fruity notions pushed to the wayside. Meet Community Brewing’s Sundial, the end all, be all summer beer for hopheads who don’t want to feel like they…
You may, genetic makeup depending, occasionally find yourself with the need to entertain large groups of friends, from the office or otherwise. You could invite everyone over to your place, but then someone might hang out longer than you want them to. You could drop in at any old bar, but…
Your soul needs soothing. You stumble into East Dallas’ Mot Hai Ba for dessert because: donut holes. Donut holes served with condensed milk ice cream adrift in a toddy coffee. Face-stuffing works so much better than “being honest with your feelings.” Stupid therapist. But on a cloudy afternoon that threatens…
