I am a Chicano in Connecticut. I moved from Arizona to the East Coast for my dream job. I have to admit that I’m still homesick. Connecticut is a completely different world. To sum it up in one phrase, vale madre. It took awhile for me to find a Mexican…
Given that there are only a limited number of places that combine the all-you-can-eat-meat ethic of a Texas de Brazil-type churrascaria with the opportunity to restrict your meal to negative-calorie watery vegetables while still appearing to eat dinner, Genghis Grill–as the marriage of those two extremes–attracts the perfect mix of…
The Dallas area has been hitting better than even in the openings and closings department. But when one closes…This month the new, well-reviewed “gastro-pub” on lower Greenville, Zymology, shut down. Suddenly and quietly. From all accounts, the venue proved too good for its neighborhood. The breakdown:EnteringVapiano–The German-based, Italian-kinda-themed chain in…
City of Ate seems to be running a little behind as the short week comes to its close. So instead of interns poring through hundreds of posts on a dozen or so local blogs to find a ‘winner,’ one guy whipped through a page of items to come up with…
After the recent post on my not-so-great experience at Pizza By Marco, I received an e-mail from the restaurant’s owner, Frank Nuccio, who wrote that he was disappointed and offered to personally deliver a re-try. Now, I’ve written some unfavorable blogs in my day (OK…not as many as any self-respecting…
Ever been to a gas station and thought, “Know what this gas station needs: tacos ‘n’ shit.” Well, the Texaco on Inwood Road and Stemmons Freeway will make all your gas station/taco stand dreams come true. Sure, there are some things about this taco stand that might make you nervous:…
Closing in on 8 p.m. on a Friday and Nori is just about empty. A couple early diners abandoned the place about an hour before, and the lone guy in the bar looks ready to leave too. Waitresses laze in a circle, bored into listlessness. Funny thing, though: the cooking—or…
Taco Diner doesn’t do a bad job. In fact, their guacamole’s downright delicious–fresh, simple, a platform for the avocado itself to shine. The staff is reasonably courteous. Our server, in fact, was happy to make me an order of veggie tacos (which aren’t on the menu). It’s not always cheap,…
An interesting week, all in all–and one in which we were reminded, once again, what makes press releases so damn fascinating.But first for the runner up. We like this one because, no matter how one chooses to interpret it, the comment sends shivers up the adductor magnus: “Alien Secretions lead…
For me, comfort food doesn’t necessarily mean junk food. In fact, it almost never means junk food (with the notable exception of homemade cookies, which to me don’t count as junk), but rather healthy food, easily gotten. This is precisely why my favorite haunts include Khalachandji’s and Spiral Diner. But…
On Cinco de Mayo, while you were taking tequila shots off of God knows who’s God knows where, Burguesa Burger was opening its ventanas to the public for the first time. Just a little orange shack next door to Sonny Bryan’s and down the street from the Salvation Army on…
There will be good Tex-Mex and rumors of good Tex-Mex. Mostly rumors, though—at least in the Dallas area. It’s a sad fact: apart from some fabled taquerias and a few notable exceptions, Tex-Mex restaurants in this part of the world survive on mediocre cooking and the forbearance of diners. They…
By popular demand, I headed to Pizza By Marco last week to check out the legendary vegan pizzas. The little North Dallas chain (three locations) bills itself as Dallas’ oldest true “pizzeria”–whatever that means…although keeping a restaurant open in Dallas since 1956 is saying something. On weeknights, Marco’s oldest location,…
Only the Dewhurst Bill raised enough hackles to general award-getting comments this week…although Margie scored points with this, excerpted from her comment posted in response to our coverage of the food and bands at Taste of Addison:Foreigner? Scary. Both the runner up and winner posted on D magazine’s SideDish–and both…
View Larger Map If Frank and I had ever dated, our first date would have been the time he invited me to eat real, honest-to-goodness Taiwanese food in Richardson. I’ve been a Chinese-and-related food hater for most of my life, with the exception of this one vegetarian place in L.A…
I was leaving the Barnes and Noble after my usual weekly session of reading all of their magazines without purchasing anything when McAlister’s Deli caught my eye. It was the lunch hour and the place was pretty empty, but their menu had too much interesting stuff on it for me…
Chop suey. My God. By the ’80s this dish had been relegated to La Choy and Chun King dinners. You know, the ones with two cans taped together—one containing the glop to pour into a pan, the other with crunchy noodle bits. Well, if you don’t remember, consider yourself fortunate…
(Not a fairytale. More like a Greek tragedy.) I’ve spent my fair share of time in fun non-office jobs, such as ski instructor, whitewater rafting guide, sea kayak instructor, vegetable farmer, etc. So I feel I’m qualified to make this call: An office is a truly wonderful place. For one…
View Larger MapNothing about Mai’s is bad. There are plenty of things that are weird, though: the racks of dog-eared issues of US Weekly and Cosmopolitan, the soft-rock instrumental remixes of “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina” and “Take My Breath Away,” the organza curtains that barely hide the parking lot…
If there’s one thing you can get fast in Dallas, it’s food (if there are two things, they’re food and meth. Three? Food, meth and laser hair removal). And when it comes to fast food, boy, have we got options. Me: Hey Dallas, I know this is a crazy question,…
Nickie is a fan of English football’s perennial also-ran, Liverpool. That’s neither here nor there, really, except that I got into a rather lengthy (but friendly) flap with Nickie one night over the relative chances of her cast-off Reds against my mighty Red Devils of Manchester United, and that she…
(A Fairytale) Once upon a time, on a Friday night in a town called Dallas, Veggie Girl got confused. She thought she was Girl Drink Drunk. So she waltzed herself to a couple of happy hours and sampled their libations. But as the night wore on, Veggie Girl got hungrier…
