Another day, another new food show, another Dallas-area resident on TV. I don’t watch enough food shows to know but it seems like the producers pick plenty of contestants from North Texas.
This morning comes word: Keller resident, MiMi Johnson, is competing on Bobby Flay’s new show, Dinner Battle on the Food Network. The show features three teams of home cooks battling to throw dinner parties. Wednesday’s show was shot in Dallas. The premise? “Three teams of the best home cooks in Dallas to throw a Wild West themed dinner party.” That’s an innovative theme.
2 Comments »Another day, another new food show, another Dallas-area resident on TV. I don’t watch enough food shows to know but it seems like the producers pick plenty of contestants from North Texas.
This morning comes word: Keller resident, MiMi Johnson, is competing on Bobby Flay’s new show, Dinner Battle on the Food Network. The show features three teams of home cooks battling to throw dinner parties. Wednesday’s show was shot in Dallas. The premise? “Three teams of the best home cooks in Dallas to throw a Wild West themed dinner party.” That’s an innovative theme.
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Jack and Jay went up the hill from businessmen to chefs. (Photo from JJ’s Facebook page without permission.)
If I ever want to get a good sleep I have to turn my computer off. If I don’t, I run the risk of passing it in the middle of the night and noticing the little green light next to Teresa “Gubbshoe” Gubbins’ name on gTalk. For while I am making a middle-of-the-night bathroom run, Gubbshoe is scouring Facebook, Craig’s List, Angie’s List, and this list, and beating stories out if the internet bushes. I swear she is a vampire.
This morning she shines a beacon on the big news in East Dallas: Jay “The J” Jerrier is opening a second location of Cane Rosso at 7328 Gaston Ave. at Grand Avenue, near White Rock Lake. (I know something about Jay that she doesn’t but I’m not telling!)
Anywhoo, it begs the question: Does North Oak Cliff have a hipper food scene than East Dallas? Or vice versa?
Do you like the Goodfriend-Mecca-Matt’s-Barbec’s sensibility of East Dallas or the Oddfellows-Bolsa-Boulevardier-Smoke-Hattie’s vibe of Bishop Arts District and North Oak Cliff? And WTF, Marc Cassel? Will you ever open?
14 Comments »This morning at 9 a.m., the eight finalists in the 2012 Big Tex Choice Awards gathered at The Dock Restaurant in Fair Park for a little fried food showdown. Within an hour of tasting all the entries, the three judges (Rep. Eric Johnson, Andrea Rega, and Donovan Lewis) announced at the Eighth Annual Big Tex Choice Awards that Abel Gonzales, creator of the deep fried jambalaya, was taking home the trophy for “Best Taste.” Butch Benavides also won “Most Creative” for his sweet bacon cinnamon roll dipped in pancake batter and topped with fried bacon crumbles.
Gonzales, whose win today is his fifth at the Big Tex Choice Awards, says winning this year still “means a lot.”
“A friend of mine gave me the idea. His name is Matthew and he was just determined that I should bring this out here,” says Gonzales, who came up with a deep fried pineapple upside down cake last year. “I’m very excited to make my first real food and not a dessert.”
Jump for photos of the eight fried food finalists. Continue reading "Deep Fried Jambalaya Wins “Best Taste” in 2012 Big Tex Choice Awards Competition"
5 Comments »I just checked in with Brian Marsters, the Director of Operations of Matt’s Rancho Martinez. Marsters didn’t go into too many details but said the long-awaited opening of the restaurant in Lakewood is now scheduled for “September 11thish.” Matt’s has certainly had a wretched six months filled with delays from permits, parking, neighborhood associations, and landlords.
The recent delay was caused by the back up of fire inspections due to the upcoming holiday weekend. They still have to pour part of the sidewalk and the patio wall but are eagerly waiting to get chiles rellenos to the tables on September 11thish. I love that.
Brian Marsters, Director of Operations for Matt’s Rancho Martinez, has saved 5,000 emails from customers asking when the new Lakewood location of this popular Tex-Mex restaurant will open. “I would like those 5,000 supporter to contact (Dallas City Councilmember) Angela Hunt and ask her the same question.” Marsters and co-owner Estella Martinez are befuddled by their situation. “We can’t open because we are caught in the crossfire of a feud between our landlord (Stonelake Investments), several area homeowners associations, and the City of Dallas.”
The saga started when Matt’s lease expired in February and the landlord chose to replace Matt’s with a Mi Cocina, which is already up and running. Matt’s relocated to the building vacated by Consignment Solutions at 1904 Skillman Ave. The opening has been delayed by a series of the usual suspects such as myriad permits, grease traps, and parking, but last Wednesday the plan for the restaurant and Stonelake Investments development projects clashed when Stonelake applied for a permit to close off a block of La Vista between Skillman and Live Oak and created a pedestrian mall.
