Scott Romano does a much better job of describing them in this video than I could. Excuse the poor technical quality – it was shot under battlefield conditions.

Last night celebrity chef Charlie Palmer was in town week to meet with his staff, chat with his public, and throw a little tasting party for area chefs. I spotted Dean Fearing, Kent Rathbun, Sharon Hage, and time love sampling appetizers at the bar long after the customers had cleared. Executive chef Scott Romano set out a spread that included peppered filet mignon with Armagnac sauce, pepper-seared mahi mahi, bacon-wrapped quail legs, shrimp mousse lobster corn dogs (lobster corn dogs?), and more. However, for me, the most exciting food was the large selection of charcuterie and salumi made in-house. Dishers, these samples were not contrived to please our local chefs, the food is currently on both the bar and restaurant menu.

DISCLAIMER: This event was provided by the restaurant and I was not anonymous. However, I personally took out a mortgage on my house to cover the valet parking charges.–Andrew Chalk

Recent reports and videos on the making of soba noodles omitted the most curious fixture at Tei-An. No, not the rooftop patio (at least, as yet), the doors to the bathroom stalls. You step into a cubicle that appears to have a glass panel in the door. So much for privacy! However, when you close the door, the glass panel turns opaque–at least, from the inside. I assumed (hoped) the effect was two way, and (thankfully) no crowd gathered outside. This is a talk-inspiring design feature for a restaurant

I first heard of this type of glass being used in the changing rooms at high-end clothing stores. Apparently, it is made with a Piezoelectric crystal formed on the sheet. I wonder what happens when the electricity fails?

The fact is, my job is changing. I was hired as a newspaper restaurant critic and feature writer. Today I am, first and foremost, a blogger. It’s a little ludicrous to try and maintain your anonymity while you are photographing your plate. And sometimes you need to identify yourself to get a interview. The time has come to adjust to fit my new job description.

Read all about it here.

Last week Andrew “Baby Face” Chalk attended the soba noodle making session held at Tei-An. The event was a big deal— Akila Inouye, Master Chef of Tsukiji Soba Academy in Tokyo, visited Tei-An restaurant at One Arts Plaza to give a demonstration of the technique of making soba noodles. Inouye’s brief U.S. tour only included New York, Los Angeles, and Dallas. Why Dallas? Tei-An owner Teiichi Sakurai is a student of the master. Here for your viewing enjoyment is Soba Noodles: The Movie.

Anywhoo, I bring this up because D Home and Slocum Street Antiques and Design Association have teamed up and they are throwing a big shindig on Thursday, October 8 from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Jim “Savor Dallas” White has lined up eight restaurants to serve food. (Fedora Restaurant and Lounge, The Grill on the Alley, Go Fish Ocean Club, Hibashi Teppan Grill & Sushi Bar, Jorge’s, The Kitchen Table at Sheraton Hotel Dallas, Lavendou Bistro Provencal, and Paciugo Gelato.) The event is free and benefits the Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS. If you’re really nice, I’ll show you my potential new digs at The Alexan on Oak Lawn.

Samar’s creators paid huge attention to design. The following video is a tour of the restaurant with Stephan Pyles. (Pardon the sound; the place was packed.)

We sent Andrew Chalk to cover the semi-soft opening of Samar by Stephan Pyles. Here is his report. You want chandeliers? Stephan Pyles bought some chandeliers for Samar. Go Andrew:

Samar by Stephan Pyles held its invite-only preview party on Saturday and, judging by the turnout, reservations to this new eatery are going to be hard to get. (The official opening day is still TBD but planned for “early October.”)

Saturday, close to 1,000 of Stephan’s closest friends piled into the restaurant, the patio, and a specially rented spillover area. Despite the crowd, the staff coped with the rush like a well-oiled machine. Even the periodic guest-dropping-a-glass-in-a-crowded-bar problem was immediately met with a staffer who cordoned off the area while another cleaned it clean up. The kitchen and wait staff dispatched appetizers with that frictionless regularity which makes you wonder if the servers aren’t on roller skates.

