Tag Archives: Chef

Everything Worth Eating at the Dallas Farmers Market Right Now

The Dallas Farmers Market has been at 920 South Harwood Street since 1941, which makes it older than most of the buildings around it and considerably more interesting than any of them. It is two things at once — a 26,000-square-foot indoor food hall called The Market, open every day of the week, and an outdoor pavilion called The Shed where regional farmers, ranchers, and food artisans set up on Saturdays and Sundays. Most people know one or the other. The ones who know both tend to spend their Saturday mornings there like it is a standing appointment.

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Brunch This Weekend at Frenchie, Ooh LaLa

Stephan Courseau and Daniele Garcia have been building French restaurants in Dallas since 2013. They are both French. They have both been here long enough to become something else — not exactly American, not exactly the version of themselves that landed in Texas over a decade ago, but something in between. Frenchie is them trying to put that feeling on a plate.

“Frenchie is an American French restaurant made by French guys who are now in the American mainstream,” Courseau said when it opened. “It represents the version of the French people we are today.” That is the kind of thing that sounds like marketing until you eat there and realize it is just true.

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This East Dallas Restaurant is Better Than It Has Ever Been

Urbano Cafe should not still be open. Mitch and Kristen Kauffman founded it in 2009 in the century-old building on Fitzhugh that also houses Jimmy’s Food Store, ran it for 15 years, and decided they were done. The announcement went out, the regulars grieved, and that should have been the end of it.

Then Sina and Pasha Heidari made one phone call and one demand. The demand was non-negotiable: every employee stays. Chef Oseas Lopez, in that kitchen since 2011. General manager Kevan LaTorre, there since 2011. The whole staff. We covered the sale when it happened in early 2024. What we did not know then was how good the next chapter was going to be.

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The Meltdown Margarita Has Followed Eddie Cervantes to Every Restaurant He Has Ever Opened

Eddie Cervantes has been feeding Dallas Tex-Mex since 1981. He opened Primo’s Bar & Grill on McKinney Avenue in 1986 and built it into one of the most loved Tex-Mex cantinas the city has ever had — where locals, chefs, and the occasional celebrity would end up on a Tuesday night over meltdown margaritas and a bowl of queso that nobody wanted to stop eating. Primo’s ran for years. People still bring it up.

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Swamp Cafe Brings Authentic Cajun Joy

blue crab and crawfish

David Cui was born in Shanghai. He spent 28 years cooking Cajun food in New Orleans. Then he moved to Dallas, opened a small restaurant in a north Dallas strip center, and almost lost everything. Then the internet showed up.

The story of a true mom & pop, Swamp Cafe at 17721 Dallas Parkway is the that reminds you why small restaurants matter and how close they always are to disappearing. David and his wife Michelle have been running this place for years, with David doing the cooking and both of them doing everything else. The food is scratch-made Cajun — gumbo, jambalaya, étouffée, po’boys, beignets — and it is the real thing, built from nearly three decades of cooking in Louisiana.

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AM/FM Is the Best Thing to Happen to the Design District in Years

Ferris Wheeler’s ran for eight years on Market Center Boulevard before it closed last fall — a big backyard, a stage, cold beer, and barbecue. It was a good run. What replaced it is something harder to describe in a single sentence, which is usually a good sign.

AM/FM at 1950 Market Center Boulevard is an all-day diner, a lounge, and a backyard concert venue, and it operates as all three at the same time depending on the hour. It comes from Matthew Harber and Annette Marin, who own Spune Productions — a Dallas music and concert promotion company that books Club Dada, the Granada, Three Links, Sons of Herman Hall, and other venues around town. They had been involved with the Ferris Wheeler’s space since 2023 helping build out the live music side, and when the BBQ operation closed they took the whole thing over. The Ferris wheel is still there, by the way. It’s not rideable, but it lights up, and it is visible from the backyard stage on a Friday night in the way that only a non-functioning amusement ride in the middle of Dallas could be.

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One of Dallas’ Most Private Dining Rooms Is Open to Everyone This Mother’s Day

Most people in Dallas have walked past The Crescent, looked up at that postcard Uptown skyline, and assumed whatever is happening on the 17th floor of the office tower is none of their business. They are mostly right. The Crescent Club sits up there in the manner of a private club from another era — hardwood floors, deep wood paneling, panoramic views over the Dallas skyline — and on a normal day it is open only to members and hotel guests. Mother’s Day is not a normal day.

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Arôme Brings Caribbean Cooking to McKinney, and It’s Worth the Drive

Sophia Adisson is not a chef by training. She spent years working as a project manager, and she will tell you that freely. Her mother owned restaurants in Haiti, and Adisson grew up in those kitchens — watching, cooking alongside her, learning what it meant to feed people well. She moved to Dallas in 2015 and eventually did something about it. Arôme, her restaurant in McKinney, is the result.

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