George Bernard Shaw was an atheist, yet he observed Lent. Don’t scoff. He believed Lent a perfect occasion “for giving up reading other people’s books.” Every year at this time–between Ash Wednesday, when people empty ashtrays onto their foreheads, to Easter, when many Americans embark on their annual trek to…
You gotta love a dish that includes wet naps as dessert. Ribs are that kind of food, one that permits decent, churchgoing folks such as ourselves to behave like uncouth culinary heretics; a food that permits polite people to converse with brown rings around their mouths while spluttering chaw-hued spittle…
Perhaps the best thing to do when visiting Gershwin’s is have a drink. Actually, this is the best thing to do when visiting any restaurant, but it is particularly important at Gershwin’s because the bar is spacious, warm, and well-stocked. Plus, it has a big fish tank with fish that…
A big post card made its way into the Dallas Observer offices last week. On the front was a bright color photo of a Caribbean chicken salad with peanuts and tropical papaya. On the flip side was the recipe for the salad under the headline: “USA Peanuts…what fun tastes like.”…
The study of human behavior has come a long way since men of science read bumps on the head or measured the distance between a person’s eyes. Now, we inquire into environment or research the human brain. Yet for more than a thousand years, scholars have deliberately ignored the predictive…
You must admit, it’s an odd name for a steakhouse. Steakhouses are more apt to tout their hangar-sized wine cellars and rosters of fine red wines. But Keg Steakhouse & Bar is more than just a place to let red-meat juice moisten your chin while dribbles of Cabernet ruin your…
Rumors up and down Greenville Avenue have the Milkbar, Kim and Holly Forsythe’s quasi replica of the bar in A Clockwork Orange, in a life-threatening jammiwam. “No, we’re not closing at all,” scoffs Holly, who says she’s traced the rumor to a competitor up the street. Indeed, Forsythe boasts Milkbar…
Let’s just dispense with the President Clinton jokes, the innuendo, and the pop psychology barbs right away. Most cigar smokers are not engaged in some bizarre subconscious dilemma between penis envy and fellatio, and only a few prefer flavored cigars. (Monica-flavored–get it?) Freud acknowledged as much when he said “sometimes…
Where do you get good Texas food in Washington, D.C.? Put a Georgian in the White House and everyone makes fun of his accent. A Californian draws attention to dyed hair and plastic surgery. A president from Arkansas? Feel free to call him “Bubba.” Ah, but put a Texan in…
Over the last few years, millions have been marching to Washington and other places for a variety of reasons, swarming the Mall and pestering the media for attention. Let’s see, there’s been the Million Man March, the Million Woman March, the Million Family March, and the Million Mom March. But…
Sea Grill is an old seafood restaurant that moved from its Plano environs on Central Expressway to new digs on the North Dallas Tollway near Trinity Mills. This might have been just a boring location change, one sparked by a group of restaurant owners trying to beat the clock on…
Stars are everywhere in Dallas. And that’s not just some really lame pun, either. At some point or other, everyone who eats out or drops by a bar in Dallas–this obviously excludes parents with young kids–eventually will bump into someone famous. From Troy Aikman at PF Chang’s to Emmitt Smith…
One of the cool elements of the Paul Draper design in Lombardi Mare, besides the ice blues, the etched glass, and the swordfish heads jutting out of the wall above the semi-open kitchen, is the goldfish bowls strung up above the bar. Only they really need to give those fish…
“Ah, doughnuts,” Homer Simpson once said after a huge doughnut saved his life, “is there anything they can’t do?” It’s a rhetorical question, actually–one not meant to be answered. Doughnuts make a poor doorstop, substitute hockey puck, or objet d’art. On the other hand, they fit nicely over the spokes…
Isola Gozo, that tiny Northern Italian restaurant next to Tiffany’s and adjacent to Neiman Marcus in NorthPark Center, is gone. The once cozy restaurant is nothing more than a terra cotta-tiled, mahogany-paneled storeroom holding stacks of chairs, dishpans, marble tables, and other assorted food-service detritus. Named for the tiny Island…
Is there such a thing as a free lunch? Mothers and presidents once dismissed the notion of a free meal as pure fiction. Yet a number of “gentlemen’s clubs”–topless bars to more honest people–around the Dallas area promise just such a thing. Billboards, marquees, and banners placed boldly along Northwest…
“When they walk in, they’re all prim and proper, but give them a couple of hours…,” says Scott Blythe, bartender at the Whisky Bar on Greenville, his voice trailing off into a knowing smirk. “It’s funny to watch.” Blythe is referring to the men and women who hook up after…
Eating at a churrascaria is eating by wandering around. Or at least having many people wander around and pester you with weapons while you try to eat. Because it often seems there isn’t much eating at all to go with all of that wandering around. Once you flip the coaster…
Deep in the snows of North Korea many years ago, a division of U.S. Marines, vastly outnumbered and almost surrounded, fell back toward safety. When asked about the retreat, a Marine officer reportedly snapped, “We’re not retreating. We’re advancing in the other direction.” The point is, of course, that no…
It seems Tom Landis, one of the founders of the Dallas Texadelphia chainlet, reached his student recruitment goal for the food-service English classes he has developed in conjunction with El Centro College and the Greater Dallas Restaurant Association. To make the classes viable, Landis says he needed a minimum of…
The front door of Samui Thai Cuisine is a fascinating contraption. This is a good sign for a restaurant, because if the front door is compelling enough to stop you and invite you to fiddle with it, think of what the food must be like. The huge 500-pound red oak…
Ajiya manager and sushi chef Ray Lin stands behind the sushi bar and slaps a flounder down onto the cutting board. It’s an ugly fish, like a mutant beetle that impels itself via belly flops, the kind of insect you might find under a rock or a pile of rotten…
