Articles for November 28th, 2011

Torchy’s Tacos in Dallas Closed for a Holiday Party

posted by Nancy Nichols | November 28th, 2011 4:46pm | filed under Uncategorized | 6 Comments »

A few minutes ago I noticed a tweet from Torchy’s Taco: “Yes, Torchy’s is closed. No, the world is not over.” I called the Preston Forest restaurant and got a recorded message. I called an all of the other locations and got voicemail. However, the Austin location on South First says: “we closed for repairs on Tuesday the 4th and Wednesday the 5th and re-open on the 6th.”

Now Andrea Grimes @Eater says they are closed for a holiday party. “Which you can find out if you read like, five of their tweets.” Guess I shouldn’t use the phone anymore.

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Your November 28 Weekly Food Truck Schedule in Dallas

posted by George Lewis | November 28th, 2011 3:37pm | filed under Food Trucks | 7 Comments »

This week, we see the demise of Jackalope Mobile Vegan Kitchen.  Entrepreneur Alex Salas tells us that there just wasn’t enough business.  His father, who owns the truck, will re-purpose the vehicle to serve construction sites.  Jackalope could serve as a Harvard Business Review discussion for how not to start a business.  They started with weak marketing, a limited audience, under-capitalized, and poor product.  We had eaten their food twice and it needed improvement.  All trucks go through this startup phase of learning what their customers want and how to properly prepare it in the mobile environment.  Unfortunately, Jackalope was so under-capitalized that they didn’t have the time to improve.  Lessons learned.

This week, we add Good Karma Kitchen, a vegan food truck, to our lineup.  GKK is mostly serving Fort Worth while they work on their Dallas permit.  GKK has been rolling for a few weeks now, but is carefully rolling out to avoid problems associated with a startup.  While I haven’t tried their food yet, Good Karma appears to be the opposite of Jackalope when it comes to proper marketing and rolling out a new concept.  GKK shows up this week at the new Fort Worth Food Truck Park.

And with that, we give you the schedules for the week.  Reminder, trucks move, trucks break.  Jump for the schedule. Continue reading "Your November 28 Weekly Food Truck Schedule in Dallas"

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Eddie “Lucky” Campbell to Open The Chesterfield in Late 2011

posted by Nancy Nichols | November 28th, 2011 3:35pm | filed under AgriBusiness, Bring it!, Ice Etiquette, make mine a double, Mixology is fancy for bartender | 10 Comments »

Ed Bailey in happy meal days. Photo by Elizabeth Lavin.

Ed Bailey can’t do anything simple. The restaurateur once owned 64 McDonalds. He spent bazillions of dollars on several locations  decorating the interiors with Ralph Lauren wall fabrics, gold-framed oil paintings, and Austrian crystal chandeliers. Today, he operates multiple locations of Bailey’s Prime Plus Steakhouses and Patrizio’s. And he’s backing local barman Eddie “Lucky” Campbell in The Chesterfield at 1404 Main St. in downtown Dallas.

You know, Chesterfield. Like the cigarettes. The cigabutts that make you look cool like Don Draper. Bailey and Campbell are going way retro with The Chesterfield. It’s “modeled after the barrooms of the early 1900’s considered the Golden Age of Cocktails.”

There is nothing subtle about The Chesterfield. Catch this: “Guests will order cocktails from an 11 chapter menu, modeled after the first American cocktail manuals, arranged by style of drink – sours, fizzes, smashes, juleps, etc. Mixed into these chapters, guests can also expect cocktails smoked-to-order, in addition to modern chapters with seasonal and house specialties called classics re-crafted. The Chesterfield’s bar will be one of the most technically engineered in Dallas. Each bar station will have a freezer, refrigerated drawer, access to illuminated ice blocks, bottled house-made mixers, and a chilled produce bar top display. They will also feature one of the most extensive ice programs in the south, including ice chipped from blocks, cubed, flaked, made from molds and flavored.”

I can dig the ice deal. I’m very picky about my ice. So look for the aptly named Lucky and his ice chipper soon. Oh, and small plates by Executive Chef Michael Ehlert imported from DBGB Kitchen & Bar in New York. And yes, this location was once to be the collaborative effort of Lucky and local mixologist Michael (Cedars Social) Martensen. But it looks like Martensen was kicked to the curb. That’s just my take. Nobody’s talking.

