You with the Instagram camera. Taco Bell is looking at you. The latest idea that came down from the YUM brand Olympus: In the style of the Arlington-born Super Chix, KFC’s anti-Chick-Fil-A spot, Taco Bell will launch a hip, Instagrammy restaurant called U.S. Taco Co and Urban Taproom. Basically, it’s…
The Mecca, a diner with more than 75 years of plating greasy eggs and bacon, closed on Sunday after a tumultuous and short run at its location on Live Oak Street in East Dallas. The Mecca had been having financial difficulties since it moved from its long-time location on Harry…
Have you ever noticed the small, vacant building on the triangle of earth framed by Main Street and Exhibition Avenue near Fair Park? It’s been abandoned for years, so for the most part it’s not much to look at, but in a way it does have a bit of character…
First, some backstory: Earlier this week, Pete Wells, the food critic at The New York Times, got his man panties in a bunch over bread service at New York City restaurants. According to Wells, the practice of serving bread as a complimentary act of welcoming has been slowly receding into…
Somewhere, in a far-flung part of Fort Worth, there is a corner of land that will remain forever Texas. It’s in Texas, obviously, but that’s not quite what I’m driving at here. The BBQ Ranch, a recently opened barbecue restaurant in the corner of five acres of ranch, is so…
Four Corners Brewing Company’s head brewer, Zach Petty, started brewing at home almost a deceade ago and worked at the craft beer emporium Homebrew Headquarters for two years before he began volunteering at Four Corners last year. He studied under the previous head brewer, John Sims, for six months before…
For a long time now, the bar menu at The Libertine Bar has been pretty stagnant — a salty bowl of jalapeño soup, some hog wings, a passable burger, a massive and economical cheese board. The food was good enough that you’d place an order if you were there, maybe…
Life is about to look really good, and I am going to tell you why. Picture yourself sitting on a shaded patio as a stiff breeze rustles the palm leaves that thatch the roof above your head. Picture a cold, sweating bottle of Pacifico in your hand. There is music,…
First, a quick aside. If you come to Palapas Seafood Bar and bury yourself in Tex-Mex you’re doing yourself a huge disservice. Pick up a menu here and you’ll find descriptions of some of the best Mexican seafood to be had in Dallas — a great mix of ceviches, grilled…
What have I done? Should I be experiencing fear? What did I expect, after rolling through the KFC drive-thru, cautiously, and saying — with a finger point of purpose — “I’ll have the Double Down”? Simply because it recently returned to the menu after a probably sensible absence? Should I…
There was a big buzz when the second location of TJ’s Seafood Market opened in Highland Park in 2012. For years TJ’s had been a place to pick up a side of salmon, and maybe a few dozen oysters to shuck at home. But when owner Jon Alexis moved into…
Back in March we took a look at why a number of Dallas restaurants were headed off to the ‘burbs to open second locations. Plenty of Plano residents were coming down to Dallas for a visit to Lockhart Smokehouse, Smoke or whatever popular restaurant, so their owners eventually thought why…
It seems like the Dallas culinary scene’s thought leaders and trendsetters are getting younger and younger as each year passes. Shortly after her 29th birthday, Kirstyn Brewer, executive chef at Victor Tango’s, is leading a restaurant that’s been a Henderson Avenue institution for more than 10 years. The few years…
Design District stalwart Meddlesome Moth celebrates its fourth birthday this week. The last fourth birthday party I attended featured a face painter, a quarter sheet cake from Costco, and a trove of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot merchandise. The proprietors of the Dallas Observer’s favorite beer wall, however, will be…
There are scores of Vietnamese restaurants dotted throughout Richardson and Garland just outside of the loop, and nearly all of them are poised to sell you the cheapest lunch you’ll ever buy, in the form of banh mi. The sandwich is to Vietnam as pastrami sandwiches are to New York…
This is not the sort of sign you want to see taped to the door of a restaurant where you’ve held a long-awaited reservation for Easter Bunch, but customers who walked up to Mi Piaci’s shiny glass windows expecting drinks and food have been met with locked doors since last…
If you thought the whole “head-sucking” thing with crawfish had too much innuendo, wait until a girl holds her two index fingers parallel about a few inches apart and tells you she’s seen much bigger. That was the image captured in an article published in the Washington Post last week…
On April 28 Lakewood Brewing Co. will release the next in a limited-run series of their Temptress imperial milk stout. This new Mexcian-inspired edition will be available on draft at only a small selection of restaurants and bars around Dallas and Fort Worth. In the theme of Cinco de Mayo,…
Last night the sky above Dallas was draped with thick, dark clouds and the air was cool if not cold. It didn’t rain, but it looked like it might at any second. In short, the weather wasn’t exactly inspiring for an evening of dinner and drinks, though you’d never know…
In 2003, I wrote in these pages about a room at 3531 McKinney Ave. that had, over the course of six decades, stood witness to the people — many of them drunk — who represented the changing societal, political and demographic realities of our city. “And pretty much everyone had…
When I heard that a senior brewmaster from the Samuel Adams Brewery had packed up his kettle to be part of an outpost in Granbury, I was surprised and excited. Then, after tasting the results of Grant Wood’s move, namely in the form of Blood and Honey, I had an…
Off-Site Kitchen opened in its first tiny home on Irving Boulevard on Valentine’s Day in 2012, and only then did we know that Cupid was real and his cute girth was because he loves smashed cheeseburgers. With a renewed belief in angelic archers, we dove into this new relationship fearlessly…
