EATS

Karen Robinson-Jacobs reports that the Starbucks location on West Illinois Avenue near Westmoreland is one of about 600 across the country that are slated to close. It's the only Dallas store so far that the company acknowledges it's planning to shutter.

Red's Patio Grill in Plano's Lakeside Market hosts a tequila dinner tonight at 7 with Don Valente tequila company. A Don Valente rep will attend the event and talk about tequila and the company's products.

For $35, diners will get a four-course meal that includes a house margarita, coconut shrimp, salad (house or Caesar), rotisserie chicken with veg, and dessert (chocolate pie or coconut cream pie).

For reservations, call 469-229-0098.

An offbeat P.S. to yesterday's Dallas Museum of Art post:

On the way out after Monday's Seventeen Seventeen luncheon, I took a detour into the Center for Creative Connections. Just inside and to the right was Janine Antoni's sculptural work "Lick and Lather," which exhibits two self-portraits: one bust carved in chocolate, one carved in white soap, each accompanied by a small pierced box where you can sniff samples of the materials used.

For the "Lick" half of the piece, Ms. Antoni has said she melted down 35 pounds of chocolate and poured it into an alginate mold she'd made of her head and shoulders. Then she licked the chocolate a bit here and there, until the sculpture achieved its final form.

The chocolate bust was placed behind a low wall, far away enough that it would be impossible for a rash viewer to lean over and sample it. The chocolate in the sample box smelled pretty fresh, but I wouldn't expect that anyone, even the artist, would want to lick the chocolate sculpture now. After all, Ms. Antoni carved it 15 years ago.

Yes, I know Nancy Nichols scooped us over on the D Side Dish blog by half a day, but I actually heard about this from a secret street spy who plans to eat there tomorrow. Cowboy Chow is Twisted Root chef-owner Jason Boso's second concept, serving campfire-comfort food. Christopher Wynn previewed it here.

John Lose, whose day job is keeping Taste copy clean, shares his tale of making the infamous cookies from The New York Times:

I couldn't resist it. When I saw the story in last week's New York Times Dining section about ultimate chocolate chip cookies, I had to give the recipe a shot.

Because, you see, I am addicted to chocolate chip cookies. And this story promised that this recipe, which contained tips and tricks of New York City pastry chefs, was the ultimate.

Photo by Bill Addison