On my first visit to the Chaparral Club, I brought Peter, one of my wife’s business associates. During the trip up to the 38th floor of the skyscraping Adam’s Mark tower, I mentioned that the structure used to be the Southland building, and that the Adam’s Mark spent $150 million…
I read a blurb recently in a Windy City magazine about actor Scott Jaeck. He was lovingly described as “movie star handsome” and “as wonderful [kind, sensitive, intelligent] as he looks.” Jaeck is poised to assume the role of Peck, the male lead in Paula Vogel’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play How…
Pomodoro/Arcodoro move? Rumors swirl that the owners of Pomodoro/ Arcodoro on Cedar Springs Road are attempting to work a deal to purchase a defunct Cedar Street bar location (at Stephan Pyles’ former Baby Routh) to house the pair of restaurants, which would move upscale after the location change. But Francesco…
Jensen goes barley Mark Jensen–onetime chef of the Thomas Avenue Beverage Company and the Green Elephant, and chef-owner of the now defunct Mark’s on Henderson–has a new Dallas gig. He’s the new chef of The Barley House on Henderson, and he’s methodically tweaking its pubby fodder. “I don’t come in…
Perusing all the splashy newspaper pix and verbiage gushing over the lineup at the 1999 Detroit Auto Show has been weird. It is, of course, an insufferable cliche to say “everything old is new again.” And “retro” is a term horribly worn and carelessly used. But there they were, all…
Okianos goes SoHo Opening this past weekend, Okianos, the Mediterranean seafood restaurant on Belt Line Road in Addison, emerged as SoHo Food, Drink & Jazz following extensive remodeling begun in early October. Chris Finch, former sous chef of Chamberlain’s Prime Chop House, has gripped SoHo’s kitchen helm, creating a mid-…
Living in Dallas, among shiny mirrored buildings, burgeoning mutual funds, and low unemployment, it’s easy to lose global perspective. The economy is acutely robust. There’s a Nordstrom going into NorthPark. The Cowboys didn’t do so hot, but there’s a new arena being built on the Dallas urban plain. Yet in…
Stinky stogie? There’s something funny going on at Lone Wolf, Chuck Norris’ and Dennis Overstreet’s restaurant and cigar and wine bar that appears to have been shuttered permanently. A rumor was circulating in late November that Lone Wolf was set to shut down by the first of the year. Then…
Just by their numbers and consistent rosters, steakhouses have inevitably become orgies of predictability. Everything is so much the same. No surprises. No skyscraper food threatening to puncture your chin. No bizarre sea creatures dressed in mango caviar hiding in the watercress. Wine lists are hefty enough to crush a…
Don’t let your meat loaf Eating healthy is hazardous to your well-being. I can prove it. In the fall issue of American Outlook, writer Dennis Avery explains the inherent risks of poisoning your body with too much health consciousness. According to data compiled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control…
On my first visit to Moonshine Cafe, the fine-dining divot below The Palace nightclub off Lower Greenville, my thoughts didn’t coagulate around the “New Creole” menu. Or the New Orleans street-scene mural smeared on the rear wall with real windows sculpted into the artwork offering a view of the kitchen…
Bull rider Lisa Balliet, opening executive chef of Stephan Pyles’ AquaKnox before her sudden departure early last year, has turned up in Lakewood to undertake a new project: the transformation of The Cock & Bull. She’ll partner with Cock & Bull owner Noel Graham and sublease the kitchen to create…
Star shuffle Star Concepts–the group Carlson Restaurants Worldwide created to absorb Star Canyon and AquaKnox after the T.G.I. Friday’s parent (presumably) gave owners Stephan Pyles, Michael Cox, and TCBY Enterprises President Herren Hickingbotham enough money to choke a herd of Texas steers–announced several position changes last week. Star Canyon Executive…
Pangaea has a beautiful fish tank lodged in one wall. Crowds of orange, purple, and striped cichlids (perchlike freshwater fish found in South America, Africa, Sri Lanka, and India) swim among the plants and reddish rocks. They look like submerged Carroll Shelby hot rods: low-slung and flat with large mouths…
Carrollton lights up Barely two weeks after the Dallas Environmental Health Commission held hearings exploring whether Dallas should toughen its relatively permissive public-smoking ordinance, the city of Carrollton eased its ban on smoking in public places last week. By a vote of 6-1, the Carrollton City Council approved amendments to…
Disturbing news hit the papers the day after Thanksgiving. The hog market collapsed. “Hog Market Collapses on Glut of Animals,” read one headline. “Swine prices at the farm are at their lowest level in 27 years,” said one report. Farmers are shipping a record 2.2 million hogs weekly, stretching slaughterhouses…
There are many reasons to love carpaccio. First, the word rolls off the tongue with such musicality, it’s impossible to avoid a self-satisfied smirk once the final vowel is successfully squeezed through puckered lips. Second, the dish is drenched in simple exuberance–thin slices of raw tenderloin or sirloin carpet the…
Old San Francisco Old San Francisco Steak House, the San Antonio based restaurant chain featuring the “girl in the red velvet swing” where a young woman boards a bar swing every 45 minutes and kicks a pair of cow bells attached to the ceiling, has been snapped up. Almost. A…
Dining at Pappas Brothers Steakhouse left a question weighing heavily on my mind: What the hell has happened to cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and red meat phobia? The stench of such concerns doesn’t pollute Pappas’ ambiance. It’s as though it’s been siphoned off by the immaculately efficient ventilation system in…
Restaurant crash? The Wall Street Journal recently reported that stock market fluctuations are sending shivers through the New York restaurant scene. The Big Apple’s dining frequency is in decline, high-end spending growth is flat, and restaurant closings have increased sharply. Will the same fate befall Dallas? According to the Texas…
Food isn’t everything. Other elements play a significant role in a successful dining experience. For one, there’s service that delivers clean forks with every course instead of placing the dirty one from your finished plate next to your white shirtsleeve. There’s dining-room music that isn’t Kenny G. There’s friendly valet…
Butt ban? Members of the Dallas Environmental Health Commission put the screws to the restaurant industry late last week, and well they should. During a hearing considering toughened city smoking regulations, representatives of the Greater Dallas Restaurant Association and the Hotel/Motel Association of Greater Dallas asserted that restaurants and bars…
