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Post by Ron Howard Voice on Mar 25, 2015 14:04:17 GMT -5
I think Cane Rosso is maybe the best pizza I've had in DFW. I've never bee to Olivella's. This question remains unresolved. I think there is one way to resolve it... |
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Post by Ron Howard Voice on Mar 30, 2015 14:57:30 GMT -5
Hey Snape, since you mentioned FT33, are you a big fan? I promised my friend a night at Gemma for her birthday, but she turned around and reserved with her low-down no-good husband instead. So now I have to come up with a new celebration place.
That cheap vegetarian party ended up being three pizzas at Olivella's. The black truffle pizza is still the best, but chicken/artichoke and "the dream" pizza are up there.
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Mar 30, 2015 15:31:04 GMT -5
Hey Snape, since you mentioned FT33, are you a big fan? I promised my friend a night at Gemma for her birthday, but she turned around and reserved with her low-down no-good husband instead. So now I have to come up with a new celebration place. That cheap vegetarian party ended up being three pizzas at Olivella's. The black truffle pizza is still the best, but chicken/artichoke and "the dream" pizza are up there. I'm afraid I haven't been, bit outside my price range unless we're feeling particularly splurgy. Not to mention the finding a sitter, getting there, etc. The word is very good. Heaps of "best new restaurant" type praise for that place. And I thought of FT33 specifically for the prior question, because I know a couple days a week they do vegetable-themed chef's tasting menu. Nine courses of veggie-intensive awesomeness. (I'm shying away from "vegetarian," because I think some of the courses do have meat in a tertiary role.) |
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Post by pairesta on Mar 31, 2015 4:14:03 GMT -5
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Post by Ron Howard Voice on Apr 2, 2015 11:48:19 GMT -5
Awesome, thanks!
I'm totally destroying my diet this month:
Tonight - Casa Rubia, new tapas joint at Trinity Groves
Tuesday, 4/7 - FT33 for friend's birthday
Thursday, 4/9 - John Tesar's Knife
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Post by pairesta on Apr 7, 2015 12:06:11 GMT -5
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Apr 7, 2015 12:44:16 GMT -5
Awesome, thanks! I'm totally destroying my diet this month: Tonight - Casa Rubia, new tapas joint at Trinity Groves Tuesday, 4/7 - FT33 for friend's birthday Thursday, 4/9 - John Tesar's KnifeOooo, are you going to order one of those 240-day dry aged steaks? Are those even on the menu yet? |
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Post by Ron Howard Voice on Apr 7, 2015 14:01:01 GMT -5
Awesome, thanks! I'm totally destroying my diet this month: Tonight - Casa Rubia, new tapas joint at Trinity Groves Tuesday, 4/7 - FT33 for friend's birthday Thursday, 4/9 - John Tesar's KnifeOooo, are you going to order one of those 240-day dry aged steaks? Are those even on the menu yet? 240-day dry-aged ribeye on the menu for $80/inch. I'm going with a friend who has it on her "bucket list" before moving to California in July. Unfortunately, she's still a grad student, so probably not the 240-day ribeye. We might split the rack of lamb. I wonder what the best sides are... |
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Post by Ron Howard Voice on Apr 13, 2015 14:40:16 GMT -5
Some praise from the Observer for John Tesar's totally redesigned menu over at Oak. Some of his seafood offerings from Spoon found a new home, plus an appetizer of chickpea fries with smoked eggplant dip and a main course that's three different preparations of squash. Next time I have a chance to grab lunch downtown, I might just be trying from-scratch squid ink pasta arrabiata with mussels...
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Apr 13, 2015 14:47:54 GMT -5
... appetizer of chickpea fries with smoked eggplant dip... We've thrown away the pita and are now just scooping our baba ghanoush with the hummus. |
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Post by Ron Howard Voice on Apr 13, 2015 15:39:16 GMT -5
... appetizer of chickpea fries with smoked eggplant dip... We've thrown away the pita and are now just scooping our baba ghanoush with the hummus. The waitress at Knife really leaned on us to order the avocado fries. We didn't, and then they passed by with a fry-basket-full of avocado fries that looked perfectly breaded and golden, and I had a sad. Then my sad went away because meat. |
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Apr 16, 2015 14:21:41 GMT -5
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Post by Ron Howard Voice on Apr 16, 2015 19:46:12 GMT -5
So, so, so jealous. I'm stuck in my pajamas with a nasty cold. |
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Apr 17, 2015 7:29:36 GMT -5
So, so, so jealous. I'm stuck in my pajamas with a nasty cold. Ugh! Sorry to hear that. Hope you get to feeling better soon. |
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Post by Ron Howard Voice on Apr 19, 2015 8:31:30 GMT -5
So, so, so jealous. I'm stuck in my pajamas with a nasty cold. Ugh! Sorry to hear that. Hope you get to feeling better soon. Well, how was the beer?? |
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Apr 19, 2015 8:43:52 GMT -5
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Post by Ron Howard Voice on Apr 22, 2015 16:31:13 GMT -5
- Gino's East will be dishing real Chicago pizza starting April 30, in Arlington near the ballpark.
