As a professional fat guy, I tend to view food and restaurants through a different lens than most people. I crave Tex-Mex like most of you, but reviewing a Tex-Mex restaurant can be hellish work at times. Bars with heavy menus give me pause, and, as my cholesterol crosses into the 240 zone, the prospect of trudging through an entire steakhouse menu is seriously frightening.
So, when a restaurant like Start, the subject of this week's review, comes along I get pretty excited. It's like taking a little vacation from gravy, fried things and mountains of melting cheese.
Start gets its name from the idea that every personal change has a beginning. You have to start somewhere, right? So many of the dishes offer healthy touches that grease junkies like me wont find shocking.
A whole grain bun doesn't taste so bad when it's wrapped around a grass fed beef burger, topped with a house-made dressing, avocado, bacon and cheddar. Other products use a mixture of white and wheat flours to keep things from getting too toothy, and you might even eat a veggie patty between two pancakes without even knowing you've forgone the meat. It's a great concept.
If you walk into the restaurant and think it looks ripe for expansion you're a smart one. Owner Erin McKool is already looking for property for subsequent locations in North Dallas, the Park Cities and Addison. I'm curious to see how the concept scales from one to N locations.
