A Smiling Moose has been spotted in Carrollton. It is a deli and the first location of the Colorado-based sandwich shop in the DFW area. If Dallas-based real estate broker and managing partner of Racalico, llc, Jennifer Frank has her way, there will be 12 Smiling Moose in Dallas and 50 in Texas. Here’s the menu.

UPPITY DATE: Fun procrastination! Find out if you are a moose! I took the test and I am a crocodile. You?

Also, apropos the holiday, back in the early 1990s I went to hear Studs Terkel speak on the topic of labor and will never forget what an eye-opener it was to finally understand what the holiday was all about. It’s a fine thing to have gotten dressed-down by the cigar-smoking big pappa of the working class. I have to admit, I was a little bit in love with him after that. So every year I offer a toast Studs (and promise to name a child or dog after him someday). Often there’s a signature drink involved. One year we created a drink called “The Working Poor,” but that bummed everybody out. Another year it was a gin concoction called “Not In My Bathtub,” but the gin made everybody mean. So a new drink is in order.

Problem is, I’m flat out of ideas. So, I’m going to steal some from you. What dishes are you making for your Labor Day gathering? And while you’re at it, any suggestions for a Labor Day-themed drink are welcome. Hell, if I get enough good ones I might even mix up a few and let the guests decide.

The storefront sign is now up at soon-to-open Oliver’s Fine Foods, a family-owned local and gourmet food market in downtown Fort Worth. The store will provide a selection of foods, wine and beer, as well as a deli, a butcher shop and catering to downtown residents.

“The number one most-requested use is a grocery,” Johnny Campbell, President and CEO of Sundance Square, told NBCDFW last month. According to Campbell, Sundance Square had been looking into putting a grocery store in the 6,600 square-foot space in the Sanger Building on Throckmorton and Fourth for two years.

jump to read more…

Owned by Chef Todd Bush, who received his training at the Culinary Institute of America and has culinary experience from working in privately-owned restaurants, hotels and golf clubs, the Fort Worth location has been in the works for over a year and he hopes to open before the end of fall. “We’ve been backed up so many times that I couldn’t say exactly when at this point,” he said.

Bush opened his first—and currently only—Oliver’s in Mansfield three years ago, and he’s seen success there. “We’re doing pretty good considering we opened during the recession,” he said. “I think it’ll translate really well to downtown Fort Worth.”

Downtown shoppers won’t have to worry about the quality of their food, either. The store sells gourmet products, but Bush also tries to promote as many local foods as possible. “We promote all the breweries and wineries, but some things you just can’t get here [in Texas]. And of course, we try to get as many domestic products as much as possible.”

Bush said the Fort Worth store will provide more grocery store items like dairy products, as well, to make it more convenient for Sundance Square residents who would normally have to drive to do their shopping.

“Anything that’s sold in a market, we can sell in there,” said Bush.

Help! I just started dating a very cool woman. She happens to be vegan (or is it a vegan?). Regardless, she invited me to her 4th of July cookout which is, yes, you guessed it, all vegans except me. I want to be respectful and make a good impression on her friends & family (I really like this girl). She asked me to make a side, preferably potato salad. I could look up some recipes but I’m kind of a lost cause in the kitchen. Does anyone know if there’s a deli that sells vegan sides?

A challenge, to say the least. Let’s help this poor schmuck.

Ho-hum pastrami on rye at Cindi's New York Delicatessen.

Our cheap eats correspondent Kristy Alpert has been scouring Dallas for some great tasting deals. Today she finds a deal, but feels her $8 could have been spent better elsewhere. Here’s Kristy:

For my $8 lunch this week I headed out to Cindi’s N.Y. Delicatessen in Carrollton. I’d heard rave reviews about the Reuben, but unfortunately you can’t get that for eight bucks, so I was hoping to try the “poor man’s version” of the sandwich. Although there’s a location right down the street from where I live in Dallas, I ever-so-graciously decided to meet a good friend for her lunch hour near her office in the ‘burbs.

Partly because I’m an amazingly skilled driver (READ: fast) and partly because I was jonesing for a good sammich, I showed up a bit early. The place didn’t totally give off that “deli” feel that I’m used to finding in New York, or even Dallas for that matter, but I took a seat in a booth near the rest of the lunch crowd bunch to get some good eavesdropping in while I waited for my friend to show up. While the atmosphere of the place didn’t scream deli, the clientele sure did. In true form, most of the crowd was made up of elderly people dining alone and disgruntled co-workers bashing bosses and ex-husbands (I swear I heard the same conversation bounce around three different tables: “my ex-husband never took me dancing,” “for once I want a boss who doesn’t micro-manage,” etc.).