Stay with me, now.
38 Comments »Last weekend the first Midtown Food Truck Fest took place at the mall formerly known as Valley View. It was (and is planned to be) a monthly Friday, Saturday, and Sunday event with over two dozen food trucks including a few driving in from out of town. To attract customers to eat street food in the the heat, the food trucks were to park in the cavernous parking garage. Several months earlier, the TX Food Truck Fest at Valley View was a huge success for customers and for the food trucks. However, according to customers and truck operators, the Midtown Food Truck Fest, organized by a different group, was an unmitigated disaster.
Typically event organizers put these large events together to promote a business or a charitable cause. They provide some seating, trash cans, traffic control, government paperwork, parking, and advertising. They charge the food trucks an entry fee and a percentage of revenue. Depending on the event’s cause, the food truck owners might marginally raise their prices to offset the organizer’s percentage take. The entry fee can range from nothing to several hundreds of dollars, and the revenue percentage split can range up to the 20% range.
I didn’t go to this particular event. I saw little reason to go to a vacant mall parking lot in 108 degree temperature to try food trucks that can easily be found. However one from the customer, indie food truck blogger, Food Truck Terry provides this customer perspective. I’ve copied and pasted a complaint from a food trucks owner who participated. They prefer to remain anonymous but below they’ve listed five reasons why they will never participate again.
9 Comments »East Dallas is going to get pretty crowded with grocery shoppers now that Green Grocer has announced its partnership with Artizone.com, an online shopping community that features a wide selection of local artisanal shops and food businesses. Cassie Green and Gary Stephens founded the first Green Grocer in the West Town neighborhood of Chicago (2008), and now they’re opening a second location in Dallas by September 2012 on 3614 Greenville Ave. with 4,000 square feet of retail space. Green Grocer will be a “one stop shop to pick up every day grocery items, lunch to go, ingredients for a fresh and delicious dinner or a gift basket for a friend” and will feature “organically grown, locally produced food and specialty items.”
But Sunflower Market (soon to be Sprouts now that the two chains have emerged) already dominates the corner of Lewis and North Henderson, while Trader Joe’s is set to open on 2001 Greenville Ave. – just 1.2 miles away from Green Grocer – by the first quarter of 2013. Oh, and remember me telling you how Wal-Mart is opening its own Neighborhood Market store in the old Whole Foods space on 2218 Greenville? That’s happening this September as well. By next year, at the very latest, one-two-three-FOUR grocery stores will be fighting the good grocery fight within a two-mile radius.
What’s that idiom again? Two is company, three’s a crowd… so what’s four? Four might be produce-shopping overkill. With the advent of Green Grocer, at least this means that those of you who’ve been pining for a neighborhood market that supports small, local vendors as opposed to large retail chains are finally getting exactly what you want, even if we’ll all be playing bumper cars with our grocery carts along Greenville and Henderson. Hip hip hooray!
6 Comments »Last Thursday, Ed Bailey, majority owner of The Chesterfield, called the police and attempted to have one of his minority owners, Eddie “Lucky” Campbell, removed from the premises. The operation failed.
According to Campbell, Gary Van Gundy, president of Edward C. Bailey Enterprises, showed up with an attorney a little before 3PM today and the police were asked to have Campbell removed. “Yes, they’re here right now,” said Campbell from his cell phone. “They are trying to have me removed from the property.” Campbell showed the officers the lease which is in Campbell’s name. “They tried to say I was trespassing,” Campbell said. “But I’m not.”
Bailey and Campbell are locked in a bitter battle over how to operate the Chesterfield. Both teams are lawyered up and won’t get into specifics. Bailey owns 51% of the business but his name is not on the lease agreement. “Look, I’m here right now and I’m starting a huge all-night happy hour starting at 5:30 today. I am reinstating the staff that Bailey fired and those who walked out in disgust,” Campbell said. “These people have kids and need to work. Our disagreement is a private matter about business and I want to get it resolved.”
I asked him how he planned to run a business with an unhappy partner. “It’s difficult,” Campbell said. “I’m not a lawyer. Ed and I disagree on how to run this business. As far as I’m concerned, I’m still operating The Chesterfield.”
19 Comments »Yelp! I hate somebody. Yelp! Almost everybody. Yelp! Won’t you please hate me!
—all due respect to John, Paul, George, and Ringo
Why I don’t like Yelp: Reasons number 2,343 and 2,344.
Yelpers walk into restaurants and introduce themselves as Yelpers, demand special attention, and become customers from hell. If they don’t get it, they murder the restaurant online. Usually you can flush out the grandiose writers by their pompous style. I’d hate to be a restaurateur and deal with these types.
