No matter where or when, the meal–a “dining experience,” as we in the business call it–is judged according to a combination of three basic standards: the quality of the food, the quality of the service, and the quality of the atmosphere or ambiance. Other things do figure into it, but…
Last week, I was served a baby pig snout. It’s not often you’re challenged by your plate and palate to that extent in Dallas because adventures in eating here are limited. The territory is mostly familiar: Dallas is as great a desert of diversity in dining as it is in…
The wonderful thing about food is not just how it tastes, but what it evokes; there are, after all, certain foods and drinks that provide their own atmosphere. Orange juice is a wake-up call, even if you drink it at night. A glass of champagne is a party, even if…
It’s a hard, hard way to go, the restaurant business. Someone should write a blues song about it. It’s so hard that the owners of Billy Blues Barbecue just up and left it, evidently after one particularly bad night. Who knows? Maybe their pot washer quit or their smoker was…
Indian food in Dallas has almost gotten to the level of Mexican food:You can expect to find a usable Indian restaurant within reasonable driving distance from anywhere in the area. The name Taj Mahal inspires lofty expectations, even though you know they’re unfounded–ridiculously so, in the case of the Dallas…
By now, everyone in the Metroplex should know about the ice-cream king of Bedford, former-federal-agent-turned-dessert-entrepreneur Milwaukee Joe, whose tiny, old-fashioned ice-cream store is worth the drive and worth the calories. If you really only splurge for a celebration, order your birthday cake from Joe. A three-layer extravagance of chocolate and…
Yippee-yi-oh-oy-vay! Who wouldn’t trade Irish stew for a bowl of red? The third-annual community Kosher Chili Cook-Off at Tiferet Israel Synogogue takes place on March 17, St. Patrick’s Day. All the koshered burners in the entire Metroplex have been secured for the event and pots of chili should be bubbling…
When is a cow not a cow? That’s the question asked and answered in a little pamphlet sent to me by American National Cattlewomen, Inc. The answer is, “When it provides for the good life.” The pamphlet goes on to explain in alarming detail that a cow is much more…
I’m inclined to trust market research approximately to the extent that I depend on David Finfrock and his brethren’s weather predictions. I like to think I’m not a cynic, but if I listened too closely to weathermen, I’d be wearing Birkenstocks in below-freezing precipitation. And I assume it was market…
The general trend in imbibing these days may be summed up as less, but better. According to the people who tally such things, we’re not drinking as much as we used to, but we’re drinking higher quality stuff; sales of single-malt scotch are up; jug-wine sales are down; high-end bourbon…
Arc-en-Ciel has been one of our favorite Chinese-Vietnamese restaurants for a long time. We had heard its Arlington branch was something, if we could find it. So we spent last Friday night in the depths of darkest Arlington, wandering around looking for a branch of a restaurant based in Garland…
A cross between the Farmers Market and a grocery store, Fresco’s sells only produce in the original boxes. The retail space at Skillman and Live Oak is warehouse-bare, dim, and empty, except for the stacks of crates and the cash register. The mountains of lettuce, peppers, onions, potatoes, and all…
Speaking of coming around again, that’s what’s happening to Oak Lawn. Once a hot dining neighborhood in Dallas, where all the the most chic and newest restaurants were clustered–Old Warsaw was at the corner of Cedar Springs and Oak Lawn, Mario’s and Spanish Village were nearby, Jamie’s Hamburgers was just…
Yeah, this is just the thing. Drop by an uptown joint to watch the Magic play the Knicks, hunker down at the bar, grab a brewski, and lay into…a veggie burger? Everything about the Uptown Bar & Grill seems like a typical after-work stop-in bar: its dimness, its dull decor,…
There’s been a whole lotta coffee talk going on during the last few years. Mainly, it’s been about beans and that’s what it amounts to. Bad coffee used to be a hallmark of the cuisine of America, home of the percolator. Now, on every block, there’s a place where you…
So, what do you think they teach them over in the business school at Southern Methodist University–if they’re not going to work for dad’s law firm when they graduate, I mean? I can’t help wondering, because we just met this guy, Scott King, who graduated, went into real estate, and…
I wondered, last week as I explored the eponymous cafes of Addison and Highland Park, whether I would find in them any essential “Addison-ness” or “Park-iness,” some quality that linked the places with their food and towns. This week found me at Plano Cafe (or rather, I found Plano Cafe…
One of the noteworthy features of John Kenyon’s new bad-boy Red Jacket Nightclub is the mezcal boutique in the bar. Mezcal, the cactus-based liquor from Oaxaca, has always been a bad-ass drink: harsh going down, hallucinatory in its effects. As if to prove what a bottom-of-the-barrel drink it was, there…
“You’d better get on down here,” my friend said, calling from her cell phone. “It’s a real pop festival.” She was talking about Eatzi’s, the new store with the ridiculously bad name we’ve all been watching and waiting for on Oak Lawn. Everyone knows Eatzi’s is a new Brinker “concept,”…
On a recent Thursday night, we enjoyed a glass of wine, a cup of soup, and a delicious goat cheese, avocado, and vegetable sandwich on herbed wheat bread while we listened to the Arthur Riddles Jazz Quartet playing oh-so-cool jazz against the gorgeous backdrop of incredible glass flowers created by…
Cafe Highland Park and Addison Cafe are siblings, but it’s another kind of cafe society out in Addison whose cafe is subtitled “Le French Bistro.” If Highland Park society has delusions of old New England, Addison is strictly New World in its aspirations, at least as far as you can…
It’s my impression that Highland Park is populated largely by people who like to pretend they live in Connecticut and commute to the big city. There’s the perfect little park with its gazebo and ducks (and tennis courts). There’s an old-fashioned annual Fourth of July parade, full of children, Sousa,…