But I digress. Jump for the rest.

Mayonnaise and chicken salad sandwich.

Although most menu items start around $9 or so, there are a few things below the $8 mark. Hoping to get as close to a Reuben as possible, I went with a half hot pastrami with chips on the side ($7.25) — the waitress recommended I that I skip the potato salad and coleslaw without a reason. And they call themselves a New York delicatessen? My friend ordered the lunch special with a half chicken salad sandwich and a cup of vegetable soup ($6.95).

My hot pastrami sandwich was just that: a sandwich. The rye bread, pulled from a loaf wrapped in a commercial cellophane package was smothered with (generic) spicy mustard and packed with loads of pastrami. The pastrami was tender and moist, I found myself eating each piece that strayed from the bread as I lifted it from the plate. There’s nothing worse than deli meat that’s too thick or too tough, and this fell apart with each bite; good on’ya Cindi’s. I didn’t really touch the chips much, but the slightly sour pickle (also not homemade) was great!

The chicken salad sandwich came out looking like a scoop of chunky vanilla ice cream between two pieces of rye bread. My friend seemed to enjoy it, but the ratio of mayonnaise to chicken was skewed. Too much mayonnaise and not enough chicken.

Overall: The sandwiches were average. The portions were smaller than I expected, but if you’re looking for a quick, inexpensive deli fix, or want to just go somewhere to bad-mouth the people in your life, Cindi’s is the place for you.

2001 Midway Rd. Suite 132, Carrollton, TX 75006 (multiple locations)

Well Dishers? Where should I go next for my $8 lunch?

Today was opening day for Gandolfo's Truck in Dallas.

Randy Wolken, the regional franchisee for Gandolfo’s Deli Sandwiches has been working hard to get his food truck on the road.  In April, he drove the truck from Florida to Texas, got his permits for multiple cities, and started searching for sites to park the truck for service.  He wanted to be on the road yesterday, but an electrical problem in the commissary stalled the first truck roll by a day.

Today he parked the truck and started serving.  The first location was in an out-of-the-way parking lot behind an AT&T office building off of Empire Central, near Harry Hines.   By having a less visible location, Randy could effect the truck equivalent of a soft opening to work out the kinks.

Gandolfo’s is a New York deli style menu, with a wide range of sandwiches–lots of pastrami, hot dogs, and a few salad offerings.  Sandwich pricing is in the $6-10 range.  For my first outing, I had the Rockefeller Reuben  ($9.29) and a Joey’s black and white cookie ($2).  The cookie is cake-like with half-vanilla and half-chocolate frosting which is packaged and shipped from NY.  I could do without the cookie next time.  There are just too many outstanding local bakeries.

Jump for details.

That sandwich though is going to rank in the top tier of sandwiches in Dallas.  There will always be debate about the best sandwich or best deli in Dallas, but fresh out of the gate, Gandolfo’s should be in any argument.  This sandwich was one monstrous handful of pastrami and sauerkraut joy.  After the first half, I thought I had had enough, but no sir, I had to keep going.  Seriously good.

One sandwich doesn’t make an entire menu, but this is certainly a good start.  Whether it was marketing or a really bad AT&T internal cafeteria, Randy had the largest line that I’ve seen waiting for truck food in Dallas.

If you get to Gandolfo’s over the next few days, let us know what you have and what you think!

A little bit of Greenwich Village is headed to Dallas.

With our ferocious invasion of the In-N-Out’s double-doubles under control, we turn to face our next assault: conjugated linoleic acid from Murray’s Cheese on Bleecker Street in New York City.  No, we don’t need any rope, conjugated linoleic acid is a good thing. It is one of the healthy fats (love it!) found in cheese. There are many New Yorkers who think Murray’s Cheese shop is the best in New York. And, like so many New York businesses, Murray’s had humble ethnic start. From their website:

“Murray Greenberg was a Jewish Spanish civil war veteran and communist who opened a wholesale butter and egg shop a few doors up Cornelia street in 1940. The old timers tell me [current owner Rob Kaufelt] that even though he was an old leftie, he was still a street smart capitalist who used to buy cheese cheap and trim it and sell it. In the 70’s he sold the shop to his clerk Louis Tudda, an Italian immigrant from Calabria.” Grab a Kleenex and continue here. (I’d cast Dustin Hoffman as Murray and Helen Mirren as Paula Lambert in the movie War of the Cheeses.)

