Good to Go: When You Can’t Be There for the Landing’s Corn Dogs, Zoom Is the Next Best Thing

Good to Go is a column where our food writers explore Dallas’ restaurant scene through takeout orders, delivery boxes and reheated leftovers.

A few weeks ago, I heard a phrase on Sam Sanders’ NPR podcast: Instead of only thinking about “social distancing,” consider “distant socializing.”

Hence, Zoom happy hours, the Netflix Party feature and tweeting friends more pictures of cats.

I guess I consider myself an introvert, but man did I feel the lack of community instantly into this season of COVID. I miss hearing Queen over the jukebox at Cosmo’s, I miss stopping by Murray Street Coffee Shop on the way to work and I miss late-night corn dogs with friends at Lakewood Landing.

So, I gave in to the distant socializing things. (Zoom happy hours are more fun than the Netflix Party thing, by the way.)

Recently, I did a Zoom video conference with a couple of friends I frequently see at our East Dallas favorites, the Landing and Cosmo’s. One friend asked, “Is there any silver lining to all of this?” And my response was, “Well, one is we wouldn’t be talking right now.”

And that’s true — not because I don’t like this person, of course, but I wouldn’t have randomly called her on a Friday night to chat.

And, to just up the Zoom experience a little more that night, we decided to hit up our regular spot of the Landing.

Right now, you can get its full menu plus the corn dogs for takeout. (No need to wait for the regular start time of 11 p.m.! Which is good since it's only open until 9 p.m. for now.)

A frequent go-to order of mine is nachos: beef with extra jalapeños. So I got that, which was ready in 10 minutes, and my friend got the burger.

If you haven’t had the burger at the Landing, you need to. Even traveling in the container home, it holds up as one of the best in town from bread to meat to toppings.

The nachos don’t hold up as well. I mean, they’re fine. But I live five minutes from the Landing by car, and they were just on the edge of staying good. (OK, I did take time to make a gin and tonic with extra lime so I felt more like I was at the bar.)

I like the nachos there because they’re individually topped with plenty of ingredients. There are better nachos, but we also don’t go to the Landing just for the food (unless we’re craving a second dinner of a corn dog, of course).

It’s about getting an excellent Manhattan from Chad behind the bar, hearing someone play one of my favorite Zeppelin songs from the jukebox and randomly seeing friends I know even though I’m working on my laptop in my regular booth in the back.

Sure, we had good conversations over Zoom, and I ate all the nachos despite my recent attempts at trying to save more food for more portions. But it left me wanting to sit in that dark dining space with the old-as-hell bathrooms.

And that’s why we get the bar food to go, because my friends and I want to see each other again, in person, at the Landing.