EATS

Bruce Buschel posted Part 2 of his list 100 Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do in his Start-Up Chronicle at the New York Times "You're the Boss" blog. My favorites:

62. Do not fill the water glass every two minutes, or after each sip. You'll make people nervous.

74. Let the guests know the restaurant is out of something before the guests read the menu and order the missing dish.

83. Ask if your guest wants his coffee with dessert or after. Same with an after-dinner drink.

Buschel, who is starting up a seafood restaurant in Bridgehampton, NY, is one smart cookie. Which ones speak to you?

Today I'd like to step back and answer some of the questions that have been raised by readers commenting online about my review of Stephan Pyles.

First, I'd like to make one point very clear: I alone determine the star rating, just as Kim Pierce and Mark Vamos determine the star ratings for the secondary reviews on their own. More on that shortly. Second, one commenter referred to a five-star review I gave Wolfgang Puck's restaurant Five Sixty. That commenter is mistaken: I gave Five Sixty four stars.

A number of readers have expressed confusion about the star rating--four--I assigned Stephan Pyles. Some readers seem to feel the restaurant should have gotten a five, others insist that based on what I wrote it deserved a three. In a way it's not surprising -- the restaurant is inconsistent. Some commenters expressed the opinion that anyplace that inconsistent deserves no more than a three.

Here's why I couldn't possibly give Stephan Pyles a three: Many of the dishes I've sampled at the restaurant are absolutely among the best I've had in Dallas.

I don't know about you, but I plan to make it out to Firewheel Town Center Saturday for the inaugural Four Seasons Market.

The list of local vendors as of today (which includes more than food purveyors) numbers 48, including Cane Rosso with the rolling authentic pizza oven, the Tamale Co., Romance for Two (prepared foods), Chapman's Chili Kitchen and a bunch of others bringing prepared foods, artisanal jarred goods, baked goods, cakes, pastries, honey and more.

Bringing in local vegetables: Kitchen Pride Mushroom Farms (mushrooms are a fall crop), Sachse Heritage Farms, the Joy Farm and Truth Hill Farms. Pastured meats will be provided by Sloans Creek Heritage Meat and JuHa Ranch. Lucky Layla Farms brings farm-fresh dairy goods, and Calais Winery from Deep Ellum will be there with wine.

Plus, chef David Gilbert is going to do a "how to shop in a farmers market" tour at 10 a.m. and then throw together a meal out of what's available at the market on a grill, according to Brian Cummings, our EatGreenDFW guy who's also doing PR for the Four Seasons Market.

The market is from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.If you're coming to shop, come early. You can also keep up with the market's doings, including a list of vendors for the coming week at the newly completed Web site. www.fourseasonsmarkets.com.

Update: Organizer Vincent Hirth says it will be more like 38 vendors this week because some of the folks listed didn't get their paperwork finished. He does expect 50 vendors the following week.

Gary and Nancy Krabill, owners of Flavors From Afar, describe the difference between dry-aging and wet-aging beef in their latest blog post here, as well as how they dry-age their own beef.

I haven't checked with the food safety police, but I think the key to success is making sure your refrigerator goes down to 40 F and cutting off the outside stuff once the aging is finished. If there's a butcher in the house who wants to weigh in, that'd be great.

In addition, Sarah Fioroni will demonstrate pasta-making, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 14 at the Snider Plaza store. The Krabills visit her family's farm, Fattoria Poggio Alloro near San Gimignano, when they lead trips to Italy.

The only good thing about the incident Robb Walsh reports in his current Houston Press dining review is this: It's significant because it happens so rarely.

You have dig deep, all the way over into the jump. But there it is, at the bottom of the review. At Killen's Steakhouse in Pearland, Walsh was served a piece of putrid (as in bad, bad, gone bad, stinky bad) steak. Read about it here.

This week's review takes us to Stephan Pyles and Sichuanese Cuisine.

Stephan Pyles
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Sichuanese Cuisine
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I know this will come as a terrible shock, but Thrive, the seven-seconds old concept in the opulent room at the Downtown Dallas Crowne Plaza Hotel that was first supposed to be the opulent restuarant 1015 Elm, is not destined to thrive. It has instead withered on the proverbial vine. In its place will spring up, if things go as planned, a (drumroll, please.)...sports bar! "It's more fitting for the downtown clientele and the guests of the hotel," explains publicist Jeffrey Yarbrough.

The as-yet unnamed sports bar is projected to open in two weeks. But will it be opulent?

The Dallas Farmers Market Friends hosts its 15th Annual Hoedown Thursday in the Food & Fiber Pavilion at Fair Park. It's a fund-raiser for the group, which does things like bring us the popular chefs cooking classes.

Lots of vendors and artisanal producers will be on hand giving out samples, and Dallas wineries will be pouring the wine. The event is also supported by the Texas Department of Agriculture "Go Texan" program, so a lot of those products will be on display, too.