The centerpiece of any restaurant is the food. Pyles installed Vijay Sadhu, formerly of Bukhara Grille and Clay Pit, as head chef because he wanted Indian cuisine to be one of the inspirations at Samar.The other influences on the menu come from Spain and the area loosely defined as the Eastern Mediterranean (mainly Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey). Here is chef Sadhu describing some of the appetizers.

Chef Sadhu showed the crowd his ambitious stuff—all of the food was prepared perfectly. As he showed at his earlier positions, Vijay Sadhu is an expert and combining flavors and bringing them out in his dishes. Here is a short list of what was served: Red Lentiles Kofte (Turkish), Kebbeh with Golden beets tzatziki sauce, Chicken kebab stuffed with spiced gound lamb served with Spice tomato jam and crispy okra, Saffron Paneer tikka with spiced vermicelli and cumin scented asparagus, Chocolate Samosa with rose jam, and Papadam cones stuffed with Mung sprouts

Guests were offered either a specially created martini that apparently involved pomegranate juice (and had a fruity approachability that made it deceptively easy to imbibe) or one of a number of respectable wines.This food, by the way, is wine-friendly.

Outside, the patio was put to good use. Belly dancers entertained the crowd that, coincidentally, became progressively less and less reserved.

Hookah pipes were available to complete one’s sense transportation from the corner of Ross and Olive to some exotic country.

Want to visit the wine country but out of NetJets units? Or don’t want to bear the cost of getting the G50 out of mothballs in the Arizona desert? Easy. Tour the wine country in Dallas where there are now four commercial wineries that have banded together in a joint promotion called the Dallas Wine Trail. The idea is that you travel from one winery to the other, taste three wines at each, talk to the winemakers, and tour the winemaking facilities. For $39 you get the tasting, light food at each location, a souvenir glass and a bottle of one of the wineries wines to take home.

First stop was throbbing downtown Lakewood to visit Times Ten Cellars. This winery sells almost entirely California wine. However, a new development is the coming on stream of their own Texas vineyard “Cathedral Mountain Vineyard” in Alpine Texas (that is so far away it’s closer to Chihuahua than Dallas). It is planted to what appears to be a risk-aversion strategy: Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc reflect Bordeaux. Syrah and Grenache reflect the Rhone region of France and Tempranillo reflects Spain. We tasted the first vintage from Central Mountain Vineyard which includes all of these grapes (see tasting notes below the jump). The food consisted of sandwich rolls filled with either tuna salad or ham. Pretty tasty.

Next stop was at Calais Winery in the neutron bomb test zone known as Deep Ellum. This is the newest of the four wineries on the tour having been formed by Frenchman Benjamin Calais, with exquisite timing, just prior to the economic crash of 2008. To date, all of their wines have been made with California fruit shipped under dry ice for fermentation and aged at their winery in Dallas. However, change is afoot. On the day of the tour, he and his wife had got back barely 24 hours earlier from Newsom Vineyards in Plains, West Texas having spent 48 hours, virtually without sleep, hand picking and crushing fruit left on the vines after mechanical harvesting was completed. Newsom Vineyards is the source of most of the top-ranked Tempranillo wines from the state and Calais and his wife had to go through this hand-picking ordeal because there is a queue of some 50 wineries ahead of him for the fruit. He told me how he had planned to make a Rosé like the Tempranillo Rosados from Spain but gave up when he saw the color of Texas fruit immediately after crushing. The pigmentation was so dark he realized he would be making an inky red monster whatever his best-laid plans. The food match was Scardello’s cheeses although I had to leave before any serious sampling so I just grabbed a slice of the Empire Bakery bread.

The third stop was FUQUA Winery. This winery is focused mainly on California fruit and all three wines we tasted were majority California wine. The food here was the most varied of anywhere on the tour. Rex’s Fresh Seafood provided shrimp paste on crackers that tasted truly shrimpy but unfortunately had some chili’s in that made them incompatible with the wine. Kathleen’s Sky Diner (neé Kathleen’s Art Café) provided half a dozen toppings for bruschetta, an organic meat producer from Oklahoma provided succulent mouth-sized portions of various cuts of beef and Paula Lambert, representing her own firm, Mozzarella Company, served six cheeses including three very worthy chevres.

