In Dallas, there’s not a lot that hasn’t been artisanal-ed already. We’ve got artisanal dog biscuits, artisanal popcorn, artisanal toast, artisanal vapes and we’ve even got a bunch of artisanal chicks bitching at each other every Monday night. But, we still have a few things in this town that could be way…
By now, you’ve heard about the artisanal toast trend that is taking Dallas by toast storm — and by “by storm,” I mean making everyone on Facebook raise their artisanal toast-hating pitchforks. But there’s more: There’s Artisan Vapor. I drove past their store yesterday, and I really feel like the whole “artisanal…
CultureMap recently published a blog post entitled, “Meet the 10 best Dallas chefs defining good taste.” The list is an announcement of their nominees for Dallas Chef of the Year for the Tastemakers Awards, an annual event that intends to “shine a spotlight on the people making the city’s restaurant…
In what may very well be the saddest last-ditch attempt to maintain relevancy in the history of American dining, Applebee’s announced on Monday the “biggest investment in culinary excellence in the company’s history,” part of its efforts to “to take back America’s neighborhoods.” As Americans become more educated about the…
Yesterday, The Dallas Morning News’ GuideLive posted a link to a new Leslie Brenner review of Lucia to their Facebook page with the following words: “Dallas now has just two 5-star restaurants.” In the review, Brenner gushes over and over about how much she adores Lucia, then notes that several dishes were…
When I saw people promoting the De La Terre dinner at CBD Provisions on Facebook, I thought, Awesome. Dinner that benefits a charity, plus tons of fancy chefs: Janice Provost, Misti Norris, Anastacia Quinones — this’ll be great. And then I read the headline of the flyer. “Twelve Dallas female…
Every cool kid movement sells out in the end. Hippie protest icon Jerry Rubin became a Wall Street stockbroker. Dave Mustaine of Megadeth and Metallica supported Rick Santorum for president. And at the Dallas Grilled Cheese Co., hipsters are slinging $9 grilled cheese sandwiches. When I started the “How Hipster…
If you’ve spent any time at all on Facebook in the last year, you’ve been subjected to an endless stream of recipe videos, the short, peppy little videos that break down recipes into a visual step-by-step. Bacon-guacamole “chicken bombs,” biscuit and gravy casserole, Nutella cream cheese turnovers — thanks to Buzzfeed’s…
Waiters have always been multitaskers, but now a new chore is being added to their job descriptions: Food Explainer. It’s not just “here are today’s specials” and “our plates are meant for sharing” anymore — chefs and managers are asking waitstaff to deliver little speeches about almost every dish. Before…
There will never be another band like Tool. There will be bands with mysterious frontmen. There will be bands that find emotion in talking about our greater meaning. There will be bands with drummers who make the most complex patterns look like child’s play. There will be bands that know music…
I’m pretty sure brunch was invented in 1962, when some restaurant owner in Tallahassee said, “Serving breakfast 24 hours a day would be a pain in the ass — mostly since we never even serve breakfast — but I do hate my kitchen staff and I’ve been meaning to get…
In theory, macaroni and cheese is a wonderful dish. The combination of cheese and noodles is pretty much foolproof, or at least that’s what one would think. As a result, this classic Southern favorite that permeated the potlucks and holiday dinners of our youth now exists on most restaurant menus…
Grub Street and a few other news sites have picked up a story about the coming closure of a much-lauded Jersey City restaurant. The stories explore New York City’s oppressive real estate costs, the goodness of the tasting menu dining format, the roll of the press in shaping dining experiences…
Brunch reviews typically do not involve ethnography. This one did. Ethnography, if you are not familiar, is an anthropological method of observing a group or society from within. Social psychology darling Leon Festinger famously infiltrated a UFO-based cult called The Seekers and developed his theory of cognitive dissonance based upon…
The Old Warsaw is the black sheep of Dallas fine dining. It advertises with highway billboards of beautiful, pouting Slavic women. Its menu is a 1950s time warp of lobster thermidor, caviar service, beef stroganoff and cherries jubilee. Its food menu also features such heart-warming typos as “Duck Brest,” “Brussles…
Back in May we published a feature devoted to Dallas’ old dive bars. The story was prompted by a blog post I wrote after having a conversation with a friend about the closure of Club Schmitz. My friend and I were united in our love for bars with quirks, history…
Last week I stumbled on a story on The Washington Post, written by a disgruntled diner. The author had enough of restaurant employees with twitching fingers, snapping up plates the moment a fork hit the porcelain in defeat. He’s right. Cleared plates are a good thing — nobody wants to look…
Father’s Day is Sunday, which means it’s time to celebrate the man that taught you how to tie your shoes, slipped you your first beer, and kept your rebellious ass in line all those years. You have a number of elaborate ways to let Dad know he’s special to you,…
The suits of the Music Row machine have been putting their shiny boots in their less-than-polished mouths in recent months. The most recent example occurred last week when, in an interview with Country Aircheck magazine, prominent radio consultant Keith Hill stated, “Trust me, I play great female records, and we’ve got…
The other day Nancy Nichols wrote a post on Side Dish complaining about too many burger restaurant in Dallas (just after a list celebrating 20 local burgers was published on the same blog). “Do we need more mac and cheese, burgers and braised short ribs?” she asks, prompted by an announcement…
I have seen the future of marketing, and it is terrifying. Not long ago I paid Chili’s a visit, after hearing about their new campaign to make their food more shareable on social media. The company is hoping more customers will take selfies with burgers in hand, so they spent…
In this era of hippy-dippy, gluten-free, all-natural organic food, going to Whole Foods is just a foregone conclusion. You, assuming you’re lucky enough to not live in our city’s vast food desert, are going to round up all those stupid reusable bags, hop in your Subaru, and head to the…