Fast forward to May 17, 2011. Murray’s has two locations in New York where they sell a gazillion cheeses. They have a books, cured meat, crackers, dried fruit and nuts, and an olive and antipasto bar. Phew!  And a serious online shopping site. However, you won’t need to order Murray’s cheese if you like Murray’s cheese because Murray’s cheese has made a deal with Kroger and soon their cheese will spread across North Texas. (They are already in Houston. What else would you expect from a communist cheese maker? No emails please.) It looks like a Kroger store in Irving (June-ish, not sure which location) will be the first outpost for Murray’s Cheese shop. I say shop because they are building little areas inside each Kroger to mimic the interior of the Greenwich Village store. (Twinwillow, I see a job opportunity in your future.) After that, it’s Katy bar the door– I hear the whole Upper East Side is relocating Frisco.

UPPITY DATE:

The first three shops to open in Dallas-Fort Worth are at the following Kroger locations:

-Irving  7505 N. MacArthur Blvd.  Irving, TX 75063 (Opening Date: 5/25/11)

-Dallas  5665 E. Mockingbird  Dallas, TX 75206 (Opening Date: 6/15/11)

-Fort Worth  3300 Texas Sage Trail Fort Worth, TX 76177 (Opening Date: 7/6/11)

More below.

Murray’s Cheese, the oldest cheese shop in New York City, is known for its huge selection of imported and domestic artisan cheeses and specialty foods.  Murray’s opened in 1940 in Greenwich Village as a neighborhood wholesaler of butter and eggs, and has since evolved into the country’s leading cheese destination. The company’s mission is to bring the best cheese selection to the United States and to educate customers about cheese.

Now, through an exclusive partnership with Kroger, Murray’s is opening specialty cheese shops within several stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Dallas-Fort Worth is part of a multi-divisional partnership of 50 cut-and-wrap specialty cheese departments in Kroger stores nationwide. Currently, Murray’s Cheese shops can be found in Kroger stores in Cincinnati, Atlanta, Houston, Huntsville, AL, and Knoxville, TN.

The first three shops to open in Dallas-Fort Worth are at the following Kroger locations:

-Irving  7505 N. MacArthur Blvd.  Irving, TX 75063 (Opening Date: 5/25/11)

-Dallas  5665 E. Mockingbird  Dallas, TX 75206 (Opening Date: 6/15/11)

-Fort Worth  3300 Texas Sage Trail Fort Worth, TX 76177 (Opening Date: 7/6/11)

In addition to 175 types of cheese, the shops will feature over 300 specialty food items like cured meat, crackers, dried fruit and nuts and an olive and antipasto bar.  The shops in Kroger will look much like the Greenwich Village flagship store in New York City. Shoppers can try cheese before they buy it and learn from cheesemasters who have been trained by Murray’s.

What people are saying about Murray’s…

“The temple to cheese” says Martha Stewart Living

“One of America’s greatest cheese shops” says Food Network chef Emeril Lagasse

“The world’s best cheese shop” according to Forbes.com

Central Market kicked off Pasaporte Espana with a food & wine class in the Cooking School (left) and a prepared-foods case stocked with national favorites. (Photos by Sarah Reiss)

Central Market’s Pasaporte España—a total store takeover with Spanish seafood, wine, pastries, oils, canned seafood (a Spanish specialty), and so much more—kicked off last night in the Greenville Ave. location. For the ribbon cutting (which was supposed to be held in the tent in the parking lot but was moved to the entry vestibule due to rain), top brass filled the store with costumed team members, flamenco guitarists, flamenco dancers from the 2011 Dallas Flamenco Festival, Spanish wine producers, cultural liaisons, and more. jump for the pictures and a video of saucy flamenco dancers …

Central Market team members costumed and at the ready.

The ribbon cutting with (from left) Chef Quim Marques, Chef Daniel Olivella, winemaker Miguel Torres, Sr. VP HEB/Central Market division Stephen Butt, honorary consul of Spain Janet Kafka, and president of the Royal Spanish Academy of Gastronomy Rafael Anson.

Chef Quim Marques, Chef Daniel Olivella, and winemaker Miguel Torres. Chef Olivella was one of the primary forces behing the event.

