|
|
Post by Ron Howard Voice on Jan 16, 2018 23:46:58 GMT -5
Hey LazBro do you ever get to Irving? Because a new Lao/Thai restaurant called Sapp Sapp is menu-testing a new item: beef rib pho. It's a loaded bowl of pho with the usual meat cuts, meatballs, etc....with a whole beef rib on top. I was interviewing the owner last night and he made up a bowl, not to try to bribe me or whatever, but just to kind of rub it in my face that he had it. And...holy shitballs, dude. It's incredible. They stew the rib separately with a broth with a slightly more complex spice mix, and add it in at the end so that the meat isn't quite tender enough to fall off into the soup and you can pick it up and gnaw on it instead. And um it looks like this. Dallas may never be the same.  |
|
|
|
Post by pairesta on Feb 9, 2018 11:53:46 GMT -5
Time for another episode of "Maybe Pairesta shouldn't have moved":Plano's getting a Middle Easter Grocer (something I complained was always lacking in the area), and a Tapas bar.To put on my Debbie Downer hat, though, I have to think this is a bubble about to burst. I know the demographics have changed considerably just since I moved with Toyota HQ arriving, but even so, i just don't see the bandwidth to support this feeding frenzy. Smoke Plano, the pioneer of this boom, closed. I know at least one Tapas bar that came to the area (granted, a decade ago now) and failed fairly quickly. Is there any word on how these concepts are being received? |
|
|
|
Post by Ron Howard Voice on Feb 9, 2018 16:39:21 GMT -5
Time for another episode of "Maybe Pairesta shouldn't have moved":Plano's getting a Middle Easter Grocer (something I complained was always lacking in the area), and a Tapas bar.To put on my Debbie Downer hat, though, I have to think this is a bubble about to burst. I know the demographics have changed considerably just since I moved with Toyota HQ arriving, but even so, i just don't see the bandwidth to support this feeding frenzy. Smoke Plano, the pioneer of this boom, closed. I know at least one Tapas bar that came to the area (granted, a decade ago now) and failed fairly quickly. Is there any word on how these concepts are being received? Not sure how diners are reacting, but one chef I talked to said that it's amateur hour, with all the new restaurants in a feeding frenzy for the tiny workforce of professional cooks available. They're hiring guys with little to no experience, making kids into managers, and scrambling to hire anyone who can hold a knife. It does not seem sustainable at all. |
|
|
|
Post by pairesta on Feb 10, 2018 10:06:11 GMT -5
Time for another episode of "Maybe Pairesta shouldn't have moved":Plano's getting a Middle Easter Grocer (something I complained was always lacking in the area), and a Tapas bar.To put on my Debbie Downer hat, though, I have to think this is a bubble about to burst. I know the demographics have changed considerably just since I moved with Toyota HQ arriving, but even so, i just don't see the bandwidth to support this feeding frenzy. Smoke Plano, the pioneer of this boom, closed. I know at least one Tapas bar that came to the area (granted, a decade ago now) and failed fairly quickly. Is there any word on how these concepts are being received? Not sure how diners are reacting, but one chef I talked to said that it's amateur hour, with all the new restaurants in a feeding frenzy for the tiny workforce of professional cooks available. They're hiring guys with little to no experience, making kids into managers, and scrambling to hire anyone who can hold a knife. It does not seem sustainable at all. Didn't even think of the shortage of capable people to staff all these places. Sounds like a story idea . . . |
|
|
|
Post by Ron Howard Voice on Mar 19, 2018 10:06:21 GMT -5
Hey LazBro just saw (at the, ahem, St Patrick's Day parade) that Wylie has a brewery called Good Neighbor. Have you tried? To be honest, the website isn't super enticing, but every neighborhood needs a brewery. |
|
LazBro
Prolific Poster 
Posts: 10,278 
|
Post by LazBro on Mar 22, 2018 7:57:59 GMT -5
Hey LazBro just saw (at the, ahem, St Patrick's Day parade) that Wylie has a brewery called Good Neighbor. Have you tried? To be honest, the website isn't super enticing, but every neighborhood needs a brewery. We went to the taproom the week they opened. They seem like nice folk, and I'm happy to have them here in town, but I'm afraid I wasn't very impressed. Their IPA barely qualified for the style, at least according to my over-exposed palate. Malty, barely a hint of hop bitterness. Just not what I'm looking for. The Jackalope stout was not much better. It was ... fine, but it suffered the same failing as most "small" stouts: thin body, lacking in depth. You can now find their blonde and their Irish red in cans in stores around here, but I've never gone for them. They may grow into something great, but for right now they strike me the same as Nine Band out of Allen did: an unambitious local brewery who aren't looking to push any limits and want to brew "basic" beers and styles for the people who like that kind of thing. Good on em, but not for me. (Oh man, you're not joking about the website. Their own beer description for the Irish red gets the name wrong, twice! It's O'Carroll's, not O'Connell's. You can see it on the glass.) |
|
|
|
Post by Ron Howard Voice on Mar 22, 2018 9:02:58 GMT -5
Liking the post but sad about the news. The brewery bubble we're in is crazy. With one for every street corner practically, and so many of them doing the exact same lineup of pils-IPA-stout, it feels untenable for any brand that isn't either super awesome or super different.