The final stop was Inwood Estate Vineyards. Here the emphasis is certainly not on ambience. Inwood Estate Vineyards produces wine exclusively from Texas fruit. The winery has a separate label, xxx, for its non-Texas wines. For the tour, they pulled out all the stops, serving their latest flagship offerings of Tempranillo-Cabernet blends, Tempranillo and the limited release ‘Magellan’, a blend of the five Bordeaux varieties and Tempranillo.

Perhaps it was a cult following, perhaps just because it was later in the day, but Inwood Estates was packed. The food had suffered. Maybe it had started as a hors d’oeuvres plate but by now it resembled a grainy movie of 1945 Dresden, with red specks. I passed.
The next Dallas Wine Trail will be publicized here on SideDish. I highly recommend it if you can take part.

Until then, jump for my geeky tasting notes.

Andrew Chalk’s Geeky  Tasting Notes

All of the wines on the tour are available at the wineries and all permit ordering over the Internet via their web sites if you wish. So, since some of you may wonder what wines I have been talking about, here are my geeky notes on all 12:

Times Ten Cellars

2007 Cathedral Mountain Vineyard, Vino de terra Alta. Red Blend, Texas

A blend of 33% Tempranillo, 33% Syrah, 2437% Grenache, 3% Cabernet Sauvignon and 3% Cabernet Franc.

The nose has spiciness, Tempranillo fruit and red fruits. The taste is thin on the mid-palette, slightly sweet with a short to medium finish. So many varieties in the blend leave the varietal character of this wine a mystery.

Drink now, maybe with BBQ.

This is the first year for wine from this young vineyard. I think we are beta testing the vineyard. The vines, and the winemaker, need time to get the best from each other.   80/100

2006 Cabernet Sauvignon, Central Coast, California

The nose has raspberries and liquorice. The taste is of sweet, open fruit (typical warm-climate characteristics). The wine is simple with soft tannins.

Drink now.79/100

2007 Gewurztraminer, Monterey County, California

The nose has peaches and  lychees. The taste repeats the peaches in the nose. However, the fruit is thin and too monotonic in its flavors. Short finish.

Serve with a fruit dessert. E.g. a fruit tart or pie. 82/100

Calais Winery

2008 Pinot Gris, California

The nose is perfumy and light. Just very unobjectionable rather than distinct.

Serve as a summer afternoon aperitif. 77/100

2007 La Cuvée Principale, Chardonnay, California

That’s ‘Main St.’ to non French speakers. Calais names his wines after the streets that surround his winery. I wonder what he will name after the biggest landmark in the area ‘The Parking Meter”.

This wine is made from California grapes from the Lodi region. They are packed in dry ice to suspend fermentation on their journey to Texas. He crushes (what remains uncrushed from the 1500 mile journey) and ages the wine in his winery. No oak is used for aging.

The nose is dominated by a vineous quality, a negative one that is. The taste is similar with little varietal character.

This wine needs oak. 78/100

2006 La Cuvée de Commerce, Cabernet Sauvignon (85%), Syrah (15%)

The nose exhibits the Syrah with bacon scent qualities. In the mouth the wine has Cabernet fruit with tough tannins and steminess. The wine has a medium finish.

Serve with lamb or BBQ. 80/100

FUQUA Winery

2007 FUQUA Chardonnay, California

A small amount of Viognier added. No oak used in aging.

The nose is a faint lemony character. Possibly some perfumy aromatics from the Viognier going on here. In the mouth there is a taste of lychees. Good acid.

Serve with lobster. 80/100

2005 Pinot Noir, Mendocino

From the Potter valley AVA.

The nose is classic Pinot Noir fruit with a light to medium intensity. In the mouth the fruit is astoundingly forward, especially for a four-year old wine.

