Scotch-Happy Sigel’s Pours on the Hootch

Sigel’s is giving customers 68 opportunities to challenge their assumptions that they don’t like scotch. There’s almost always a tasting happening at Sigel’s, but a release touting next Wednesday evening’s event at the 5757 Greenville Ave. store caught my attention because of the sheer number of whiskeys on offer. Distillery…

Urban Crust’s Salvatore Gisellu: Simplicity is Best

Yesterday, we gave you the goods on Salvatore Gisellu, executive chef at Urban Crust. Today, we asked Gisellu to finish a few sentences for us. Tomorrow, he shares one of his recipes. (Gisellu’s words are after the ellipses.) I was raised in…Sardinia. My friends say I’m…too Italian. [He laughs.] I…

Of Broccoli-Hating, Deranged Bowels and Ex-Presidents

Abraham Lincoln had plenty of notable characteristics, but a healthy appetite wasn’t among them. Even his stepmother wasn’t impressed by his eating habits: “Abe was a moderate eater,” she recalled. Lincoln typically ate an egg for breakfast and an apple for lunch — if he remembered to eat at all…

Dude Food Has Beer For Breakfast

Barbec’s8949 Garland Road214-321-5597Dude Factor: 10, or The Hangover, on a scale of 1 (Very Bad Things) to 10.  A good friend of mine describes Barbec’s as “where East Dallas meets East Texas.” Walk in any morning and you’ll see what he means — you might rub elbows with contractors and…

So, You Think You Know Meat?

For this week’s Dish column, rather than eat at another restaurant, I spent time in the company of people who will ultimately choose the meats served there. Many meat industry professionals — the experts who work at ranches, slaughterhouses, distributorships, groceries and chain restaurants — get their start as collegiate…

James Beard Foundation Award Semifinalists Include Five from Big D

The James Beard Foundation this morning released its list of semifinalists for its prestigious restaurant and chef awards, honoring hundreds of culinary visionaries and their home eateries — including five in the Dallas area. Four entries on the list — Stephan Pyles, The Mansion on Turtle Creek, The French Room…

Smoking Declines and Food Fandom Grows. Coincidence?

Smoke-Free Texas, a coalition agitating for a state law prohibiting smoking in restaurants and bars, this month released a study showing people would eat out more often if they didn’t have to contend with secondhand smoke. No offense to Smoke-Free Texas, but that’s hardly a surprising finding. Even most smokers…

BEE (Best Enchiladas Ever) Lives Up to Its Name

BEE: Best Enchiladas Ever (brought to you by Monica Greene of Monica’s Aca Y Alla) calls itself an “enchiladeria.” To me, “enchiladeria” sounds like the immediate effects of eating one too many spicy enchiladas. “Dude, that meal gave me severe enchiladeria.” But, as it turns out, it just means that…

Texas Aggies Know Their Meat

A panel of judges at the National Meat Association’s second-ever University Cook-off this week was partial to the University of Idaho’s bacon sausage, but a stuffed pork loin created by Texas A&M took the people’s choice prize. “I ate it, and I liked it,” says operations manager Jen Kempis-Persons. Apologizing…

The Eaters in Chief

The federal holiday Americans observe next Monday was originally designed to honor George Washington. But when the government standardized its celebrations in 1968, they stuck the annual commemoration between Washington and Lincoln’s birthdays, figuring they might as well lump in Honest Abe. By the 1970s, a dozen states — including…

Have You Seen the Muffin, Man?

“Cupcakes will be out and muffins will be in,” a Central Market spokeswoman promised me in a recent e-mail heralding the grocery store’s newest line of baked goods. “You heard it here first!” I’m all for dethroning cupcakes, but haven’t muffins already had their moment? Even if Central Market’s muffins…

Honey Mussels Elsewhere, not Dallas

Honey Mussels, a specific strain of mussels named for their amber shell and unique flavor, may be garnering culinary popularity as they make their way to U.S. cities, popping up in places like New York, but they don’t seem to have made it into Dallas — yet. The mussels originated…

Crawfish Season Off to Slow Start Thanks to Winter Storms

I grew up in East Texas in a predominantly Cajun family, so crawfish season always makes me nostalgic for the days of sitting in the back seat of my dad’s truck with a wiggling 20 pound burlap sack of mudbugs. At first, I was horrified for being responsible for sending…

Peticolas Brewing Company Sets Sights On Dallas Location

Deep Ellum Brewing Company looks to be on pace to be the city’s first non-brewpub microbrewery, but it may not be the only one for long. Attorney and homebrewer Michael Peticolas was looking into investing in a new brewery in another city. Yet the more he investigated, the more he…

Seasons 52’s Tiny Treats: You Earned ‘Em

Let’s face it, you’ve been good to yourself. You’ve resisted the urge to patronize multi-caloric palaces of pleasure and instead have chosen to dine at Seasons 52, where every item on the menu is less than 475 calories. Well, now that you’ve polished off your ripe plum tomato flatbread and…

Taco Joint Gets the Love It Deserves

Breakfast tacos are as Texan as Waco’s unofficial status as Austin and DFW’s bathroom break along Intestate 35. Breakfast tacos are as Texan as football and the state’s other top sport, historical revisionism. I love Texas. I love breakfast tacos. Love led me to Taco Joint in East Dallas. The…

First Look: Elevation Burger Not Scaling New Heights

Burgers and fries will never be good for you. But the conceit behind Elevation Burger, a small chain that recently opened its first of three planned DFW locations in the Hillcrest Shopping Center, is that fast food could be good for the earth.Elevation Burger claims to be the only franchised…

Good Eating: A Top Chef Rematch

Whether it’s eating food, drinking wine, watching reality television or sitting on furniture you enjoy best, Dallas has some charitable opportunities for you. The Event: Bonne Santé The Cause: National Kidney Foundation and North Texas community members Touted as a “showcase of wining and dining,” Bonne Santé will feature a…