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…
Big news for the beer and wurst fans, just in time for Oktoberfest, Kuby’s, the German grocery in Snider Plaza and the heart of the Rhineland in Dallas (go shopping there on a crowded Saturday morning and you can eavesdrop on German conversations), is now open for dinner. Kuby’s has…
They say you have to give a wine three chances before you can really appreciate it–the first sip shocks your taste buds, the second loosens them up. By the third sip, your mouth has prepared itself to register all the wine’s complexities. It’s sort of like making a friend–the more…
I admit, I am a little early on this one. Routh Street Brewery has only been open one week. I just dropped in for a little preview dinner, I thought, planning to revisit later, according to accepted practice, so that the vast public response to my review wouldn’t overwhelm the…
I just spent an evening learning about and tasting Texas-grown escargots. That’s right, an evening with the only snail rancher–not just in Texas–but in these here United States. Dr. Richard Fullington is a malacologist (formerly with the Dallas Museum of Natural History) who got practical. Snails are yucky, as any…
Knowing chances were good that Snuffer’s would once again garner the Reader’s Choice award for best hamburger in this very newspaper, I thought I’d go check it out again. It’s been years (as many as Chips has been open) since I’d eaten at Snuffer’s. To give you an idea how…
As Chandler would put it: Could there be any more bagels in Dallas? Yes, there could, I answer, and you’ll be glad there are. Benny’s Hearth-Baked Bagels was founded by three twentysomething ex-corporate climbers who followed their feeling about the bagel business. Benny’s claims to be, and seems to be,…
“I’m sorry sir, your beer will take a few minutes because the computer’s down.” I swear a waiter said that to us this week, and it just seemed to sum up how weird modern life is. How full of contradictory baloney. The waiter worked at The Hard Rock Cafe, and…
White tablecloths, good service and, oh, yes, good food, aren’t enough to sell a restaurant anymore. Restaurants are theme parks, like movie theaters and malls, and Texas itself, unlike Nebraska, is a favorite theme. In Dallas especially, we seem to need reassurance that we live in the land of Lonesome…
Don’t you want one? Notable Dallasites donated pinatas to be raffled off at “Cerveza y Quesa at the Mesa.” Take your chance on a Dallas Cowboys pinata filled with jerseys and memorabilia. Sara Hickman’s is filled with CDs, Star Canyon’s with cookbooks and packaged foods; another is filled with $200…
Guy Calluaud is a flexible guy. Once the proprietor of Dallas’ top French restaurant, now the Hard Rock Cafe’s parking lot, Guy and his wife have since opened and closed several, mostly Gallic, eateries. The current place on Lovers has been open a year or so, and even in that…
At one time, when revolving rooftop restaurants were the latest thing, it was standard restaurant wisdom that the higher you went to dine, the worse the food. (Windows on the World at the top of the World Trade Center in pre-terrorist times being the exception that proved the rule.) Last…
As a child, I was taught, almost every autumn, that Columbus proved once and for all that the world is round. Why is it only now that we’re becoming aware that it’s global? This would be one of those “duh” concepts, except that we use the word “global” not to…
Right now I’m disturbed by definitions. The language seems to be getting less and less precise. “Family-style,” for instance. And “home cooking.” What could these terms mean in 1995? Not what they seem, that’s for sure. Avila’s is a real “family-style,” “home-cooking” restaurant. But it doesn’t serve food in communal…
We want fresh-made pasta, fresh-ground coffee, fresh herbs, and just-squeezed juice. In the age of convenience, we value immediacy, freshness, and old-fashioned “elbow grease” more than ever. So don’t be surprised that the Great Harvest Bread Company actually grinds its own flour right there in the bakery and makes it…
Lots–maybe the majority–of people are convinced that restaurant reviewers live in the advertisers’ pocket. Many times I’ve been assured by “people who know” (but don’t know what I do for a living) that all restaurant reviews are paid for by restaurant advertising, that no review is an unvarnished, honest opinion,…
Advertising would lead you to believe that Americans are living in a fat-free zone. Everything that can be is touted as less fat, low-fat, no fat. Even products that never did have fat in them have “No Fat” blaring from the bag. Tortilla chips are misguidedly baked, not fried, in…
