by Steven Doyle
photos by Nick Bostick
The weekend brought to close another successful year of Savor Dallas at the Sheraton Hotel in Dallas. This year had tremendous highlights featuring fantastic wines paired with great chefs at the International Grand Tasting. We saw many familiar faces and a few new entries on the main floor, which actually had more to offer this year in wines, sprits and beers, as well as restaurant participation.
While there were legitimate complaints about long lines at the Wine Stroll, event founder Jim White addressed the issue head on
vowing that this will not be the case next year. We were in attendance and found the lines long, but had no problem maneuvering through the various venues in the Arts District and had a great evening despite the lines.
This is one of the largest events of its kind in Dallas, if not the entire Southwest, and use the function to meet new chefs and taste wines that might otherwise be unavailable. With this in mind, we will be featuring some of the vintners in the coming weeks as well as many of the chefs we met.
Interestingly, we spotted chef Sharon Hage lending a hand to her friends Kyle Stewart and Phil Krampetz from the Cultured Cup. “Sharon has been so good to us over the years, and actually encouraged us early on to open our business,” stated Kyle. It was wonderful to see the former York Street chef and look forward to projects the talented chef may have in mind.
Crossroads Diner was represented by owner Tom Fleming as he encouraged guests to enjoy his own sticky-bun bread pudding French toast. The sweet dish was altogether amazing and sweet and left us wanting more.
Other big stand-outs included Oceanaire Seafood Room’s chef Aaron Valimont and his fried foie mousse ball. The largish-sized ball was intended to be eaten whole to allow the intense flavors to explode – and they did.
We loved Restaurant Ava’s cavatelli that chef Copeland rolled on premises, 
barely keeping up with the crowds demand. The pasta was cooked perfectly al dente with a light creamy sauce.
Look for many of the chefs we met this weekend here on Crave in coming weeks.
I thought the dish from Nobu (sea bass w/ dried miso) was really good. Wasn’t too impressed by any of the wines really. Could do without the dancefloor which apparently inspired drunken old people to open mouthed kisses. The chocolates from Steven Smith and Chocolate Secrets were probably better than they’d been in years past. Restaurant Nicola had the best meatball iirc.
Some day I have to go to this event(s). After it’s over, I always feel like I missed something.
Had a great time Saturday. My only complaint was it ended too soon.
Pingback: A Week of Cravings | cravedfw
Oh!!!!!!!!!! Those fried foie mousse balls were soooooooo delicious!! If only you could get them by the dozen… yum! Woder if Chef Valimont would be willing to consider doing so? We MUST have MORE!!
Pingback: Savor Dallas is Coming March 30-31 | cravedfw