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Articles about Restaurant 101

Uptown Borders is Turning into Max’s Wine Dive

image from dallasuptownguide.com

After Borders went bankrupt, we all began to speculate what would happen with the empty Uptown storefront on 3600 McKinney. Now that 4,200 square ft. space will serve fried chicken and Kobe beef burgers at Max’s Wine Dive, a restaurant with locations in Houston, Austin, and San Antonio. Owner Jerry Lasco has spent a good three years looking for the right spot in Dallas, and apparently this is the one. Was it love at first sight? (more…)

Grand Reopening: Place at Perry’s

Ahi tuna nachos with red chili and wasabi paste (photos by Jason Acton)

The old Place at Perry’s (from what I’ve heard) was dark and stuffy. No windows. No light. After three months of shutting down its entire operation, the Place at Perry’s has now reopened in a new location at 2680 Cedar Springs Road. Same owner, same chef Jaime Corona, but a completely new staff and vibe. The new building is swanky, hip, and modern. And it’s definitely worth checking out.

Jump for pretty pictures by Jason Acton. (more…)

Adam Bazaldua, ex-chef of 303 Bar & Grill, moves on to Stephan Pyles

Teresa Gubbins reported this morning that 303 Bar & Grill’s old chef, Adam Bazaldua, has moved on to bigger and better things (aka Stephan Pyles’ kitchen) after announcing his departure via Facebook. After all the drama that happened between Bazaldua and bar mogul Frankie Carabetta, we’re wishing Adam the best of luck on his new job. It also looks like the new guy, Chef Chad Starling, is already revamping 303’s menu.

Too bad Eater’s hottest chef contest is over, because I’m pretty sure Chad Starling could’ve won based on looks alone. This guy’s a looker!

Signage Ho! at Tim Love’s Woodshed Smokehouse

Tim Love's new Woodshed.

I swiped this photo off chef Tim Love’s own Twitter feed; I doubt he’ll mind. He’s laid back like that.

Word on the street is that, in his new Woodshed smokehouse on Riverfront Drive in Fort Worth, he’ll be serving six to eight meats per day and have more than 30 beers on tap. We hear that wild boar and banh mi will feature prominently on the menu.

Back in August, June Naylor over at dfw.com talked about it here. At the risk of beating Tim’s horse to death (note: we can guarantee that horse, dead or otherwise, will NOT be on the menu), let us just say that we are excited to see how it all smokes out.

Death, Taxes, and Senate Bill 1: Texas Legislative Restaurant Update

Sevy’s co-owner Amy Severson makes this claim: “A full-service, lunch-and-dinner- liquor-serving business generates more taxes per-square-foot than most industries.” Below she wonders why the Texas State Legislature continues to penalize small to mid-sized restaurant owners. Hear her roar.

Imagine if you were sitting down for coffee with Uncle Sam, and the conversation started like this:

Uncle Sam: “Hey, we’re having a little budget problem and we’re going to collect your next month’s taxes out of your next paycheck.”

You: “But I might not have a job next month, and this month I have a mortgage that needs to be paid, utilities, car payment, kids in college [the list goes on]. How can I pay you ahead of time if I haven’t earned the money yet?”

Uncle Sam: “Whatever.”

Certainly this scene would not be appetizing to any taxpayer – individual or business – especially in a state that touts its tax friendliness. So it was a surprise to read in the 2011 Legislative Update issued by Susan Combs Comptroller of Public Accounts, that the State of Texas has cooked their books with a recipe for disaster for small restaurants. They’ve added Senate Bill 1, an “advance tax payment” plan to balance their biannual budget.  This follows a revised state franchise tax that burdens restaurants with a very high effective-net-income rate. They are literally trying to kill us.

Gory details below.

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Tim Love’s New Woodshed Smokehouse Opening Soon

Hunk on the range, Tim Love, is poised to open Woodshed Smokehouse over near the zoo in Fort Worth. Bud Kennedy over at The Star Telegram has the skinny.
Launch window: late October.
Menu: six to eight meats per day.
Beers: 30, on tap.
Check out his coverage here.

