by Steven Doyle
For those of us that live in the culinary world, this is one mother of all weekends. There are plenty of opportunities to sip, savor and otherwise endeavor new openings and foodie moments abound. Let’s highlight a few things you should be aware of going into the weekend.
Restaurant Week I am sure all our readers have put in their reservations for Restaurant Week, which officially runs from August 12-18, but this is PREVIEW WEEK. So diners have more chances to grab a great lunch or dinner at a special low price beginning at $25. We are really curious where craveDFW diners made their reservations.
Trader Joes One of the more anticipated openings of the season, Trader Joes makes it grand opening appearance today on Greenville Avenue. For an area bereft of decent groceries the Trader Joes is a welcome addition to Lowest Greenville. Now you can load up on all the Two Buck Chuck you can swig on a Friday night. No need to worry about screaming neighbors telling you how to live your life.
Alamo Drafthouse It sort of snuck up on us, and how we have been waiting for our favorite Austin born theater to finally open. There are plenty of opening activities throughout the weekend, but just be sure to leave your cells phone in the purse lest you be watching all the fun curbside.
SausageFest 2013 The giant meat-filled extravaganza is Saturday and starts a 4pm in Main Street garden Park downtown Dallas. You will have plenty of opportunities to get your sausage fix (there are far too many things we could say here but spare you the groans) and we will just leave it at that.
Hatch Chile Season This is more like Christmas to us that, well, Christmas. All the superb grocers are roasted chiles live and in front of their stores to entice you to purchase at least a few pounds to add to everything from your backyard grilled burgers, to those inglorious sauces you have been chatting about all year. Buy a few cases and freeze!
Design District Market Go crazy and sift through the offerings at this fun market located in the Design District at the Dallas Contemporary. The market is both indoors and outdoors offering free drinks, food and shopping with the first-ever dumpster pool, dozens of local vendors, plenty of beer and wine, and plenty of live music.
Hoffman Hots The Trinity Groves hotdoggery is hosting a dog costume contest on Sunday from 2 to 4pm. This caps off a week designed to bring awareness to the dangers of leaving dogs in hot cars. Check in on Facebook and show your phone to the cashier and 20 percent of the purchase price will go to the SPCA of Texas.
Jasper’s Kent Rathbun is hosting a Chopped watching party at Jasper’s in Plano this weekend. This is where he and brother Kevin go toque to toque against another pair of brotherly chefs in a battle where their favorite charity wins 10 grand. It is a Food Network thing. We think craveDFW is Kent’s favorite charity, but we will see after he wins the contest. Starts at 6:30pm.
