Maroma changes as the day goes on, and that is the whole idea. At lunch the room is bright and coastal, the sort of place where a ceviche and a cold glass of something make sense at noon. By dinner the lights come down, the patio glows, and the mesquite grill takes over. Chef Omar Flores calls it daylight to dusk. It is a simple concept, and the kitchen follows through on it.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
Before Carlos Branger opened a restaurant, he threw dinner parties. He’d moved to Texas from the Andean region of Venezuela, near the Colombian border, and when friends came over he cooked the things he grew up eating — arepas stuffed with shredded beef, cachapas rolled off the griddle, queso blanco, the family recipes he’d carried north like a piece of luggage. The food disappeared before the evening did, and people kept asking where they could get more of it.
Dallas had Tex-Mex on every corner and excellent taquerias in every neighborhood, but the food of Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina, and the Caribbean islands was essentially nowhere. On May 9, 2002, Branger opened Zaguán Latin Café and Bakery at 2604 Oak Lawn Avenue, and the dinner party never really stopped.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
Cedar Springs Road in Oak Lawn is Dallas’s LGBTQ+ district, and it has been since the 1970s. The half-mile stretch between Oak Lawn Avenue and Wycliff Avenue — known locally as The Strip — packs more bars, restaurants, and community institutions into a walkable corridor than any comparable neighborhood in the American South. It earned official state recognition as an LGBT neighborhood in 2018, the first in Texas. During the World Cup, when visitors arrive from countries where LGBTQ+ life ranges from restricted to illegal, Cedar Springs is the kind of neighborhood that reminds people what a city can choose to be. Everyone is welcome here. That is not a slogan. It is the operating condition of the place.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
There is a shop on Oak Lawn that has been quietly running one of the best cheese counters in the country for going on seventeen years, and most of Dallas still drives past it without stopping. That is their loss. Scardello sits at 3511 Oak Lawn Avenue in a 1929 building with wood floors, an original tin ceiling, exposed brick walls, and enough natural light that the cheese case practically glows. It is the type of place that makes you slow down the moment you walk in, because the person behind the counter is genuinely happy to talk about what is in front of you, and that is not something most food retail in Dallas offers anymore.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
by Steven Doyle
One of the best kept not-so-secrets in the Dallas restaurant world is that marvelous long-time Dallas neighborhood restaurant located on Oak Lawn, Parigi. Owned by chef Janice Provost who worked at the restaurant early in her chef career as a culinary student, and just a few years later she ended up with the keys to the door. Travel years into the future and you will see how Provost continues to curate the bistro by offering the community local farm fresh ingredients with a continually revolver door of a menu that reflects the season. Continue reading
Filed under Crave, Steven Doyle
by Steven Doyle
It is a day to announce closures, I suppose. We learned today that Good Eats on Oak Lawn lost its lease. The shopping area where Good Eats is located is being redeveloped by owners Lincoln Properties. Good Eats was a mainstay for 22 years, and will be missed by the neighborhood. The restaurant closes for good on July 17th.
Jump on for the press release which explains the debacle. Continue reading
Filed under Steven Doyle
by Steven Doyle
Customer Appreciation will be the focus at Snookie’s Oaklawn’s 25th anniversary celebration on June 7th as they thank their customers for patronage throughout this year and over the course of the last 25 years.
On Saturday June 7th, Snookie’s Oaklawn is giving back to our customers with throwback drink and food specials from 11am to 2am with our Official 25 year Anniversary party featuring outdoor seating, a retro 80’s DJ and free swag. Continue reading
Filed under Steven Doyle
by Steven Doyle
You like your Roots Juices, and it is fun to have things delivered to your office. But for those wanting to sit down at a cafe and enjoy this local juice phenomenon your time has come. Roots Juices owner Brent Rodgers will be opening a cafe featuring the pressed juices very soon at the shop the leased out next to Scardello Cheese on Oak Lawn.
The space is where the Cake Guys were located at 3527 Oak Lawn. The location is mall but should be interesting as the Juice people enter into the restaurant business. Continue reading
Filed under Steven Doyle
