Articles for August 21st, 2012

Restaurant Review: Local in Dallas

posted by Nancy Nichols | August 21st, 2012 11:41am | filed under Reviews | 2 Comments »

Local's fried green beans and soy-glazed salmon. (Photography by Kevin Marple)

Though she recently opened new breakfast-and-lunch-only spot Rosemont a few doors down from Local, chef/owner Tracy Miller’s original restaurant hasn’t changed much since debuting in Deep Ellum’s historic Boyd Hotel in 2003. Local still has a lounge-like vibe that feels downtown cool. Miller’s cooking was and still is an exercise in delicious simplicity. But over the past nine years, the Dallas dining scene has changed. Farm to fork is de rigueur. Glam has been replaced by rustic decor. Chefs are daring diners with organ meats and oddities from the sea. In its own steadfast way, Local seems a bit dated. That is, it did until we revisited it recently and remembered why it’s one of the city’s best restaurants. On our last visit, we arrived early to hang out in the sleek lounge area, sipping Local’s signature Champagne drink dotted with a ball of rosemary grapefruit sorbet. Once seated, we surveyed what Miller refers to as a Modern American menu. We found nothing revelatory or challenging, not that it mattered. Continue reading "Restaurant Review: Local in Dallas"

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Report: Pig Out at Bacardi Tiki Dinner at Whiskey Cake

posted by Andrew Chalk | August 21st, 2012 11:15am | filed under Andrew Chalk, BBQ, cocktails | 1 Comment »

Remember when the parking lot in the northwest corner of Parker and the Tollway was empty every night? That was before Whiskey Cake. The place does the lion’s share of filling it up now, even on Monday nights. On an evening when most restaurants are starving, Whiskey Cake was packed last night for their Bacardi Tiki Dinner under the direction of execuchef TJ Lengnick. I was an invited guest at the event where the centerpiece of the whole deal was slow-roasted whole pig – two of the critters in fact, and 80-pounds each at that. As the accompanying menu shows, they were accompanied by sides, mahi-mahi steamed in banana leaf and jerk chicken, all preceded by passed appetizers.  The whole thing was washed down with cocktails prepared with Bacardi rum.

Jump with me. Continue reading "Report: Pig Out at Bacardi Tiki Dinner at Whiskey Cake"

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KRLD Restaurant Week 2012 Server of the Week: Peter Hemery of Stephan Pyles

posted by Nancy Nichols | August 21st, 2012 10:56am | filed under KRLD Restaurant Week 2012, Service | 9 Comments »

Server of the week: Peter Hemery of Stephan Pyles.


Let’s raise our Baccarat Champagne flutes in a toast to Peter Hemery of Stephan Pyles. Peter is a server who was noted by two SideDish readers for providing stellar service during the madness of KRLD Restaurant Week. One writes:

I would like to nominate Peter from Stephan Pyles for RW server of the week.Peter along with management team, bread man, and others orchestrated the timing perfectly and made sure each time everything is satisfactory and asked if we had any questions.  In the rain, even valet service was outstanding. I was impressed with the creativity of every dish with Texas/southwest in mind. Manager Michael Bracher said they always use local ingredients. Really different level of experience.

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Restaurant 101: Waiters Provide Their Own Stemware Because Owner Won’t

posted by Nancy Nichols | August 21st, 2012 10:39am | filed under Bad Names For Restaurants List, Celebrity Diners, Delusional behavior, Expensive cheap eats, Food Crime | 16 Comments »

Cheap wine in expensive glass or expensive wine in cheap glass? Which one for you?

A Disher with a lot of initials after his last name writes with a tale I’ve never been told. He wants to know if anyone else has had the same experience at other restaurants. He asked me to delete the name of the place but he doesn’t mind if you guess.

Dined at [redacted] yesterday.  Ordered a decent bottle of wine and the server brought what could only be the cheapest restaurant-supply wine glasses for our red. Noticing proper stemware at the table next to us, I asked our server if we could have proper glassware for our wine. Here’s what floored me: he said that we had the only stemware “the owner” provides, and that most servers provide their own, better stemware, for their tables. Paid for by the servers! Our server said the owner wanted a “bistro” feel, and also cited the cost of breakage. I certainly understand the cost…but when many wines are well over $60/bottle (and several over $100), I would hope for a better wine experience.  Have you run across this before?

No, I have not. But I did kill a skunk once.

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KRLD Restaurant Week 2012: Reader Reviews

posted by Nancy Nichols | August 21st, 2012 9:00am | filed under KRLD Restaurant Week 2012 | 3 Comments »

Today is day nine of  KRLD Restaurant Week. Are you participating? If so, please share your experiences. Tip your servers and if they are exceptional, snap their picture, take down their name, and allow us to adore them.

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