Six weeks of things fried and greasy, slopped in barbecue sauce or glopped from a buffet tub–damn it’s been great.Mostly.This year was a short one, considering we started City of Ate less than two months ago. The Dude Food dudes return to action January 6, 2009, diving weekly into the…
Our resident political curmudgeon gets around. Between the office, city council meetings, back to the office, over to that proposed inland port, pausing to scoff at the site of Dallas’ signature bridge and the road to nowhere then to the office once again for a quip-trading session with Wilonsky, he…
Normally an end of the year Top 10 list should account for at least ten items–more if a tie score happens to muddle things. But the powers behind City of Ate (which would be us) sorta procrastinated until long about November, so…well, we only got around to testing out the…
For those wondering why things got quiet over on Unfair Park for a couple hours Friday afternoon, you can blame a City Of Ate taste test gone horribly wrong. The self-proclaimed World’s First Extreme Relaxation Beverage, Drank is marketed as an “anti-energy drink,” with the tagline “Slow your roll.” Rather…
Scene, 62 Main, The Club, Nove Italiano, Metro Grill, Sushi on McKinney, Martini Park, Brothers..The roll call of restaurant closings throughout this embattled year makes 2008 sound like a culinary Iwo Jima. We can almost picture John Wayne poised on the black volcanic sands, reading off the names: Bice? Didn’t…
You may have noticed a little bit of a chill in the air this Monday (specifically a wind chill of 18 degrees). You might have even car-skated over a thin little layer of ice on your way home from the city’s cubicles and retail counters. These elements and some additional…
A little bit of holiday party advice from those fun-loving folks at Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America. Seems in this litigious nation of ours that a few hosts remain unaware of their personal liability if, say, Uncle Eddie downs half a bottle of bourbon at the family gathering,…
If the potential for boredom and awkward conversation make you dread the family togetherness that comes with the holidays, allow me to make a suggestion: Farkle. Basically, Farkle is a game in which you roll six dice and gain points for 1s, 5s and various number combinations. The winner is…
Tortilla chip bucket refill count: 4 Gallons of mouth-on-fire salsa consumed count: 2 Sometimes you just feel like eating something shitty good. Something you know is going to stick to your insides and probably shorten your life by just a little bit, but it tastes so good it’ll be worth…
Years ago, in response to a seeming onslaught of prepackaged goods and quick-service chain restaurants, a few activist gourmands began spouting the moral superiority of “slow foods.” Not just organic or free-range, mind you, but also locally grown and “sustainable.” Forgetting that in the days when people ate natural foods…
Texas should be ashamed of itself.In the old days this state produced larger than life heroes–men like James Fannin, Clyde Barrow and “Hollywood” Henderson. But now, after two from the Bush clan (three if you count Neil), a Rove and the guys at Enron, all we can cling to is…
A chef who speaks with the highest authority just emailed to voice his chagrin at the choice of Five-Sixty for Wolfgang Puck’s soon to open venue atop Reunion Tower. At least a decade or so ago, Puck’s staff weren’t so trend-conscious (or wooden) when it came to naming rights. The…
Grimaldi’s Pizzeria3636 McKinney, Suite 190214-559-4611 Last night my ladyfriend and I decided on a pizza dinner at Grimaldi’s in the West Village. If you haven’t been yet, Grimaldi’s is the first Dallas location of the chain which has served famously delicious coal-fired pizza pies to dudes like Frank Sinatra (awesome)…
Sushi Zushi3858 Oak Lawn AvenueDallas, TX 75219214-522-7253 Promised delivery time: 45 minutesActual delivery time: 26 minutes Plucky, aptly-named tele-server: 9 pointsZippy delivery: 10 pointsFood temp: 10 pointsTentacle tenderness: 8 pointsPoints deducted for timid tuna: 2 Total Score: 90 Overall Standings Yumi To Go 98 Sushi Zushi 90 Picasso’s Pizza and…
The safety minded-folks at the Texas Alcoholic Beverages Commission (otherwise known as the notorious TABC) require establishments to post this deterrent somewhere near the entry. Gives those packing unlicensed heat a chance to waive down the valet: “hey, could you throw this Thompson in the trunk?”Unfortunately the designers of Fedora…
Last week a reader commented on the impression, shared by many, that Dallas Observer (that’s us) reviews tend to follow Dallas Morning News (them) pieces by a week or two. For instance, their Bill Addison tore into Pyramid on November 21. We did the same in the December 4 issue…
Sean Avery’s not the only one who has a problem with leftovers.”I hated them as a kid,” admits James Neel, chef at Tramontana. “I didn’t want the same thing two days in a row.”Wait…are we talking about the same thing? Maybe not. Fortunately, cooks in the city treat sloppy seconds…
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Not having seen 300, Hollywood’s beefcake version of the ancient grievances between Persia and the Greek city-states, I must settle for a more dated image of Turkey’s once-great warriors. On stones unearthed over time by scholars—you know, those sullen experts we’ve preferred to ignore ever since popular culture turned to…
Here’s to a long life and a merry one. A quick death and an easy one. A pretty girl and an honest one. A cold pint- and another one! –Irish toast (one of many)Trinity Hall is the official meeting spot for the Dallas chapter of the 1759 Society, a group…
So good, its bano–isn’t that the slogan? There’s no shame in the occasional trip to Taco Bueno. Hard to resist the convenience and the colorful signage. Besides, if Dean Fearing can take guests to Primo’s–only a few steps up–the rest of us are welcome to pick up fast food. But…
The first of this morning’s PR shots came from the folks at Abacus–something about AAA’s Five Diamond Award and, more importantly, revisiting the moment when chef Kent Rathbun lifted (as in picked it up off the ground with his bare hands) an elk on Iron Chef America. But you can…
