Josh Ozersky, not so long ago the subject of

from a sister paper, has a new crush: Dean Fearing. The author of

visited

for

and decided

when it comes to haute-cuisine --

for a town like Dallas. Read the first paragraph of a story suitably damp on this most moist of mornings:

The quintessential postcrash luxury restaurant might well be Fearing's, at the Dallas Ritz-Carlton. From its local-sourced oak paneling to its haute-casual menu mentality, it's the zeitgeist restaurant par excellence. In a way, it was inevitable. White-tablecloth fine dining never really seemed to go with the Lone Star State's rugged self-image. People in Dallas love to eat out, and to eat out expensively; they just hate wearing jackets and going through the old feudal motions. A haute-casual restaurant there was bound to happen sooner or later. And the perfect man to do it was Dean Fearing, who formerly personified the high Texas style, back when the money was still rolling in.

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