Cool & Hot is Sweet

My 2-year-old son loves three things: cars; his teddy bear, Rupert; and tacos. So, after a morning spent at a local vintage and custom car show, tacos were in order, this time at Cool & Hot. The Oak Cliff taquería inhabits a converted gas station with an operational car wash…

Battle Over Mi Cocina Name in Colorado Ends With Truce

Our sister paper in Denver today reports the M Crowd Restaurant Group has settled its lawsuit with a small Northwest Denver restaurant operating under the name “Mi Cocina”. According to the settlement’s terms, Saul Sierra may continue to use the name in a limited area of Colorado, a result that’s…

Restaurant Week Was All About Beef

While almost every Super Bowl visitor was told a different story, it looks like Dallas is still very much a steak town. A full six months after KRLD Restaurant Week, organizers have released numbers from the charitable event. The annual fundraiser raised a record $605,000 for the North Texas Food…

In the Bag: Lean Cuisine Codes a Lunch Obsession

So why have the women in your office been politely refusing your invitations to lunch lately?  It’s because they’re collecting codes.  Codes for what you ask.  Codes for a free lunch bag from Lean Cuisine’s 2011 Red Carpet Collection.  At least four women in my office are purposely skipping lunch…

Central Texas Pitmasters Aren’t Going to SeaWorld

SeaWorld in Orlando this week announced it had invited local smokehouses to participate in its annual “Bands, Brew & BBQ” festival, an innovation that would make even more sense at the theme park’s South Texas location. But a spokesperson for SeaWorld San Antonio says the park has no plans to…

Jack Frost Jacked with Local Farmers, But Not Too Much

While most of us may have celebrated those snow days earlier this month, you can bet the local farmers weren’t making snow-angels. Because it undoubtedly affected crops, City of Ate set out to discover how badly those February-frosts tinged the local leafage — specifically the farmers contributing to Community Supported…

Del Taco’s Coming to Dallas

Del Taco’s signed the first franchisee it plans to recruit in its drive to open 80 restaurants around the Dallas area. Guillermo Perales’ Sun Holdings, which operates Popeye’s, Golden Corral, Burger King and CiCi’s Pizza restaurants, has added Del Taco to its portfolio. “We wanted to add a Mexican QSR…

King of Hushpuppies Debuts Product in Dallas

Dallas’ deep-frying ways have drawn the attention of a 200-year-old mix and meal manufacturer from North Carolina, which recently introduced its products to Texas. “We just wanted to expand our brand outside of the Southeast because of the prominent frying that’s going on there,” explains Keith Vines, House-Autry Mills’ vice…

Pho Tay Do: Venturing Out of Chinatown for Fiery Vietnamese Soup

The second most popular Vietnamese noodle soup, behind only pho, is arguably the fiery and fragrant bun bo hue. The vermicelli dish originated in the central Vietnamese city of Hue and gets its signature taste and aroma via chilies and lemongrass. Word is, the best place around Dallas for a…

John’s Cafe: Go. Get Biscuits. Now!

Breakfast. It’s the most important meal of the day. And at John’s Cafe, it’s goooood. John’s also serves up super cheapo lunches, but their breakfast is so otherworldly and giant, you’ll be so full of egg and coffee and awesome that when noon rolls around, you can just burp pancake…

La Fiorentina: Generic Doesn’t Always Equal Cheap.

Foremost among the many charms of Lucia, the homey Italian bistro that’s riveted local food lovers since it opened in Oak Cliff late last year, is the restaurant’s singularity. Eaters may swoon over chef David Uygar’s expert salumi or front-of-the-house deaconess Jennifer Uygar’s twinkle-eyed warmth, but neither food nor service…

Matt’s Rancho Martinez Is Not Closing

I’m not sure when Dallas’s Only Daily started using the East Dallas Times as its go-to source for restaurant comings and goings. But, sweet fancy Moses, Bruce — pick up the phone before you report that Matt’s Rancho Martinez in Lakewood is closing.Wasn’t very hard to get Matt Martinez III…

Shinsei’s Jason Czaja: Food is the Universal Language

Jason Czaja, the 32-year-old executive chef at Shinsei, wasn’t planning to make food his life, but it certainly seems to be life’s plan for him. He was studying music performance at the University of Iowa, when he, as Czaja puts it, “unknowingly started my career.” He was working at a…

Clock Not Ticking on Matt’s Rancho Martinez, Manager Says

A manager at Matt’s Rancho Martinez this afternoon categorically denied a report by The Dallas Morning News that the Lakewood fixture’s closing next year. “We’re not going anywhere,” he said. “There’s no truth to it.” The manager, who identified himself as “David,” says he’s heard rumors about the restaurant’s impending…

Central 214 Serves Up a New Tasting Menu

Need dinner plans? Three-course meals can be quite expensive, but if you have $30, check out the new “Pick Your Plates” tasting menu at Central 214 (5680 North Central Expressway). Naughty Chef Blythe Beck’s menu includes new entrée options in addition to favorites like chicken and waffles and diver scallops…

Austin Newcomer Creates Guide to Area’s Barbecue Joints

Gloria Corrall, the author of the newly self-published Barbecue Lover’s Guide to Austin was happy to talk to me when I called this morning: She just had to finish chewing a piece of smoked turkey first. Corrall’s eaten plenty of smoked meat since she moved from San Francisco to Austin…

Dr Pepper in Japan Looks Darn Exciting

Perusing the Daily What this morning, we came across the photo from Reddit user adam1988, who posted the above photo with the title “Just a Dr. Pepper can from Okinawa.” So, in case you’re keeping track of Texas-based Dr Pepper updates today: Can art for the soda in Japan looks…

Dallas Chefs Emerge as Leaders in Food & Wine Poll

With one voting weekend left in Food & Wine’s People’s Best New Chef online poll, the Southwest category’s shaping up as a three-way contest, with DFW darlings Casey Thompson and Tim Byres leading the pack. As of this morning, Thompson and Byres were locked in a vise-tight race, with Thompson…

Houston Beer Lovers Plan Dallas Extravaganza

The organizers of Dallas’ first-ever Beer Week say the city’s lack of microbreweries has proven to be a selling point in luring leading craft brewers here for the November event. “Because there aren’t a lot of local breweries here, other breweries stand a chance,” Cathy Clark explains. “Breweries are realizing…