Trader Vic’sDallas Imagine King Tut’s tomb, but with tikis. After nearly twenty years in mothballs, the Dallas edition of the glamour bar of the Rat Pack era—Trader Vic’s—has been brought back to life. Miracle of miracles, the South Seas paraphernalia that filled the space did not turn to dust
Five of the best museums in the state have cafes designed to tempt the most refined tastes and sophisticated palates. A few have masterpieces on the menu; others are works in progress.
“Everybody goes to RicK’s.” Isn’t that the play they made into Casablanca? The film was on my mind the other night at the Houston enclave that houses the third and grandest incarnation of locally renowned Mexican restaurant Armandos. Conversation and top-shelf margaritas swirled around us, and owner Armando Palacios
When i heard that popular San Antonio restaurant Silo was in the family way, I was excited for the mother-to-be. The modest but excellent dining room in exclusive Alamo Heights had been childless for years, while far less worthy restaurants were reproducing like hamsters. It was high time, I
AUSTIN IS A CITY WHOSE schizophrenic self-image is suspended between its laid-back, small-town, beer-swilling past and its high-speed, big-city, wine-sipping present. That gap can be hard to bridge, and restaurants that open here tend to go for one side or the other. But when chefs and business partners Lou Lambert
IT’S A LITTLE EMBARRASSING to admit this, but I’m a sucker for off-the-wall restaurants. Just say “Tasmanian-Eskimo-Zulu vegan fusion” within earshot of me and I’ll be making reservations in a flash. This strange condition is something that happens if you eat out all the time—you become terminally bored with good,
Well, first and foremost, Dallas, since four of the year’s ten best new restaurants—including the top three—are there. But if you’re hip and hungry in Houston, Austin, or San Antonio, my list won’t disappoint.
NORMALLY I WOULDN’T DO THIS: mention tripe, tongue, and sweetbreads in the first sentence. No, no, no. The very thought of organ meats makes some people woozy. But here’s my point. A chef who makes a cow’s innards appealing—and Will Packwood emphatically does—can make anything else taste great. At two-month-old
Sixty-three of them, to be exact: from picadillo in Dallas and brisket tinga in Houston to carne asada gringa in San Antonio and chorizo-and-jalapeño in McAllen. Be sure you don’t leave this earth without trying each and every one.
You want to send your granny a grapefruit this Christmas? Your bro a brisket? Your pop a pie? We’ve taste-tested more than four hundred foodstuffs that Texas companies will happily ship to your door, and more than forty are first-class.
IT HIT ME THE MINUTE I looked at the press release for Trece, Dallas’s newest Mexican restaurant. There, emblazoned across the first page, were the words “Trece brings ‘Alta Cocina Mexicana’ to Dallas.” Ha, I thought. “Alta cocina mexicana” indeed. No one would ever put the phrase “French haute cuisine”
And Saturday. And Sunday. The arrival of fall means weekends spent watching football, up close and on-screen, and yet another opportunity to love the greatest game on earth for all the usual reasons. Forty-nine of them, in fact.
IN MY 31 YEARS AS A RESTAURANT REVIEWER, I’ve never seen this before: The wives of two of the most famous chefs in Dallas have gotten together and opened their own restaurant. No, they’re not cooking, but they are definitely running the show, and, as might be expected given the
BACK WHEN HOTSHOT Houston chef Lance Fegen was at Zula and Trevisio, there was a whole lotta shaking going on: a lot of food on the plate, a lot of flash in the kitchen, a lot of figures on the check. But that was then and this is now, and
YOU GOTTA GIVE THE POSSE behind Dallas restaurant Tryst credit for one thing: They’re not afraid to go out on a limb (just pray they’re not blithely sawing it off at the same time). Owner Brittney O’Daniel’s first big risk is taking a chance in a still-rather-marginal part
“EXCUSE ME, WAITER. Knowing that life is short, we’d like to eat dessert first. I’ll have the funnel cake, and my friend wants the s’mores. After that, we’ll split the banana split and the fudge brownies. And—wait, we’re not through, come back—bring us some of those PB&J lollipops.”I know, I
Tex-Mex is a true American regional cuisine.
