2011 October 24 | SideDish

Articles for October 24th, 2011

Things To Eat and Drink This Week: Oct. 24-30

posted by Liz Johnstone | October 24th, 2011 3:25pm | filed under Events |

Monday (Oct. 24)

Tuesday (Oct. 25)

Cheese and wine pairing at The Grape, part of the restaurant’s 39th Anniversary festivities. Courtney Luscher, the restaurant’s GM and sommelier, and Scardello’s Ali Morgan co-host. If you stay for dinner, you get 15% off your bill. How’s that for a reason to make Tuesday night a little fancy?

Greenville Avenue Reopening Celebration. Eat at Terilli’s (happily reopen for business after a fire last year), Rohst, or Dodie’s on the 25th and 26th and the restaurants will donate a portion of proceeds to Voices of Hope and the Family Place.

Wednesday (Oct. 26)

The Grape’s Come-As-You-Are Wine Dinner. A monthly prix-fixe event that features three courses of bistro fare, wine pairings, and a casual atmosphere.This month, the wine is from Chateau de Saint Cosme and the special guest is Alan Unruh with The Country Vintner.

Vintage Premier Fête du Bordeaux. Even if you have an extra $225 squirreled away, this fancy dinner at the Rosewood Mansion is thoroughly sold out.

Halloween Devil Beer Dinner at the Libertine Bar. Dracula did/does not drink beer. But if he did, we’re assuming “Halloween-themed devil beers” would be high up there on his list of favorites. Come in costume or not and taste five beers paired with five different courses. The brews: Brooklyn Monster Barleywine, Avery Mephistopheles’ Stout, Satan Red, Wychwood Brewery Hobgoblin & Duvel Single.

Thursday (Oct. 27)

No Reservations: Anthony Bourdain at the Majestic. Oddly enough, there are still tickets left for this. Expensive-ish tickets, but tickets none the less.

Tarot Card Dinners at Hotel St. Germain. We’re so close to Halloween, which makes me happy. Hotel St. Germain pleases me double by bringing back their tarot card dinner series, which starts this Thursday and continues through Saturday. Enjoy a five-course dinner, and after you’ve supped, learn what your future holds with a candlelit tarot card reading in the hotel’s library.

Friday (Oct. 28)

Simi Wine Dinner at Victory Tavern. Five courses paired with five different wines from Simi Winery of Sonoma, CA. Atlas Cheek, the field manager of Constellation Wines U.S., will be in attendance to answer questions. Hit the link for the full menu.

Saturday (Oct. 29)

Scardello’s Third Birthday. Drop by Scardello for a $3 glass of wine and a cheese plate to celebrate the shop’s third anniversary here in Dallas.

Sunday (Oct. 30)

Artizone Dinner. The (apparently) elusive chef DAT cooks up five courses with wine pairings in Tom Spicer’s private garden. Nancy has all the details, and proceeds benefit The Family Place.

Anthony Bourdain in Dallas on Thursday: No Reservations Offers No Media Access

posted by Nancy Nichols | October 24th, 2011 2:20pm | filed under Celebrity Chefs, Events, Go Rangers!, Overprivileged chimps, SideDish Bump! | 19 Comments »

Several months ago, I received a press release announcing the date and details for Anthony Bourdain’s show at the Majestic Theater. I posted the information on SideDish and we included the event the October D Magazine events listings.

In the middle of September, I received an email from one of the PR peeps handling Bourdain’s tour. She asked:

We are putting together press requests for Anthony today to see what he has time for scheduling wise. Would you be interested in a possible interview leading up to the show? If so, what would be your deadline for the interview in order for it to run before the show? Of course, the more coverage we receive from any one particular outlet will be given priority.

I said sure. She asked if the interview would be in the November issue and I said no we are a monthly magazine and that issue has already gone to the printers. I’d be happy to post it on the blog.

Gmail silence.

My humble offerings were not good enough. No interview. Today same PR peep says no media/photography access to the event. So, Tony. Have a nice show. I’m sorry we can’t cover it. If anyone out there would like to buy the excellent tickets I bought for the show, shoot me an email. I’m taking reservations.

