Beer occupies a spot of heady importance in our lives. It accounts for 88 percent of all alcohol–by volume–consumed in the United States. We bowl “beer frames,” see through “beer goggles,” and develop well-rounded “beer bellies.” We drink, on a per capita basis, about 340 bottles of the stuff each…
Decorum. Grace. Poise. Elegance. Manners. You can pick up the basics watching old movies–Henry Fonda in Fort Apache, Paul Henreid in Casablanca, films in which men dressed for dinner, sat upright, ordered precisely, and never belched. But that was then; this is now. Image and etiquette consultant (yes, such a…
Mignon postures as a Yankee’s notion of Paris during the ’60s: Audrey Hepburn, Catherine Deneuve, hip American jazz, and pill-bug Citrons that would look way cool in 21st-century Plano if they didn’t have the reliability and durability of communist-bloc concrete. Just portside of the hostess stand, above a cabinet that…
It might have been a tip-off when general manager Karim Alaoui packed it in for Lombardi Mare in Addison. Then again, maybe not. But just a few weeks after Alaoui skipped the “swank” Venus Steakhouse & Supper Club, a message on the restaurant’s phone suspiciously stated that the phone is…
Psychologists say football brings out our basest instincts, brutal and animalistic. Historians equate the sport with ancient Rome’s gladiatorial contests. Anthropologists find ritualistic behavior. Ah, to hell with them. If you want to discover the true meaning of football in American culture, you must examine the food we eat during…
The best thing about India Palace, aside from some of the food, is that the press kit contains a sheet of “frequently asked questions,” or FAQs in contemporary parlance. No fooling. There’s this question about owner Pardeep Sharma: Q: Is Mr. Sharma from India? A: Mr. Pardeep Sharma is an…
Dallas Texadelphia founder Tom Landis seems a little annoyed with his fellow Dallas restaurateurs these days. The burr? He’s underwhelmed by the enthusiasm with which they’ve embraced his 3-year-old pet project: food-service English-as-a-second-language classes for Spanish-speaking restaurant employees. Landis calls the project Gringo Lingo, a coinage that may have annoyed…
Maybe I’m dim, but I recently found myself doing endless Central Expressway service-road laps–not to outrun the white Ford pickup I cut off exiting onto Campbell, but to find Rasoi, an Indian restaurant hugging Central Expressway. It’s not that the preparations weren’t in place. I had the address. I had…
The Varsity in Atlanta serves some of the greasiest fries this side of a school cafeteria. Their burgers taste like several pounds of burnt vegetable oil. The attraction of this landmark restaurant is the contrived rudeness of the restaurant’s staff, who shout “what’ll ya have, ain’t got all day” repeatedly…
If there’s one thing Caribbean Red does with exhausting ardor, it’s play with its name, at least the latter part of it. Stroll into the place, under the blazing scarlet neon sign, past the little vestibule strewn with litter, and you’ll enter an expansive bar-lounge-dining-room hybrid so saturated in hues…
Restless chef Marc Haines has a new spatula gig. He has vacated his post as executive chef of Cuba Libre and has assumed the task of giving Fish restaurant a face-hoisting. (The place has been without an executive chef since George Greiser departed for The Prison–that’s a restaurant, not a…
Every couple of weeks or so, Gary Smith dusts off a folding banquet table from the back room at Centennial on Valley View in Addison, covers it with a simple tablecloth, sets out paper cups and cocktail napkins alongside bottles of booze, and offers free “tastings” to the customers who…
Shaken, not stirred. The words reverberate through popular culture, requiring no explanation. But what do we like to have shaken, stirred, and ceremoniously sluiced into a martini glass, vodka or gin? “That’s an easy one,” assures Frank Buchalski, manager at Martini Ranch. “Vodka outsells gin by far.” Nationwide, vodka martinis…
Will it slump or bump? Will we be dining on caviar and burping through silk hankies, or chewing Velveeta sandwiches and picking our incisors with plastic straws? The pessimists are getting delirious. The heralds are all there. Alan Greenspan failed to cut interest rates. Gas costs more than a pound…
Rudyard Kipling maintained a sense of straightforward, unadorned realism about things. His strongest writings–“east is east and west is west”–eschew ambiguity in favor of a world simplified. Rudyard Kipling never once said that anything tasted like chicken. Nowadays, of course, everything indescribable and new tastes somewhat like mass-produced poultry product,…
What is it about steak that seems to turn this town into a one-note culinary tuba? It’s cliché to say that every time you turn around there’s another steakhouse. The mystery is where all these steak houses are getting their steaks. Steers are not bunnies, though some people consider themselves…
Sometimes you wonder which extreme, gullibility or generosity, drives American dining behavior. As a people, we tip quite well. We’re accustomed to it, leaving change behind on grimy diner tables and credit slips bearing at least one zero at fine establishments. Our willingness to toss away cash with scant consideration…
Taqueria Cañonita’s publicity propaganda makes a lot of the fact that this superstar taqueria was hatched by Dallas star chef Stephan Pyles and his younger sister Alena. The blurbs tell how the pair developed the restaurant over the course of 10 or so years during many trips to Mexico, where…
Gilbert Garza starts his day at Suze by clipping a wireless phone to his belt. He then slips on a lightweight headset–the kind that doesn’t disturb your hair–complete with mouthpiece. He looks vaguely like Tom Hanks in Apollo 13, if Hanks were a chef preparing for another 14-hour day. All…
If nothing else, Rear Window is a view or, rather, a collection of little views tucked away in portals wrought into the interior architecture. The effect is handsome, cozy, plush, and off-center. Rear Window is neatly divided into two sections–restaurant and bar–separated by a wood-paneled wall harboring a number of…
What does a daringly beautiful and sleek lounge do when it wants to evolve beyond watering-hole food? It sautés quail. We ordered Zúbar’s sautéed quail with new potatoes and asparagus, and we threw the kitchen off its footing. The chef made an emergency visit to our table and explained the…
Just like that, the steak and the sizzle have been plucked off McKinney Avenue. Angelo & Maxie’s Steakhouse, a Manhattan-based red-beef meat market roping 24- to 35-year-olds with the ploy that you’re “never 2 hip” to tuck into a 24-ounce T-bone, has canceled plans to go into Chateau Plaza in…
