Welcome to Hidden Gems Week 2017

Welcome to Hidden Gems Week.

This week, the Observer food and drink writers are celebrating an abundance of diverse, delicious restaurants and bars around Dallas, places that don’t often (or ever) get mentioned by big-name food media, trendsetters, bloggers or chefs. We’re taking you outside of the ordinary, away from the starry new openings with valet parking.

Some of these places don’t even have signs out front.

Stay tuned for family-owned small businesses, one-person kitchens, taco shops that aren’t listed on Yelp, neighborhood spots that don’t get enough love and a number of places that are hidden inside or behind other businesses. Prepare yourself for Indian crab curries, killer Moroccan sandwiches and a bounty of dumplings. Get ready to celebrate hardworking immigrant families and other American cooks, chefs and hosts pursuing their dreams away from the spotlight.

This is a passion project for us. It’s part of our ambition to present a more complete, more diverse picture of the Dallas dining scene. More than that, it’s a way for us to use our media microphone to sing the praises of the little guy, to show that if a small restaurant cannot afford a marketing campaign or even a functioning website, it might still deserve our love and support.

Very few of the places we’ll be talking about this week have been mentioned in the Observer before, and most haven’t been written about by any Dallas publication. Some of the restaurants in Hidden Gems Week aren’t on Yelp, listed by Google Maps or in your car’s GPS. At least one article will start with detailed directions.

So get ready to add to your to-eat list: Iraqi desserts, Mexican wild dove stew, secret menus and affordable eats. Support small businesses that deserve more fans. Join us, through Saturday, for an unpredictable, utterly delectable Hidden Gems Week.