UPPITY DATE: Readers says Scott Reitz at Observer posted interview this morning. Fully expected as they are media sponsor of event.

UPPITY DATE: Just received a note from Bourdain. He apologized for the confusion and invited me to be a special guest on his show. Tony and I will perform a medley of John Denver tunes. Need tickets? Email me.

UPPITY DATE: Anthony Bourdain sent me a note saying he doesn’t employ handlers or PR people. He has no involvement in how local promoters deal with media credentials.

19 Comments »

Week of October 24 Food Truck Schedule

posted by George Lewis | October 24th, 2011 12:45pm | filed under Food Trucks | 2 Comments »

Nammi Vietnamese and Banh Mi won best food and best overall truck at the Ten for 10 Food Truck Smackdown. Gennarino’s won for best concept. Congratulations to these hard working owners for their wins at the event.

Coming up this Friday, you’ll see a near-Food Truck Festival downtown celebrating with Auroro 2011, a night of light and sound as the Dallas Arts District comes to life. Aurora 2011 says they’ll turn “The Dallas Arts District’s 19-square blocks into a mega-surround-sound system”. There will be at least 8 trucks there, including Green House, Nammi, Ssahm, Jack’s Chowhound, Enticed, Trailercakes, The Butcher’s Son (TBS), and The Bomb Fried Pies.

Again, check their Facebook and Twitter feeds. Trucks break and trucks move. Jump for the schedule. Continue reading "Week of October 24 Food Truck Schedule"

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Hennessy in Dallas

posted by Andrew Chalk | October 24th, 2011 12:00pm | filed under Andrew Chalk, cocktails |

Maurice Hennessy Discusses Cognac

Maurice Hennessy, 8^th generation member of the family who’s Cognac bears their name, was in Dallas this week to showcase the family’s products and give away a couple of cocktail recipes. I was fortunate to be invited to join the tasting. We started with cocktails fitting for a hot Dallas afternoon. The Hennessy Berry is a spritzy combination of puréed raspberries, Hennessy cognac, and mint. The Hennessy Ginger is a distinctive blend of ginger, Hennessy and simple syrup. The amount of ginger had been modulated just right to produce an unmistakable ginger taste but not ginger at the expense of the complex fruit notes from the Hennessy.

Boozey news below.

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Texas State Veggie Fair: Food Fun Without Meat

posted by Nancy Nichols | October 24th, 2011 11:12am | filed under Festivals, Vegetarian/Vegan | 3 Comments »

D Magazine intern Jessica Melton attended yesterday’s Texas State Veggie Fair. She files this report.

The Texas State Fair is renowned for its vast array of weird, interesting, and just plain crazy fried foods. The same could be said about this weekends’ Texas State Veggie Fair—minus the meat.

Yesterday, the 2^nd Annual Veggie Fair ground, otherwise known as Winfrey Point at White Rock Lake, was filled with vegan, vegetarian, and perhaps a few meat lovers like myself. (I was a vegetarian for a brief stint, but one day I woke up with a hankering for a T-bone steak—medium rare, if we’re being specific—and I haven’t looked back.) But diners are demand for vegan and vegetarian food is skyrocketing and the folks who hosted this event, DallasVegan.com, now have two successful day-long events to prove it.

Pictures and more galore.

Continue reading "Texas State Veggie Fair: Food Fun Without Meat"

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Beaujolais and Beyond Champagne Reception and Wine Tasting in Dallas

posted by Andrew Chalk | October 24th, 2011 10:55am | filed under Andrew Chalk, Celebrity Chefs, Wine & Spirits, Wine Pairing |

Back in the 1980s in Dallas the French-American Chamber of Commerce organized the ultimate celebration of the Nouveau Beaujolais every November. Thousands of people filled the lower level of the World Trade Center to drink seemingly endless amounts of the Beaujolais Nouveau and snack on bread and cheese. Many of us realized after a few years and a few more wines that Beaujolais Nouveau is the kind of wine that gives Beaujolais a bad name and there is a lot more to French cuisine than baguettes and brie, good as they were.

