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Mark Stuertz Quits The Dallas Observer

Posted on July 18th, 2008 11:13am by Nancy Nichols
Filed under Uncategorized

Want to be a dining critic? The Dallas Observer is looking to replace Mark Stuertz, who turned in his resignation yesterday. I’m on the phone chatting with him right now. He is trying to remember his favorite restaurants–a question that I hate too. I’ll just type live while he attempts to talk.

Dude, wrap up your career at DO: Eleven years and ten days.

Highlights?: Stephan Pyles. David McMillan. Bijoux. Avner. Nonna.

Lowlights?: Avner. Cockroach in my salad at Oui Oui. Bad piece of fish at Newport’s.

What are you going to do?: Corporate freelance. And I’m going to take a cue from L. Ron Hubbard and start my own religion which will have its own line of jewelry and be a painful religion where you have to prostrate yourself before a higher power.” (I can’t make this stuff up, folks. It’s all true.)

Unsung heros of the Dallas dining scene?: Rick Robbins from Stoneleigh and Eccolo. Tim Byres from Standard (now sous chef at the Mansion). Marc Cassell.

What makes you happy? Writing my last “Best Of” for the Observer.

Say anything: Writing opinions is so heavily commoditized that it won’t be long before movie, TV, and book reviewers will be irrelevant.

That it?: No. I’ll call you back later.

Ciao, Mark. I’ll miss disagreeing with you.

22 comments

  1. His column is about the thing I read in the Observer. That’s too bad; he’ll be missed.

    @ 11:21 am on July 18, 2008

  2. “only thing…”

    @ 11:21 am on July 18, 2008

  3. Wow. I’m sorry to hear that. Mark, you’ll be missed.

    @ 11:45 am on July 18, 2008

  4. I think he just reached the end of his thesaurus.

    @ 11:54 am on July 18, 2008

  5. It was time for a change

    @ 1:26 pm on July 18, 2008

  6. Timothy Byres has been at Stephan Pyles for the past five or six months.

    @ 1:53 pm on July 18, 2008

  7. You think they’ll hire out this position or fill it will “contract” labor (as is posted on Village Voice)? Saw the freelancer ad a while back and wondered since the pages devoted to new reviews of restaurants are slim already.

    @ 2:07 pm on July 18, 2008

  8. it WITH “contract…” – need to go recaffeinate.

    @ 2:07 pm on July 18, 2008

  9. Writing opinions may be heavily commotitized, but writing them in an interesting way that i care to read about isn’t.

    @ 2:11 pm on July 18, 2008

  10. I worked with Mark at the Dallas Observer for 10 years. Although I always enjoyed reading his articles, most of the time I hated his guts because his scathing reviews of local restaurants did nothing to help me sell ads into the newspaper. On a personal level, he is a super nice guy and I wish him all the best in his new adventures! The Observer will have a hard time replacing him!

    PS: Mark, I hear ya on the “Best of” thing. I chuckle every year when I see the promo ads knowing I never have to work on that beast again. Whew!

    @ 2:15 pm on July 18, 2008

  11. Ever notice how the dried egg casing from a cockroach looks alarmingly similar to a rice hull? Thus was my first thought while carefully studying an errant grain of sticky rice desperately clinging to my chopstick at Yada Yada Sushi on ABC Street in Dallas.

    There’s only one person in my world of culinary literature who could possibly come up with an opener like that and now he’s gone like that — I’m depressed and pissed.

    Mark never actually wrote that opener in any of his weekly columns at the Observer — but he could have and that’s what’s important — certainly not my clumsy homage to attempt his writing style.

    Super palate, astute observational eye, great sense of fairness, and over the top quirky entertaining writing . Sad day for all of us — but thank you Mark — we do wish you well and man were you a hoot!

    @ 2:30 pm on July 18, 2008

  12. Mark, thanks for your hard work over the years. Your reading public appreciates having multiple voices in this town (hi Nancy, hi Bill) in order to create a true marketplace of ideas about food culture. Best of luck.

    @ 2:36 pm on July 18, 2008

  13. I’ll miss reading his reviews almost as much as I’ll miss trying to figure out whether he liked the place or not :)

    I hope they get somebody half as interesting to replace him.

    @ 3:05 pm on July 18, 2008

  14. Back in the day when you went looking for a weekly restaurant review, the DO was the place to turn, mainly because you could trust it like it or not, plus he was proably sober at the time of the dinner. The alternative was Dotty, a chef groupie if their ever was one.

    @ 3:10 pm on July 18, 2008

  15. I can’t believe Mark didn’t list this as a lowlight. Still my favorite review. Poor Bruno Mella.

    http://www.dallasobserver.com/1999-12-16/restaurants/ballsy-dining/#end

    @ 3:19 pm on July 18, 2008

  16. Does this mean Robb Walsh will be moving up here?

    @ 5:54 pm on July 18, 2008

  17. I was going to say Kirk, that kirk didn’t sound like something you would say.

    @ 9:49 pm on July 18, 2008

  18. One word….Hoo-frickin-ray!!

    @ 10:05 pm on July 18, 2008

  19. thank god.

    seriously, that guy should be writing technical books on peppers and taking over the reigns of gary gygax w/ his soaring descriptions of inner architecture and seat covers.

    bring on some alice laussaude or however the **** you spell her last name….

    good riddance fake david foodie wallace,

    fortune

    @ 3:49 am on July 19, 2008

  20. What’s the backstory? What prompted him to leave?

    @ 7:38 am on July 19, 2008

  21. Mark, your eloquent voice in the pages of the Observer will be sadly missed by me..as will the English vocabulary class I received from every story…..thanks for your over- abundant cynicism

    @ 10:54 am on July 19, 2008

  22. I shall always remember Markies soaring 1/2 page diatribes on the entry-ways, parititions, backdrops, cutlery, glassware and other oddities before ever expounding on what the hell the place served for food. Then, wrapping it up with no opinions on whether it was worth it for me to go vs. the other places he has reviewed for steak, Indian, seafood, etc.

    DO went from the #1 food read to last in the past 5 years. New blood can only help now.

    @ 10:56 am on July 21, 2008