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Owner of Dallas Ghostbar Found Dead of Apparent Suicide in Aspen

posted by Nancy Nichols | November 28th, 2011 2:58pm | filed under R.I.P. | 5 Comments »

Scott DeGraff, the man who launched the N9NE Group with Michael Morton died on Thanksgiving Day. DeGraff’s body was found in the garage of a home in east Aspen. An autopsy will be performed today to determine the official cause of death which police are calling an apparent suicide. DeGraff was 47.

DeGraff and Morton ran restaurants and nightclubs in Chicago, Las Vegas, and Dallas. They opened N9NE Steakhouse and Nove in Victory Park and Ghostbar in the W Hotel Dallas. Both N9NE and Nove closed. However, Ghostbar is still going strong. According to the Aspen Daily News, DeGraff moved to Aspen in late 2008 and hit financial problems.

What a strange coincidence: In September, Billy Reiger, one of the partners of Kenichi Dallas, also committed suicide in Aspen. Dallas Kenichi is just down the street from DeGraff’s businesses.

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Season Two of Next Great Baker Airs Tonight: Dallasite and Former Drag Queen Chad Fitzgerald is a Contestant

posted by Nancy Nichols | November 28th, 2011 2:19pm | filed under Baking, cake, Celebrity Chefs, Food On TV | 3 Comments »

Tonight Dallas baker Chad Fitzgerald will get his close-up on Next Great Baker. The show airs on TLC at 8PM. D Magazine intern Arti Sharma interviewed Chad. Get to know him before tonight’s show. He’s a former-teacher-turned-drag-queen-turned-baker. Join him for a debut party at Magnolia Hotel at 7PM.

Chad Fitzgerald claims he and his partner, Edward Navejas, owners of The Cake Guys in Duncanville, are just normal guys. But that is about to change. Since Fitzgerald returned from his appearance on Next Great Baker, the two have opened a second location on Oak Lawn across the street from Pappadeaux. He seems a little anxious when he tells me others have warned him of the potential transformation that could take place once the show airs. He’s nostalgic about the days he baked cakes in his own garage and is excited, and perhaps, a little uneasy about what the future will hold. It is uncertain if he will welcome fame or retreat from it. Continue reading "Season Two of Next Great Baker Airs Tonight: Dallasite and Former Drag Queen Chad Fitzgerald is a Contestant"

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Former Ritz Carlton Pastry Chef Morgan Wilson Indicted on Federal Child Porn Charges

posted by Nancy Nichols | November 28th, 2011 12:55pm | filed under Bad critters, Celebrity Chefs |

Yow. Zah. Bill Conrad of Star Local News, a content partner at Pegasus News, reports Morgan Wilson, the former head pastry chef at Dallas’ Ritz Carlton was indicted for transferring child porn across state lines. Wilson also appeared on the first season of Top Chef Just Desserts.

The original SideDish post is here.

Here’s a link to “Get to Know Morgan Wilson” video.

Good Asian Grub: A Wok in Plano

posted by Nancy Nichols | November 28th, 2011 12:03pm | filed under Good Asian Grub | 2 Comments »

Not On The Menu: Order Niu Nan Bao, tender beef and tendons cooked in a stew of bok choy, carrots, and turnips.

D Magazine intern Carol Shih prowls Dallas for the best Asian cuisine and also writes a blog about sandwiches.

Every month or so, my dad gets this craving for A Wok, a Taiwanese family restaurant in Plano, and moans about their fish fillets until we all get dressed and eat there for dinner. It’s become our go-to place of the century. Don’t feel like cooking tonight? Time for A Wok. It’s Christmas Eve and the whole world has shut down? Hey, A Wok is open. Located on Independence Parkway, this grungy little establishment has saved my family on several occasions whenever we needed Taiwanese food.

Chef and owner Steve Kang, a Taipei man with dark circles and the ability to ramble on a good bit, arrived in 1977 and has been cooking Chinese food on American soil ever since. If his customers don’t like a dish, he takes it off the menu. “It’s a success when six out of ten people like it,” Kang says. “You can’t please everybody.”

Continue reading "Good Asian Grub: A Wok in Plano"

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Want to Write For SideDish and Work at D Magazine World Headquarters? Here’s How.

posted by Jason Heid | November 28th, 2011 10:52am | filed under Shamless self promotion | 11 Comments »

We’re looking for a new online assistant dining editor. Interested?

