Articles about Dancing

Nancy Nichols Gets Super-Pied, Raises $750 at 100 Best Restaurants Party

posted by Carol Shih | May 23rd, 2013 9:57am | filed under celebrity sightings, Dancing, Delusional behavior, Food Fight! | 5 Comments »
Nancy and her first love, Nick Badovinus.

Miss Piggie and Nick Badovinus.

Last night’s 100 Best Restaurants party couldn’t have been more perfect. So many underrated restaurants (like Mr. Wok Asian Bistro in Plano) came out of their ‘burby shells and celebrated the release of our June issue, 100 Best Restaurants in Dallas, with us. It’s on newsstands today. Go get yourself a copy.

A huge shout-out to See’s Candies for providing an entire table of candies and chocolates. People kept going over there, like ants attracted to honey. A feast raged inside 3015 at Trinity Groves, where places like Pecan Lodge served barbecue brisket two tables down from Tei-An’s refreshing seaweed salad. All the big heavy hitters were there: John Tesar; Jack Perkins; Nick Badovinus; and Oak’s owners, Richard and Tiffanee Ellman (just to name a few). Some of them even pied Nancy.

Nancy showed up around 7 in her pigtails and pigalicious costume, looking every bit the weirdo that she is. She had the snout, the goggles, the everything. I need/want/have to wear that suit for Halloween. Mark Brezinski of Velvet Taco was about to throw the first pie at Nancy when Tesar cut in and smacked her a good one. I think he bought 12 pies in total (but he only threw four, maybe?) and at one point even said, “I would’ve paid $40 if it’d been Brenner. Joking!”

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Tom Spicer and Urbano Cafe to Host Back Porch Blues

posted by Carol Shih | May 7th, 2012 4:26pm | filed under Dancing, Events |

Tom Spicer and his artichokes

Tom Spicer is one cool cat, and he’s becoming even cooler (in my book) now that I know he’s throwing a party in his garden on May 24 at 7:30 pm. Urbano Cafe owner Mitch Kaufmann is teaming up with the artichoke guy to bring a New Orleans legend, Spencer Bohren, to the gardens for an entertaining evening filled with song and storytelling. You can bet that the company will be delightful and the food – from whole roasted pig to the homemade gumbo – will certainly be fresh.

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It’ll Do Club in New East Elm is Getting a Fresh Look

posted by Carol Shih | April 10th, 2012 11:49am | filed under Dancing, Rewritten Press Releases |

Dallas dancers will have a new place to show off their sweet moves now that local developer Jeff Swaney of Delphi Group just acquired some land and buildings in the recently dubbed “New East Elm” neighborhood. This means the It’ll Do Club at 4322 Elm St., which falls under Delphi’s radar, will be getting a face lift and re-launch in the second quarter of 2012. Swaney is also taking over the Starlight Lounge on Main St., but no word on whether he plans to renovate it yet.

More about Delphi from the press release:

Delphi, (www.delphigroupinc.com) which led Deep Ellum’s renaissance in the 80s and 90s and birthed the wildly successful Club Clearview (1985-2005), are bringing the same artsy energy to New East Elm. Delphi’s 25 year experience in the Deep Ellum district, specializing in the renovation of older structures and it’s entertainment pedigree made this the group’s next logical project, sure to build on the momentum they’ve created in the area. The area historically was a haunt of Dallas legend Jack Ruby and nexus of the underground gambling rackets of the 1930s and 40s

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Dallas’ BBQ Snob, Daniel Vaughn, is Writing a Book for Anthony Bourdain’s New Ecco Line

posted by Carol Shih | February 23rd, 2012 8:16am | filed under Breaking News, Dancing, GO TEXAN, Meat | 6 Comments »

Our BBQ guy, Daniel Vaughn

Anthony Bourdain’s a smart man for selecting Daniel Vaughn, BBQ Snob and the genius behind “Full Custom Gospel BBQ”, to write one of the three titles for his new line of books published under Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Our favorite BBQ correspondent (who did his first print story with us) will be writing Prophets of Smoked Meat, a full-color tour of the best Texas barbeque joints he’s visited since he first got hooked on the ‘cue. The book will feature recipes of smoked classics and sides, and shed some light on some of the people whose passion drive the Texas BBQ food scene.