Serve with pork. 82/100

2006 Tempranillo, vat No. 3, California

Some Texas fruit also used. I am seeking more information on the provinence of this wine.

The nose has hints of Tempranillo fruit. The taste is an absolute model of balance. There is fruit, but this is not a fruit bomb. There is acid. But this is not acidic. There is tannin, but this is not tannic. I can see why this wine won a double gold medal at the San Francisco International Wine Competition. The best-balanced wine of the 12 on offer on the tour. 91/100

Inwood Estates Vineyards

2005 Tempranillo/Cabernet, Texas

The nose is Tempranillo fruit, cherries and raspberries. In the mouth this is a chewy wine with good grip and a long finish. I have tasted several examples of this and don’t remember it being this good. Possibly bottle age is bringing it on.

Serve with lamb, steak, game. 90/100

2007 Tempranillo, “Cornelius”, Texas

This is 100% Texas high plains fruit. Viticulture by Neal Newsom on a vineyard co-owned by he and Inwood Estates.

The nose is unduly plumy. This appears to be bottle variation as I have not noticed it before. In the mouth this wine is made in a highly extracted style. There are grippy tannins and a medium finish.

Serve with lamb, steak, game. 86/100

2006 ‘Magellan’, Texas

A blend of the five Bordeaux varieties (Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Malbec) with Tempranillo. Winemaker Dan Gatlin see this as an iconic and icon-busting wine in Texas oenological history but we will have to wait to find out.

The nose is, at present, subdued with tight-knit fruit. In the mouth the wine is a tannic creature. Black cherry and an all-encompassing minerality dominate. However, this very serious wine is inscrutable at this time. Check back in five years but I suspect it will last much longer. Could Dan Gatlin become the Randy Dunn of Texas? 91+/100

Recently at the 2009 TexSom Conference at Las Colinas, Andrew Chalk shot this short video on Eroica, a interesting Riesling produced by Chateau Ste. Michelle in Washington State. Chateau Ste. Michelle has been a pioneer in Riesling production in the U.S. In this short clip, Andrew has an informative chinwag with Joel Butler, the winery’s director of education.

Andrew Chalk, bless his wine-lovin’ heart, sends this video on Napa Valley’s  Stewart Cellars. We tasted this exquisite wine at the Texas Sommelier Conference grand tasting. The winemaker is Paul Hobbs.

Andrew Chalk is a wine-loving maniac. I asked him to help me cover last weekend’s activities and he did a fine job. He is still reporting! Here is a quick video he produced on an interesting Chardonnay made by Fisher Vineyards (Napa Valley), one of the 100 wines poured at the grand tasting. Note: special cameo appearance.

There were many wines and wine heroes acknowledged at the recent 2009 Texas Sommelier Conference but one chef needs to be recognized as the guy who cooked for them all and did a brilliant job. Our gallant roving reporter, Andrew Chalk, caught up with Christof Syre, execuchef for the Chef Four Seasons Resort & Club in Las Colinas, and the twosome talked about what it takes to put together a menu for a room full of certified sommeliers and people with other certifiable distinctions. Chef, you had me at oven-dried peaches and risotto. Go, Andrew.

This morning we talked a lot about wine lists and managing beverage programs. One of the panelists, Joe Spellman, had some interesting things to say about wine by the glass and the current “fetish with half bottles” on wine lists. I attempted to shoot an award-winning video. Instead, I got a poor sound quality video clip of a really nice, smart wine guy making some good points. So, put on your headphones. You know where to put the cork.

On Sunday, the fifth annual Texas Sommelier Conference (TexSom) kicks off at the Four Seasons in Las Colinas. The two-day event includes lectures and tastings with the nation’s preeminent wine experts. There are five classes on Sunday, August 16 (some tickets still available) and a grand tasting on Monday evening, August 17th.  A separate set of courses, designed exclusively for the trade and media, will take place on Monday. While the courses are conducted, a competition for Texas’ Best Sommelier runs behind the scenes. On Monday evening, the conference concludes with a Grand Tasting(a few tickets available), where wine professionals and the public come together to taste world-class wines and witness the drama and celebration surrounding the naming of Texas’ Best Sommelier 2009.  Last year’s winner is Scott Barber of Dallas’ Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek.  He dominated 24 other competitors and won the coveted title after a rigorous three-part examination involving wine tasting, service and theory. Once again, I will be a Twittering and blogging fool.

