Shady’s Burgers & Brewhaha started with five neighbors, a backyard fire pit and a few beers.
That was 2012, in the Canyon Creek neighborhood of Richardson. Greg Cooney, Don Bouvier, Anthony Bolner, Dave Swiney and Steve Gumbert were sitting around Bolner’s fire pit talking about what the neighborhood was missing. What they landed on was a place with good burgers, cold beer and a patio where families could hang out on a weeknight. None of them had ever run a restaurant.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
The paddlewheel is turning again at Fair Park.
If you grew up going to the State Fair, you know the Old Mill Inn by sight. It’s the timber-and-stone building on Grand Avenue with the big water wheel out front. After the pandemic it went dark and stayed that way for years. This fair season it’s open again as a full-service restaurant and bar, and when the gates open on Friday, September 25, it will be feeding anyone who needs a break from the Midway.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
National Coffee Day lands on Tuesday, September 29, and the chains will spend it handing out free cups with an app download. Fine. Take the freebie if it’s on your way. Then spend the rest of the week somewhere that roasts its own beans, knows the regulars by their order, and has a story behind the counter.
Dallas and Fort Worth have plenty of those now, which was not always true. A few regulars have already had their own day on these pages, including Noble Coyote in Expo Park and Ascension. Here are six more shops worth a detour this week, split between both sides of the Metroplex.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
Back in the early ’90s, the best thing at Mia’s Tex-Mex wasn’t on the menu. You had to know to ask for it, you had to come on a Wednesday, and you had to get there before it ran out.
Today it has a name, Butch’s Original Brisket Tacos, and it’s the dish Mia’s is known for all over Dallas.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
Plenty of people who live in Frisco have never walked its Main Street. The city spread north and west so fast that the original townsite, the handful of blocks around the railroad tracks now known as the Frisco Rail District, can feel like something only the old-timers know about.
A lot of those old-timers eat at The Depot Cafe.
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The tuba gets there first. Somewhere under a striped tent on Marktplatz, an oompah band finds its footing, and the sound rolls down Main Street past the limestone storefronts. By the time you reach the gate, the air smells like grilled sausage, and a few hundred strangers are getting ready to do the chicken dance together without a trace of embarrassment.
That is Oktoberfest in Fredericksburg, and this year it runs October 2 through 4.
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Somewhere between the second mimosa and the whole grilled fish, Uptown Dallas starts to feel a long way off. Sunlight fills the glass walls of Avra’s Conservatory, plants hang overhead, and at the next table somebody is working through a tower of oysters at 12:30 on a Sunday without a trace of guilt.
Welcome to weekend brunch at Avra Estiatorio.
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Negroni Week runs through Sunday, Sept. 27, and there’s no rule saying you have to make the classic. Gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth in equal parts is a perfect drink. It’s also a great starting point for playing around.
Waterloo Gin has two Texas-leaning versions worth trying at home this week.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