- My neighborhood is getting a "Tallywhacker's", which is Hooters but with men as the waiters.
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Apr 23, 2015 7:56:49 GMT -5
- My neighborhood is getting a "Tallywhacker's", which is Hooters but with men as the waiters. We eagerly await your full report. |
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Post by MarkInTexas on Apr 23, 2015 10:14:10 GMT -5
Seemingly half my friends have posted articles about that restaurant on FB, since apparently, the GLBT press doesn't have any more pressing issues to report on right now (and this is getting national GLBT press coverage. I can understand the Dallas Voice writing about it, but The Advocate? Really? But I digress...). While I can certainly appreciate the eye candy, it's not like shirtless guys are exactly rare, especially in that neighborhood, and somehow, waiters without shirts seems rather...unhygienic...to me. I'd much rather go check out that Chicago pizza place in Arlington.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 23, 2015 12:09:49 GMT -5
Seemingly half my friends have posted articles about that restaurant on FB, since apparently, the GLBT press doesn't have any more pressing issues to report on right now (and this is getting national GLBT press coverage. I can understand the Dallas Voice writing about it, but The Advocate? Really? But I digress...). While I can certainly appreciate the eye candy, it's not like shirtless guys are exactly rare, especially in that neighborhood, and somehow, waiters without shirts seems rather...unhygienic...to me. I'd much rather go check out that Chicago pizza place in Arlington. This reminds me of a time I was in Dallas with some friends a few years ago and one of the girlfriends in the group made reservations for 10 or so at Cyclone Anaya's on a Saturday night at 8:30 or so. Well, the service there was pretty slow and by the time the entrees got out the...atmosphere...had changed considerably. For us out of towners (and her BF, who had been there with her for lunch frequently) this came as a biiiit of a shock. Kinda weird eating fajitas while a dude in bike shorts and a mesh tank top takes shots standing on a barstool 12 feet away. |
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Post by Ron Howard Voice on Apr 28, 2015 16:02:34 GMT -5
TONIGHT! My friend and I try the Reuben pizza from Zalat Pizza! "Corned beef, salami, sauerkraut, mozzarella, swiss cheese, chives, and
thousand island sauce." That's right. A Reuben pizza.
Their recipe for pho pizza is still tragically in development.
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Post by Ron Howard Voice on Apr 29, 2015 8:14:14 GMT -5
TONIGHT! My friend and I try the Reuben pizza from Zalat Pizza! "Corned beef, salami, sauerkraut, mozzarella, swiss cheese, chives, and thousand island sauce." That's right. A Reuben pizza. Their recipe for pho pizza is still tragically in development. Verdict: f'in' delicious. Same goes for the "crave" pizza (pepperoni, salami, red onion, a ton of black pepper). |
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Apr 29, 2015 8:28:03 GMT -5
TONIGHT! My friend and I try the Reuben pizza from Zalat Pizza! "Corned beef, salami, sauerkraut, mozzarella, swiss cheese, chives, and thousand island sauce." That's right. A Reuben pizza. Their recipe for pho pizza is still tragically in development. Verdict: f'in' delicious. Same goes for the "crave" pizza (pepperoni, salami, red onion, a ton of black pepper). It sounded incredible. Glad to hear it was good. |
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Post by Ron Howard Voice on Apr 29, 2015 16:25:47 GMT -5
A trusted foodie friend tells me that Resto Gastro Bistro, one of the "concepts" at Trinity Groves, is straight-up bizarre. She says the bartenders were so swamped that getting a drink took 20 minutes (her glass of wine arrived too late for the appetizers), and she had to send back a pork belly appetizer that was overcooked into a brick. Apparently they top the pork belly with fried pancetta (?). But she says they do execute the basics well, like crab cakes and pasta - although even in the pasta, the chicken was overcooked.
I'm pretty skeptical of anything that opens in Trinity Groves. Aside from Kate Weiser Chocolates, obviously, because hell yeah.
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on May 1, 2015 8:20:06 GMT -5
Ron Howard Voice MarkInTexasThis Sunday the Snapes will be doing brunch at Smoke in Plano. We're also inviting a couple of our friends, but they have a 95% flake rate. Anyway, it's an open invite if either of you care to join. Kinda pricey, but we've been eager to check out the Plano location. We're fans of the original. Time is TBD and open to suggestion. Probably 10 or 11.