At the Houston Museum of Natural Science, butterflies are free (sort of).
From Brazilian nibbles in Austin to Thai curry in Houston.
IT WAS RIGHT about the time I was tearing into the second hunk of homemade Italian sausage, while simultaneously reaching for the pizza and passing the Gorgonzola, that it hit me: I love Dolce Vita because it’s a shut-up-and-eat kind of place. Yes, it’s owned by Marco Wiles,
Season’s Eatings— Timely treats for your culinary calendar.
Talk about international style. Those sleek cream-colored walls and sexy blond- and-auburn wood floors could be anywhere in the world: New York, London, Tokyo— all of which happen to be among the 26 cities that Bice has colonized since it was founded in Milan, in 1926. So, yes, this Houston
• In Dallas, newcomer Salum has been drawing crowds to its serene white interior (you feel as if you’ve been dropped into a vat of whipped cream—in a good way, of course). Chef and owner Abraham Salum is offering an eclectic Mediterranean menu, from which I’ve quite enjoyed an excellent
AUSTIN Enoteca Vespaio, 1610 S. Congress Ave., 512-441-7672. Open Mon–Sat 8 a.m.–10 p.m., Sun 10–2. Fino, 2905 San Gabriel, 512-474-2905. Open Mon–Thur 11–10, Fri 11–11, Sat 5–11. DALLAS Cafe San Miguel, 1907 N. Henderson Ave., 214-370-9815. Lunch Mon–Sat 11–3, Sun 10–3. Dinner
Our favorite new restaurants of the year—and a few more that almost make the cut.
Last fall, Kim Wallace, of Brenner’s Steakhouse, in Houston, aced her exam to win the first-ever Texas’ Best Sommeliers Award, given by the Texas Sommelier Association. Did you grow up in a family that drank wine? Not really. My grandmother did not drink or smoke, and she would be spinning
When Dallas überchef Stephan Pyles ditched the daily grind in 2000, after selling his Star Canyon restaurants, fans wondered if they’d ever see him again. It’s been more than five years, but he is back, with a splashy new space—including a bar (pictured), where you can also eat—and a
Timely treats for your culinary calendar.
Dallas.
As any pie freak will tell you, it’s all about the crust. And crust purists here in Texas agree that for sheer flakiness and tenderness, you can’t beat the pies at Royer’s cafe, in the Central Texas community of Round Top. If you want to verify this yourself, you can
AustinThe apples in the filling are crisp, the spicing pitch-perfect, the crust reasonably flaky at unpretentious but agreeable Tony’s Southern Comfort, and the restaurant’s smooth, firm sweet-potato pie is equally worthy of a slice. And don’t overlook the peach cobbler, plenty sweet, with cinnamony crusts on top and bottom and
AmarilloDecorated with faux-log-cabin walls and outdoorsman ephemera—“Closed till the fish stop biting” reads a chalkboard near the bar— Montana Mike’s is intended to look like a mountain fishing lodge in the heart of the flatlands. Skip the fish and order the thin-cut grilled chops, which come two to a plate
AustinA near-Platonic meat loaf emerges from the to-go window of Dot’s Place; the beefy slices crumble as you cut into them, melding with the tomatoey topping to form a sort of glorious, Southern-style Bolognese sauce. On Thursdays, meat loaf mavens go to Tony’s Southern Comfort for well-textured slices of this
AustinGreens always have an undercurrent of bitterness—that’s what makes them interesting. The yummy fresh collards at Dot’s Place (presently in temporary quarters and serving to-go only) balance the bitterness with salt. The humble spot’s stewed okra with juicy tomatoes gives that much-maligned vegetable a good name; the seasoning is Southern
AustinThe color is toasty-brown; the light fried batter is crisp and not too thick; the meat inside is tender—what more do you need to know about the admirable CFS at Tony’s Southern Comfort, a family-operated place in East Austin. A spunky and exceptionally crunchy envelope of fried batter surrounds a
