One Art is coming! The Commissary folks sent out a press release last week and invited the media to a preview dinner this evening; look for lots of pretty food photos tomorrow in the Dallas blogosphere. Dinner service opens to the public Tuesday, offering two seatings — at 6:30 and…
I stopped by the Addison Oktoberfest this Saturday, arriving just past noon to a rising thermometer and an already swelling crowd. I was expecting a sizable event, but nothing like this. With all the food venders representing local Bavarian and German cooking, tents selling decent art, bad art, chicken hats,…
With Oktoberfest and other events coming up, it’s High Beer Season, which explains why the White House has been serving up some of his homebrews. But why stop with beer? House-made anything is a worthy endeavor that rewards the laborer with a fresh, interesting product you can serve with a…
This week we brewed at the zoo, ate some disappointing things, and Leslie Brenner told us another thing wrong with Dallas. Read on. City of Ate/Observer Even if Taj Chaat has Amruth beat as far as charm, interest and adventure, the humble vegetarian former stumbles into second place when it…
Nonna’s been serving stellar Italian since 2007, earning accolades from every critic that crosses the restaurant’s threshold. Lunch service is, however, a somewhat more quiet affair, only available on Friday from 11 to 2. I stopped in to see if chef Julian Barsotti’s daylight offerings matched up to the gushing…
They just don’t make them, or at least not many of them, like Lucille Mathews. Legend in Dallas, she started working at the Lakewood Landing in 1959, shortly after leaving Jack Ruby’s Carousel Club, and tended bar there for over 30 years. In a profile that ran in the Observer’s…
They’re approaching mythical status these days, featured recently on the Food Network’s Sugar High and in every third dessert-related conversation that takes place in the city. But if, like I was, you’re writing off Tillman’s Roadhouse’s Tableside S’mores as over-hyped gimmickry, you and your appetite are making a tactical error…
A post on food terms that no longer carry their weight has gotten some love. While we picked on “all natural,” “fun size” and “cage free” (can you see me doing dramatic “air-quotes” at my desk?), commenters chimed in with their own over-abused terms. James Scott penned my favorite: I’ve…
Gennarino’s announced last night they are officially hitting the streets. Gimme a big FINE-A-FRICKIN’-LEE! They’ve been teasing us about their Neapolitan-style friggitoria for over a month. Now, Raffealel, Armando and Alessio are ready to roll. What is a “friggitoria,” you ask? Well, in Italy it is a cart, truck or…
CBS DFW.com’s most valuable food blogger award, with which we quibbled a while back, has been announced with little fanfare. A small announcement has been added to the voting page, which reads: Congratulations Dallas MVB’S CBS DFW’ss inaugural Most Valuable Blogger winners have been announced! We want to thank everyone…
Slow Food USA is a non-profit group that works to bring good, clean and fair food to everyone in the country through grassroots movements. And this Saturday, Sept 17, they’re asking you to redefine the value of a meal by participating in a $5 challenge. “… Take back the value…
“That’s disturbing.” I’d come to the Observer’s weekly staff meeting with a small plastic bag of Sichuan peppercorns and passed them around the table. The spice isn’t a pepper, but husks of a tiny fruit grown and consumed throughout Asia. When combined with real chiles and oil, the small pods…
The Dog Stop 6857 Arapaho Road 469-360-8370 Minutes I waited for my food: 7 Times I cursed the Chase ATM for charging me a $3 fee: 765 When you inevitably get hit with a real hankerin’ for the taste of mashed, tubed-up lips and assholes, The Dog Stop has just…
Urban Dog Coffee got a new name and a facelift over the labor day weekend. While they’re not quite finished with the work, the newly branded Oak Lawn Coffee has a new paint job and logo that give the space an entirely new feel. Cool grays and blues have replaced…
Lover’s Lane Olive Oil Company opened over the weekend, an expansion from its mothership store, Grapevine Olive Oil Company. It’s at 5627 West Lovers Lane, just west of the Tollway. Owner Rebecca Knop imports more than 40 extra-virgin olive oils from around the world and balsamic vinegars from Modena, Italy,…
Wolfgang Puck strikes again in downtown Dallas, announcing a catering deal with the upcoming Museum of Nature and Science. A lengthy press release details plans for two dining concepts that in tandem “will accommodate almost every budget and need.” The museum isn’t scheduled to open until 2013, but beginning January…
Surrounded by mango-colored, sparsely decorated walls, I pondered the small bowl of grayish-brown paste, flecked with tiny specks of bright greens (from herbs) and red (from chiles). “What kind of pickle is this?” I asked, initiating that awkward dance between two people more comfortable in their native tongues. After a…
What with Central Market’s Brewtopia beginning today, Addison’s Oktoberfest starting tomorrow and several beer dinners planned for the rest of the month, there are enough brew events in the next couple weeks that your liver should be in fighting shape by the time October rolls around. Gotta build that tolerance…
The first time I encountered the small, triangular-shaped parcel I was in New York. Some friends of mine were stupid enough to take my recommendation that we arrive by train at 6 a.m., order chaat and chai at Lahori Kabab, and continue a 24-hour curry crawl through multiple boroughs before…
Well, surprise, surprise. This morning Bryan and Kathy Crelly woke up and said something like, “Soft openings are for pussies. Let’s do this!” Because just yesterday the owners of Uncle Uber’s Sammich Shop in Deep Ellum were a bit hush-hush about their opening plans, but today a “Now Open” banner…
Leslie Brenner went all radio superstar yesterday. The critic some love to hate talked for an hour with Think host Krys Boyd about the DFW dining scene, culinary trends and and the mechanics of good reviewing. Brenner described a blossoming scene that still had some hurdles to handle. While a…
We’ve talked a lot about the fried food coma the State Fair of Texas will be offering up this year, and we figure it’s time we mention a couple of new vendors who are stepping up the unfried fair fare. (If only to ask them why they have yet to…
