Tom Spicer

Greetings from Spiceman,

In case you haven’t heard, Mitch Kauffman at Urbano and I are throwing down what looks to be a sold-out wing ding in my garden at FM 1410. There may be some sections C (compost bin) seating or section R (red ant pile) seating available but I’m not certain about that. The event is next Thursday May 24th BYOB, 6:pm doors open, 6:30 pm Food (buffet) 7:pm Music, some seating (chairs) available but bring a blanket for sitting down on the garden floor. Some Urb-an’ Spice in the garden so to speak. My gumbo, his Chef Ke’o is pitt roasting a pig (w/out lipstick) and we’re both coming up with sides a couple of which I plan to make ala vegetarian (fresh shelled peas, salads, corn bread and mo’) .Ladies, please where garden flats/shoes, and dudes…. please, no spike heels and certainly no leather chaps cuz it may be a bit too warm.

Unedited inventory list below.

Early this morning I picked up a few cases of spring onions (yellow “sweet 16’s”) from an east Texas farmer, not organic. Sorry… no appologies. Oh and…ran out of ca$h to get peaches and berries.

I also met the pea people to get 10 x 15# bags of assorted fresh shelled peas (creamers, pintos, limas, purple hulls and black eyed)

Then on to Love Field cargo facility to get freshly flown in wild and cultivated exotic mushrooms.

Gyromitra, aka flase or snow bank morel (not for novice foodies, look it up and proceed with caution)

Morels, i.e. true morels

Coral Mushrooms, aka cauliflower mushrooms, a little hard to clean but commonly eaten.

Fiddle heads are already commited but I’ll try to reserve 1# for retail.

Hen O’ Woods or Maitake mushrooms

Baby Shiitake we also sport a few imported, cultivated mushrooms like oyster and beech (aka shimejii, or crab mushrooms)

So most of you know that for our “retail shoppers” we mix them in an 8 oz bag for $10 …. Spiceman’s “Dime bag O’ shrooms”

The thing about my so called “retail store” is that it is not buffed out like a regular produce department which btw… is extremely wastefull yet a neccessary service but here in my store front, the “retail” aspect is more that I open my doors to anyone, let me say that again, ANYONE who’s brave, epicurious or crazy enough to walk in. I don’t have much of a sign but there IS a sign right above my door

My concept is that I’m kind enough to share with those people what ever I have on hand for my “chef based” traffic, wether the chefs pick it up or I deliver it gives cause for some of the best and/or different and freshest edible items one would hardly expect to find any where to be HERE. So be here now, hmmmmmm…. I like the sound of that, perhaps I should trade mark it.

My garden is turning over for summer plantings however, there’s plenty of radishes and various, adapted summer greens (exotic edible weeds) and many fresh herb varieties.

AssortMints, e.g. chocolate,orange and spearmints along with sweet basil, rosemary, thyme and the last of the fresh, green corrianderberries.

Squash Blossom are hit or miss, I have some on hand today.

Last but not least… g00se eGGs @ $3 each, that can be everything, let me think (got in trouble last time I did that)but, but,

OH yeah, The HERBMOBILE IS OUT AND ABOUT with Pandora’s produce box on board load with with the HerbOfWars driven by Jake with lots of deals to make.

The FM 1410 local produce Market and garden is located @ 1410 B (stands for “Between” the 2 Urbano Cafe’s) N. Fitzhugh

Ave. , Dallas, Tx. 75204 (google earth it). The garden is out back

Retail hours of operation are roughly 10:am to 5:pm mons-sats

Wholesale hours zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, you’re prolly still sleeping.

We accept $$$, visa, mastercard, magic beans and ? o.b.o

Store #214-954-7974 we answer “Spiceman’s FM 1410 produce market, Spiceman speaking”

Eatzi's spaghetti (photos by Carol Shih)

This Thursday, eatZi’s is opening its third location along West State Hwy 114. Phil Romano’s gourmet market and bakery is expanding its chain just north of Dallas where suburbanites can also get a taste of simple comfort foods made fresh daily.

At the eatZi’s preview night yesterday, the new store swung its doors open for some local shoppers. Its storefront, which had previously been plastered with a Luby’s Cafeteria sign, looked like a carbon copy of the Oak Lawn location. The inside is also exactly the same as the other two locations, with a few exceptions. “What we did was we took the best of both stores and combined them,” says Elis Droubi, the General Manager. A coffee bar greets you in front because eatZi planners noticed that it did well there in the Lovers store, and salads and sandwiches have a big presence at the Grapevine store.

Jump for preview photos.

