When it was announced that Tom Spicer would be losing the retail space at Bryan and Fitzhugh that housed his Spiceman 1410 storefront, everyone knew that the resilient gardening whiz wouldn’t be down for long. Right after Spicer made it known that his storefront would be closing due to plumbing…
The foreseeable forecast frequently climbs past 70 degrees, with bright and sunny skies. That means it’s time for extended patio drinking, in the middle of February, just the way God and Phil Romano intended. At Romano’s Trinity Groves restaurant utopia, the massive continuous patio that spans the front of the…
Here it comes, ready or not. Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, which means one of two things, food-wise. It’s either A) time to start making reservations or B) time to stockpile TV dinners and Friskies. Just kidding. Singles can still go through the McDonald’s drive-thru without fear of…
You may (or may not!) remember Club Schmitz. Everyone was talking about, blogging about and drinking inside the friendly dive last year as it served its last beers. Now, it’s all but forgotten. See also: Club Schmitz, One of Dallas’ Best True Dive Bars, Could Get Gobbled by RaceTrac I…
Central Standard was one of the several restaurants owned by a company called Restaurants-America to open in Dallas and close not long after. Primebar, Park Tavern, Townhouse Bar + Grill, Boca Chica, Mockingbird Taproom — they all went down. Apparently they’re not doing so well in Chicago, either. Central Standard…
The Observer needs freelance writers to cover beer, barbecue and maybe other areas of culinary interest. Think you might be up for it? Read on, and read carefully…
Time is running out to make your Valentine’s Day reservations, and with so many options it’s a daunting decision. There’s a lot riding on this, but you can’t just pick any random place — you have to find the right fit for your situation. Which type of Valentine are you?…
I always feel a little out of place at brunch, if only because it’s a ritual I rarely indulge in. But when our plates hit the table at Meddlesome Moth recently, I felt downright awkward. Heavy, meaty breakfast dishes surrounded me, including a short rib hash just down the table…
Chances are, unless you are endlessly wealthy and/or the laziest person on the planet, you sometimes brew coffee at home. Maybe you have retired your plug-in coffee maker in exchange for a French press or Chemex. You even buy your beans from a local or specialty roaster and grind them…
It’s not too often that expertly-pulled Chinese noodles and New York-style pizza come together. When they do, your stomach takes notice. Which is exactly why you need to head to Zoli’s New York Pizza in Bishop Arts tonight. In conjunction with Street Fooder, a “group of pan-Asian cuisine gurus, including…
During winters in Chicago, Al’s hometown, it’s customary to use foods to stave off depression and to pad out bellies for warmth. The go-to food: the Italian beef sandwich. At Al’s, like at any decent shop, Italian beefs start with beef roasts. They’re suspended over pools of steaming liquid, which…
My one and only experience with salsa was a traumatic one: I was on a date with a woman who wanted to take lessons at a bar in Washington D.C. They got us drunk and guided us through a progressively difficult set of dance maneuvers. I could handle the basic…
Rodeo Goat is now open in the Design District, and it has goats. There is a goat, saddled like a horse and grinning in a mid-kick, above the bar. Some of the goats look like mountain goats, and some of them, like the one glaring at me from above the…
I started with the best of intentions. After scanning the Internet for factoids about Fat Rabbit, the new gastrowhatever that opened in the old Sfuzzi place on McKinney Avenue, I walked in prepared to order some falafel sliders and a salad — you know, some real rabbit food. But there…
Vodka cocktails typically aren’t very nuanced. They’re poured from a well or an overpriced bottle of Grey Goose, then watered down with a squirt of cranberry juice or soda from those disgusting behind-the-bar guns. There is really no sense in making vodka more complicated than it has to be –…
It’s a little hard to find, but find the new J. Crew on McKinney Avenue and, with any luck, your nose will lead you the rest of the way. Bisous Bisous, a tiny West Village patisserie, opened for business this week, and the exhaust fans are perfuming the streets and…
Since opening, Jeana Johnson and Colleen O’Hare’s upscale pho joint Mot Hai Ba has widely been regarded as one of the city’s best places to indulge in a bowl of broth and noodles. Both spent time traveling through Vietnam doing research for the restaurant, and it all seems to have…
Some restaurants are so wine focused that they employ someone solely to procure, store and serve hundreds, if not thousands, of bottles of the stuff. Other restaurants place such value on cocktails that they’ll bring in a consulting bartender to design their drink menu, if they don’t hire a full-time…
It has been said many times before that pastry is very much a neglected part of the culinary world, at least in the United States. Pastry chefs are among the most revered culinarians in France, but folks in the States were perfectly happy to eat grocery store cake for decades…
Last Fall, the Dallas area got its very first Vertskebap. The doner kebap chain, based in Austin and spreading across Texas like a brushfire, opened a location in Addison, alongside the Flying Saucer, Gloria’s and a slew of other restaurants in that maze of a development called Village on the…
Red velvet and coffee macaroons, gold-dusted chocolate pot de crème, miniature vanilla bean cheese cakes: these are just a few of the desserts Gianni Santin and Tida Pichakron have been inadvertently using to tease potential customers at their Trinity Groves bakery. The pair opened Haute Sweets Pattisserie, a catering kitchen…
The Kessler Baking Studio is holding a dark chocolate lover’s workshop. Participants will have the opportunity to taste and compare different chocolate bars. Think Sideways but with nibs. There will also be demonstrations on how to make chocolate bowls, truffles, mousse and dipped berries. What it be: Dark Chocolate Lover’s…
