Local Artist Creates Stir With Wooden Utensils

Dallas woodworker Sean Springer’s trunk show at We Are 1976 this week includes tables, bookcases and chairs, none of which appear to be especially good to eat. But Springer, a Rhode Island School of Design grad, has entered the edible realm with a line of chopsticks, spoons and coffee stirrers…

Brownstone Serves Up Biscuits and Flapjacks at New Sunday Brunch

Fort Worth’s Brownstone has decided to celebrate its four-month anniversary by launching Sunday brunch. The Fort Worth restaurant – the gastronomic love child of Dallas’ Top Chef finalist and fan favorite, Casey Thompson (late of the Mansion on Turtle Creek and Shinsei), and local club-e-sario Sam Sameni — is bringing…

Love Convection: Meddlesome Moth

First truth: I didn’t go to Meddlesome Moth on a date. Second truth: I did go there with three couples and my “date”–a girlfriend. Third truth: A man did pay for my meal. So the dinner had some date-like aspects to it, right? Not really. The man who paid for…

Lettuce Wrap Up: Puck Wolfgang! and Frozen Ghost Vodka

As the State Fair roller coaster eases back into the station, the setting sun is casting a clichéd orange glow and Dallas bloggers are beginning to reminisce about what they wish they’d seen. Five Sixty initially wanted to see a gaggle of veterans in pressed khakis and pastel polos. The…

Restaurant Ava’s Southern Brunch Done Way, Way Right

​Walking into the crisp, white linen-and-dark wood decor of Rockwall’s Restaurant Ava on Sunday morning was a welcome change from my weekend of fireside beer-swilling in East Texas. It’s not that campfire kebabs and Jiffy Pop don’t make for a great meal, but it’s nice to go from one extreme…

The Tacos of the State Fair of Texas

Novel and atrocious fried foods aren’t the only foodstuffs available at the State Fair of Texas. Among the alternatives are tacos, one of which threw me for a loop. To begin my hunt, I searched the State Fair’s Food Finder web page for tacos. With the search results in hand,…

Scotching Bourbon for the Winter

Spirits aren’t seasonal in the same way as tomatoes and strawberries, but drinkers tend to craft their own rules about which liquor’s right for which time of year. And for many drinkers, October’s the month to transition between their summer and winter selections. My friend Bill Addison (a familiar name…

Underground Sushi: Tuna Rolls in the Tunnels

When I first moved to Dallas, and was trying to figure out my neighborhood’s food scene, my online research kept pointing me toward Kuai, a dumpling joint on Elm Street. I scoured Elm Street, but couldn’t find it. I had no idea then that the restaurant was beneath me, tucked…

Ba Le in Garland Lays It on Thick

It always surpsrises me when I return home from Vietnam a few pounds lighter. Keep in mind that the nation still is a third world country, and the general mindset of the Vietnamese isn’t as diet-fanatical as it is here. Although I’ve traveled back to Vietnam quite frequently over the…

Top Five Best and Worst Halloween Treats

There’s always that one house in the neighborhood that rocks the effin’ ween out of Halloween. The house that every kid is excited about. That house that has such good candy, it inspires adults to pimp out their not-even-eating-solid-foods-yet infants. So, how do you become the best Halloween candy-havin’ house…

North Texas Food Bank Sets State Fair Record

Tallies of how much food was consumed at the State Fair of Texas this year aren’t yet available, but the amount of food donated was record-setting. The North Texas Food Bank this morning announced its haul over a series of collection Wednesdays came to 177,558 pounds, breaking the previous record…

Brian Luscher Reaches for the Duck Fat: A Recipe for Pork Rilletes

Today Brian Luscher takes us into his kitchen at The Grape where he shows us how to make a pate-like dish that originates from the Indre-et-Loire department of France (the same region where Rosewood Mansion chef Bruno Davaillon hails from). The meat is traditionally cooked for long periods of time,…

Chef Tell: Morgan “Straight Man From Texas” Wilson Wins

​Let’s just say that last night on Top Chef Just Desserts, Dallas’ Morgan Wilson made quite an impression. Good, bad, sweet, saucy and everything else in between. He was even bold enough to overshadow the super enthusiastic and over-confident Team Go Diva (Flamboyant Zac, aka Zamboyant, Yigit and bitchy Heather…

Fair’s Cooking Contests Attract Young Top Chef Wannabes

Matronly home cooks clutching recipe cards inherited from their kitchen-wise grannies are no longer shoo-ins to win culinary contests at the State Fair of Texas. The number of young men competing in the various contests featuring Dr Pepper, Spam and Malt-o-Meal has been steadily increasing over the past decade, but…

High-End Dallas Chefs Devise Vegan Dishes

The vast majority of fine dining dishes are fraught with ingredients that give vegans the willies. High-end chefs instinctively saturate their food with butter and cream, costuming even the most innocuous vegetables in animal products. But for one week this month, vegan options will be on the menu at five…

Paul Quinn College Declares Student Farm a Success

Paul Quinn College’s community garden, the most visible element of a massive rebuilding effort the troubled school launched earlier this year, produced one thousand pounds of food this summer. Director of Service Learning Elizabeth Wattley reported on the garden’s progress at yesterday’s Pecha Kucha, a design-driven show-and-tell held in conjunction…

A State Fair Summation From a Food-Loving Arkansawyer

Editor’s Note: Of the gazillion people who yearly visit the State Fair of Texas, a good number of them are outlanders. One of those visitors this year offered to share her fair reflections with City of Ate. Kat Robinson, who blogs about food back in Arkansas, reveals here which fried…

Central Market Canvassing For Cheese Votes

Central Market is hoping its patrons can muster more enthusiasm for Limburger and Gouda than they’ve shown for the current crop of political candidates. The grocer is rolling out a cheese promotion tomorrow that calls upon shoppers to vote for their favorite cheeses in an online poll. “Which cheese is…

Bongos Latin Grill: The Only Catch of the Day

The odds were against us when we set off west on Northwest Highway armed only with the address of a taquería and a phone number that was out of service or recently changed. At least we knew there were other taquerías and Mexican restaurants in the vicinity of Webb Chapel…