Patrick Colombo Opens Princi Italia in Preston Royal Village Tomorrow

Patrick Colombo has been in the restaurant business for nearly three decades. He spent nine years as senior vice president and co-founder of the 21-store national Italian restaurant, Sfuzzi, Inc.; he was executive director of food & beverage operations at Mansion on Turtle Creek Hotel; and he co-founded Nick & Sam’s, and is currently president and CEO of Restaurant Works, Inc., the hospitality management company that developed Cru, Ferre Ristorante e Bar, Victory Tavern City Grille and Steel Restaurant & Lounge.

So when the Colombo family took a culinary tour of Italy, eating their way through Venice, Tuscany, Florence and the Amalfi Coast, Colombo was inspired to bring another Tuscan dining operation to Dallas.

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First-Take Review: Meso Maya Rocks Preston Forest With Regional Mexican Moxie

Meso Maya's foyer (left) and strawberry & serrano margarita (right) (All photos courtesy of Meso Maya)

What to expect: Meso Maya, the self-labeled “simple modern Mexican food” restaurant that opened in Preston Forest Shopping Center last week has success writ large from the kitchen to the curb. First, chef Nico Sanchez (The Porch, Hibiscus), whom owner Mike Karns (president of El Fenix) lured away from the Consilient Restaurant Group, is heading up the kitchen. Second, the management team is being wrangled, in part, by the lovely MCrowd veteran, Elizabeth Ruiz. Third, the menu is packed with abundant deliciousness from the fresh margaritas, to the guacamole, to the house-specialty budin Azteca.

We visited (undercover) last week and are still talking about it today. Here’s the scoop:

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Remembering the Man Behind the Restaurants: Marcello Rosen

Today on our RealPoints Commercial Real Estate blog, commercial real estate guru (and all-around spectacular human being and one of my favorite people to go out to dinner with) Bob Young, managing director of The Weitzman Group, offers a fond reminiscence of the late Marcello Rosen, the broker behind many of Dallas’ beloved restaurants.

Bob Young: Remembering Marcello Rosen

On Tues., July 19, my family (wife Paula, daughter Lacey, son Christopher, and his fiancee, Katie) and I celebrated Paula’s birthday at our favorite restaurant, Toulouse. We arrived to find that our requested table was occupied by none other than restaurateur Alberto Lombardi and several of his family members and friends—including his go-to real estate broker, Marcello Rosen.

As the table transitioned to us, we exchanged warm hellos with Alberto and Marcello.

Less than a month later, on Fri., August 12, my son and I attended a memorial service for Marcello, who had lost a courageous battle with cancer. Christopher (who’s also a fellow Weitzman broker) and I were both struck by the frailty and sanctity of life—and the loss of a true real estate professional and a valued business friend.

The service was attended by hundreds of Marcello’s friends and family, including Dallas restaurateurs Avner and Celeste Samuel (NOSH), Alberto and Vivian Lombardi (La Fiorentina, Cibus), Taco and Duni Borga (La Duni), and Brian and Courtney Luscher (The Grape)—as well as restaurant brokers Dennis Leibovitz, Steve Williamson, Jack Gosnell, Alan Mann, Nelson Billups, and many others —all there to pay respects to a well-liked player in our business.

Marcello lived a fascinating life and was a successful retailer in his own right (as co-founder of the Pea in a Pod chain) before switching over to the commercial real estate arena, focusing on restaurant development and site selection. Most recently he was senior vice president at Dunhill Partners.

As tough as it was to realize the loss of Marcello, I was comforted by the sense of community of our commercial real estate industry. On my next visit to Toulouse, La Duni, Nosh, or The Grape, I will raise my glass and toast Marcello, a true professional and a friend.

Bob Young is managing director of The Weitzman Group. Contact him at byoung@weitzmangroup.com.