Jim Richardson is a brave man. In the face of the worst recession since The Flintstones and manifest oversupply in the wine industry, the man has opened a winery in California. And while most wineries are named after romantic place names, cute critters, or the founder, he decided to name his after where he hails from in Dallas. Hence, Oak Cliff Cellars was born. You don’t borrow from a bank for this sort of thing and “JR” (as he goes by) is not too big to fail, so that rules out the taxpayer. Rather, you invest your own money, and maybe that of some close investors who you beat in a card game. In the time-honored tradition of start-ups you rent space in the premises of a larger, more established, producer and hire an experienced consulting winemaker. After selecting and fermenting grapes, you spend 18 months dealing with problems while your precious fist vintage ages. Eventually, the miracle of oak-aging and a newfound belief in prayer brings everything together and you show your new baby to the world.

That is what JR did on Wednesday night at Lavendou. Big jammy jump here.

It was actually two weeks ahead of the formal release party, which will be in California, and something of a big shindig. Wednesday’s affair was low-key, accompanied by hors d’oeuvres prepared by the restaurant. On to the wines:

2008 Oak Cliff Cellars Chardonnay, Napa Valley, California ($24)
Fermented and aged entirely in stainless steel, this wine is in the idiom of the unoaked Chardonnays currently popular on restaurant wine lists. Note, however, that you won’t confuse this with an old-world Chardonnay – the fruit flavors are just too profuse. As a result of the absence of oak the nose is distinctly fruity, reminding me of wine gums. In the mouth, there is very full fruitiness of melon and a long pleasant finish. This wine does not need food (it would be great by the pool on hot days) but worked well with the Petit Basque Cheese on Crostini and the Cantaloupe Melon with Prosciutto prepared by the restaurant. 86/100

2007 Oak Cliff Cellars Petite Sirah, Napa Valley, California ($42)
A huge nose of dark fruit sits atop an inky monster of a wine with a host of subtle scent facets. In the mouth, the wine exhibits medium fruit intensity. Some fairly hard tannins give it backbone but prevent one describing this wine with terms such as ‘lush’. Medium length of finish. I would serve this with red meat. It is pleasant now but best if kept 3-5 years. A creditable first effort. 85/100.

Production is miniscule (a few hundred cases) and will stay small even with plans for more grape varieties in the near future. Availability is via the web site.
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Two of my Deep Goats in the food biz are telling me that the ink in drying on a deal between Next Food Network Star runner-up Lisa Garza and CBS. My niece is going to her cooking camp next month. Perhaps she’ll get the poop on the scoop. Way to go, Lisa.

Friday, I told you about Kiepersol Winery in Bullard, Texas and  the lovely wines they make. Today, I offer a short video of a real East Texas gala: a few minutes of Asleep at the Wheel performing at the opening night party for Kiepersol’s new venue, Bushman’s Winery and Celebration Center. The evening was a showcase for Texas Wines—reps from Fall Creek, Grape Creek, Landon, Llano Estacado, Messina Hof, Red Road, Wichita Falls Winery, and the funny boys from Los Pinos were all there and pouring samples.  If you can spot me doing the Texas Two-Step on the video you will win dinner for two at any restaurant in town. Just tell me what color pants I’m wearing.

Chef Tre Wilcox and Chef Rory Schepisi

Yesterday, Tre “Top Chef” Wilcox faced Rory “Next Food Network Star” Schepisi in a cooking contest at the Southwest Food Expo. InsideCorner’s Evan Grant was a celebrity judge. The video is here. I will tell the story in pictures. (Click on Evan’s badge below.)

Southwest Foodservice Expo Celebrity Chef Smack-down

First up: Coffee made from civet cat poop.

Second: The cutlery eating machine.

