Disturbing news hit the papers the day after Thanksgiving. The hog market collapsed. “Hog Market Collapses on Glut of Animals,” read one headline. “Swine prices at the farm are at their lowest level in 27 years,” said one report. Farmers are shipping a record 2.2 million hogs weekly, stretching slaughterhouses…
There are many reasons to love carpaccio. First, the word rolls off the tongue with such musicality, it’s impossible to avoid a self-satisfied smirk once the final vowel is successfully squeezed through puckered lips. Second, the dish is drenched in simple exuberance–thin slices of raw tenderloin or sirloin carpet the…
Old San Francisco Old San Francisco Steak House, the San Antonio based restaurant chain featuring the “girl in the red velvet swing” where a young woman boards a bar swing every 45 minutes and kicks a pair of cow bells attached to the ceiling, has been snapped up. Almost. A…
Dining at Pappas Brothers Steakhouse left a question weighing heavily on my mind: What the hell has happened to cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and red meat phobia? The stench of such concerns doesn’t pollute Pappas’ ambiance. It’s as though it’s been siphoned off by the immaculately efficient ventilation system in…
Restaurant crash? The Wall Street Journal recently reported that stock market fluctuations are sending shivers through the New York restaurant scene. The Big Apple’s dining frequency is in decline, high-end spending growth is flat, and restaurant closings have increased sharply. Will the same fate befall Dallas? According to the Texas…
Food isn’t everything. Other elements play a significant role in a successful dining experience. For one, there’s service that delivers clean forks with every course instead of placing the dirty one from your finished plate next to your white shirtsleeve. There’s dining-room music that isn’t Kenny G. There’s friendly valet…
Butt ban? Members of the Dallas Environmental Health Commission put the screws to the restaurant industry late last week, and well they should. During a hearing considering toughened city smoking regulations, representatives of the Greater Dallas Restaurant Association and the Hotel/Motel Association of Greater Dallas asserted that restaurants and bars…
Wolf refugees start anew After bowing out of Lone Wolf Cafe in late October, former Mansion maitre d’ Wayne Broadwell and Sipango partner and founding chef Matthew Antonovich are planning to launch a new upscale restaurant in Dallas. The restaurant will be an American grill with gourmet take-out and fresh…
I have a theory. The necessary evidence has not yet been assembled to prove it, but the more I dine out, the more the world seems to conform to its basic premise. The theory is this: The quality of a restaurant’s food and service is inversely proportional to the number…
Help wanted After six years as assistant general manager, Scott Shoenberger ended his stint with the Melrose Hotel, home of the Landmark restaurant, last week. He’s off to Hartford, Connecticut, where he will head the 271-room Hastings International Conference Resort, operated by Colorado Springs-based International Conference Resorts. Apparently, Melrose executives…
The Japanese lust for fugu, or puffer fish, is one of the most fascinating yet perplexing obsessions in the culinary universe. It’s served thinly sliced as sashimi or in nabemono, one-pot meals cooked at the table in broth or oil. Yet for all its culinary attraction, fugu, if consumed following…
A group of men was leaving through the thick, beveled glass doors–large, beef-eating men in casual business attire. They were grunting, jabbing. Several minutes later, one of them returned in an anxious flurry. He approached the hostess. “Oh, yes. Yes, we did find it,” she said, moving over to a…
Wamstad’s big beef If you think III Forks owner Dale Wamstad–and his 257-year-old alter ego, Capt. Bob Cooper–is a little off his T-bone, you may be right. Apparently incensed at the steak-house ad Richard Chamberlain of Chamberlain’s ran last week in The Dallas Morning News, Wamstad responded with his own…
Antonovich does Lone Wolf Former III Forks chef Matthew Antonovich, a.k.a. Chisholm, has just completed the new menu for Lone Wolf Cafe, an American grill with continental touches. Set to open at the end of October, the cafe will feature a $4 million wine cellar assembled by new Lone Wolf…
As an example of “fine dining in an upscale, yet comfortable and inviting atmosphere,” as the press release describes it, The Winds Bistro is a noble stab. Its chief instigators–Tom Whittaker, former manager of the original Rusty Pelican in Orange County, California, and chef Bruce Stein, formerly of The Cock…
Doolittle’s does less Doolittle’s, the Addison eatery and Martini hole spawned last year by Deep Ellum Cafe partners Mike Sakuta and Patrick Davis, has been shaken, stirred, and shuttered. Longview-based Restaurant Teams International, Inc. (formerly Fresh’n Lite, Inc.) has a deal in the works to turn the space into Street…
There are at least five indicators that tell you a new restaurant is not just another place to eat, but a major seismic event: 1) you need a reservation to get in on a Monday night; 2) every Mercedes in the parking lot has a model number of 500 or…
!Fabulosa!, the new restaurant in the festive Centrum spot that was once Jungle Red, seems little more than an attempt to rescue its predecessor’s decor from the scrap heap. As Jungle Red, this heavily windowed corner possessed a beached menu and bold, taste-be-damned decorative touches. Virtually every one of them…
Nuevo Leon hits Oak Lawn Slipping into the Oak Lawn space that was most recently an offshoot of the Oak Cliff Italian restaurant Vitto, Nuevo Leon owners Luis Ramirez and David Trevino will open their third location in mid-October, joining the “Mex-Mex” restaurant’s outlets on Lower Greenville Avenue and in…
In one sense, Dragonfly Bar & Restaurant perfectly mimics its namesake. Like the insect, this lower Greenville haunt darts, ascends, turns sharply, stops on a dime, and drop-shifts into reverse as it travels a number of directions all in one flight plan. Is it a hip music venue? Is it…
Barking up the wrong stogie? Lone Wolf Lounge General Manager Bill Valentine, onetime general manager of 8.0 and Sambuca Restaurant in Deep Ellum, recently left the cigar bar and restaurant in disgust. He says that after several months of indecisiveness among the restaurant’s partners, who include actor Chuck Norris, the…
Deli news Asher Investments, the partnership behind the successful Bistro A in Snider Plaza, is poised to launch a sandwich shop across the street from the restaurant in a former uniform service warehouse. Bistro A consulting chef Avner Samuel will oversee the deli’s food operations. Serving New York-style corned beef,…
