We needed a quick bite on a Monday evening. No restaurant is crowded on Mondays, except maybe Star Canyon. So we didn’t think twice about dropping in without a reservation at Amore, a little place in Snider Plaza where I heard the food had improved. It has. And the place…
It’s a season of expectation, of secrets and the wonderful romance of a well-wrapped package. But when you tear through the tinseled wrapping and find the same old necktie, it’s always disappointing. That’s the way La Petite Maison set us up. This is a restaurant with all the right ideas…
It was scary to hear that Parigi had been sold. It’s one of the last remnants of the first wave of the Dallas dining renaissance, and it’s been a refuge–a mainstay for sophisticated, unpretentious food since it opened. I originally scheduled this revisit because, for the first time in years,…
The most graceful surrender award goes to Michele’s. Giving in to the inevitable, the coffee-themed restaurant has changed its mind and its name. A caffeine pioneer, this funky, personable little coffee bar found the niche before behemoth Starbucks and wannabe Coffee Haus came to the ‘hood. So, drop a syllable,…
“Pacific Rim” is a geographical term only in the restaurant trend-watcher’s lexicon. For my own elucidation, I turned on the light-up globe left over from my son’s pre-adolescent Age of Reason–the time when they want to know where everything is and how everything works–and let my fingers do the walking…
British food is the butt of every food joke, told even by those who’ve never eaten British food. But Jenni Messina, formerly British, holds steadfastly to the British theme at Jennivine, and nobody’s laughing. Inside, there’s a London phone booth, pictures of the Royal family, British flags, and bottle-glass windows;…
Potato chips are indisputable junk food. But the ones Two Sisters cooks up you could legitimately count as a vegetable–the thin gold curls, barely dusted with salt, actually taste like potatoes. There’s only one sister at Two Sisters now; Connie Mansfield’s sister has left the business, but Connie still caters…
Joey Vallone and his self-named Dallas restaurant have been the darling of the society columns ever since the restaurant, Joey’s, was but a gleam in young Joey’s eye. We’ve read all about the Signing of the Lease, the Pre-Opening Party (with accompanying Wet Concrete and Martini Incidents), the Convenience Store…
Think about it: the crust is what really separates the men from the boys. Or the girls from the women, for that matter. Kids hate bread crust; they eat the whole squishy white middle of the sandwich and frustrate their moms by leaving a perfect frame of brown crusts. But…
Just what you’ve been waiting for–the first combination dry cleaner, coffeehouse, and flower shop, recently opened at the corner of Preston and Frankford in Far North Dallas. According to the owners of Saint James Cleaners, the “wave of the future” is combining several retail concepts into one–that’s how pitifully busy…
A tale of two pizzas: I said it was the best of pizzas, and though no one said it was the worst, there were a lot of people who claimed the superlative for their favorite pizza place, not mine. In the weeks following the Observer’s September 28 “Best of Dallas”…
There aren’t any human cultures that haven’t made a ritual out of dining, and there aren’t any that don’t dine on some things that are totally repulsive to other cultures. So the French eat snails and frogs, the Koreans eat dogs, the Chinese eat shark fins and swallows’ nests made…
Over the years, I’ve reviewed various Momo restaurants a number of times for one publication or another (since the publishing business is nearly as risky as the restaurant business, there have been many publications), and the summing-up has always been the same: great food, lousy service. Sometimes slow, sometimes inept,…
Not just for seafood anymore, TJ’s Seafood at Preston and Royal, as well as selling really fresh seafood (clearly marked if it’s fresh or flash-frozen), also sells a variety of Dallas’ finest locally produced foodstuffs: Raviolismo’s ravioli; bread from Empire Baking Company; flower, fruit, and herb-flavored sorbets made by Out…
Usually my problem is how to express what I have to say; seldom am I at a loss for what to say. But I’ve been floundering around for several days now–way past my deadline–trying to figure out what there is to say about Cafe Sierra, a new restaurant on Greenville…
Things you ought to know: Morgen Chocolates has moved its factory to McKinney Avenue. It’s in the old Crystal Pagoda space, and there’s an expanded retail store in the front. Avner Samuel (right), formerly the chef of Yellow, Da Spot, Avner’s, the Mansion (ad infinitum) is now chef at the…
Close your eyes and say “coffee shop.” Tell me what you see. Ten-to-one the vision involves orange vinyl, white polyester, and hottles. Maybe a laminated menu, too–I like the ones illustrated with those reassuring color photographs. Coffee shops are attached to motels: they’re a one-night stand, a quick fix. Change…
It used to be that community cookbooks were amateur productions, collections of casseroles usually spiral-bound and illustrated with drawings by one of the sponsoring organization’s quasi-artistic members. But The Artful Table, produced by the Dallas Museum of Art League, compares with Martha Stewart’s illustrated fiction–I mean cookbooks. It has color…
It’s a time of year when princesses and witches are on the mind of a daughter’s mother. Last year, we received a memo from my daughter’s school to please stay away from witch costumes on Halloween–to please look for “more positive role models.” I discussed this piece of absurdity with…
It strikes me as an exceptionally odd idea, in this day of the decline of the American system, to decide that the government would make a good theme for a restaurant. But there’s The Capitol, rising suddenly like Reata out of the paved prairie that is North Dallas, complete with…
Re: our ongoing discussion of the margarita. Luna Top Shelf is supposedly the “secret” ingredient for perfection. Imported by a Dallas company, Luna Top Shelf Triple Sec is an orange liqueur that replaces the Cointreau in a ‘rita recipe. It’s popular in Mexico, and several Dallas restaurants use it–Matt at…
Tejano in Oak Cliff is the mother of Mexican food in Dallas. One of the original jewels in the Cuellar (El Chico to you) crown, it’s owned now by David Cruz, who hasn’t changed the menu or the recipes for 14 years and vows that he never will. And why…