Restaurateurs rating competitors on Yelp. Yesterday Maple and Motor’s Jack Perkins “exposed” Dace Street, the son of Gene Street who has been around the business (Snookies) for a few decades. On M&M’s Facebook page Perkins writes: “Check out what Dace Street is willing to do” and links to Street’s Yelp profile page. Street is out in the open: he boldly posts his picture on the page which also contains ten reviews. He gives 5 Stars to the Street-family-owned Liberty Burger and one to Maple and Motor.
It’s all bollocks. This is all starting to make Harvey Gough look like a softie. Hi Harvey, I’ll take a number 2 and melt the cheese!
UPDATE: I just received this note from Dace Street: “Some one is screwing with me. I took down the yelp profile that was associated with me. Good grief! I never took any pot-shots at M&M or anyone else.”
Poor Pink Slime. The frappéed beef scraps and connective tissues doused in ammonia used in food production has been called to the front of the class for being gross in a room full of politically correct food experts. What took you people so long to get all worked up about Pink Slime? Did you miss The Omnivore’s Dilemna? Fast Food Nation? Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle?
What’s next? Nasty Nitrates? According to the Food Chemical Codex, sodium nitrite, used to cure meat and prolong the shelf life of food, contains residual heavy metals, arsenic, and lead. Will you think about that the next time you bite into a Yu Dog at the Ballpark?
What is my point? I think Pink Slime got a raw deal. Anyone who pays attention to what they eat already knows about this crap. But somebody came up with a catchy name to grab the headlines and—BOOM—Pink Slime is public enemy number one.
My inbox is full of messages from burger joints now touting they are “Pink-Slime-free.” (Good news for marketing folks.) Locally, Elevation Burger has declared its 28 restaurants as “Pink Slime Free Zones.” Goody for them. They were smart enough to start by serving 100% USDA-certified organic and 100% grass-fed beef. Just be prepared to put your money where the pink slime was. (Check out City of Ate’s breakdown on the economics of a slime-free market.)
Carry on do-gooders. There are important battles to fight for healthy food. Just don’t get all high and mighty. Some of us still like to enjoy food in foreign countries that are lucky to have beef scraps to cook.
The efforts to privatize the Dallas Farmers Market have been futile and the city of Dallas’ efforts to energize the DFM have been quagmired in chaos. I’d love to see someone swoop in and make the DFM a destination for residents, framers, and visitors. However, the emergence of Phil Romano’s Trinity Groves project in West Dallas could be the final nail in the coffin of the Dallas Farmers Market if they don’t get their shiitakes together. Romano’s grand plan calls for vendors of all shapes and sizes and he and his partners have the backing to get it done.
Meanwhile, the debate on privatization of the Market and surrounding the Market with permanent housing continues. If you would like to show your support the Dallas Farmers Market, you can join the Dallas Farmers Market Friends. They also have a petition you can sign to try to influence city officials to consider other options for the housing solution. Their goal:
…is to present both sides of the story (via links on the DFMF.org website) so people can get a feel for everything going on. In the end, they’d love to have people speak out, sign the petition and hopefully convince city officials to alter their decision about the supportive housing. They’ve added links to the petition itself to the DFMFriends.org site, and have the links to both sides of the story there, as well.
There is a public hearing this Thursday. Do your homework here, decide which side you’re on, and show up at the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library (1515 Young Street) on Thursday, April 5 at 6 PM.
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On Tuesday, February 7, 2012, the Greater Dallas Restaurant Association will be hosting its annual TX ProStart Regional Competition for over 25 high school teams from our area that utilize our ProStart curriculum. What is ProStart? I’m glad you asked. ProStart is a two-year program that provides training and certification in both culinary and management. Over 30 teams of high school students will compete in culinary and management battles. The top 3 winners will go on to State competition, and the State winner will go to the Nationals in Baltimore. The National winner will get a free roundtrip to Saturn. (Just wanted to see if you were still with me.)
The GDRA needs judges! So, if you are a chef, a sous chef, a kitchen worker, a recipe developer, a kitchen manager, or an expert in your restaurant, contact Contact Tracey Evers, tevers@gdra.org or our assistant director Candice Sullinger , csullinger@gdra.org.
More details below. Continue reading "Attention Dallas Restaurant Industry: Judges Needed for GDRA Competition"
D Magazine’s Loren Means loves to watch Top Chef: Texas. Therefore, she volunteered to watch all of the episodes this season and write a recap. She’s reviewed episode one, two, three, four, and five. Today she reports on episode six which takes place in Dallas. Go, Loren.
Continue reading "Top Chef: Texas, Episode 6 Recap"
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