Kampai Sushi & Grill is a new restaurant on Addison Circle next to Antonio Ristorante and across from the just-opened Avanti Euro Bistro. But this isn’t the important thing. The important thing is that Kampai faces “Blueprints at Addison Circle,” a structure that, according to the city of Addison, is…
Time was that the 99-cent threshold for pricing was the sole domain of the grocery store, or at least it seemed that way. It’s an old strategy. Knock a penny off a price and make it seem like the customer is saving a buck, while the cent saved ends up…
It’s not surprising that a venue like Ciudad D.F. surfaced like a bubble on Dallas asphalt. What’s surprising is that it has taken this long. Ciudad is Monica Greene’s (of Monica’s Aca y Alla in Deep Ellum) tribute to her hometown and a Dallas interpretation of the cuisine found in…
Fish stink Former Fish chef Chris Svalesen says he was vexed to read in The Dallas Morning News that he was close to a consultancy agreement with Nick and John Natour, owners of The Enclave, to help them reopen Gershwin’s. Though Svalesen confirms he chatted with the Natours about the…
There are a few things that Ellington’s doesn’t get quite right. One of them is a statement in the restaurant’s publicity blurb: “We like to fry,” it states. “It may not be politically correct, but one taste of our fried chicken, chicken-fried steak, or pan-fried catfish, and you’ll swear off…
French meat munch Emerging Brands, the division of Carlson Restaurants Worldwide that came up with Samba Room, is scouting Dallas for space to house a new concept: Mignon. Billed as a 1960s French steakhouse that brings jazz and blues back to dining, Mignon will feature steak, whole trout, fondue, iced…
Maritage is named after a wine category — it’s actually spelled Meritage — created several years ago by an association of California winemakers. Those winemakers had a problem: Most of the world’s truly great wines comprise blends of vintages made from different grapes, most notably those grown in Bordeaux. There…
Fish has always been a funny fin. It could dazzle you with its scaled wonders, then turn around and disappoint you with a few beached blunders. But it would always hook you with a hefty check for the trouble. Launched in 1996 by businessman Steven Upright and chef Chris Svalesen,…
Sports bar blues Frank Carabetta, whose Frantoni’s Italian Café on Henderson was snuffed out back in 1997 because of Central Expressway construction, says Frankie’s Sports Bar & Grill, the venue he planned to open last October on McKinney Avenue in the former Spasso’s space, has hit some snags. “We had…
It sounds more like a garage than a restaurant. From somewhere more like Toledo, Ohio, than Vancouver, B.C. A place that sends its management on culinary swings through Oklahoma and Iowa instead of Bordeaux, Italy, and Napa. But earl’s is no ordinary dinner chain. In 1955, Earl “Bus” Fuller, a…
Bizu kisses off It’s long been rumored that Bizú, Alberto Lombardi’s Dallas-French bistro on McKinney, was sluggish. But the folks at Lombardi’s Inc., including Lombardi himself, have for weeks denied that any change was afoot. Then Bizú, which means “little kiss” in French, closed its doors this past Saturday. The…
Right there, in a glass case just as you walk up to the counter at Chipotle Mexican Grill on McKinney Avenue is a T-shirt (for sale) with a clever maxim. “Usually, when you roll something this good, it’s illegal,” it says. This statement refers to Chipotle’s massive 20-ounce burritos, which…
Two days before Casa Del Lago opened in February 1999, chef-owner Hector Angeles was looking for something Italian to slip onto his menu, but he didn’t want pasta. He wanted something divergent, maybe twisted. He was stuck. “I saw a contest in a magazine about what you can create with…
Anzu plunge Anzu, the hip Pacific Rim restaurant with hundreds of little origami birds hanging from its stark black ceiling by little strings, just snapped its tether. The spot at McKinney Avenue near Knox named after the Japanese word for “apricot” filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy February 10. The company…
Hot spot goes to pot The question isn’t why it happened. It’s why it took so long. After a yearlong decline marked by key employee exits, bankruptcy, legal spats, canceled lunch service, and a period without a liquor license during which booze was dispensed for free, Toscana on McKinney Avenue…
A shokado is a type of bento box, a high-sided black container divided into four equal compartments into which tiny portions of meticulously crafted food are placed. Ino Japanese Bistro mimics the shokado bento, taking its minimal elegance to engaging extremes. Walls are bare and white, trimmed with dark dusty…
As a rescue effort, Fishbowl isn’t bad. In fact, this retro lounge fitted from the stuck-up bar affixed to the Stephan Pyles and Michael Cox’s AquaKnox would be a swell place to nibble and sip even if it weren’t next door to the hyper-upscale restaurant. What Fishbowl proves is that…
“You speak Hindi?” asked our server. Our eyes were glued to the television screen. Our mouths were chewing bits of lamb samosa ($3.95), delicious flaky fried pastry pockets jammed with ground lamb, cashews, cilantro, and onion. “No,” I said. “Then how you know?” he asked, waving his hand toward the…
Machu Picchu is Dallas’ first Peruvian restaurant. It’s named for a mysterious ancient Inca town set on a spectacular precipice nearly 8,000 feet above sea level on the eastern slopes of the Andes. The place was essentially unknown until an American archaeologist stumbled across it in 1911 under a blanket…
Drink up In a move that’s sure to titillate cork dorks and inflame Texas liquor wholesalers and retailers by potentially pestering their profit margins, U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon in Houston ruled late last week that a Texas law prohibiting direct wine shipments to consumers was unconstitutional. In a 43-page…
Maybe this is an evolution of some sort, the kind where the mutations and variations creep at such a slow pace that you barely notice. But Tramontana, a cozy little restaurant in Preston Center with the walls painted to look like the poster-infested bedroom of a café-cultured Francophile, is changing…
Still fishing Former Fish partner and executive chef Chris Svalesen is still struggling to reel in his own Dallas restaurant after exiting Fish last summer. First he tried to pull one together in the former San Simeon space on McKinney Avenue called Copper River. But his partner took a hike…
