Big Fatty’s Spanking Shack: funny name, serious struggle. “The food has never been the problem,” says Gail Patterson, who originally founded Big Fatty’s as a catering company specializing in spicy foods and barbecue out of her Valley View home in 1996. “It’s always about something else.” She’s not kidding. Gail…
Several breweries are putting out more seasonals to drum up interest in their products and offer a variety; Shiner’s Prickly Pear, Lakewood’s Till and Toil, Deep Ellum’s Neato Bandito and Four Corner’s Paletero are just a few of the seasonals you will see this spring. Rabbit Hole Brewing in Justin…
A long time ago, in an office cafeteria far, far away, I developed an all consuming chicken salad habit. I ordered the dressed bird in sandwich form, mostly, and occasionally on a bed of greens minus the bread. This was my lunch order five days a week for at least…
Travis Heim’s passion for meat can be traced from when an early ancestor sneaked into America by way of cattle boat in Galveston, to when Heim attended a barbecue event and chatted up Aaron Franklin, seeking advice on meat-smoking. Soon after, Heim and his wife, Emma, begin their meatopian journey…
Dallas’ craft beer scene has been exploding for a few years, but what is less talked about is the locally-crafted spirits that are also cropping up in our drinking scene. Duckworth Distillery is winning awards for their super-smooth vodkas, and local whiskey distillery Herman Marshall recently took home a prestigious…
I am supposed to have sworn off vodka, dammit. I am a fancy drinker now, and that means indulging in finer, more nuanced spirits. I have a palate, for Chrissakes. Still, I can’t seem to escape drinks made with this boring spirit, evidenced by my newfound love for the Amor…
Most chefs will lie to you and tell you that they never go out to dinner. Maybe they’re telling the truth, and they really do spend too much time cooking for other people to go out to dinner from time to time. When they do, they’re always at some fancy-ass…
Last winter, we told you, reluctantly, that Mr. Max in Irving had closed, seemingly forever. People loved this place, were deeply passionate about it. But the owner had died; there was no succession plan. Down went one apparently great izakaya. But in February, news came that Mr. Max had been…
Nick Rallo eats burgers. Like, a lot of them. I would say that my love of burgers began at the moment of conception, but grew to its modern form in Los Angeles. I was there for a few years after college, working late into those cocktail-cold California nights, and there…
Rather than show up to your family’s Easter Sunday shindig with the same old hot cross buns, why not bring some cookies, chocolates or other goodies you picked up The Bake Sale? The Bake Sale is a collaborative effort between Lily Hanson, of Hotel Zaza, Bolsa and Urbano Café fame,…
Occasionally, a weird, almost unbelievable piece of food news crosses our desk at this here food blog. Usually, it involves John Tesar. This time, though, it involves an old-school steakhouse in North Dallas and a flashy young chef making a name for himself in Uptown. Usually these twain shall never…
In Dallas, it seems like we’re always playing a really long game of musical chairs when it comes to the chefs that staff the restaurants. There are a few who settle into roles and stay there a while, but mostly, they’re hopping from restaurant to restaurant in search of their…
If someone in the know tells you that Ten, the new ramen restaurant from Tei-An’s Teiichi Sakurai, is standing room only, they don’t mean that when the restaurant’s seating is full you have to dine on your feet. They mean there are no chairs or tables in the tiny restaurant…
Every time I visit Sushi Bayashi, the Japanese movie Tampopo jump-kicks into my brain. I think it’s partly because the restaurant’s locale, Phil Romano’s Trinity Groves, was built on a desolate patch of dust that subtly recalls the landscape of so many Western movie scenes. It’s especially apparent if you’re…
Dear Fake Chick’n Salad, That was your name once, wasn’t it? Or should I call you Classic Vegan Salad, as your label now reads when I walk into Whole Foods for lunch? The new moniker is certainly more honest — you never contained any chicken at all — but it…
It is pretty clear that Café Momentum is more than just a restaurant. After being open for just eight weeks, the nonprofit restaurant has made national headlines while serving food to a completely packed house every night they’ve been open. The restaurant gives $10-an-hour jobs to at-risk teenagers, and it’s…
Over the last few years, DFW has become an oasis for beer drinkers, with more than 25 area-based breweries, an extraordinary number when compared to other major cities in Texas. And that number’s growing: Here, a list of upcoming brewery and taproom openings, events that will only add to the…
Last week we offered up the best patios and rooftops for drinking, and no doubt your weekend was spent jet-packing your way down the list, sweaty Lone Star in hand. Life isn’t always about only drunken excess, though, and sometimes you want a nice meal whilst your dermis bathes in…
*Not really. A couple months back, we had some fun at John Tesar’s expense, which is one of our favorite pastimes, sort of like table tennis and stand-up paddle boarding, only those ones we only talk about doing. Making fun of Tesar: We do that, often, most recently because he…
I measure all Tex-Mex restaurants by their fajitas. The simple dish of grilled meats and vegetables gives a great window into how the restaurant handles ingredients and, usually, what you can expect from the rest of the menu. So when I walked into the new Primo’s to dine for the…
Tim Pregler is part backyard-barbecue-professor, part wood-fired charity coordinator. A 57-year old tech consultant from Fort Worth, he founded the Karma Que charitable barbecue collective in 2012 with help from his wife Kim. Three years later, Karma Que consists of three competitive barbecue teams that raise money at cook-offs and…
The bartender slams two milkshakes down in front of us. “Bam!” I shoot my date a look as if to say Get a load of this guy. Does he think he’s Emeril? My date volleys back with eyes that say I am going to steal your shake. Oh, how quickly…
