Rioja, Ribera del Duero, Jerez, Navarra, and Tias Baixas may not be as familiar as Russian River, but they should be. Spain is one of the great wine-producing countries of the world, but in America it always has been overshadowed by France, California, and Italy. The Great Match, the first…
OK, this is the kind of ridiculous experience you let yourself in for when you have a job like this one. Good Chinese food is rare in Dallas, so we especially wanted to try a new takeout Chinese restaurant that we’d heard was excellent. Uncle Chow has a good pedigree;…
I’m scheduled to speak to my fourth-grader’s class next week about what I do for a living. Of course, I’m nervous–you can’t bluff fourth graders. I’m supposed to discuss with the class how to describe a taste, using words besides “awesome,” “gross,” and “bummer.” Yes, I face that problem weekly,…
Treebeard’s is a chain out of Houston–not a promising origin for a cafe with a Louisiana bill of fare, but Treebeard’s is a regular destination for downtowners who lunch, and rightly so. Red beans and rice and etouffee are reliable. The gazpacho, every vegetable hand-chopped so the result is like…
By now you know that Julia Child is coming to Dallas. But you may not know that besides paying beaucoup bucks to watch Julia eat and schmooze at her KERA fundraiser, you also can pay to watch her do what she actually won our hearts and became famous and changed…
Life has its rules of thumb (“Never start a sentence with ‘but'”; “Your line at the bank will always be the longest one”). Some rules lose their meaning as the culture changes (“Don’t date a guy with a tattoo,” a rule made before you had to take two tattoo-wearing genders…
Hunky’s. Speaking of names, “Hunky’s” is the worst–too easy a target even to aim at. But the place has been around so long, no one probably even notices. This is a Happy Days hamburger heaven, updated slightly (there’s grilled chicken on the menu) and plunked down in the heart of…
The Kozy Kitchen’s label says it’s “The Home of Delicious Desserts” and that’s true, but you can’t overlook that it also is the home of delicious breakfasts, because this is probably the best coffeecake you ever put in your mouth, moist with sour cream, laced through with brown sugar, cinnamon,…
Some places in this country–New York; San Francisco; Chicago; and Krebs, Oklahoma, come immediately to mind–have always had great Italian food. And not just great Italian food. Lots of great Italian food. They have grocery stores that sell handmade cheese and thick-crusted breads, red-checked, Chianti-bottle-lit trattorias that serve lush pastas…
If you don’t believe Faith Popcorn is always right, take a drive down Lovers Lane. This was once Dallas’ own fashion row–anchored by fabulous Lou Lattimore at one end and exclusive Marie Leavell at the other, with the razor’s edge Gazebo in between. In the ’70s this was destination shopping,…
Mozzarella Company, Dallas’ only cheese factory, is famous for its fabulous goat cheese, its fresh ricotta, and even for its mozzarella. Now owner Paula Lambert has actually invented a new cheese, a mozzarella made from a mixture of goat’s milk and cow’s milk (cow’s milk because goat’s milk doesn’t have…
I recently read–and probably you did, too, admit it or not–that Joey, owner of Joey’s, the unbearably hot spot on Oak Lawn, is presenting neckties to a “select” group of customers. If you are wearing your Joey’s tie, which says “Joey’s” in a bright design colored like the restaurant’s dizzying…
Hot dogs and frozen custard. It doesn’t sound like an original idea, but when you think about it, where can you treat yourself to such a meal outside the circus, where it costs approximately as much as an ounce of sevruga? Wild About Harry’s, that’s where. This tiny place on…
“ST” stands for “Sweet Temptations.” Get it? That’s right, another bad restaurant name for a charming, personal cafe. And like Going Gourmet, ST Cafe is a business that grew out of customer demand. Sweet Temptations is a bakery that became a bistro; the bakery counter still is just inside the…
“Eatertainment” is a real word I recently read in a respected restaurant business publication. “Eatertainment.” You immediately can see what it means, and all you can do is mentally shake your fork at the establishments whose success has allowed such a word to be coined. It refers, of course, to…
Celebration, the grandmother of hippie home-cooking restaurants, has been overwhelmingly popular since its opening. In fact, the only drawback to dining there is the bankable line and the no-reservation policy. The good news is that now you can enjoy home-cooking at home. Celebration has started delivering dinner: pot roast, baked…
Where’s the dart board? That’s what I kept wondering when I first went to a brew pub. During the past few years, the country has been flooded with these places. Almost without exception, they’re large, noisy barns, where it’s impossible to have a conversation along with your beer. It was…
I remember the first time I was confronted with a Jell-O shooter: Served in a little pleated paper cup, and brightly colored, it reminded me of the first polio vaccine. I thought then that the drinker’s search for sensational weirdness had reached its end. But now, nearly needless to say,…
A few miles north of Thomas Avenue, the management crew that is doing wonders with the Thomas Avenue Brewing Company is tending to another of the neighborhood’s needs. The Green Elephant is a college hangout–this is where the Thomas Avenue bunch might have hung out while they were still going…
I have heard of restaurants complaining that a positive review put them out of business because they were unprepared for the ensuing success. And I’ve always had a tough-love attitude about that “problem.” A visit to Thai Country after another critic had recently reviewed the place didn’t change my mind,…
It’s been the observation of those who keep an eye on society–philosophers, professors, and people who watch a lot of television–that America’s domestic ideals have changed. Some say, deteriorated. It’s true that, when I was a kid, the Nelsons (Ozzie), the Reeds (Donna), and the Cleavers (the Beave) were the…
In England, it’s trifle; elsewhere, it’s charlotte, bread pudding, tiramisu. Every country’s cuisine has them–nursery sweets constructed from leftover bread or cake, and eggs, milk, and sugar. The bread pudding at new Toscana combines two great comfort foods into one great dessert. The restaurant’s dessert borrows something from bread pudding,…
