Articles for September 15th, 2011

Garden Cafe Loses City Council Vote. No More BYOB!

posted by Nancy Nichols | September 15th, 2011 5:07pm | filed under Restaurant News | 21 Comments »

Steven “Don’t Call Me Dallas Dude Anymore” Doyle is “reporting” that the City Council turned down Garden Cafe’s owner Dale Wootton’s bid to get approval to allow diners to BYOB. And that includes charity events.

I just spoke with Dallas City Coucilwoman Angela Hunt. “At the end of the day, I talked with Dale and his son Mark and the community representatives and I moved to deny the removal of the dry overlay,” Hunt said. “Dale asked to pass the planned development district that would have given him more parking spaces for his tenants and I said sure. I had him go out and work it out with the neighborhood folks and everyone came back in and sang Kumbaya.”

Hunt says she eats breakfast at the Garden Cafe all of the time and this was a tough decision for her. “It wasn’t matter of trusting him [Dale], it came down to a matter the short term and long term matters,” Hunt said. “Now it’s three little shops in a neighborhood. It makes sense that it would be dry in a neighborhood like that. The neighbors closest to the project voted against removing the dry overlay. Once you remove it, you can’t replace it and we’ve seen the problems that can happen on Lower Greenville.”

Someone’s crying Lord, kum bay ya.

21 Comments »

Point CounterPoint: Should Dallas Restaurants Have a Time Limit?

posted by George Lewis | September 15th, 2011 12:06pm | filed under Bring it!, Cheap trick for comments, Contests, Cult Cuisine, Food Fight!, make mine a double, restaurant service, Slow News Day | 46 Comments »

"Hello, beautiful lady. My name is Jason. I'll be your waiter tonight. You'll have 2 hours to complete your meal. And your time starts ... NOW"

[Ed. note: George poses this, in my opinion, stupid question. I am challenging him with, in my opinion, a smarter one.]

George: A couple of weeks ago, a Zagat survey reported that 60% of dinners in New York supported a time limit which allows the restaurant to boot you from your table so they can seat another party.  But we’re not New York.  So let’s ask the question to Dishers.  Would you mind a time limit?

Nancy: George, you ignorant cluck. You are right on one point: we are not New York. I hate rushed service. Take MiCocina (beat, beat). Those waiters aren’t servers they’re animal trainers. They can turn a table of six in 40 minutes. It drives me nuts. I get the same vibe at Houston’s. Every time you sit down you can feel the beat: water, menus, drinks, order, eat, dessert, BOOM. Maybe, just maybe, we are eating out to have a conversation that doesn’t fit into the restaurant’s time frame. I think no time limit is best for the customer.

George: You can’t have a conversation in under 2 hours?  Are you sitting with your fork in one hand and Blackberry in the other?  Talk, talk, tap, tap.  Assuming your waiter greets you in a timely manner, takes your order, and serves you your drinks and food, you really can’t finish in 2 hours? If not, move to the bar. I think it’s good for business.

Who is right?

46 Comments »

Ate it for $8: Tootsie’s Café in Downtown Dallas

posted by Nancy Nichols | September 15th, 2011 10:57am | filed under Ate it For $8, Burgers, Restaurant News | 3 Comments »

Philly cheese steak sandwich.

Overview: Unpretentious and “relatable,” Tootsie’s Café is every bit as charming as it is quirky. Luckily it’s not their decorating pizzazz or grammatically correct menu that keeps the downtown crowd packing this place for breakfast and lunch. On one side is a dining hall filled with red and white checkered picnic tablecloths and framed Ansel Adams posters along wallpaper that looks like a continuous magic eye stereogram. The hall attaches to the front counter/menu area and a “fixings bar” stocked with sauces ranging from southwest ranch to Sriracha, and looks out on the Tootsie’s slogan hung on a wall, “Home of Fresh Bun.” Not “Home of the Freshly Baked Bun,” or “Home of our Famous Fresh Baked Buns.” Just “Home of Fresh Bun.” See, relatable. To the point. My kind of place. I liked Tootsie’s right from the start, despite the annoyingly yet endearingly cute name.

Continue reading "Ate it for $8: Tootsie’s Café in Downtown Dallas"

3 Comments »

Movember Cometh, People. Let’s Do This.

posted by Sarah Reiss | September 15th, 2011 10:00am | filed under Baking, Charity events, cookies, cookoff, dessert, movember frippery | 1 Comment »
photos borrowed from scoochmaroo/instructables.com

photos borrowed from scoochmaroo at Instructables.com

Last year, we watched the seemingly unflappable Ryan transform from cherubic imp to Keith Stone over the course of one wacky Movember challenge. This year (I hope) will be no exception. But should we fall down on the job—or should you not have the genetic material necessary to grow your own—there is an alternative: DIY moustache cookie pops. A clever contributor at Instructables.com who calls herself scoochmaroo posted this handy step-by-step on their site, and I have to say, I’m sold.

I call for a challenge! Create, send us pics, and may the best ‘stache with the best backstory win!

1 Comment »

My Sugar Box Can Beat Up Your Velvet Taco

posted by Sarah Reiss | September 15th, 2011 9:00am | filed under Baking, cake, cheap eats, Chocolate, Coffee, Cult Cuisine, cupcakes, dessert, Diets are stupid, Events, flying solo, food art, Free Stuff!, freebies, Goats!, Good Morning, grand opening, How to Open a Restaurant 101, I Went to College for This?, It's just lunch, make mine a double, Nightlife, Openings/Closings, Restaurant News, Sexy food, Silly Reasons to Celebrate, Snacks, Stupid terms for food, Tacos, Unsolicited Treats, youthful spontaneous restaurants | 1 Comment »

In what feels like a dessert response to all of the overtly suggestive taco joint names we’ve seen in the last year, Sugar Box officially opens tomorrow night in Uptown at the Mondrian. The grand opening fete runs from 5 to 9 pm and features freebie selections from the new dessert bar’s palate of cupcakes, French macarons, and cake balls with espresso, latte, and cappuccino chasers (for those of you who, unlike me, can drink coffee after 4 pm and still sleep at night). Free tasters, live music, door prizes. Why not?

1 Comment »