Tiffany Derry Gives Video Tour of Private Social Construction Site

Thanks to Teresa Gubbins for tipping us off to this Private Social construction preview video from Tiffany Derry:

Café Momentum’s Inaugural Pop-Up Dinner at Milestone Culinary Features Chef Jeffery Hobbs and a Cast of Aspiring Chefs

Table settings (left) and prepped shrimp and veggies (right). Photos by Sarah Reiss.

File this one under the heading: good people doing a pretty great thing. Last night, Chefs Chad Houser (you may remember him from his recent adventures in Eating Lebanon) and Janice Provost of Parigi, supported by an armada of well-intentioned chefs, foodies, and community organizers, opened doors on the first pop-up incarnation of Café Momentum, a nonprofit restaurant concept that will serve as a culinary training facility for disadvantaged young men from Dallas County Youth Village (DCYV is a facility dedicated to helping juvenile offenders, ages 10 to 17, reach their law-abiding potential and divert them from further involvement with the juvenile justice system or progression to greater offenses by putting positive outcomes within their reach).

The aspiring chefs will train alongside some of Dallas finest chefs, who will rotate for monthly stints as chef-in-residence. Last night’s inaugural guest chef, Jeffery Hobbs (Celebration, Riviera, Toscana, Hotel St. Germain, Il Sole, and, oh yeah, Suze) presided over a menu that utilized fresh-off-the-farm ingredients. We’re hoping that July’s guest chef, Randall Copeland of Ava, will feature his own awesome biscuits somewhere in the menu.

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First-Take Review: John Tesar’s The Commissary in One Arts Plaza. It’s All About the Tots.

The Farmer (left) and The Rib (right), just two of the options on the Burger Bar section of The Commissary's menu. (photos by Desirée Espada)

The Commissary, Chef John Tesar’s indoor-outdoor burger & bites venue in One Arts Plaza has been packed since day one. Reasonably so. The restaurant, which specializes in daring combinations of ingredients (burgers made from braised pig’s tail, pork, and beef) and new approaches to old standards (avocado fries), is to summertime what the swallow is to spring—a harbinger of good things to come.

(Writer’s note: To be clear, this review of The Commissary was done incognito. We paid for everything we ate, and no preferential treatment was given. My later visit to The Table, which is mentioned as a “nice detail” toward the end of this article, was part of an invitation dinner and was hosted after the review process was complete. While I mention The Table in this review of The Commissary, it is added as an aside and is not reviewed herein. We apologize for any confusion or underrepresentation of the tots.)

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Somebody Help This Poor Boss Out By Building the Perfect Eating Day

Here’s an email I received this afternoon. Let’s help this guy out:

Hi D folks. I see that people send you questions, so I thought I’d give it a try. I’m trying to hire this guy from another city.  The company is flying him in for a final interview next week. I know he has other offers, so I want to sweeten the deal by showing him that Dallas has restaurants that will blow his mind. Problem is, we only get one breakfast, one lunch and one dinner with him before he flies out again. Where should we take him? It doesn’t need to be fancy. But it should make him say WOW! Even if it’s a taco joint. I want to show him what we do best. The office is pretty centrally located in town, so no neighborhood is off limits. Any ideas?

I love this question. Build your perfect eating day.

John Tesar’s The Commissary Hosts Industry Preview

The One Arts Plaza patio of The Commissary. (Photo by Desirée Espada.)

The local chef groupies’ tongues are wagging so vigorously today that we can feel the breeze up here on the 21st floor. I, like they, attended the industry preview of The Commissary last night. Facebook and blogger reviews are already slathering on praise. Imagine what they’ll say when it actually opens.

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First Take Restaurant Review: Malai Kitchen in Uptown’s West Village

Malai Kitchen patio (left), Vang Vieng cocktail. (Photos by Desirée Espada.)

