Category Archives: Steven Doyle

by | October 2, 2026 · 8:22 pm

Never Been to the Opera? Start With The Elixir of Love

Let’s get one thing out of the way. If your idea of opera is a man in a horned helmet singing for four hours about doom, this is not that opera. (Save the Wagner for March, when The Dallas Opera brings in Lohengrin.)

This one is about a lovesick small-town mechanic, a schoolteacher who is a little too smart for him, a swaggering American soldier, a con man peddling fake medicine, and a bottle of cheap red wine that half the village believes is a magic love potion. Nobody dies onstage. Somebody gets tipsy. Everybody goes home happy. If it were a movie, it would star Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, and you’d stop to watch it every time it came on cable.

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by | October 2, 2026 · 2:54 pm

Mantu, Kebabs and Qabili Palao: A Guide to Afghan Food in DFW

Qabili palao

Most Dallas diners can name a favorite Lebanese spot, a go-to Indian buffet and three Persian kebab houses without thinking twice. Afghan food rarely makes the list. That’s a shame, because it’s some of the most generous, comforting cooking in the city, and right now you can find it from Lower Greenville to the Sycamore neighborhood of south Fort Worth.

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by | October 2, 2026 · 1:56 pm

Pat Snuffer, SMU Students and the Story Behind Dallas’ Cheddar Fries

In 1978, Lower Greenville Avenue was not the place it is now. There wasn’t much business on the strip at all. That year, Pat Snuffer opened a small burger joint next to the Granada Theater with one dining room that seated 55 people. What he had in mind was simple: a fun place where SMU students could get a burger and a cold beer.

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by | September 26, 2026 · 2:45 am

Oktoberfests, Idina Menzel and the State Fair: Your Big DFW Weekend Guide

North Texas doesn’t do quiet weekends in late September, and this one might be the busiest of the fall. The State Fair opens Friday. There’s a German festival in McKinney, a Broadway legend at the Meyerson, a honky-tonk headliner at Billy Bob’s, a baseball team that dances between pitches and the Indigo Girls downtown on Sunday night. Here’s how to pace yourself, where to eat and a few tips that’ll save you money and aggravation.

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by | September 25, 2026 · 3:19 pm

Austin’s MML Hospitality Is Coming to Dallas Six Restaurants Deep

Austin’s MML Hospitality spent years eyeing Dallas. Now it’s here, and it has a list.

The company is run by Larry McGuire, Tom Moorman and hotelier Liz Lambert. McGuire and Moorman opened their first Austin restaurant, Lamberts, in 2006. Today MML runs more than 25 properties in Austin, including the Michelin-recommended Jeffrey’s, plus hotels in New York and New Orleans and restaurants in Houston, Aspen and California.

McGuire has laid out the Dallas plan in order. Neighborhood Sushi comes first, then June’s All Day, then Clark’s Oyster Bar, then three Swedish Hill bakeries. That’s six restaurants in under 18 months, and he has said this could be the group’s last big expansion push.

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by | September 25, 2026 · 2:54 pm

French Laundry-Trained Chefs Open Insurgent at the Dallas Farmers Market This Fall

Sam and Gabby Lopez had the résumés for a traditional path. Both trained at The Culinary Institute of America. Both put in time at The French Laundry and Bouchon Bakery. Then they left corporate kitchen jobs in Chicago in January 2022, moved to Sam’s hometown of Denton and opened a food trailer.

They called it Insurgent, and it’s finally getting walls. The husband-and-wife chefs are opening their first permanent restaurant at the Dallas Farmers Market in late October, in the space at 920 S. Harwood St. that last housed Caribbean Cabana.

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by | September 24, 2026 · 2:53 pm

Shady’s Burgers Turns 10 in Lake Highlands, and the Party Runs Through Sunday

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.

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by | September 24, 2026 · 1:08 pm

Isaac Rousso Brings Fair Park’s Old Mill Inn Back to Life

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.

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