This week Malai Kitchen, the Thai-Vietnamese restaurant in Uptown, held the first of their public “Thai Me Up” dinners: Five-course meals with beverages for an affordable $55. I attended as a guest on behalf of SideDish.
When construction began on Malai Kitchen in 2010, I was filled with a mixture of excitement and skepticism. Excitement that I would be living within walking distance of a restaurant serving food from one of the most exciting culinary areas of Asia, but skepticism that they would put out an eatable version. The spot was already jinxed: The previous occupant, Tom Tom Noodle House, did not make it.
Thai-rrific was a North Dallas favorite until it moved to Oak Lawn last year. And since I live around there, I am sure glad it did.
Despite the Cedar Springs address, the restaurant fronts Throckmorton Street. Big windows provide a view of the well-lit dining room and its diners: concrete floor, tables topped with white paper over white clothes and black banquettes, two-tops and four-tops of boys from the hood drinking bottles of wine they brought in themselves.
We were seated at a half banquette/half table set up in a cozy corner and proceeded to fill our bellies.
We started with the pik gai yut, or stuffed wings. Our waitress said it was the house specialty. Essentially it was two large chicken sausages shaped like wings. What I mean by that is that ground chicken was mixed with cilantro, onions, rice, and lemongrass and kind of formed into wing shapes before being roasted and sliced and presented in a brown sauce. Lip-smacking good.
Good lord have mercy on my wicked soul. Chef Matthew “Fingers of TIE Flurry” Antonovich blew back into Dallas a few months ago with a long load of bull. In particular, a stream of wordy releases boasting his 12,000-square-foot Thai Steakhouse and club located “just a drive by the Arts, the American Airlines Event Center, Dallas World Trade Center and Dallas Market.”
First he claimed his concept would be in the most exciting neighborhood in Dallas. Then he hinted it would be near Highland Ranch. WHOOPSIE, he meant Highland Park.
Then POOF! He disappeared. The guy who boasted “God bless the recession I have found great deals on equipment, designers and food service experts hungry to put Dallas back on the map of best restaurants in America” just went away. His Twitter feed went dark. My inquisitive e-mails? Unanswered.
Hark! I found him. According to Louisvillemojo.com:
A new restaurant to be named Antonovich’s Tuscan Grille could open in the old Ferd Grisanti’s restaurant (12112 Taylorsville Road) as early as Derby Eve. If Matthew Antonovich and building owners Greg and Vince Grisanti can seal a deal, the “upscale casual” restaurant would serve freshly prepared Tuscan fare for lunch, dinner and private parties. Its Enoteca Wine Bar, complete with a wood-burning pizza oven, would also serve a social hub for the later-night 40 to 55 year-old crowd. To imagine it properly, Antonovich said to consider an amalgam of Jack’s Lounge, Mama Grisanti and Casa Grisanti.
More, could be here. Oh, what a lunatic.
On Tuesday night, Laura Kostelny and I attended the media dinner for Naga Thai Kitchen & Bar in Victory Park. According to co-owner Jeffrey Yarbrough, he had Nancy to thank for spilling the beans about the restaurant’s opening; people showed up when the staff wasn’t quite ready to serve, but no one was turned away. So much for a soft opening, right?
But things are rocking and rolling these days at Naga, where Yarbrough and partners Tom Chawana (founder of Nandina), Lam Promwanrat (partner in Jasmine), and Kitti Lirtpanaruk (New York restaurateur with 20+ Thai restaurants) are serving some old favorites from the gone-but-definitely-not-forgotten Liberty, such as Annie Wong’s coconut chicken soup and spicy noodles. (more…)