The set-up: As a culture, we seem to enjoy watching people fail far more than we like to see them succeed. In fact, in my line of work, it’s harder to really like something than it is to dislike or even revile it. The truth is that readers don’t trust a rave unless there’s a catch. Lucky for me, I have a lot of the former and enough of the latter for even the cynics to know I’m telling the truth.

A good number of people I’ve talked to have avoided Malai Kitchen in West Village because of some lingering association with the space’s former tenant, Tom Tom Noodle. Not having to battle against this particular preconception, I visited twice in the last week, once for dinner and once for cocktails.

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Sadly, Restaurant Veteran Vijay Sadhu’s Solo Voyage Founders in Plano

The interior of Vijay Sadhu's Sutra in Plano's Shops at Legacy.

We want Vijay Sadhu’s Sutra to succeed; really, we do. We were big fans of his work at Samar, at Clay Pit, and, before that, at Bukhara Grille. For this new venture, leaks about his Goan inspiration and his vision for a Portuguese-Indian fusion have had the blogs buzzing for months. That being the case, it pains us to write what must be written about our experience there this week.

click here to read the whole First Take review…

You Should Eat at Crossroads Diner

Nearly every morning on the way to work, I drive past Crossroads Diner, which I’ve been meaning to visit ever since I read Nancy’s review of the place. This morning, I finally stopped in. And I’m glad I did.

What you see here is a three-egg frittata made with roasted red peppers, goat cheese, and chorizo ($8.95). On the left, that’s hash browns. On the right, if you look closely, you’ll see whole wheat toast. In the near distance, just beyond the whole wheat toast, you can probably make out a cup of coffee ($2.75). All of the forgoing went into my mouth and, from there, into my belly. About that experience I have this to say: I will do it again.

The frittata was fluffy. The eggs were perfectly cooked — firm without being rubbery. The rich, creamy goat cheese worked well with the savory chorizo, which sat in big, satisfying chunks rather tiny rabbit-dropping-size pellets. It’s hard to screw up hash browns; they didn’t.

I have three complaints. (more…)

CuriousDish: Date Averaging and Restaurant Pairing

Long ago, a friend of mine then in his mid-30s detailed his approach to dating. On a first date he would take a woman out for drinks, proceed to a Dallas Stars game, and end the evening with a lovely wine-infused dinner.  He admitted he threw down almost $600. Mark had a lot of first dates.

I was stunned. “How in the world do you afford that,” I asked.  Mark explained his idea which he called date averaging.  The first date would be a grand, expensive evening at one of Dallas’ top restaurants.  For the second and third date, he would scale back to a cool, hip dive.

Are you a date averager? If so, let’s consider Restaurant Pairing. Which two restaurants would you match for such a first and second date?  I’ll offer up the first pairing: The French Room  followed by Louie’s. Now, let’s  hear yours.

CuriousDish: Love of Stephan Pyles’ Restaurants in Dallas

Heaven and Hell cake at Stephan Pyles. Photography by Kevin Marple.

Have you ever known a Stephan Pyles restaurant that you didn’t love?  In a recent post– Which Dallas Restaurant Would you Revive?–Dishers showed lots of love for Chef Pyles’ concepts.

First we loved Routh Street.  The Baby Routh, the restaurant that signaled the uber-upscale Routh Street wasn’t going to play well in the early 90s recession.  Star Canyon, with its brilliant in its food, energy, and design came along in the mid-90s.  I admit I didn’t quite get AquaKnox in the late ’90s but recently Chef Pyles is delighting Dallas with Stephan Pyles, Samar by Stephan Pyles, and Fuego at Stephan Pyles.

Which one is your favorite? Have you “had” them all?  Tell us.

Brackets in The Palomar—Should A Restaurant Marry A Sports Bar?

Scallops, shrimp, and darn good grits. photography by Sarah Reiss.

Brackets stands as a testament to the vast gulf between aspiration and execution. The aspiration is to blend clubhouse and culinary experiences into a new seamless hybrid. The execution of this hybrid feels…

Read the whole Brackets First Take review here…