The State Fair of Texas runs September 25 through October 18 this year, and if you live here, it’s easy to treat it like an errand: drive in, eat a corny dog, drive home. But a fair weekend deserves better than that. Turn it into an actual staycation, and the whole thing changes shape. You get a night away from your own kitchen, a dinner worth dressing up for, and a full day at Fair Park with nowhere else to be.
Here’s how to build the weekend.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
Burrito Bellas just opened on McKinney Avenue, and it’s doing something Uptown hasn’t quite seen before: putting Mexican and Italian food in the same burrito instead of picking a lane.
Shawn Horne is behind it, a longtime figure in Dallas dining with a resume that runs through Star Canyon, Aquaknox, and the Green Room. The idea is straightforward once you hear it. Take the comfort of a burrito and build it around the flavors of a classic Italian dish instead of the usual fillings. That gets you a chicken parmesan burrito, a sausage and pepper burrito, and a spaghetti and meatball version wrapped in a tortilla instead of served on a plate, alongside more traditional burritos and quesadillas for anyone who wants to keep it simple.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
Élephante opens its doors in Uptown Dallas on September 1, and the whole idea behind it traces back to a rock. Back in the summer of 2014, Wish You Were Here Group founder Nicholas Mathers was traveling through Pantelleria, a small volcanic island off the coast of Sicily, when he came across a natural stone formation called the Arco dell’Elefante, a shape carved by wind and water that stretches out into the sea like an elephant reaching for a drink.
That image stuck with him. It became the name, and more than that, it became the whole feeling the restaurant has spent years trying to bottle: long afternoons, unhurried food, the particular kind of ease that only shows up when nobody’s checking a watch.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
The State Fair of Texas has been chipping away at the idea that a day at Fair Park has to wear out your wallet before it wears out your feet, and this year it’s making that official. Building on the reduced admission and parking pricing announced earlier this summer, the Fair just rolled out Every Day Values, presented by State Farm, a new program built entirely around showing Fairgoers where the deals actually are.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
A new name just showed up in Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission filings, and it’s worth watching. On August 6, an entity called TPR Dallas, LLC filed for a distiller’s permit under the name The Private Rickhouse, listing an address of 2817 and 2825 Canton Street in Deep Ellum.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
Al Biernat’s is finally doing something it hasn’t done in almost thirty years: crossing over into Fort Worth. The Dallas steakhouse just signed a lease on a building at 913 Houston St., across from the Flat Iron Building and directly opposite where the city’s new Convention Center ballroom is going up. It’ll be the restaurant’s third location, and its first outside Dallas proper.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
Downtown Dallas has never had much in the way of Indian food, and if you’ve noticed that too, you’re not imagining it. Most of the city’s best options sit out in Irving, Plano, Richardson, and Frisco, which makes sense given where a lot of Dallas’s Indian community has settled, but it’s always meant a drive if you wanted a proper curry after work. Gymkhana just changed that math.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
Oak & Stone is getting into the Oktoberfest spirit a little early this year, and it’s doing it with beer cheese in nearly everything. Starting September 15 and running through October 31, the McKinney restaurant is rolling out a limited-time menu built around Bavarian classics with an Oak & Stone twist, which mostly means finding new ways to work Shiner Bock and beer cheese into the lineup.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