Besides getting rid of the produce wall that you can find in the Oak Lawn location, the Grapevine eatZi’s is meant to give you the same feeling as the other two stores. Classical music plays through the loud speakers while you shop for those famous meatballs, indecisively waiver between buying a ciabatta or sourdough boule because you love both equally, and order those crunchy green beans amandine with almonds from behind the ready-made glass counters. It’s the same concept, same type of food, and still has the same quality.

“We wanted people to feel like they were at other stores,” says Droubi. He eagerly anticipates eatZi’s May 17 grand opening day at 10 a.m. There will be a great deal of free samples in the store throughout the entire weekend.

And while Grapeviners might be rejoicing right now, Droubi tells me that Plano also has something to look forward to. The fourth eatZi’s will certainly be making its way there.

Crab cake samples

Cellar selections

Sylvan | Thirty is busy fielding applications from interested tenants and is currently working with a select group which includes a baker, confectioner, a fishmonger, and a yoga studio. There are also three restaurant concepts in the works as well. Sylvan| Thirty hopes to be 75 percent leased before they start construction. So far they have announced Cox Farms Market, The Pearl Cup, Matador Meat & Wine and the culinary incubator  with Culinary Curator Sharon Hage.

This morning comes an update: “We’re now on track to break ground early summer, which means you’ll be seeing construction activity by late July.” Sylvan| Thirty plans to open in Spring 2013.

I made fresh country gumbo if you want to know what gumbo should taste like, get yourself down here fast. South Louisiana tomatoes are here, fresh goose and chicken eggs too. Radishes and baby mixed color arrots are beginning to po in the garden out back. Fresh shrooms landing this afternoon along with stinging nettles, ramps, fiddlehead ferns and Verpa Morels.What else do I need to say? I done said it, so…

Tom Spicer sings the greens.

This note just in from the father of foraging, Mr. Tom “Spiceman” Spicer, over at FM 1410. Hear him type:

“Here are few quick peaks at my annual “Easter Grasskets: (living wheat grass in an basket with assorted colors of carrots, rainbow chard and a goose egg). Get ‘em while they’re hot. I have also reserved the artichokes and enough Easter Grasskets for my “Adopt-a-plot” peeps. (peep peep).”

Peep,peep yáll. Easter Grasskets is pretty good. Jump for all of the goodies Spiceman has in his garden. And adopt one of his plots. It’s cheaper than a dog.Here  is what he’s got:

Fiddle heads

Ramps again

Goose eggs

East Texas Strawberries

Spring Onions

Wild and exotic ‘shrooms

Mulberry trees  in  the alley loaded with berries
Easter Graskets with living wheat grass, baby garden carrots, rainbow chard and a goose egg
Today’s garden pics 008
Wall of petite greens
Petite lamb’s quarters
Baby Asian Mustard greens
Baby mixed color carrots
Baby Arugula
Rainbow Chard
AssortMints
Radish sprouts soon to be radishes
Mixed baby lettuces
Benziger Vinyards Cabernet grapevines from Beat with orange mint
Third year fruit from same vine in my garden
vines are loaded with grapes

“Shepherd’s Pie” with turkey, Tom’s turnip mash, Bibb salad with chopped winter vegetables and Meyer lemon vinaigrette. $19.99

Her recommended wine pairings are:

Red: Casamatta Toscana 2009  (11.99)

White: Tranquillo Texas White Table Wine 2010 (13.99)  Drew Hendricks Wine.

Wines available Bolsa Mercado. No phone orders. They’ll be ready to purchase at 4PM.

Deep Ellum Brewery has just released their first (only?) production of “Love Runs Deep” Cherry Chocolate Double Brown Stout (deets below). Think you’ll find it at Tom Thumb? Nope. Bolsa Mercado bought the entire batch. Each 22-ounce bottle is individually numbered and made with red tart and dark sweet cherries and Organic/Fair Trade cocoa nibs. Expect to find all 300 of them on the shelves of Bolsa Mercado during their next Open House on February 11.

If you can’t wait until the 11^th to get a food fix from The ‘Cado, head over on February 8. If you are lucky, you may be able to look past talented chef chefs Jeff Harris and Matt Balke and spot the rare, elusive chef Sharon Hage in the kitchen. She will be creating a “Take Home Dinner For Two.” Who knows, by then Bolsa Mercado may have Alan McClure creating Fudgesicles or Grant Achatz doing dishes. Could happen. Pigs fly in Oak Cliff.

CHERRY CHOCOLATE DOUBLE BROWN STOUT -

8% ABV 27 IBUs

Our logical offering for a passionate time of year.

Who says Brewers can’t pluck your heartstrings? We’ll play right to your heart (and

palette and belly) by taking our already smooth and rich Double Brown Stout and taking

out to a night on the town. By adding real Red Tart and Dark Sweet Cherries at the

beginning of fermentation and **(Organic/Fair Trade) cocoa nibs at the end of

conditioning, once a year we treat our Double Brown Stout lavishly. Don’t be a selfish

lover, share with this someone special.

