by Steven Doyle
Just a few months after opening his latest venture, Stephan Pyles is already tweaking Stampede 66. The homage to his hometown roots integrates cuisine from across the great state of Texas. Now Pyles is rethinking the idea of so much in one menu.
“My initial intent was to give diners a sampling of Texas foods cut from a broad cloth. In retrospect, I have come to realize the menu is perhaps too broad and tries to encompass too much. Streamlining the menu a bit will help the kitchen focus more intently on each of the items that remain,” said Pyles.
This means making a clearer distinction between courses, including adding an actual appetizer section. This means offering Bocaditos such as chicharrones and pickled egg, deviled egg.
Pyles has actually written the book on tamales and offers up a handful of these beauties such as chicken adobo and mushroom and huitlacoche.
Still on the menu are the classic Texas dishes such as his bowl of red served with house-made ‘freetos’ and smoked chicken and dumplings. There are a slew of tacos, some very interesting like the sweetbreads or the fried oyster. For the more finicky there is always the brisket taco or a by-catch fish taco that changes with each delivery of fresh fish to the restaurant.
The restaurant fills a gap that Dallas has been missing for some time now. This is definitely a destination for our beloved tourists. They now have an alternative to the big steakhouses that dot our restaurant horizon, but Pyles does offer the big bone-in rib eye steak he made famous at most of his restaurants. Along with the big and bigger menu items find honey fried chicken, barbecue brisket and potato salad, and a coffee cured short rib dish.
Pyles has also given the deserts a bit of an overhaul. “I was trying to reflect the sampling of desserts in my family’s truck stop café, for which the restaurant is named (Phillips’s 66). My mother made the pies, cakes and occasional cobbler when peaches were in season. To keep with tradition, I’ve added a dynamite banana bread pudding, a coconut layer cake and my grandmother’s warm apple spice cake that was on the menu of my first restaurant, Routh Street Café,” said Pyles.
Look for his latest restaurant, Sky Canyon, opening in April at Love Field Airport. Later in the Spring a DFW Airport version will debut.
Stampede 66 | 1717 McKinney Ave Ste 100, Dallas | 214-550-6966
