Five Dallas Dives Guy Fieri Should (Not) Visit

Everyone’s favorite backwards-sunglasses and flaming-shirt enthusiast Guy Fieri revisits DFW this week, sort of, with an hour-long rehash of former Diner, Drive-Ins and Dives episodes that he’s calling “The Legends of Texas” tour, airing all week. As we wrote about in 2012, this means some people’s favorite restaurants, including Cane…

A Review of Doritos Loaded, Which Aren’t Really Food

Doritos come in multiple forms and dimensions these days. There’s the two dimensional-like flat chip option, which have been Street Tacoed, nacho cheese explosioned, Tapatioed, and, more recently, contorted into the taco dimension. On the taco axis, Doritos is often filled with “beef” and sour cream and stuff. Now, 7-Eleven…

The Top 9 Rock Bands Who Went Soft

It’s a tradition as old as pop music itself: A band discovers how much money can be made by crossing over to the pop market and starts crafting softer music accordingly. It has happened to the best of bands. Most of the time, but not always, this occurs when a…

Pakpao Has Lost its Way

If you haven’t been in a while, there have been a lot of changes at the Design District Thai restaurant Pakpao. Owners Richard and Tiffanee Ellman first got attention when they asked chef Eddie Thretipthuangsin to leave late last year. They said they wanted to make Pakpao a “national brand,”…

Tasting the Worst Taco in Dallas

All week at City of Ate, we celebrate the magic of the taco. Check back for more interviews, essays and maybe a list or two. Or maybe four? If you live in Dallas, you’ve likely shopped at a 7-Eleven, and if you’ve shopped at Dallas’ official convenience store, then you’ve…

Hip-Hop’s Illuminati Dropout Class of 2014.

It’s that time of year again: Graduations have party-blocked out every May weekend while springtime optimists flock to their favorite blogs to discover soon-to-be summer hits. You know, the kind of hits that stealthily attack radio and multiply like a pop virus. But what about your favorite hip-hop artists from…

Fuel City’s Tacos Are Not Good

All week at City of Ate, we celebrate the magic of the taco. Check back for more interviews, essays and maybe a list or two. Or maybe four? Three or so years ago, when I was driving in a rickety Penske truck with my life’s possessions toward Texas, I knew…

Happy Easter! I Hate Peeps.

If you’ve never had a Peeps, know this: It’s like eating a tablespoon of sugar lovingly dusted atop a mouthful of your gramma’s cellulite. Pretty sure those are the two main ingredients, just behind yellow dye number gross. This is punishment candy. It’s the equivalent of getting a turd in…

Dallas’ Restaurants Have Been Shunned by Yelp, but Not for the Reasons You Think

Earlier this week Yelp published its top 100 restaurants — what it described as a list of “the ultimate, try-before-you-die, food-coma-inducing, so-good-it-makes-you-want-to-slap-your-momma places to eat.” The ranked list seemed to touch on every aspect of American dining, from east coast to west, from downtown to suburban, and from fine dining…

That’s Enough Already, Dave Grohl

Press PhotoDave Grohl is one of my favorite dudes in the world but he needs to hop off my radar for a minute. I’m a mega Nirvana fan and I’ve always admired Dave for his talent and humor, but lately I can’t seem to get him out of my face…

The 10 Post-Punk Albums Every Music Fan Should Own

Thirty years ago this week, The Smiths released their self-titled debut. It arrived at a time when every bass groove, dissonant guitar and echo-ey drum machine rhythm that would become identified with late ’70s and early ’80s post-punk music was at its peak. However, this debut also represented a new…

Ten Rules of the Rave: A Guide to Underground Dance Party Etiquette

Electronic music’s recent surge in popularity comes with serious side effects for underground-party aficionados. Suddenly, Daft Punk is winning Grammys, and drunk girls (and guys) are ruining life at 4 a.m. in a warehouse somewhere. By Sarah Stanley-Ayre Take this recent incident: Under a haunting pink hue Dustin Zahn tended…

I Honestly Tried to Like Imagine Dragons

I’m going to let you in on the secret: I don’t know anything about music that normal adult humans listen to. Avalanches of culture engulf our entire society while I sit in a grubby basement, hunched over a laptop listening to old Motorhead records. However, on occasion, I’m forced to…

Please Stop Making Me Chew My Drinks, World

Drinks are for drinking, not for chewing. I thought this was obvious. But then I bought a coconut water from the grocery store. “With pulp” it said. “OK, that’s probably like orange juice with pulp,” I replied. I opened the can, took a sip, and that’s when the pulpy can…

The Top 10 Metal Love Songs

In honor of St. Valentine’s Day, we wanted to offer you a list of love songs. But, these aren’t the ordinary love songs about boys falling in love with girls, or girls getting their heart broken. The following heavy metal songs represent the madness and chaos of love’s firm grip…

Should Rap Lyrics Be Used in Criminal Trials?

Legions of angry parents were already up in arms when gangster rap arrived on the scene. After the 1985 PMRC Senate hearings helped institute “Parental Advisory” stickers, albums by Ice-T and N.W.A. were among the first to be branded. Since then, rap as a musical form has continued to take…

On Pop Music and Violence Against Women

Jaime LeesMy R. Kelly necklaceI can’t stop thinking about Rihanna. Her single, “Stay,” came out a year ago this month and it’s still omnipresent. I’ll hear it on the radio, in the grocery store and played on the jukebox at a bar by some sad bastard with no concept of…