|
|
LazBro
Prolific Poster
Posts: 10,278
|
Post by LazBro on Mar 22, 2018 9:13:35 GMT -5
Liking the post but sad about the news. The brewery bubble we're in is crazy. With one for every street corner practically, and so many of them doing the exact same lineup of pils-IPA-stout, it feels untenable for any brand that isn't either super awesome or super different. And my favorite local brewery isn't one of the big names at all but in fact is probably Braindead Brewing. They make a ton of different beers, and they do a lot of creative stuff. You're going to get something different every time you go. |
|
|
|
Post by Jean-Luc Lemur on Mar 22, 2018 12:15:11 GMT -5
While there’s probably a bit of a bubble in breweries (can’t comment on the TX-specific case but certainly that seems to be the case nationally) but I think it might end up in an equilibrium a bit like coffee—in terms of what you can buy in a store you’ll have your giants (e.g. Starbucks) as well as smaller regional/local players which will have an actual presence as places to meet and have drinks, the latter having the highest turnover but also some standard-bearers with staying power.
|
|
LazBro
Prolific Poster
Posts: 10,278
|
Post by LazBro on Mar 26, 2018 15:11:33 GMT -5
A Paula Deen restaurant opened up recently in Fairview, north of Allen. They have a "family-style" option similar to Babe's, only $8 more per person than Babe's. The Mrs. and I had a good laugh and then felt secure in our decision to never go.
|
|
|
|
Post by pairesta on Jul 11, 2018 11:36:39 GMT -5
>checks DFW food news for the first time since March<
Holy shit Blind Butcher (the reason this thread exists!) and FT33 closed?!
|
|
|
|
Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Jul 11, 2018 12:25:44 GMT -5
>checks DFW food news for the first time since March< Holy shit Blind Butcher (the reason this thread exists!) and FT33 closed?! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Now what do I have to look forward to on my next visit to Dallas (possibly next year)? I was psyched to go back to Blind Butcher again! |
|
|
|
Post by pairesta on Jul 1, 2019 9:56:14 GMT -5
|
|
LazBro
Prolific Poster
Posts: 10,278
|
Post by LazBro on Jul 1, 2019 14:37:19 GMT -5
Look on the bright side. Maybe it'll be like Deluca's and just never happen. |
|
|
|
Post by pairesta on Jul 2, 2019 7:17:26 GMT -5
Look on the bright side. Maybe it'll be like Deluca's and just never happen. Oh, that's right! It was supposed to be in Plano even! What ever happened there? |
|
LazBro
Prolific Poster
Posts: 10,278
|
Post by LazBro on Jul 2, 2019 7:27:57 GMT -5
Look on the bright side. Maybe it'll be like Deluca's and just never happen. Oh, that's right! It was supposed to be in Plano even! What ever happened there? According to the company they put a stop on all retail expansion so they could instead focus on their existing locations. www.dallasnews.com/business/retail/2017/10/25/dean-deluca-cancels-plano-plans-morecoming-legacy-westThat Legacy West development is neat. Love the Food Hall. But the whole development is also super busy and high end and just kind of a pain to go to. |
|
|
|
Post by pairesta on Jul 2, 2019 9:14:11 GMT -5
That development is maybe 5 minutes from our old house (which we just saw listed on Zillow for 100k more than we sold it for, grr). |
|
|
|
Post by pairesta on Sept 10, 2019 20:31:02 GMT -5
The Grape is closing. This is our favorite Dallas spot. It is literally as old as I am. I just told my wife and even our daughter wailed in disappointment: it is one of her earliest restaurant memories. On our admittedly rare trips up I45 to our old stomping grounds, this was always a must on our itinerary. Their jet-cold martini with gigantic, garlicky boursin stuffed olives is my favorite cocktail on the planet. No matter how bad things were for me, ordering their charcuterie platter and one of those martinis would put me in my happiest place. 
|
|