Spanish guitar and accordion in the cafe (left), ice sculpture, Ole! (right)

Just a few of the products of Spain, olives, tuna, and wine.

Dehesa de Llanos cheese and roasted meat sliced while you wait.

Oh, so many olive oils to choose from.

]]> http://sidedish.dmagazine.com/2011/05/12/ole-pasaporte-espana-kicks-off-at-central-market-despite-torrents/feed/ 0 http://sidedish.dmagazine.com/2011/03/23/restaurant-review-gio%e2%80%99s-new-york-deli-in-dallas/ http://sidedish.dmagazine.com/2011/03/23/restaurant-review-gio%e2%80%99s-new-york-deli-in-dallas/#comments Wed, 23 Mar 2011 14:42:25 +0000 Nancy Nichols http://sidedish.dmagazine.com/?p=23280

Pastrami from Carnegie Deli in NYC is served at Gio's. Photo by Kevin Marple.

The stretch of Preston Road that runs south from LBJ Freeway to Royal Lane has seen its fair share of delicatessens come and go. Many of us remember Wall’s Delicatessen, which opened in 1951 in Preston Royal Shopping Center. Then, of course, there was Gilbert’s in Preston Forest. Wall’s closed in 1990 and operates only a catering facility, and Gilbert’s ceased its cranky operation in 2004. Ed’s Deli, Deli News Too, Zinsky’s, Bagelstein’s, and Roasters’ n Toasters have all opened and closed in the last few years.

Recently, Gio’s New York Style Deli debuted in the Deli News-turned-Roasters space at LBJ and Preston. There is nothing special about the interior, but there is plenty to like on the menu. Pastrami, corned beef, and kosher dills and half sours are shipped in from Carnegie Deli in New York. Bagels and bialys are made on-site. I’m sure deli purists will complain that the sandwiches are wimpy. Click for more.

Have you been?

Let's hope his truck stops near.

Local entrepreneur Randy Wolken is jumping into the food truck business in a big way. He’s obtained the Dallas franchise rights to  Gandolfo’s New York Delicatessen. He plans to get at least three deli trucks on the road before going brick-and-mortar. “I am going to open my first truck on May 1st, the week after Easter,” Wolken said. Wolken has completed his homework on the city ordinances and promises to keep us posted on his progress. I say we ask him to offer SideDish readers a first chance lunch. Hey Randy, we’re hungry. Meet us at the corner of Ross and Pearl. Here are the details of Wolken’s enterprise.

What about you? What’s the food from your past—particularly reminiscent of a certain city—that you pine for?

I SO wasn't kidding.

From the copy and paste press release department:

DALLAS –Gio’s Café & New York .Deli, an authentic New York-style delicatessen and restaurant, is now open at Preston Valley Shopping Center, located at the southwest corner of Preston Road and LBJ Freeway. Gio’s deli offers meats, including by the pound, smoked fish, a selection of cheeses, sour pickles, pastries, knishes and breads.

The restaurant offers breakfast, lunch and dinner with specialties such as stuffed cabbage, goulash, Romanian steak, corned beef and cabbage, smoked fish platters and gourmet Angus burgers.

Gio’s is owned and operated by Spiro Giannopoulos and Lisa Giannopoulos. Lisa is the Customer Service Manager, managing aspects of the café and deli and catering business on a daily basis.

Spiro is in charge of the operation of the business in terms of food, quality and cooking.  Spiro started in the restaurant business in 1978 as co-owner of Cuzin’s Restaurant, located in Brooklyn, New York. He moved to Dallas in 1989 and has since been involved with such well-known concepts as Deli-News, Royal Café, Café Meditterane and Paesanos.

I happy to have another deli in the works in Dallas. (Although until the Rangers are in the World Series I am anti ANYTHING New York.) That said,  still don’t understand why they don’t make it here–especially in that neighborhood. When I was growing up in Dallas Preston Road was home to many. I can still taste Wall’s. And Phil’s. Where have all the delis gone?

A friend had food catered into his office today from Zinsky’s.
The guy who brought it in told him, “We’re closing the deli, no later than
Monday. We might still do catering, though.” My source promptly phoned the restaurant, where someone answered and said yes, we’re open today, but probably not for much longer.

I got the same reply on the phone and have left an email and phone message for owner Liz Baron. Why can’t Dallas keep any sort of deli alive? Especially it the neighborhood of  Preston Royal.

UPDATE: From owner Liz Baron:  “Yes, sadly it’s true.”