Last year, I got to sample JuHa Ranch's terrific por-go (pork-and-goat) sausage, goodies from Kozy Kitchen, a host of salsas, steak, veggie fare - and of course now I can't recall all the producers, which included several local restaurants. But the eating was good, and the company was even better.

The pavilion street address is 1233 S. Washington, but it's easier to locate with a map of the grounds here. Time is 6:30 to 9 p.m. Thursday. Admission is $40; get your tickets online at www.dfmfriends.org.

Tune in to Krys Boyd and "Think" at noon 1 p.m. on KERA-FM (90.1) to hear an interview with Pim Techamuanvivit, who's just written a new book called The Foodie Handbook: The (Almost) Definitive Guide to Gastronomy. Pim writes the popular Chez Pim food blog, and I love this description of the book in part from Amazon:

"Food lovers everywhere will relish Pim's sage advice, including tips on outsnobbing the staff of a Michelin three-star restaurant, preparing simple but intensely flavored dishes at home, and eating street food in any city in the world."

This, to go along with her "tips, secrets, anecdotes and recipes" from chefs around the world. Sounds delish, like her blog.

He's here! And so is the shrimp cocktail with horseradish panna cotta and spicy tomato syrup that he was doing at Alain Ducasse's Mix in Las Vegas.

All of which is to say that The Restaurant at the Mansion has its new chef, Bruno Davaillon, who will introduce his new menu tonight. It looks very promising, French with a hint of a Texas twang. To wit: tartare of spicy ahi tuna and hamachi with yuzu vinaigrette and jalapeno; seared Hudson Valley foie gras with roasted Texas red pear, cornbread and coriander honey; Maine lobster and crispy sweetbreads with corn puree, yellow beets and sunchokes; bison tenderloin au poivre with autumn vegetable fricassee. And yes, the Mansion's tortilla soup.

"I feel you should be able to taste every ingredient in a dish," Davaillon is quoted as saying in the press release. "Food should not be complicated or make someone guess what they're eating." The release also says that Davaillon's new lunch menu will be introduced next month.

Oh la la, y'all.

Photo courtesy of Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek

Italian restaurateur, author, food TV star and all-around Italian authority Lidia Bastianich blew through Dallas yesterday, starting with morning television appearances, and I'm not sure where she ended up after a book-signing at Central Market.

Midway through her day, she lunched at Stephan Pyles with a handful of local chefs, foodies and friends - including Sharon Hage (York Street), Julian Barsotti (Nonna), Paula Lambert (Mozzarella Co.), Michael Westphal (personal chef), Italian Wine Guy (blogger) and of course Stephan. Like the others at the table, I was an invited guest.

We were there learn more about Bastianich wines, but the highlights for me were a cotton-candy amuse bouche (pictured) that really did thrill and surprise our palates and getting to listen in on a mini-mentoring session with Barsotti.

Houston Press restaurant critic Robb Walsh dropped a bombshell today when he announced in a blog post that he has ditched his disguises forever. "So long, anonymity," he writes, "--it's been swell."

Ever since it was announced that Frank Bruni, the New York Times' last restaurant critic, was leaving the post, the demise of the anonymous critic has been the talk of the food blogosphere. Bruni seemed to start the discussion, saying in interviews that although he always visited restaurants incognito, he was often recognized, and what he felt was important was arriving unannounced (making reservations using aliases) so chefs didn't have time to arrange anything special in advance. But I couldn't help but wonder -- since Bruni did always at least attempt anonymity -- whether the whole subject had to do more than anything with the fact that Sam Sifton, the Times' new critic, is so well-known and recognized in New York. Suddenly, with the Internet to blame, "the ethical guidelines shifted," as Walsh concludes. "Thanks to cell phone cameras and Google, anonymity just isn't possible anymore," he writes.

Well, I disagree.

Southern Living magazine just named Celebration restaurant one of the best diners in the south. It singled out the Lover's Lane spot for its mashed potatoes and for Elizabeth's Southwest Cornbread, for which it gives the recipe. (Cool!)

Lots more fun finds there -- check it out. Have you been to any of them? What was great?

2003 photograph of Celebration by Tom Fox/DMN

Better late than never, right? Sorry for the delay.

At Hacienda on Henderson, one of the things that baffled me was that at a place whose appeal is largely as a watering hole, the drinks wouldn't be better.

On my first visit, I ordered the house margarita on the rocks with salt. I liked the fact that it wasn't one of those very tall, weak margaritas, but I changed my mind about that once I tasted it: That sticky-sweet margarita mix is awful. There wasn't enough ice, and, as with every margarita I tasted there, just a few grains of salt. (What's so hard about putting salt on the rim of the glass, I ask you?) After tasting the Senor Martini -- not a martini at all, but Hacienda's "specialty top shelf" margarita with Cazadores reposado tequila chilled, shaken and topped with a jalapeno-stuffed olive, and served in a plastic shaker, I switched to beer.