Austin Whoa! You don’t get just some stringy bits when you order chicken and dumplings at Dot’s Place; you get whole pieces of baked chicken. The dumplings, somehow fluffy and substantial at once, may be the world’s best use of white flour. The heavenly nutmeg-and-clove-laced mashed sweet potatoes are not
AustinThe moist cornbread muffins at Dot’s Place walk the line between sweet and unsweet, so as not to offend patriots on either side of the great cornbread divide. Just remember the restaurant is serving to-go only these days. At Threadgill’s, the unsweet cornbread muffins have a bit of texture and
AustinTender, with outrageously crisp, well- battered skin, Monday’s bone-in chicken alone is worth a trip to the amenable digs of Tony’s Southern Comfort, where a card table up front displays mouthwatering pies, your reward for the easy task of cleaning your plate. DallasDallas’s well-nigh-mythical Highland Park Cafeteria lives on in
AustinCan mere mashed potatoes be bodacious? If so, the ones at Tony’s Southern Comfort qualify. Whipped to a fare-thee-well, they are anointed with a thinnish, mild cream gravy. The menu calls them “au gratin potatoes,” but the great cheesy, creamy, well-peppered spuds at Arkie’s Grill are more mashed than sliced;
Shelf Life | We read cookbooks so you don’t have to.It’s one thing to have a dream, quite another to keep it alive. To celebrate three decades in business, the founders of Austin’s best-known interior Mexican restaurant have compiled their first cookbook. Fonda San Miguel: Thirty Years of Food and
Take one defunct sandwich shop and strip it down to its architectural skivvies (bare industrial bricks and concrete floor). Add designer elements like found copper lighting fixtures, displays of artisan bread, and Texas mesquite tabletops, and, presto change-o, you have an edgy warehouse setting that has become the place
Best Fests | The month in kolaches.Even if you’ve never eaten a kolache, you’ve surely seen the roadside signs duking it out for the attention of weary travelers barreling down the highways of Central Texas: “Exit now! Get your kolaches here!” “The very best kolaches are here!” Clearly a claim
You have to be either crazy or masochistic to do it—maybe both. But for Lisa and Emmett Fox, owners of the new Austin eatery Fino, the benefits of taking the heat far outweigh those of staying out of the kitchen.
How to make the perfect… Persimmon FlanFew things in the plant world are more mouth-puckeringly bitter than an unripe persimmon—and few things are more gloriously flavorful than a ripe one, which all but melts to a mellow custard inside its glossy orange skin. The season for persimmons begins in August,
Persimmon Puree 1⁄2 cup sugar 1 cone piloncillo (Mexican unrefined brown sugar, available in ethnic markets such as Fiesta) 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1⁄2 stick cinnamon 10 ripe persimmons, unpeeled, stem end cut off flat 1⁄2 cup orange juiceA day ahead, put all ingredients in a large saucepan
Cool QuaffIf any drink is identified with the Fourth of July, it’s lemonade. And the best “lemonade” in Texas comes from famously quirky Houston Mexican restaurant Irma’s. This rustic pink refresher is made from fresh fruit— just about every variety in the universe—and while owner Irma N. Galvan’s exact recipe
It’s the Sistine Chapel wallpaper on the walls and ceiling of the entry that clues you in: “Hip” Riccardi’s is not. The Dallas establishment may be new, but its heart belongs to an earlier time—when restaurants looked like dining rooms, not stage sets; when waiters didn’t try to be
La Barranca Grille, Laredo
Word of Mouth | Tales and tidbits from the pros.In April the 34-year-old chef and co-owner of Uchi, a Japanese restaurant and sushi bar in Austin, was named one of the ten best new chefs of the year by Food & Wine. Is it really that difficult to slice raw
Poor Laredo. Not even its most rabid civic boosters would call it a mecca for fine dining—or at least they wouldn’t have until last October. That’s when La Barranca opened, instantly creating a local venue for big nights out. In charge of the kitchen is 29-year-old native son Alberto Gutierrez,
