It’s been a busy year for barbecue aficionados in the Dallas area. The “barbecue boom” of the last several years seems to show no signs of tapering off, which is a good thing for those always on the hunt for the next great spot for smoked meats. Here at the…
2016 was a year of change, promise, upheaval and disappointment in the Dallas restaurant scene. Few establishments embodied that full range of emotion quite like Deep Ellum’s “elevated-southern” kitchen, Filament. When it opened in December 2015, Filament had all sorts of exciting things going for it. It was the second…
The newest bar trend is adding activated charcoal to cocktails, but at what cost?
Ben and Jon Lee were improbable restaurant owners in 2011. Aged 25 and 23, respectively, the brothers had no restaurant or culinary experience, no loans and no investors. They didn’t understand food costs. They didn’t have a marketing budget. They didn’t know anything about bookkeeping, or how to find a…
Mercury is retrograding so hard right now, you guys. In terms of Dallas dining news, the week started sad and by Friday had snowballed into downright bizarre. Is it moon madness? End-of-year fatigue? Anybody wanna blame it on Obama? Who knows, but somebody needs to go burn some sage in…
Well, that’s the end of this saga. On the Lamb in Deep Ellum just posted the following message to their Facebook page: Yesterday we reported that, after news broke that chef Ross Demers had abruptly left the restaurant after dinner service on Friday, the restaurant shuttered and blamed an oven…
If you began this season of Top Chef, eager (some may say hungry) for Villain John Tesar, damn, I bet you’re disappointed. Because Dallas chef Tesar is totally nice and totally cool and totally a team player. Tesar’s first shot in this episode is him complimenting someone’s collared greens. And…
Despite all the bad news in the Dallas dining scene lately, all is not lost. This week, some local concepts are expanding even as others dial back. Big news in Dallas tacoland: Trompo, the West Dallas break-out hit that opened in April, is opening a new location, this one in…
All-American is a series that looks at beloved, longstanding North Texas eateries and examines their history while exploring how the food has changed — for the good or bad — over the years. For chef Brian Luscher, taking ownership of The Grape was like coming home. He’d been chef for…
This past weekend, Observer food critic Brian Reinhart went out to Deep Ellum to grab dinner at On the Lamb, the restaurant we recently selected as the best new Dallas restaurant of 2016. At 6:25 p.m., just as diners should have been filing in for cocktails and dinner, I got…
The ‘Spro Fizz isn’t just delicious, it’s sexy AF and the booze in it isn’t the only thing that will give you a little buzz.
Grayson Social, the Southern-inspired restaurant located in downtown Dallas’ LTV Tower, stands in stark contrast to the surrounding landscape. Outside, the streets and buildings and even the sky, somehow, swirl together into a mass of gray. Stepping inside Grayson Social, the work-worn city scene falls away and is replaced by…
If Frisco isn’t the first place you think of when you think about good coffee, it would be hard to blame you. The specialty coffee scene in Dallas proper has enjoyed a rapid explosion over the last several years, and while consumers throughout the DFW are increasingly focusing on local,…
Taco Stop owner Emilia Flores once called to notify me that she had been injured in a car wreck. As a result, she would be late setting up for the taco festival I was curating and at which Taco Stop was to be a vendor. Of course, I told her…
The Smoky Rose, a new restaurant featuring “chef-driven plates and pitmaster-smoked meats,” is opening Thursday, Dec. 22, at 8602 Garland Road, not far from the Dallas Arboretum. Via a press release: Smoky Rose – a chef-driven smokehouse in a relaxed yet chic farmhouse interior is set to open for lunch and…
Join the Dallas Chop House for a testosterrific evening of steak, cigars and Glenfiddich Scotch whisky. The special tasting menu will include grilled flat iron, roasted strip loin and braised short rib (because meat). Tickets are $50 per person. What it be: Scotch + Cigars When it do: 6:30 to…
Just under the radar, there’s been a whole lot of burgering going on at Armoury D.E. Every Friday for several weeks now, Elm Street’s Hungarian-inspired bar has released a new cheeseburger into the wild. They’re out there, roaming. There’s been a pulverized shrimp burger. Ham resting under the shade of…
Like most small towns, Denton has its share of secrets. The city’s local culture blog even dedicates an entire spread to its annual Secrets of Denton series. But Denton’s best-kept secret remains frustratingly unknown to the majority of its residents and visitors; even their police force is fuzzy on the…
Few Dallas restaurants mark their debut appearance on the culinary scene with national coverage on Fox News, but V-Eats Modern Vegan did just that, thanks to their all-vegan brisket. Not all Texans, it seems, are ready to chow down on vegan barbecue. Now that the spotlight has turned elsewhere, V-Eats…
Remember when we told you about The Morning After, Dallas’ first brunch festival, coming to the Dallas Farmers Market in February? Well whip out those wallets, because pre-sale for the inaugural event starts today. This day-time brunch-sampling event — going down from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 11…
Nestled in a shopping center on the corner of Keist and Hampton in sunny Oak Cliff, newly opened Maskaras Mexican Grill has entered the crowded ring of taquerias and Mexican restaurants in the DFW area. Not that there is anything wrong with more tacos in Dallas — Dallasites are more…
Much of DFW’s best international fare is located nowhere near the city center. In fact, the greatest immigrant cuisine is often found by traveling out to the suburbs where international enclaves create tiny villages rich
with food, shopping and culture.