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Post by Ron Howard Voice on May 1, 2015 10:57:10 GMT -5
Have fun! My parents and I will be doing Sunday brunch at Pecan Lodge, so BBQ for brunch solidarity.
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Post by Ron Howard Voice on May 4, 2015 16:21:56 GMT -5
Have fun! My parents and I will be doing Sunday brunch at Pecan Lodge, so BBQ for brunch solidarity. Parental visit was a whirlwind of great food: noodles and dumplings at Royal China, the beef rib at Pecan Lodge (huge, moist, and stealing the scene even from the brisket), but best of all Saturday night on the back porch at Blind Butcher, where my folks were pretty much totally captivated by the duck poutine, brisket sausage, and pig ears. The standout, though, was the brussels sprouts - I could have probably had three bowls of this. I don't know how they do it, aside from dicing the sprouts up before cooking and then using butter. And bacon. Okay so that's how they do it. |
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on May 5, 2015 8:50:35 GMT -5
Smoke in Plano was a big hit as well. It ended up just the two of us, and our sitter started at nine, so we decided to head over right away and maximize our time. Know this: the drinking hour is apparently 10:00 am. To drink any earlier would be irresponsible and ridiculous, or so we gathered after the server plugged their $4 mimosas and then, after we ordered a round, remembered that oh yeah, they can't serve those until 10. Not sure if that's Smoke or the state making that rule. Oh well, it saved us 8 bucks and there's a happy ending which I'll get to in a moment. The food: Brisket cornbread hash with charred rajas. This is the best thing I've eaten in a long time. A smokey griddled brisket "patty" topped a hash of diced potatoes, sweet cornbread nuggets, spices and spicy vinegar sauce, and was itself topped with a creamy poblano cream sauce and poached egg. The brisket, egg and rajas were all good, very good even, but the star by a country mile was the potato-cornbread hash. Deeply, deeply spiced and flavorful, and at once crackly crisp and luxuriously soft. Like I can't even describe it. I think I'm an okay home cook who's eaten a lot of really great food and studied a lot about food, and I have no idea how they made this taste so good. I've found "the one," and now it will be difficult to ever order anything else should I come here for brunch again. Official photo from Smoke:  After we'd chosen Smoke but before we'd consulted a menu, Mrs. Snape let me know that what she wanted was BBQ Eggs Benedict. Muffin, smoked meat, poached egg, hollandaise. Enter the pulled whole hog eggs Benedict with goat cheese potato cakes. As you can tell just by the ingredient list, this was straightforward delicious. Smokey pulled pork, buttery hollandaise, a perfect poached egg. She found the potato cakes dry and lacking goat cheese flavor. I agree about the lack of goat cheese - well actually I agree about the dry, too - but I liked them. I have an affinity for that kind of dry potato thing, I guess, even if they don't hold a candle to Tillman's goat cheese tater tots (which is all she could think of.) Fan photo from Smoke's FB page:  The final thing I want to say about Smoke Plano is that it is one of the prettiest, warmest, most inviting dining rooms I've seen. It exudes an immediate comfort and welcome that makes me want to spend the whole day. Unfortunately I can't find photos that tell the story I want to tell about it, and I can't find any of the beautiful patio.  Oh yeah, the happy ending. So Mrs. Snape's mimosa dreams were dashed, until I remembered that we had a bottle of moscato d'asti in the fridge back home. With Toddler Snape not due back in our lives until 2:00-3:00, we decided to simply finish breakfast, pick up some good fresh squeezed orange juice on the way home, and make our own to enjoy while watching SNL in calm, lackadaisical luxury. Good Sunday! |
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Post by pairesta on May 5, 2015 9:34:34 GMT -5
Awesome. I used to work right across the street from Smoke Plano, when it was a Snuffers, and that was a frequent lunch spot. Weird to recognize so much of it in your photos.
On a side note it irritates me to no end that I worked in that area for 6 years, then when we got bought and moved up to Frisco, suddenly it becomes foodie ground zero at that intersection.
We went to the original Smoke for brunch one time and had the exact same complaint about the BBQ benedict. Also everything was underseasoned.
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on May 5, 2015 10:11:42 GMT -5
Eggs Benedict is my greatest weakness, so you nearly killed me with the thought of BBQ Eggs Benedict. Jesus. It seems that potato cakes would kind of be gilding the lily, but since the report is that they were somewhat lacking, that might be for the best. (I'm pissed we won't be in Dallas for a weekend in October, because I want brunch, dammit!) (This thread is my slow-burn, anticipating-long-in-the-future-vacation food porn thread, just as an aside. I'm taking copious notes.)
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