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Occupy Nana: A Peaceful, Tell-Your-Nana-Love-Stories Protest to Keep it Alive

posted by Nancy Nichols | February 16th, 2012 9:16am | filed under Dancing, Food Fight!, Hippie revolutions, Making Up Is Hard To Do, questionable judgment, restaurant business news, Restaurant News, Sing-Alongs, Slow News Day, Special Offers, Steakhouses, That is Just Wrong | 15 Comments »

My plea: I can’t write it, sing it, dance it, or say any better than Neil Sedaka. You can help save Nana by writing your stories about your experiences at Nana. Put on your go-go boots and come-a come-a, down dooby do down, down to the comments.

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An Open Letter to Chef DAT

posted by Nancy Nichols | October 11th, 2011 3:06pm | filed under Bad Names For Restaurants List, Celebrity Chefs, Celebrity Diners, Cult Cuisine, Dancing, Drinking, Food is art. Art is Food., Hippie revolutions, Hole in the wall, I Went to College for This?, make mine a double, Nutjobs, Openings/Closings, questionable behavior, questionable judgment, Really?, Restaurant News, Rewritten Press Releases, Slow News Day, Steven Doyle, UpsideDown Restaurants, youthful spontaneous restaurants | 43 Comments »

Dear Chef DAT,

Who are you? I’ve been getting press releases from you for a long time but for the life of me I can’t remember meeting you. I do understand that you live underground and you cook a lot there as well, but do you ever actually come out during the day?

You talk funny. I mean, you write funny. You “sound” like you are totally hip and in with all of the IN people which explains a lot about our relationship. It’s so cool that you are throwing a birthday party for yourself on October 23! You must have lots of friends! Three LIVE bands, CAJUN food, and BYOB! Totally bitchin’. And Thursday, you only have 20 seats left for your super secret dinner in Deep Ellum. Have you done the math? Do you think you can get that many people under the ground in Deep Ellum? It must be so freakin’ dark, dude. Six courses for $66? That dinner is like so effin’ New Testament! And payable in “unmarked, untraceable cash only”? Brilliant.

Keep it up and maybe you’ll get your own restaurant one day. Oh, wait. My spirit is shaking. I’m getting an incoming subliminal message from, wait…oh…I can’t quite make out the voice, I can only hear pigs squealing. Oh, now  it’s clear. It’s  Steven Doyle LIVE from the State Fair. He says you have a “concept portfolio”  for a future restaurant called Twenty-Seven. Far out, it sounds so Satanic! Will you take American Express? Awesome. Keep us posted.

Good luck,

Nancy Nichols

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DRG Concepts and Downtown Dallas Inc. Announce Texas/OU Weekend Barbecue Blowout

posted by Nancy Nichols | September 13th, 2011 1:23pm | filed under BBQ, beer, Cult Cuisine, Dancing, Dog Friendly, Events, Food Fight!, Grilling, Restaurant News, youthful spontaneous restaurants |

Here’s another great reason to head downtown during Texas/OU weekend: the folks at DRG (Dallas Chop House, Wild Salsa, Dallas Fish Market) and Downtown Dallas Inc. have teamed up to create the Texas/OU Red River Barbecue Shootout. What is the Red River Barbecue Shootout, you ask? It’s a competition between four pitmasters from Oklahoma and four from Texas on one night followed by a rocking party the next. The dudes doing the cooking are:

TEXAS                                   OKLAHOMA

Kent Black                                Keith Jennison

Black’s  – Lockhart                  Elmer’s    – Tulsa

Joe Duncan                               Charles Smith

Baker’s Ribs – Dallas              Leo’s BBQ -  Oklahoma City

Kelly Duncan                            Jev Vandegrift

Big Daddy’s – Lavon               Van’s Pig Stand – Shawnee

Cliff Payne                                  Joe Wells

Cousin’s – Fort Worth             Smokin’ Joe’s Rib Ranch and RV Park – Davis

The competition will take place on October 6.  Pitmasters will be cooking their signature St. Louis pork ribs and sauces all day in Downtown’s Main Street Garden (St. Paul and Main Street) for a 7 p.m. special private judging by a panel of food experts, sports industry members, and community leaders.  From this “blind” judging (where judges will not know who cooked what recipe and judge only on food) , two winners, one from Oklahoma and one from Texas will be selected.  (The panel of judges will be announced in advance of October 6.)

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