Third: Food so good you can’t eat it.

Fourth: Making rum in Austin. Texas. Yes, Austin, Texas. Good stuff.

Finally: The talk of the Expo: Chocolate covered crickets. Yes, bugs.

Yesterday, I met Charles. He is at the Expo promoting Aphrodite Divine Confections in Garland. In this video he talks about being Santa at Collin Creek Mall, the “little factory in Garland”, what he does with his gloved finger and peanut butter, and his religious experience with a scone. Enter at your own risk.

No words needed.

In the sixth and final webcast, Merrill Bonarrigo of the Messina Hof Winery in Bryan, Texas, discusses Port, a variety native to Portugal, as well as other dessert wines that are thriving in Texas.(Lenoir and chocolate!) Go, Tanji. We’ll miss you.

Some cars are almost bigger than the restaurant.

We ordered two burguesas con queso, fries, and a strawberry shake. Our driver, a vegetarian, skipped on their offer to make a burguesa sin burguesa. We sipped the strawberry shake with remnants or real strawberry in the mix, and headed over to the patio at Whole Foods on Lemmon to eat.

Here’s the deal: the burgers are skinny meat, skinny bun. I like that. If you like thicker meat, order a double. The lettuce is shredded and the secret sauce (Cholula hot sauce-spiked mayonnaise) adds a nice kick. I would eat the burger again.

However, I never want to see the fries once more.  The skinny, limp, tasteless fries are served in a cup and hang over the sides like dead worms. Pick one out, squeeze it, and watch your appetite evaporate. I’m not a grease snob—I like a good shot of lard every now and then, but these pathetic half-cooked strings mixed with quarter-sized chunks of almost raw potatoes dissolved into a pasty mass. They leave a strong aftertaste of car exhaust—gassy, smoky, and toxic—in your mouth.

Our wacky art director, Todd, loves the Monumental, a ginormous burger/torta concoction with layers of beef, spicy mayonnaise, cheese, avocado, crispy tostadas (orange?), ham, and refried beans. Oh, and a whole pickled jalapeno.

The two other cars we observed were full of yuppie, white Americans. A Hispanic man stood on the street waving a sign and urging drivers to pull in. Burguesa Burger felt a little too American for comfort.

The Texas Restaurant Association has agreed to let me bring some guests to the to-the-trade only show that runs from June 28-30.  So far I have requests from Robin, Rob, Lori, S, and Margie. If you missed the earlier post, or I missed your request, check it out and let me know by the end of the day. Perhaps the video I shot at the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago last month will inspire you to join us.

The next day, Friday, I learned that Gilbert had left the kitchen on the previous Monday, and despite the Thursday mini-review, nobody from Lazare called to inform me of the change. Instead of returning my call, Mr. Hayward talked to Leslie Brenner at the DMN and said he’d decided on a new chef (sous chef Ryan Carbery was named executive chef)  and then he jumped on a plane and headed to Australia for two weeks. I was mad as a wet hen.

So last week when rumors were floating around that the folks behind Lazare were shopping around for professional advice on reconcepting and retooling the restaurant, I called the money behind the project, Bill Hutchinson. He was in Carmel on vacation but he admitted they were looking for help, going to go with more bar food, and perhaps look at doing something completely different. I asked if Hayward was still involved (I’d heard he was on the outs with Hutchinson) and Hutchinson said Hayward was still “in the restaurant every day.”

Who knows, by the time you read this the restaurant could be a Pei Wei and we can all get on with our lives. But for the sake of posterity, I offer you my review of Lazare. Not because we spent a lot of time and money reviewing the restaurant, but because I will miss it. The food was delicious.

Hark, Timmy just sent me a link to a post he wrote for FrontBurner. Seems our web guys did some investigating and supplied Timmy with some ammunition.

The crowd shudders with fear

He presents an interesting look at the problems print media is having managing massive amounts of web content. We at D may be hardheaded and slow, but we are typing our fingers down to stubs trying to re-enter our original editorial content to the web.

Cock crows. Exit Nancy stage left