The words “happy hour” bring to my admittedly middle-age mind a loud vision of elbow-to-elbow gatherings around chafing dishes of Mexican food, with too many cheap drinks leading to a blurry evening. How nice to instead perch on a barstool at Pinot’s in the early evening, sipping a glass of…
Many years ago, after a lovely wedding in an old chapel in Baton Rouge, we were given a Cajun feast of crawfish and wedding cake. The favorite drink of the day? The liquid refreshment with which the bride’s father fortified himself (and disabled his guests)? He called his concoction a…
It seems significant to me that the billboards and mailers advertising the long-awaited opening of Toscana don’t picture mouth-watering veal and mushrooms, or lemon-roasted chicken, but instead look like a lineup straight out of a Milanese fashion shoot. What are we selling here? Against a blank white background, debonair, white-haired…
The club sandwich is an all-American institution open to anyone. Food historians tell us that the club sandwich has been around since the last century, and then argue about what goes on one, and whether it’s properly made with two pieces of toast or three. I say, ‘Who cares?’ The…
Around the corner from Vitto’s is Mi Familias, a new little Mexican restaurant that is Vitto’s exact opposite in substance and style. Vitto’s is trying to carve a little niche of unexpected chic in old-fashioned Oak Cliff; Mi Familias is precisely what we’ve come to expect from Oak Cliff eateries,…
Brand-new from Mother Nature: Del Monte Gold pineapples. Del Monte began developing this new variety of pineapple more than 10 years ago in Costa Rica, which is evidently the Alaska of pineapples: They just naturally grow bigger and sweeter in Costa Rica. But Mother Nature’s little helpers at Del Monte…
It occurred to me, as I walked into Vitto’s, that the last time I reviewed a restaurant in Oak Cliff, it was at this same address. Maybe not. But it’s certainly true that off the top of my head, I can name four or five restaurants that have held this…
Improbably, one of the best Italian restaurants in the city has settled solidly into the suburbs. Popolo’s packs them into Preston Royal Shopping Center every lunch and dinner, and every diner devours the fresh bread, dipped into a dish of olive oil. Now, around back of the restaurant, you can…
Just a guess, but I suppose Daddy Jack isn’t planning on moving after all. The last time I talked with Jack Chaplin at any length, he was considering pulling up stakes and going back East where he came from, instead of swimming upstream (so to speak), making a living as…
French food is the mother of all Western cuisines; the whole vocabulary of Western cuisine is French. The French fries (pommes frites) at Chez Gerard remind you that even the ubiquitous French-fried potato is something to take seriously, if you want to be rewarded. Greaseless but buttery, colored a pure…
“When a vegetable is as beautiful as this asparagus, you’ve just got to take it seriously.” I can’t remember now whether Julia (Child, of course) said that in a magazine interview or during an episode of The French Chef. I’m not really even sure whether it was asparagus or artichokes…
In the corner of Preston Royal Shopping Center, back behind the post office, is tiny Best Thai, a pocket restaurant with only a few tables inside and a few on the adjoining sidewalk. You can’t even see it from the parking lot–just trust me that it’s there and in that…
Sometimes it’s hard to find the Texas in Dallas, Texas. We’ve paved it with parking lots and covered it up with malls and mirrored skyscrapers till there’s very little landscape and no history apparent; what you see instead is our own invention. For instance, the infamous herd of steers at…
There is no worse kitchen job than grating citrus zest. It’s such a thin line between the peel and the pith and it would be a Shylock’s deal to promise you could get all the zest without losing some of your skin. Fortunately, if you just want a dash of…
My nomination for best rotisserie chicken in town–in a culture crawling with rotisserie-cooked chickens–is the herb-rubbed, tender-fleshed, crisp-skinned one now available from Ziziki’s new Mediterranean Market, right across from the same-named, sort-of-Greek restaurant in the courtyard in Travis Walk. Now that Costa Arrabatzis and Mary Cloutier have built the restaurant…
Location, location, location. I think I may have opened a review with that phrase before, but since at least half the restaurant business is actually the real-estate business, the maxim can’t be repeated too often. In Dallas, the restaurant real estate is clearly staked out; until Oak Cliff votes itself…
OK, everybody, raise your hand if you think that what Dallas really needs is one more brewpub. And, for those of you who raised your hand, I’ve got a deal on some really great lake property near Alice. Somewhere in Colorado, it seems, some scam salesman has put out the…
This could be the hottest dish you’ll ever read. The 1996 “Marilyn Merlot” has just been released, with the dishy blond on the label. A different picture from the star’s estate adorns the bottle every year, and there are actually oenophiles who refuse to buy the wine because of the…
I am skeptical of any commercial food establishment that uses the word “home” in its description. “Home” cooking, “home”-baked, “home”made–they’re all obvious lies. But it’s not just the obvious untruth–that this food is actually restaurant cooking, professionally baked, and commercially made–that bothers me; it’s the increasing sense of confusion about…
Speaking from several experiences, I know that marriage has its ups and downs. You have to judge it by the long haul, because it can be miserable in the short run; a bad week out of a lifetime relationship is not very long, and yet it can end a marriage…
Holy Ravioli! Sounds like something Batman would say, but take it literally this time. This new pasta shop is set up like a Baskin-Robbins store, only the freezer containers are filled with ravioli instead of ice cream. There aren’t 31 flavors, but you can choose pasta pockets filled with black…
Jack Nicholson’s famous sandwich tantrum in Five Easy Pieces has been referenced so often, it’s become a bit of folklore that exists apart from the movie. His point, made so vehemently about the toast, was: Restaurants are supposed to serve you first, food second. If someone walks into Deep Ellum’s…