Here are the details:

D Magazine.com seeks an editor to keep our online food and dining content the best in Dallas. Responsibilities include continual management and enhancement of the thousands of listings in our restaurant directory, keeping up with the latest openings and closings, and ensuring that the information we provide our readers is the most accurate and helpful in the city. This editor should be the sort of person who would wake up in night sweats realizing that he or she accidentally marked a restaurant’s closing time on Thursdays as 10 p.m. when it should have been 11 p.m. Also required of the position are regular contributions to our SideDish blog, including first looks at new restaurants before any other outlets in town, and voicing opinions to spur a lively daily discussion of the Dallas dining scene. We don’t want just one-sided rewrites of press releases. This editor must have a competitive nature that causes him or her to become extremely irritated at, and to swear revenge upon, any blog or publication that might beat us to reporting an important piece of local industry news. But the job isn’t all eating and writing. The editor must be comfortable working with an online CMS and not break into hives when confronted with a massive spreadsheet full of data that must be manually entered (like typing a phonebook), often for hours at a stretch.  If you’re interested, please don’t apply merely by emphasizing your “passion” for the subject matter. Tell us instead about the knowledge and skills that make you the absolute best fit for our needs. To do so, email a cover letter and resume to jason.heid@dmagazine.com.

UPDATE: Yes, you also have to be able to play nice with Nancy.

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Dallas Food Porn: Malai Thai-Vietnamese Kitchen

posted by Nancy Nichols | November 28th, 2011 10:48am | filed under Ethnic Food, Kevin Marple, Restaurant News |

Iron Pot Chicken Curry at Malai Thai-Vietnamese Restaurant. Photography by Kevin Marple.

Check out the recent write-up of Malai Thai-Vietnamese Restaurant in our Best New Restaurants 2011 story. I could eat this green curry chicken everyday.

Top Chef: Texas: Episode Four Recap

posted by Nancy Nichols | November 28th, 2011 10:27am | filed under Celebrity Chefs, Food On TV, Top Chef: Texas | 7 Comments »

D Magazine’s Loren Means loves to watch Top Chef. Therefore, she volunteered to watch all of the episodes this season and write a recap. She’s reviewed episode one, two, and three. Today she spills the chili beans on episode four . Go, Loren.

For the fourth episode of the season’s Top Chef: Texas competition, we return to San Antonio to watch the remaining fifteen chefs fight to the death!  Just joshin’ – you know why they’re there. The remaining cheftestants  listed in particular order based on personality and/or skill, are Paul, our resident Texan, Nyesha, Heather, Edward, Chris J. (although I would like to roundhouse kick his sunglasses off the top of his head), Chuy, Ty, Richie, Chris C., Grayson, Dakota, Whitney, Lindsey, Sarah and Beverly.

QUICKFIRE CHALLENGE

The chefs are greeted by Padma and guest judges, Mary Sue Millikin and Susan Feniger, chef/owners of Border Grill Restaurants in LA and Vegas and a few Top Chef Masters alums. Behind the judges are bowls of chile peppers and a board listing temperatures and dollar amounts. The heat of a chili is rated by the Scoville Scale varying from 0 (no heat) to 15,000,000 (pure capsaician). The Anaheim pepper usually ranks between 500-2,000 while the ghost pepper tops the edible chart at 1,000,000. According to Chuy, eating a handful of these babies would be “like eating a pile of fire.” (I’ve had a habanero drop me to my knees so I think I’ll take Chuy’s word for it.) The challenge is for the chefs to create a dish highlighting one type of pepper and show the judges you have cojones. The higher the tolerable heat, the more moolah you win. Continue reading "Top Chef: Texas: Episode Four Recap"

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Townhouse Kitchen + Bar Will Open in the Galleria Dallas in Early December

posted by Nancy Nichols | November 28th, 2011 9:29am | filed under Openings/Closings, Restaurant News | 1 Comment »

Small plates beneath the swaying palms at Townhouse Kitchen +Bar at The Galleria.

The Galleria is getting an urban restaurant and wine bar. When? Sometime in early December when Townhouse Kitchen + Bar opens. I’m not sure if the verbal pronunciation is Townhouse Kitchen PLUS Bar or Townhouse Kitchen AND Bar, but no matter how you say it, The Galleria is getting a kitchen and a bar.

When plans for TK+B were announced in June, it was described as a “fun destination for diners across North Texas” and “sophisticated yet relaxed.” Today we learn “Executive Chef Paul Niekrasz will show us his innate talent for preparing bold flavors and market-fresh ingredients with Townhouse’s uniquely designed menu offering a large selection of small plates, sandwiches, salads, and entrees to suit any taste.”  Niekrasz has been with TK+B’s parent company Restaurants-America for five years. The food will include sliders, flatbread, and lemon rosemary chicken. Drinks are hand-crafted. The rest of the details are below. Continue reading "Townhouse Kitchen + Bar Will Open in the Galleria Dallas in Early December"

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