Next time I ordered the Haci Jalarita, "not too sweet." This was a margarita, upgraded with the Cazadores reposado instead of Milagro silver, and with jalapeño and lime muddled with Cointreau. It wasn't any better than the house margarita or the Senor Martini, as the flavors (including that nice tequila) were drowned out by that awful sour mix. Instead of mixing it differently than usual, the "not too sweet" request was met by sticking six limes instead of one on the rim. I squeezed all of them in, but it didn't help much. What a waste of good tequila. And again, I switched to beer.

Too bad, because if the cocktails were good, it would be nice to sit on that lovely patio sipping a margarita and munching on chips and salsa while the band played...

Which begs the question: What's your favorite patio for sipping good margaritas and munching chips and salsa?

Photo of Hacienda's house frozen margarita with a shot of strawberry-infused tequila by Courtney Perry/DMN

Thank you to Kim Pierce for her post about Bruce Buschel's NY Times Start-Up Chronicle piece, "One Hundred Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do, Part I."

Buschel promises Part II next week, but in the meantime, let's do our own Part II.

Part I is focused on servers themselves -- I wonder whether Part II will include more about reservationists, hosts/hostesses, maitre d's, sommeliers, busboys, runners, bartenders, etc.

So...read Part I. Then tell us what you'd include in Part II.

I'd add these:

--Never remove a wine glass when there's a sip left in it.
--Never imply that diners are gluttons if they order dessert. (Never say something like "I'm sure you don't want dessert after all you've eaten.")
--When bottled water is ordered, never pour another bottle without asking.
--If a diner is enjoying a drink at the bar before being seated, never refuse to add their bar bill to their dinner check.

Your turn!

Richard Abshire just filed a disturbing story at DMN online this morning about Natalie's Kitchen and International Market in Far North Dallas. The kosher restaurant and market, in a strip mall on the corner of Hillcrest and Campbell, was defaced with obscene graffiti and swastikas over the weekend.

I stopped by Natalie's recently for falafels, and was struck by how warm and wonderful the family-run place felt. On one side is a restaurant and take-out counter. Israeli-born co-owner Natalie Pinhas bakes bread there, and I picked up some wonderful challah -- and those falafel sandwiches were pretty great. I had made a mental note to stop in for dinner soon.

The right side is a market, where you can find all kinds of interesting and unusual ingredients imported from Israel.

It's so gut-wrenching to think about such a thing happening to any business, and when I think it happened to this particular business, it just chills me.

Anyone out there who has dined there? Is dinner as good as the falafels?

Natalie's Kitchen and International Market, 7114 Campbell Road; 972-380-1010

Bruce Buschel, who writes The Start-Up Chronicle blog in the New York Times, is building a seafood restaurant, and he wrote a terrific piece in The Times today called "One Hundred Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do (Part I)."

It's really dos and don'ts, and you will see so many service pet peeves brought up by Leslie Brenner and Eats blog commenters recently. This week's story is No. 1-50. Next week, we get 51-100.

Here's one of my favorites: "For red wine, ask if the guests want to pour their own or prefer the waiter to pour."

And another: "Never reek from perfume or cigarettes. People want to smell the food and beverage."

Check it out here.

To Nancy Nichols over at D magazine and Scott at Dallasfood.org: mea culpa, mea culpa.

Both have pointed out that Tillman's Roadhouse, which I wrote about in my Table Talk column on the revival of authentic chicken-fried steak, didn't exist when Scott posted his opus on Dallas CFS in November 2006. Tillman's reopened in December 2006, and D magazine whittled Scot's blog post into a story for its April 2007 issue. 'Looks like Tillman's slipped right between the cracks.

As for my just discovering Tillman's CFS, you'll remember I launched my own quest for the best authentic chicken-fried steak a couple years ago and thought I had done a pretty thorough job.

I'm just excited to see more chefs reaching for the skillet. Are there any other worthy CFSs, authentic or deep-fried, that I've also missed in the past two years? For the record, my favorite deep-fried version is Allgood Cafe's. I'll pit it against Scott's No. 1, Ozona, anytime.

As promised last week and in the spirit of Halloween tomorrow ...

Want proof that Waxahachie's famed Catfish Plantation restaurant is haunted? You may have it in this photo (original left, detail right) sent in last year by former manager Ryan Rodriguez.

The image was snapped by members of the Texas Spirit Seekers paranormal research group and seems to show a disembodied face through a window in one of the dining rooms. View a larger version here.

"We tried to disprove it by saying that it may have been a reflection of one of the team members, but it looks absolutely nothing like any of them," says Rodriguez. "And all you see is the face, no body or shoulders. They were pretty freaked out by it!"

What do you think? Is this a ghostly phenom or does it have an earthly explanation?

Bonus round: See video of the TSS investigation.

Catfish Plantation, 814 Water St., Waxahachie, 972-937-9468.

Didn't I say there are bargains to be had on wines right now? PoGo's is doing it's dot sale with colored dots signifying discounts, from 15 percent to 35 percent. Check out some of the wines on the jump.