Most regional Mexican cooking that makes it to Dallas comes from places with some name recognition attached. Oaxaca, Jalisco, the Yucatán, places people have at least heard of even if they couldn’t point to them on a map. La Laguna doesn’t have that kind of reputation outside northern Mexico, which is part of why Mi Rinconcito Lagunero, spaced into a strip on Vilbig Road in West Dallas, is worth a drive even if you’ve never heard the word “lagunero” in your life.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
Javier García del Moral and Paco Vique met as civil engineers, which is not the résumé line most people would guess for the two men behind Dallas’s most quietly influential bookstore. Both are Spanish, both landed in Texas separately, del Moral in Austin in 2008 and Vique in Dallas a year later, and both carried the same memory from home: Tipos Infames, a bookstore and wine bar in Madrid where literature and drinking shared the same room without either one feeling like an afterthought. When del Moral moved to Dallas in 2011, the two friends started planning a version of that idea for Oak Cliff, and on February 28, 2014, The Wild Detectives opened its doors in a 1940s Craftsman house on West 8th Street, just off the edge of Bishop Arts.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
Nobody has actually reviewed Tony yet. Rotten Tomatoes has a page and no score. There’s no wide critical consensus, no embargo lift, nothing but a trailer, a featurette, and one room full of chefs who got to see it early. So take this for what it is: a bet, not a verdict. But it’s an informed bet, and after two decades writing about the people this movie is trying to honor, I’ve got opinions.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
Most people don’t know what a botanería is. That’s fine. Go to Sor Juana and you’ll figure it out in about five minutes.
The concept is Mexican in origin and as old as the idea of a neighborhood bar. In a traditional botanero, your drinks come with food — not food you order separately, not food with an upcharge, just small plates that arrive alongside whatever you’re drinking. Botanas. Bar bites. The Mexican cousin of tapas, built on the same logic that says drinking and eating together is not indecision but civilization. The tradition is deeply social, deeply rooted in Mexican cantina culture, and almost entirely absent from Dallas until now.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
There is no other building in North Texas quite like Legacy Hall. Three floors, 55,000 square feet, more than 20 food stalls, five bars, a craft brewery on the top floor, and an outdoor entertainment venue built from reclaimed shipping containers that holds 1,500 people and has a stage with a full LED screen. It opened in Plano’s Legacy West development in December 2017 and has been one of the most reliably good decisions in North Texas dining ever since. The address is 7800 Windrose Avenue. Open Monday through Thursday 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday until 1 a.m., Sunday until 10 p.m.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
The Texas Rangers have always understood something most teams don’t: the food is part of the show. Globe Life Field has been raising the bar on ballpark concessions since it opened, and the 2026 lineup might be the most ambitious yet. Bring your appetite and possibly a change of clothes.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
You’ve seen it: the photo that makes your stomach rumble and your thumb pause mid-scroll. Golden Milanese dusted with Parmesan, fries piled impossibly high, cast-iron meatballs bubbling, and a coupe cocktail catching the warm glow of the ceiling lights against burgundy booths. It’s the perfect night out—at least in the image.
Continue readingFiled under Joey Stewart
At Cuates Kitchen, the story begins with family. Twins Carlos and Carla Rodriguez grew up in Veracruz, where the rhythm of the kitchen meant hand-pressed tortillas, long-simmered barbacoa, and recipes measured by instinct rather than spoons. Their leap from a cult-favorite food truck to a permanent Oak Lawn address never diluted that intimacy. If anything, the walls seem to hold it closer. This is cooking rooted in memory and carried forward with intention.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
