by Andrew Chalk
August Briggs Winery and wine make Jesse Inman come to Abacus on Tuesday 21st. August Briggs Winery is an employee-owned winery in Napa Valley dedicated to producing very limited quantities of great wines from carefully selected vineyards across Napa and Sonoma counties. Continue reading
Filed under Andrew Chalk, Wine
by Andrew Chalk
Sunday night the Dallas Cowboys set themselves a target of raising $200,000 for the North Texas Food Bank (NTFB). An important goal, as the NTFB is $600,000 short of their annual target and the fiscal year ends in June. To get to the target, the Cowboys held the Ultimate Cowboys Tailgate Party.
At an event emceed by Dallas Cowboys DeMarcus Ware and Jason Hatcher alongside former players Preston Pearson, Chad Hennings and Daryl Johnston, guests got the chance to bid in a live auction for such things as wine country luxury getaways, chefs tasting meals for 10 at Abacus, lunch with “Christopher Ewing” (Jesse Metcalfe) and a pit pass and suite at three races at North Texas Motor Speedway. Supplementing the live auction was a silent auction with dozens of lots including Cowboys memorabilia, meals at local restaurants, wines and spirits. Continue reading
Filed under North Texas Food Bank
by Steven Doyle
Kent Rathbun never does anything half way, it is truly one of those ‘go big or go home’ moments when dining at any of the chef’s restaurants. This certainly holds true to Rathbun’s Blue Plate located in Dallas restaurant epicenter Preston Center located near Northwest Highway on Preston.
Just over a year ago Rathbun promoted Jennifer Newbold to command the kitchen at Blue Plate and she has been knocking out home runs each night. Each night during the week Newbold is plating up special dishes that has the neighborhood in a frenzy. Monday night’s enjoy BBQ which is actually a Rathbun family favorite that dates back to his childhood. The BBQ at Rathbun’s some of the city’s finest. Continue reading
Filed under Brunch, chefs, Steven Doyle, Sunday Brunch
by Steven Doyle
Last night Chef Kent Rathbun of Abacus fame played the venerable host to a special dinner where he gathered several large tables of media types to show off his latest Fall/ Winter menu. He also wanted to officially announce his new Chef de Cuisine, Daniel Burr, a long time Rathbun employee who has been bouncing around various Rathbun concepts, only to land at the flagship Abacus as top toque.
Rathbun explained each dish as it arrived and paid special attention to the first course, a few pieces of sushi packed with flavor. Rathbun mentioned that in the beginning days of Abacus he rolled the sushi himself, and it wasn’t until much later when he hired sushi wunderkind Elvis, now at Tracy Rathbun’s Shinsei, did he finally relinquish that roll to one far more experienced. Continue reading
Filed under Kent Rathbun, restaurant news, Steven Doyle
by Steven Doyle
It’s that tine of year when you start maing your naughty and nice list up for holiday gifiting and we have come up with a simple way to take care of everyone on the nice side. Our short list has a few of our favorite notions and local gourmet items that will fit a budget of any size. Check out our 2012 holiday gift list. Continue reading
Filed under Crave, Holiday Gift Guide
by Steven Doyle
Living in Dallas we run into bigger-than-life Kent Rathbun quite a bit. The chef owns plenty of restaurants in Texas and does so much for our community, especially the big March of Dimes gala, Signature Chefs which took place last week. The 2012 Signature Chefs Auction Dallas raised $610,000 for March of Dimes. Rathbun personally put together a package that excited the jaunty crowd and included a private jet which will whisk away a group for a VIP weekend at the Kentucky Derby. Rathbun raised over $60,000 with this addition.
This was Rathbun’s 15th year to host Signature Chefs, and it was an amazing evening. Event organizers thought it would be fun to fly in Kent’s brother, Kevin Rathbun for a little surprise visit and to help out in the kitchen. Kevin runs his own culinary empire in Atlanta, and also worked with his brother to defeat Bobby Flay on Top Chef America.
I was able to corral Kevin for a spirited conversation. It went something like this: Continue reading
Filed under Chef Interview, chefs, Steven Doyle