More. Continue reading "Beaujolais and Beyond Champagne Reception and Wine Tasting in Dallas"

Texas Restaurant Foundation and El Centro Presents Intro to Restaurant Management Classes

posted by Nancy Nichols | October 24th, 2011 10:50am | filed under How to Open a Restaurant 101 | 1 Comment »

This just in from Tracey Evers the Executive Director of the Greater Dallas Restaurant Association.

TRA Education Foundation has partnered with El Centro to provide an Introduction to Restaurant Management class – open to TRA members and non members. Great for assistant managers or new managers. Two-day intensive training that you can’t get anywhere else for the price. Offered Oct. 31-Nov. 1 and also on two Saturdays – Nov. 5 and Nov. 12.

More info and application here.

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Doggies! Deep Ellum Pup Crawl Report

posted by Andrew Chalk | October 24th, 2011 10:00am | filed under Andrew Chalk, Charity events, Dog Friendly, Drinking |

Cub Reporter: McVitie

Every year the Greyhound Adoption League of Texas (GALT) works with the the Deep Ellum Foundation to raise funds for GALT’s work saving greyhounds. Pups (any breed and many breed) and their owners walk between participating merchants collecting poker cards. At the end the highest hand wins a prize. Entrants also got an event t-shirt, drink/food specials and GALT goody bag. Pup crawl stops included Trees, Club Dada, St. Pete’s Dancing Marlin, The Bone, and Reno’s Chop Shop.

SideDish planned to send Andrew Chalk to this but he was laid up due to a nagging FarmVille injury. However, he was able to send his dog to cover it…

McVItie barks below.

Continue reading "Doggies! Deep Ellum Pup Crawl Report"

Francesco Farris Opens Zio Cecio Cucina Italiano in Dallas

posted by Nancy Nichols | October 24th, 2011 9:50am | filed under Openings/Closings, Restaurant News | 2 Comments »

A little birdy told me Zio Cecio opened last night. This tells you all about the restaurant. This tells you even more.

2 Comments »

Wine From La Mancha

posted by Andrew Chalk | October 24th, 2011 9:30am | filed under Andrew Chalk, Wine & Spirits | 3 Comments »

The Landscape of La Mancha. (photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons)

If you ask wine drinkers to name wine making regions in Spain, you will likely get Rioja as the most frequent response. Some will know Ribera del Duero as well. After that, the answer pot will likely run dry. There are many more significant winemaking regions in Spain, which is the third largest producer by volume in the world (and the country with the largest wine grape acreage). But none have emerged to the top of the international charts thus far, despite the importance of place in consumers’ food and drink purchasing decisions.

One far-sighted region making a serious attempt to do just that is La Mancha, a vast central region that starts about an hour south of the capital, Madrid. Representatives of the wine region, D.O. La Mancha, are touring major markets conducting seminars and tastings in an attempt to get the word out to consumers. They are promoting how good the wines of Spain are becoming. They came into Dallas recently and thanks to Janet Kafka and Associates for the invitation to taste and the thought they put into presenting these wines in a city that, frankly, is not hard up for wine events.

More below.

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DISH in Dallas Cooks Up a Few New Dishes

posted by Andrew Chalk | October 24th, 2011 9:00am | filed under Andrew Chalk, Bacon, Restaurant News | 1 Comment »

Star of Show: Ahi Tuna Pica

At a recent media event, DISH (in the Illume on Cedar Springs) previewed their new seasonal American menu. I attended with cautious optimism. Dish’s Executive Chef Doug Brown (ex. Nana execuchef at the age of 23, James Beard House presenter, Culinary Institute of America graduate, numerous awards, etc.) is one of this city’s culinary stars. Now he consults and caters to discerning diners through his Beyond The Box operation. New at the restaurant is Garreth Dickey, who I thought all the Gods conspired against to make his job at the ill-fated Park impossible. At the front of the house is owner Tim McEnerny who cut his teeth working for hotelier Ian Schrager. This should be a formidable combination.

Jump for pictures and the full story.

Continue reading "DISH in Dallas Cooks Up a Few New Dishes"