Every time I visit Sushi Bayashi, the Japanese movie Tampopo jump-kicks into my brain. I think it’s partly because the restaurant’s locale, Phil Romano’s Trinity Groves, was built on a desolate patch of dust that subtly recalls the landscape of so many Western movie scenes. It’s especially apparent if you’re…
I measure all Tex-Mex restaurants by their fajitas. The simple dish of grilled meats and vegetables gives a great window into how the restaurant handles ingredients and, usually, what you can expect from the rest of the menu. So when I walked into the new Primo’s to dine for the…
Tim Pregler is part backyard-barbecue-professor, part wood-fired charity coordinator. A 57-year old tech consultant from Fort Worth, he founded the Karma Que charitable barbecue collective in 2012 with help from his wife Kim. Three years later, Karma Que consists of three competitive barbecue teams that raise money at cook-offs and…
The bartender slams two milkshakes down in front of us. “Bam!” I shoot my date a look as if to say Get a load of this guy. Does he think he’s Emeril? My date volleys back with eyes that say I am going to steal your shake. Oh, how quickly…
The following are transcripts of emails detailing events that began in Dallas, Texas on March 22, 2015. The emails, obtained by the Observer, outline a possible felonious and deepening romantic plot between a food writer, alias Nick Rallo, and a known cheeseburger in the area. The emails have not been…
We have been waiting, however impatiently, for chef Teiichi Sakurai’s ramen joint to open for what seems like forever. We have long been tantalized with visions of $10 bowls of ramen crafted by one of the city’s best chefs, and it looks as if our Dallas nightmare is finally over…
Kathryn DeBruler searches far and wide for DFW’s most interesting breakfast food. Come along. I didn’t have high hopes going into this brunch, and the fact that a manager apologized half an hour after my order was placed didn’t help much. She explained that I was there during Eureka’s first…
Picture your dream hamburger. But not as you know it now — go back to something like the early ’90s, when words like “arugula” and “house-made truffle aioli” were utopian fiction. A time when a greasy burger with American cheese and iceberg lettuce, served on checkered paper in a ramshackle…
I wasn’t expecting much from the pizza I’d ordered at Modmarket. This is a fast-casual chain based in Denver, for starters, and they use an unimpressive gas-fired oven. But there it was on an aluminum tray, with a decent, if dry-looking cornicione. The basil had gone brown, but the tomato…
I don’t get, nor do I deserve, a lot of sympathy in my work. As soon as my face winces — before I even get out a word of complaint — I’m met with a barrage of facetiousness. “Oh, poor food critic guy eats out on someone else’s dime.” I…
No other image better captures the Dallas dining scene: Under a cloudy sky, hungry customers wait their turn for one of the nine tables inside a restaurant that looks like it survived a recent bombing campaign. Six-packs of bottled beer litter the street, and a red and white cooler hints…
The neon is shining at Spork now, as long as you show up after sunset. The casual burger restaurant opened earlier this month at the hands of Eric Justice (former chef at Mexican Sugar) and other Dallas-area power chefs. Tim Byres and Katherine Clapner were among the chefs tasked with…
It’s time for another Dallas Observer Iron Fork event, and while the participating restaurants are sure to provide another gustatory marathon of epic proportions, it’s hard to discuss the food until you’ve gotten past this year’s awesome competition chefs. Matt McCallister has been dominating the competition since he ousted Scott…
If you know anything about Dallas, you’ve heard Deep Ellum is coming out of its coma. After its bar and club scene peaked and plummeted, many wondered if and how it could be restored to its glory days of the late ’90s. Little by little, things changed; developers bought up…
Kathryn DeBruler searches far and wide for DFW’s most interesting breakfast food. Come along. In Texas, Kolaches are a thing. There are at least four festivals honoring the Czech pastry in our great state alone. The most famous kolaches hail from West, where legend has it that city revenue is…
Last year, I predicted 2015 would be the year the burger bubble burst in Dallas. Since that article was published, no fewer than 37 burger restaurants have opened. Maybe burgers are invincible — the culinary equivalent of Kevlar and titanium — but I still argue that Dallas has too many…
It’s like walking into a restaurant inside a kids’ book. Nestled in the Casa Linda Plaza shopping center, next to Great Clips, is the adorable Dugg Burger. Inside, there’s a menu that’s all pictures. It’s perfect for non-readers, lovers of simple food and extraterrestrials. E.T. would actually have no trouble…
Michelle learned to love ramen as a teenager, growing up in Singapore and traveling around Asia with her family. Brian is newer to the scene: He didn’t even try instant ramen in college. Together, they’re hunting for DFW’s best ramen. The Shop: Sushi Robata The Atmosphere: Everybody who knows their…
Everything about a properly made grilled cheese sandwich — perfectly toasted white bread, browned with a slathering of butter that steps up to the edge of excess; tiny, golden-brown crumbs that cling to greasy fingertips; American cheese so hot it pulls apart in small strings; a satisfying crispness in every…
Meri Dahlke and her partners don’t waste precious beer time. News that they’d taken over the lease at the Amsterdam Bar broke late last week, and Dahlke says she’s already shooting for a June opening. She hopes Eight Bells will replicate the success they’ve had with Ten Bells, which opened…
Let’s ignore the somewhat awkward pool table and the haze of cigarette smoke in the vestibule in front of ZaLat, the new pizzeria on Fitzhugh Avenue. Let’s ignore the cast of characters hanging out inside as pizzas are delicately formed and slipped in the oven. Let’s ignore the insane creations…
“He went to Jarams.” These are the words every woman dreams of hearing. For so many, they represent the culmination of a lifetime’s worth of hoping, planning and dreaming. What little girl hasn’t pined away for the day when she, too, would get the big, white donut of her dreams?…