Style: Cherry Chocolate Baltic Porter

Hops: US Goldings, Mt. Hood, US Northern Brewer, Summit

Malts: Pale Ale, Munich light, Brown, Munich Dark, Oats, Crystal Rye, Extra Dark

Crystal, Dehusked Chocolate

Yeast: California Lager

Other: Blackstrap Molasses, Red Tart & Dark Sweet Cherry Puree’, Cocoa Nibs

Packages: 50L, 1/6th bbl

According to Teresa “Gumbshoe” Gubbins, a representative for Trader Joe’s told the told the DMN a store will open in the old Arcadia Theater space on Lower Greenville Avenue in the fall of 2012. A Plano location, in an old Kroger at Preston and Park, will open in the spring. The Fort Worth store at 2701 South Hulen Street and a location in a the Woodlands near Houston will open this spring. I have not been able to confirm the rumor that developer Ray Washburne plans to move the Santa Monica Pier to Highland Park Village.

Julian Barsotti's Uncle Al at Carbone's in Harrison, New Jersey.

Carbone’s Fine Food and Wine. Construction on Julian (Nonna) Basotti’s much anticipated deli, grocery store, and mini-restaurant on December 2. It’s going into the space formerly known as Talbot’s on Wycliff and Oak Lawn. Barsotti says he anticipates opening in March 2012. The store’s logo was inspired by the sign of his family’s restaurant on the East Coast. It opened in Manhattan before moving to Harrison, New Jersey. It was open for 75 years and closed in 1993.

Central Market Preston Royal. According to a loyal Disher, construction workers were on duty last night inside the Central Market going into the former Border’s space in Preston Royal. The store is scheduled to open in February 2012.

1. Housemade Broken Arrow Wild Boar Sausage, with broccoli rabe and cherries (8.99lb)

2. Our Nightly take home dinners for two (this weeks best seller was Veal, Pork & Beef Meatloaf w/ caramelized onion wild mushroom gravy, potato mash, braised red cabbage, frisee salad and roast butternut squash soup $26.99)

3. Olympic Provision’s salumi (all types)

4. La Fin Du Monde, golden ale

5. Veldhuizen Cheese (prices vary)

6. Evan’s Farm Prime Beef (ribeyes and strips)

7. House made Pastrami Sandwich

8. Village baking Company Bread (Baguettes $3)

9. La Madrid Single Vineyard Bonarda (18.99)

10. The Cliff Juice (pineapple, cucumber, celery mint & jalapeno $6)

Bolsa Mercado. Photography by Elliott Munoz

Just dropped into the new Bolsa Mercado this morning for its public debut and — wow — this place is a game changer for anyone shopping for quality groceries south of the Trinity. It fulfills the market part of the original Bolsa vision offering Tom Spicer greens, local cheeses, organic meats, house made sausage and pastries, a boutique wine/beer selection, gourmet dry goods, and more. Bolsa Mercado also offers sandwiches, panninis, gourmet to go items, and a first-rate coffee bar. Eventually, chefs Jeff Harris, Matt Balke, and team want to make as much in-house as possible and will offer catering from the market’s enormous kitchen, more than double the size of the tiny one at its sibling restaurant located two doors down. Happily, there’s enough diversity and everyday goods to encourage repeated visits. In fact, I’m already plotting my lunchtime return to try the wild boar tart.

If the “come as you are” wine dinner is a little more your speed, this month The Grape will host second generation winemaker Fernando Frias of Napa Valley’s Frias Family Vineyard and their estate grown, single vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon on December 7th.  As always with The Grape, reservations start at 5:30pm and go until 9pm, you come when you like.  With this guests have an opportunity to have one-on-one discussions with both the winemaker, and owners Chef Brian Luscher and Sommelier/GM Courtney Lusher, while enjoying the tasty pairings.  Reservations – (214) 828-1981

If you prefer to enjoy some of the many artisinal products we have in Dallas in the comfort of your own home without having shop for it, and live in Frisco, Allen and McKinney, Artizone has now expanded their delivery area of their Dallas specialties including Scardello, Empire Baking Company, Hirsch’s Specialty Meats, Rex’s Seafood, Holy Ravioli, La Duni, Dude, Sweet Chocolate, JJ&B – Jams, Jellies and Butters, Busy B’s Market (100% Organic-fed, free-range eggs), and many more, they can even deliver wine from their partner Dallas Fine Wines.  Artizone’s delivery area also includes Dallas, Oak Cliff, Richardson, Plano, Addison, Carrollton, Las Colinas, Farmers Branch, Irving and Coppell.