Give and take-out

All the chat about Eatzi’s has had a subtext: What about Marty’s? Across the street from Brinker’s new phenomenon is the pioneer of Dallas gourmet shops/take-outs, and comparisons between the two are inevitable. The problem is, they’re completely misplaced. The two stores actually offer entirely different goods and services, and…

Seaworthy

Last week, my silver-haired mother ate an Egg McMuffin for the first time in her life. I won’t go into the details surrounding her surrender to fast food, except that circumstances demanded it, that she’d reached the point between hunger and availability otherwise known as a rock and a hard…

Easy livin’

I still think Randy Newman should have taken home the Oscar for best song, and my opinion was reinforced when I walked into Eastside Grill where they were playing “Good Old Boys,” Newman’s brilliant album about Louisiana and Huey P. Long, which became the soundtrack for our early dinner. Newman…

Hot Dish

Brunch at Parigi is such a natural idea, it’s hard to believe it’s a new one. The venerable cafe, which still seems as fresh as it did when it opened 10 years ago, is certainly the perfect setting, with its pale color scheme and wide windows, for a leisurely spring…

Coming home

No one has as nationalist an attitude about their food as the French, who have always regarded la cuisine as their own national treasure and cultural heritage, as important to maintain as the Louvre. And no one is as unprotective of their culinary heritage as the Americans, who have always…

Touch of class

Lower Greenville Avenue mostly is a post-hippie haven. Lots of vintage clothing, lots of hemp stores, lots of casual restaurants with eclectically dressed diners usually adorned with multiple earrings and sensible shoes. Even the Grape, pretty haute for Lower Greenville, has the kind of vintage quaintness that substitutes for style…

Hot Dish

We knew all along a glass of wine was good for us, but finally, wine is officially considered a health food, even recommended by the USDA as a heart-healthy addition to the daily diet. That means that Eureka!, the restaurant whose theme is “health food doesn’t have to taste like…

Gutter ball

No matter where or when, the meal–a “dining experience,” as we in the business call it–is judged according to a combination of three basic standards: the quality of the food, the quality of the service, and the quality of the atmosphere or ambiance. Other things do figure into it, but…

Adventures in dining

Last week, I was served a baby pig snout. It’s not often you’re challenged by your plate and palate to that extent in Dallas because adventures in eating here are limited. The territory is mostly familiar: Dallas is as great a desert of diversity in dining as it is in…

Hot Dish

The wonderful thing about food is not just how it tastes, but what it evokes; there are, after all, certain foods and drinks that provide their own atmosphere. Orange juice is a wake-up call, even if you drink it at night. A glass of champagne is a party, even if…

Blues exchange

It’s a hard, hard way to go, the restaurant business. Someone should write a blues song about it. It’s so hard that the owners of Billy Blues Barbecue just up and left it, evidently after one particularly bad night. Who knows? Maybe their pot washer quit or their smoker was…

Temple fare

Indian food in Dallas has almost gotten to the level of Mexican food:You can expect to find a usable Indian restaurant within reasonable driving distance from anywhere in the area. The name Taj Mahal inspires lofty expectations, even though you know they’re unfounded–ridiculously so, in the case of the Dallas…

Hot Dish

By now, everyone in the Metroplex should know about the ice-cream king of Bedford, former-federal-agent-turned-dessert-entrepreneur Milwaukee Joe, whose tiny, old-fashioned ice-cream store is worth the drive and worth the calories. If you really only splurge for a celebration, order your birthday cake from Joe. A three-layer extravagance of chocolate and…

Hot Dish

Yippee-yi-oh-oy-vay! Who wouldn’t trade Irish stew for a bowl of red? The third-annual community Kosher Chili Cook-Off at Tiferet Israel Synogogue takes place on March 17, St. Patrick’s Day. All the koshered burners in the entire Metroplex have been secured for the event and pots of chili should be bubbling…

Sacred cow

When is a cow not a cow? That’s the question asked and answered in a little pamphlet sent to me by American National Cattlewomen, Inc. The answer is, “When it provides for the good life.” The pamphlet goes on to explain in alarming detail that a cow is much more…

Free-ranging deli

I’m inclined to trust market research approximately to the extent that I depend on David Finfrock and his brethren’s weather predictions. I like to think I’m not a cynic, but if I listened too closely to weathermen, I’d be wearing Birkenstocks in below-freezing precipitation. And I assume it was market…

We’re here for the beer

The general trend in imbibing these days may be summed up as less, but better. According to the people who tally such things, we’re not drinking as much as we used to, but we’re drinking higher quality stuff; sales of single-malt scotch are up; jug-wine sales are down; high-end bourbon…

Heart of gold

Arc-en-Ciel has been one of our favorite Chinese-Vietnamese restaurants for a long time. We had heard its Arlington branch was something, if we could find it. So we spent last Friday night in the depths of darkest Arlington, wandering around looking for a branch of a restaurant based in Garland…

Hot Dish

A cross between the Farmers Market and a grocery store, Fresco’s sells only produce in the original boxes. The retail space at Skillman and Live Oak is warehouse-bare, dim, and empty, except for the stacks of crates and the cash register. The mountains of lettuce, peppers, onions, potatoes, and all…

In the shadows

Speaking of coming around again, that’s what’s happening to Oak Lawn. Once a hot dining neighborhood in Dallas, where all the the most chic and newest restaurants were clustered–Old Warsaw was at the corner of Cedar Springs and Oak Lawn, Mario’s and Spanish Village were nearby, Jamie’s Hamburgers was just…

Hot Dish

Yeah, this is just the thing. Drop by an uptown joint to watch the Magic play the Knicks, hunker down at the bar, grab a brewski, and lay into…a veggie burger? Everything about the Uptown Bar & Grill seems like a typical after-work stop-in bar: its dimness, its dull decor,…

Making the rule

There’s been a whole lotta coffee talk going on during the last few years. Mainly, it’s been about beans and that’s what it amounts to. Bad coffee used to be a hallmark of the cuisine of America, home of the percolator. Now, on every block, there’s a place where you…