As a countdown to the Dallas Observer’s “Best of Dallas” 2010, City of Ate is serving up 100 of the favorite dishes we crave, savor and hope to scarf down again soon. These dishes are in no particular order. Some are little known, others celebrated. Some are pricey, others can…
We all know how hard it is to remember what it’s like to be up-close in a room with plants, so Dallas-based Frito-Lay’s doing us a solid this summer, along with lucky folks in five other cities, trucking around a 70-foot mobile greenhouse through the thick of our urban core…
Riding my bike everywhere saves me money and helps me stay hungry. It also means I’m perpetually sweaty. A few weeks ago, a woman in an elevator told me how much she wished she could trade in her car for a bike. I assured her she could do it. “Oh,…
The prohibition on non-local products many farmers’ markets enforce is understandable and fair and — sometimes — discouraging to food entrepreneurs. Steve Smolek uses Canadian oats for his Grapevine Grains, a fantastic product he sells at the Grapevine and Keller markets. There are Texan oats, he tells me, but he’s…
I’ve eaten Tex-Mex and Texas barbecue at least a half-dozen times each since moving here last month, but as my ate-that list was still short a traditional bowl of chili, I set out this morning for lunch at Tolbert’s in Grapevine. Tolbert’s, of course, is a legendary chili parlor, first…
Bring out the politicians! Well, I wish they hadn’t, actually, but they did. And man, do those people smile and nod, smile and nod. It’s really sort of infuriating. In the beginning — during the requisite mourning time of the last man lost — everyone was talking about Tamesha leaving and…
In part two of our three-part series, we lob a few questions at Second Floor chef J. Chastain. CoA: What is your favorite Dallas restaurant? Chastain: I can’t pick just one but I mainly enjoy restaurants that are chef-driven, highly creative but maintain a casual atmosphere. CoA: What is your…
As a countdown to the Dallas Observer’s “Best of Dallas” 2010, City of Ate is serving up 100 of the favorite dishes we crave, savor and hope to scarf down again soon. These dishes are in no particular order. Some are little known, others celebrated. Some are pricey, others can…
Lean Cuisine tastes like butt covered in butt cheese. I’d rather go on the Mary Kate & Ashley Let’s Look Dead Together Anorexia Diet than put that nasty shit in my face hole. When you microwave Lean Cuisine at work, you ought to be able to do a mercy flush…
As bartenders working in the exhausted vodka idiom have discovered, it’s hard to mix together a few flavored liquors and fruit juices and not end up with a sugary riff on Hawaiian Punch. To distract the sweet-tooth crowd from the syrupy sameness of their concoctions, some mixologists have begun leaning…
With so many publicists anxious to tell City of Ate about all the free food various restaurants are hawking, it strikes me as a mite unseemly when an eatery heralds a deal that’s just not very good. RA Sushi in Plano wants me to tell you that when the mercury…
Say city regulations never change, and Dallas remains a food-cart desert. Would you settle for a cheery corporate take on the mobile unit fad? Taco Bell’s hoping the answer’s yes, because it’s looking to bring its truck back to town. The bright purple Taco Bell Truck, which made a brief…
The free food frenzy that’s currently gripping Dallas could induce eaters to quit their jobs and loaf full time — or so feared observers during the last era of widespread food giveaways. What’s so scary about Taco Cabana offering free chicken fajita tacos on August 3? As Chris Anderson wrote…
Time was, the only chefs most of us knew by name were Julia Child and that Boyardee guy. Not anymore. With the crush of talented wizards working magic in Dallas kitchens, it pays to know just who is behind the saute pan at your favorite eatery. To help you keep…
Each week City of Ate will give you the lowdown on a local happy hour in Quittin’ Time, with the details on why you should or shouldn’t take up the featured bar or restaurant on its drink specials.Where: The Libertine Bar, 2101 Greenville Ave., 214-824-7900When: 4 to 7 p.m. Monday…
A recent New York magazine article got me thinking about saison, the Belgian farmhouse ale style that was once considered an endangered species of beer but has in recent years become a rather hot craft-brew trend. I already knew that originally they were a relatively crisp and dry low-alcohol beer,…
As a countdown to the Dallas Observer’s “Best of Dallas” 2010, City of Ate is serving up 100 of the favorite dishes we crave, savor and hope to scarf down again soon. These dishes are in no particular order. Some are little known, others celebrated. Some are pricey, others can…
When Dallas’ First Lutheran Church was new, a crowded schedule of community dinners and lifecycle events meant there was almost always someone in the kitchen, frying fish or frosting cakes. The flutter’s mostly subsided now, as hot dog suppers and smorgasboards have been supplanted by professionally catered events. “I’ve noticed…
Chefs are cranky prima donnas. Chefs will tell you — and the rest of the world, if the reality show cameras are running — that they’re overworked, underappreciated and misunderstood. Surely their patron saint would have sympathized. This Thursday is the official feast day for Martha, the traditional defender of…
A press release tells City of Ate that Krystal’s sliders are a “cultural icon,” an “experience that virtually every man, woman and child in the South has shared” and – most important – free on August 7. To celebrate the burger chain’s four years in DFW, Krystal’s giving away squared-off…
I’m a New York Mets fan in a family with die-hard Texas Rangers fans. It makes for some awkward moments. The Mets are doing what they do — falling behind with Big Apple style (heartbreaking style). The Rangers are doing what they do — swatting aside the competition as anyone…
Breaking out the dreaded first person, here. Ever since our son was born in 2008, the missus and I have done as much as we can to provide him, and by extension ourselves, with an organic/natural, locally driven diet. It’s been a challenge on our meager income. Nevertheless, we’re dedicated…
