Empire Baking Company Goes Old-School with Heritage Grains

Recently, Texas Monthly ran an article about Barton Springs Mill in Dripping Springs, where miller James Brown is persuading farmers around the state to grow the kind of grains that basked under the sun a century ago. Texas Monthly called the endeavor the “last frontier of the farm-to-table movement.” The…

Hero’s All About Size at Brunch

There’s a common thread throughout nearly all of Dallas restaurants serving brunch on weekends: the mimosa. While some of us prefer the superior bloody mary, when we’re at brunch, there are tables all around us topped with Champagne flutes filled with sparkling booze and orange juice. Sometimes places might go…

DizziBrands Opens Storefront to Offer Boozy Desserts

I scream, you scream, we all scream … for DizziCream? DizziCream is one of the products sold under DizziBrands, a collection of alcohol-infused desserts showing up in Dallas. Already a hit in restaurants such as BuzzBrews and the Rustic, DizziBrands is hoping to become a household name with the opening…

Dallas Bakers Appear on Netflix’s Sugar Rush

The Netflix original show Sugar Rush has bakers compete against each other for a prize of $10,000. Most recently, those competing involved a couple of familiar faces from Dallas. The premiere of the second season included  Ashton Snyder and Lio Botello, owners of Sugar Daddy’s Cakery. The two competed against other…

Not Just Q Offers Barbecue, and More, in Fort Worth

Adding to the growing list of Fort Worth barbecue restaurants giving Dallas competition is the first wheel-less setup of Not Just Q, a smoked meats eatery set among 10 other fast-casual stalls in Cowtown’s first food hall:  the Food Hall at Crockett Row. You may recall Not Just Q as…

Cowtown Is Killing It: The Best New Barbecue in Fort Worth

Don’t let our name fool you: Even though we’re the Dallas Observer, we love nothing more than sharing great barbecue finds from all over the Dallas-Fort Worth area. And judging from our latest travels, Fort Worth is absolutely killing it in new barbecue right now. There is immense joy to…

Feed Company’s a Better Brunch on Lower Greenville

Sunday’s brunch was supposed to feature a newer place on Lower Greenville. But it turns out our usual parking lot in the area isn’t $5 on Sunday mornings like it is at night: It’s $20 at brunch time. So the only reason we went to a place I’ve seen for…

Top Round Opens in East Dallas this Saturday

Everyone knows sandwiches taste better when someone else makes them. When it’s fast-casual sandwich specialists from Top Round, it’s almost definitely going to be better than anything you could make yourself. Founded by Steven Fretz and a few of his partners in California, Top Round is a fast-casual sandwich shop focused…

The Best Dallas Brunch Spots You Can Get Without a Reservation

Beating the Sunday brunch rush used to be as simple as arriving before church let out. That’s no longer the case, as devout brunch-goers have determined fried chicken and waffles are a permissible excuse to skip services altogether. Without a reservation, many of us are waiting 30 minutes or more…

Dallas Restaurants Where You Can Make an Impact

Behind the counters of our favorite restaurants, people from all walks of life work tirelessly to provide us with quality food and service. It is always disheartening whenever we, as consumers, hear rumblings of owners or CEOs of places we frequent are anti-LGBTQ, racist, misogynistic or xenophobic. It’s even more…

Meat U Anywhere Is an Excuse to Have Brisket for Breakfast

Budget Bites is a series that looks for the best food and drink deals at restaurants in DFW, because being on a budget doesn’t mean you can’t eat out. The breakfast of champions: Sure, Wheaties may have coined that phrase, but in Texas, brisket is king. Yes, brisket for breakfast…

Sandwich Hag Reduces Hours for Work-Life Balance

Popular banh mi restaurant Sandwich Hag did something unusual for the industry: It reduced its hours, and not because business was slow. As of early June, The Cedars spot no longer serves dinner on weekdays. They’re only open for lunch Tuesday through Friday, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. They…

Meat-Heavy Brunch Is Slow but Solid at Knife

Similar to other hotel restaurants’ dining rooms, the one at Knife in the Highland Dallas is fairly quiet on a Sunday morning. It has a convenient enough location at the southeast corner of Mockingbird Lane and North Central Expressway, but this isn’t a time in Dallas when hotels are destinations…