Swiss Pastry Shop’s Burger Validates Fort Worth’s Existence

“Darlin'” count: 250 Chance of wood paneling: 100 percent Average age of diners: 75 “Why is Fort Worth?” you ask yourself on a daily basis. I can now tell you, with much confidence, that the answer is, without a doubt: “Because Swiss Pastry Shop’s burgers.” Chef/owner Hans P. Muller is…

In Uptown, The Rustic Tries to Go Rural, and Almost Nails It

If Kyle Noonan and Josh Sepkowitz, the pair behind Bowl and Barrel, Mutts and now The Rustic, have achieved anything with their latest restaurant and music venue, it is the creation of the most outwardly Texan space in Dallas. They crammed the venue full of cattle skulls, reclaimed lumber that…

In East Dallas, the New Chip’s Is Cheap, Good and Stocked with Local Beer

Like chefs who strive for consistency across each dish that leaves their kitchen, big time restaurateurs try to achieve consistency across multiple locations of their restaurants. They’re trying to create brand consistency in the hopes that customers who have fallen in love with one location will eagerly charge into the…

Cafe Brazil Is Going to Denton

Maybe you’ve heard, Denton is pretty cool. And not just because of our close proximity to Canada. We’re so cool, in fact, that noted Dallas-y places like Rusty Taco and Hypnotic Donuts are starting to find their way north. Way north. Like, caught between the moon and Downtown Daaaaaallas. It’s…

In Trinity Groves, LUCK Needs More Skill to Survive

Those who have spent the last decade or so calling Margaret Hunt Hill’s namesake a bridge to nowhere are running out of nothingness to shake their fingers at in contempt. Restaurants are sprouting out of a once-barren patch of ground in West Dallas, one after the other, each marked by…

Six Ways to Celebrate Elvis’ Birthday Today

You woke up today and though it was just another Wednesday, but wrong. It’s the King’s birthday. Elvis Aaron Presley came into this world on January 8, 1935, in Memphis. And 79 years later, the king of rock ‘n’ roll continues to be celebrated primarily in two ways: impersonation and…

Velvet Taco Expands to Fort Worth Tonight, and Tomorrow the World

We all knew it was coming. When I reviewed Velvet Taco last year, owner/partner John Franke told me he had every intension of opening subsequent locations of the restaurant. The only thing that was surprising was how long it took. But tonight the wait ends. The second Velvet Taco will…

The Six Best Things I Ate in Los Angeles, Including a Top-Five Burger

Traveling gives you some perspective, especially when you deeply invest yourself in one city’s food scene. But I sometimes wonder if the excitement you experience while exploring a new destination has a way of coloring what you eat. Every blister on a pizza crust seems heightened, eggs gush with golden…

Food Trends That Need to Die in 2014

Here are a few food trends that have become ubiquitous and shed the sheen of novelty — now they’re just dull and sometimes annoying, in spite of exciting debuts. The Cronut Craze By his own account, Daniel alum Dominique Ansel opened a bakery because he saw gaps in New York’s…