Texas Monthly February 2013

Once a year, I sort through my dining notes and come up with a list of my favorite dining spots of roughly the past twelve months. We modestly call the resulting story, traditionally published in February, “Where To Eat Now.” On its face, it is an honor roll of the best and the tastiest new restaurants Texas has to offer. Practically speaking, though, I think of it as:  “I Eat Out So You Don’t Waste Your Money on a Dud.”

This year I made a dozen choices, whereas normally I select only ten. (What can I say—2012 was a very good year.) The types of places covered a lot of territory, from a Vietnamese cafe in Austin to Texas-centric meat palaces in Fort Worth and Houston, and from a French (but not too French) bistro in Dallas to an international vegetable palace in Houston. In between were a seafood restaurant and a number of places that can only be described by the all-encompassing adjective “eclectic.”

The story appears in the February 2013 Texas Monthly, an issue that is special for two reasons: it takes an in-depth look at our state’s six major cities and, not coincidentally, celebrates the fortieth anniversary of the founding of the magazine  (“Happy birthday to us, happy birthd . . . . .  “). If you don’t follow the restaurant scene, “Where To Eat Now” is a quick and easy way to catch up. If you do keep up, you can see whether you agree with me or not.

You can also take a little trip back to the dining scene in Texas circa 1973, when the magazine began publication. The write-up for each city has a quickie overview of the best-known restaurants from that era (raise your hand if you remember the Sir Loin House in Houston, Karam’s in San Antonio, the Carriage House in Fort Worth,  the Capital Oyster Company in Austin, Ewald’s in Dallas, or Casa del Sol in El Paso’s sister city, Juárez, Mexico).

I hope you’re a subscriber, but in case you’re not, here’s a run-down of the restaurants we selected. You can get the full details online at texasmonthly.com or in the magazine, available on newsstands now. To be eligible for “Where To Eat Now,” a restaurant had to have opened between November 1 2011, and November 1, 2012.

AUSTIN: Elizabeth Street Café and Salty Sow (honorable mention to Clark’s Oyster Bar, Lenoir)

DALLAS: Boulevardier, Driftwood, and Oak (honorable mention to FT33, Sissy’s Southern Kitchen and Bar)

EL PASO: Red Mountain Bistro

FORT WORTH: Woodshed Smokehouse

HOUSTON: Oxheart, Roost, Triniti, Underbelly (second locations were not eligible—sorry, Uchi; honorable mention to Lucille’s, Provisions, Sparrow Bar + Cookshop)

SAN ANTONIO: Bliss (honorable mention to Bite, Nao, Sustenio).

Tagged: Bite, Bliss, Boulevardier, Clark's Oyster Bar, Driftwood, Elizabeth Street Cafe, FT 33, Lenoir, Lucille's, Nao, Oak, Oxheart, Provisions, Red Mountain Bistro, Roost, Salty Sow, Sissy's Southern Kitchen and Bar, Sparrow Bar + Cookshop, Sustenio, Triniti, Underbelly, Where To Eat Now, Woodshed Smokehouse

For October, Pat Sharpe selected Boulevardier, a modern French bistro in Dallas, as Pat’s Pick. I spoke with Nathan Tate, executive chef of Boulevardier, about his brand new restaurant, French food, and his favorite dishes on the menu. (In case you haven’t heard, Pat’s Pick for November is Salty Sow in Austin.)

When did you open Boulevardier and what was the inspiration behind it?

We opened about two months ago, so we’re still pretty new. We’ve been in the works for over a year though. My partners and I came together and thought we could fill a niche by doing a French bistro down here in Bishop Arts. There is really nothing quite like it out here. We also wanted to add some modern touches to it and not get stuck in the bistro identity, but that’s not to say we don’t have classic French dishes on our menu. We just didn’t want it to be too boring, honestly.

Nathan Tate. Photo taken by Desiree Espada.

When I think of a bistro, I think of classic, gourmet French food. What you’re doing is pretty casual, right?

Yeah. I take a pretty rustic approach to my cooking. I don’t like to use a lot of microgreens. I don’t plate my food with tweezers. I’m a little more old school. I use a lot of modern techniques, but I like to make food that your grandma would serve you at a Sunday dinner. With that said, there is a lot of prep and technique that goes into our food. It might appear like you’re Grandma made it, but it’s probably going to taste a lot better. [laughs]

Would you tell me a little bit about your background and how you came to French food?

Cooking is in my blood. My mom was a great cook and had a restaurant when she was older, which was a big undertaking for her at the time. My grandma was always a big inspiration in Southern cooking. I went to culinary school in Dallas, but as far as French food, I don’t have a huge French food background. I’ve never worked in a French restaurant, honestly. I’ve always felt like you get out of this business what you put in it, and a lot of what I’ve learned has been through self-teaching, researching, looking in books, and eating at restaurants. The fundamentals of what you learn at culinary school is all French, but to get to that next level I had to embrace self-teaching.

How is the cuisine at Boulevardier unlike any you’ve done before?

We’re going back to rustic cooking. At Ava, our plates are a little more refined and the dining room has white tablecloths. We really wanted to get away from that at Boulevardier. We wanted to serve high-quality food in a relaxed, casual atmosphere. In that way, I think it’s different than any other place I’ve worked at or done before. We’re getting back to the roots of cooking. I don’t want to say we’re going against the whole molecular gastronomy movement, but we definitely knew we didn’t want to go in that direction. That’s not the way I like to eat anymore, and I like to cook the way I like to eat.

What are some of the dishes that are finding a strong following?

Our steak frites is by far our biggest seller. That’s a classic bistro dish, and we cook ours over a wood-burning grill, which adds a lot of character to the beef.  One thing that has surprised me with its popularity is the lamb neck daube, which is a whole lamb neck that’s braised in a classic daube style with lots of aromatics, cinnamon, orange peel, and niçoise olives. For something that could sound a little creepy to most people, it sells really well, and I’m really proud of that. I was hoping that would become one of our signature dishes and it has.

Tagged: Boulevardier, dallas, Layne Lynch, Nathan Tate, October, Pat's Pick