White tablecloths, good service and, oh, yes, good food, aren’t enough to sell a restaurant anymore. Restaurants are theme parks, like movie theaters and malls, and Texas itself, unlike Nebraska, is a favorite theme. In Dallas especially, we seem to need reassurance that we live in the land of Lonesome…
Don’t you want one? Notable Dallasites donated pinatas to be raffled off at “Cerveza y Quesa at the Mesa.” Take your chance on a Dallas Cowboys pinata filled with jerseys and memorabilia. Sara Hickman’s is filled with CDs, Star Canyon’s with cookbooks and packaged foods; another is filled with $200…
Guy Calluaud is a flexible guy. Once the proprietor of Dallas’ top French restaurant, now the Hard Rock Cafe’s parking lot, Guy and his wife have since opened and closed several, mostly Gallic, eateries. The current place on Lovers has been open a year or so, and even in that…
At one time, when revolving rooftop restaurants were the latest thing, it was standard restaurant wisdom that the higher you went to dine, the worse the food. (Windows on the World at the top of the World Trade Center in pre-terrorist times being the exception that proved the rule.) Last…
As a child, I was taught, almost every autumn, that Columbus proved once and for all that the world is round. Why is it only now that we’re becoming aware that it’s global? This would be one of those “duh” concepts, except that we use the word “global” not to…
Right now I’m disturbed by definitions. The language seems to be getting less and less precise. “Family-style,” for instance. And “home cooking.” What could these terms mean in 1995? Not what they seem, that’s for sure. Avila’s is a real “family-style,” “home-cooking” restaurant. But it doesn’t serve food in communal…
We want fresh-made pasta, fresh-ground coffee, fresh herbs, and just-squeezed juice. In the age of convenience, we value immediacy, freshness, and old-fashioned “elbow grease” more than ever. So don’t be surprised that the Great Harvest Bread Company actually grinds its own flour right there in the bakery and makes it…
Lots–maybe the majority–of people are convinced that restaurant reviewers live in the advertisers’ pocket. Many times I’ve been assured by “people who know” (but don’t know what I do for a living) that all restaurant reviews are paid for by restaurant advertising, that no review is an unvarnished, honest opinion,…
Advertising would lead you to believe that Americans are living in a fat-free zone. Everything that can be is touted as less fat, low-fat, no fat. Even products that never did have fat in them have “No Fat” blaring from the bag. Tortilla chips are misguidedly baked, not fried, in…
What a prix fixe! For $35 (half of which is tax-deductible), you can sample food and wine from Star Canyon, Mediterraneo, Gaspar’s, Parigi, Dakota’s, Cafe Margaux, The French Room, Blue Mesa Grill, Laurels, and dozens more of Dallas’ best restaurants. Plus–the reason food industry events are such profitable charity–you’ll be…
Cake check: A good cake, as I point out frequently, is hard to find. Celebrity makes a decent divinity icing; Highland Park Cafeteria makes good chocolate cake. But Sweet Endings in Deep Ellum (or Plano) takes the cake. Their whole cakes start at $25 and they recently came up with…
And another nostalgic note: I went back to Los Vaqueros recently, Pete Dominguez’ retrenchment restaurant in Snider Plaza. Pete Dominguez has been serving “Austin-style” Mexican food in Dallas for over 30 years, the 30 years that Dallas grew from an ambitious town on the prairie to the mess it is…
Along with the return to mythical “family values,” an old-fashioned emphasis on the three “R’s” in school, and, of course, the Wonderbra, comes another look backward through rose-colored glasses: the renaissance of that original American meal, steak and potatoes. Even back before the Revolution, there was a “Beef-Stake Club” in…
I was just saying that what Deep Ellum needs is some basic businesses, like grocery stores, when I hear that the G-spot has opened on Main Street. That’s “G” for groceries, mostly, although you can rent X-rated videos from Jules Armstrong while you’re picking up a box of mac and…
Interpreting is a dangerous business. My trusted friend Hisashi (whom you’ve met before in this column) recently spent a lot of time following the baseball wonder boy Nomo around for Japanese television. He endured the day-from-hell at Arlington Stadium and he says it’s absolutely true that Nomo’s interpreter either didn’t…
Preston Road North is the unlikeliest new dining strip. It’s totally not fashionable, totally not a place to hang out, but evidently the neighborhood is totally filled with hungry diners. Have they just been discovered or was everyone between LBJ and Oak Lawn on a diet until recently? Lately I…
Menu writing should be taught (or maybe it is) in those culinary academies that turn out all our chefs. Or perhaps, along with the health inspection, a spelling and grammar test should be required. To read the menus in many restaurants, you’d think there were no rules of writing, in…
One of my favorite food memories is eating a cucumber on the street in Istanbul. It was hot, we were tired out by haggling in the Grand Bazaar, discouraged by the experience of being blonde in Turkey, and tired of avoiding fresh fruit for the sake of our guts. A…
Diana, a Renaissance woman. Baker par excellence, farrier, seamstress, and dietitian. Vegetarian. Bakes the cakes and cookies for Street’s Famous Sandwiches because she knows Gene’s mother. What better recommendation could there be? –Mary Brown Malouf Street’s Famous Sandwiches, 4246 Oak Lawn, 526-2505…
There’s a lot of discussion about what Deep Ellum needs. More residential space, more retail, better restaurants, fewer kids, a grocery store. What KJ and the donut lady decided it needed wasn’t on anybody’s list, but there’s certainly not another one in the neighborhood: 24-hour coffee and donuts. The donuts…
People think in categories when it comes to restaurants. The typical dinner out begins with a conversation: “I don’t feel like cooking. Want to go out? Want to eat Mexican? Italian? Pizza? You feel like Thai? Vietnamese? Wanna just get a Tombstone and a video? Steak? Seafood?” For most of…
The last time I wrote about Dakota’s was several years ago, for another publication. I remember on that particular weeknight visit that I was just about the only woman there–the whole restaurant was populated by pinstripes, with a very few power powder puffs with jabots on theirs. But on my…
