Eater Dallas picked up the story from Central Track and ran with it: Baker's Ribs will soon have a new location in Deep Ellum.

Staff file photo

Follow Leslie on Twitter @lesbren

On the banks of the Trinity River in Fort Worth, Tim Love opened his highly anticipated Woodshed Smokehouse last night. The menu starts with a key: four leaves, each representing a particular type of woodsmoke. Each item gets a leaf to indicate whether it's smoked over hickory, oak, pecan or mesquite.

Artichokes, for instance, with lemon and Parmesan are smoked over hickory; a whole cauliflower head is smoked over oak and treated to olive oil, lemon and chile arbol. Bulgogi beef is smoked over pecan and served with house kimchi; redfish en papillote gets oak-smoked. Dishes designed for four to share include "open fire" paella with mussels, clams, shrimp, rabbit-rattlesnake sausage and game birds -- smoked over pecan wood. Wow -- doesn't that sound like a blast?!

Woodshed Smokehouse, 3201 Riverfront Drive, Fort Worth; 817-877-4545

Photo by Mark Rodgers/Special Contributor

Karen Robinson-Jacobs has the scoop: Restaurateur Phil Romano and business partner Stuart Fitts have announced plans to bring a "restaurant incubator," along with restaurants, a cooking school, artisan cheesemakers and more to Trinity Groves, a new development near the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge on Singleton Blvd.

Carrollton's Super H Mart plaza has a new spot for pho -- Pho Doan. It's from the owners of Pho Doan in Garland, but assistant manager Hung Tran says while the Garland location sells a lot of to-go orders, this is more of a sit-down dining room. It quietly opened two months ago, and the menu's in flux -- some new dinner items are being added, and a wine and beer license is expected in a week or so. Till then, it's BYOB. Open Monday-Friday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday-Sunday 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Pho Doan, 2625 Old Denton Road (at Trinity Mills Road); Carrollton; 972-323-4999; phodoan.com

Charlie Palmer has announced that Michael Sindoni has taken over as executive chef at the Joule hotel, where plans are in motion to transform Charlie Palmer at the Joule into Charlie Palmer Steak. Sindoni's last gig, says the press release, was as executive chef at AGAINN, a contemporary British Isles bistro in Washington, D.C. Sindoni, a graduate of Johnson and Wales, also held positions at two California restaurants, Cervinia Restaurant in Mammoth Lakes and Navio at the Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay, as well as Il Cibreo, in Florence, Italy. He'll be overseeing the Joule's food and beverage program and development and management of the new food hall Palmer plans to open in the fall.

Though dates are still up in the air, Charlie Palmer at the Joule will close only briefly before reopening as Charlie Palmer Steak, a transformation that will be overseen by executive sous chef Joel Harrington.

Just in time for the imminent opening of the nearby Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, Kay Agnew (you remember her from Margaux in the Design District) has opened Bridge Bistro. "We tried to make it a neighborhood hangout," she says, "a comfort place." Her longtime fans have followed her, demanding she keep serving Margaux favorites like gumbo, crawfish etouffée and soft shell crabs. But chef Manuel Contreras is also turning out new salads, sandwiches and bar snacks, plus daily fish specials such as pan-seared ruby red trout on rice with a lemon beurre blanc and pesto.

For now, it's breakfast and lunch weekdays, dinner Wednesday through Saturday nights, and brunch weekends. Cocktails are cleverly named after famous bridges of the world, and after the place is "up and running for a while," Agnew plans to add a rooftop lounge and suspended staircase with 360-degree views of the bridge and downtown. Sounds like dizzying fun.

Bridge Bistro, 921 Riverfront Blvd., Dallas; 214-740-1985

Photo of Bridge Bistro's ruby red trout by Ben Torres/Special Contributor

Lisa Garza's new place is slated to open in mid-February in the former Hector's on Henderson space, and it sounds swell, part of the continuing trend toward upscale, down-home foods in unpretentious surroundings. She's partnering in the kitchen with Jeffrey Hobbs, one of her former partners at Suze, and they've tapped Mynetta Cockerell, most recently at Milestone Culinary Arts Center, as pastry chef.

Sissy's Southern Kitchen & Bar will include Southern favorites such as fried chicken, greens (but cooked with olive oil), jalapeno cornbread, chicken-fried steak, shrimp and cheddar-green onion grits, chicken and waffles with blackstrap molasses - you get the idea.

Hobbs was telling me that the idea is to make smaller servings so people can share more. The pan-fried chicken fried steak, for example, is two 5-ounce portions, but you'll be able to order half that. "We're going to have a Louann's style platter called Sissy's platter," he says, referring to the famous reduced-portion platter at Luby's Cafeteria.

The duo will also make its own house sriracha sauce for the chicken. "I'm from the South," says Garza. "We never put anything [such as gravy] on the chicken." But she confesses that she loves it with hot sauce.

Evans Caglage/Staff Photographer
Lisa Garza with her Couture Caviar vintage aprons at South Side

Reservations may be required or recommended at some locations below.

1 DINING FOR A CAUSE French-style steakhouse Mignon offers a three-course dinner with a portion of the sales benefiting the Collin County Children's Advocacy Center. Menu options include brie-and-mushroom soup, mint-crusted rack of lamb, and banana, hazelnut and chocolate crêpes. Jan. 27-28 from 5 to 11 p.m., Jan. 29-31 from 5 to 10 p.m. at 4005 Preston Road, Suite 518, Plano. $54.95. 972-943-3372. mignonplano.com.

2 CHILI-PLATE-OOZA The Holy Grail Pub hosts a cook-off, pitting its four chili dishes against one another: seven bean with white cheddar; smoked brisket with manchego; Indian-spiced chicken with cream cheese; and ghost pepper chili. Jan. 28 from noon to 9 p.m. at 8240 Preston Road, Suite 150, Plano. $5 per cup, $14 for flight of all four, $8 per bowl; all served with bread and habañero butter. 972-377-6633. holygrailpub.com.

3 DRAG QUEEN BRUNCH Dish serves Sunday brunch with a twist -- a show with three drag queens. Three-course brunch is $25; same brunch with bottomless mimosas or Bloody Mary cocktails is $30. Jan. 29 with seatings at 11 and 11:30 a.m. and 1 and 1:30 p.m. at 4123 Cedar Springs Road, Dallas. 214-522-3474. dish-dallas.com.

4 NEW ENGLAND LOBSTER BAKE Sea Breeze Fish Market and Grill hosts a New England lobster bake for two, including two 1.5-pound lobsters, a pound of Prince Edward Island mussels, a dozen littleneck clams, red potatoes, corn and house salad. Jan. 29 from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. at 4017 Preston Road, Suite 530, Plano. $98. 972-473- 2722. seabreezefish.com.

5 DINNER WITH WOLFGANG PUCK Celebrate the Chinese New Year and welcome the year of the dragon with chef Wolfgang Puck, who will be joining diners at his Reunion Tower restaurant. Menu includes lobster dumpling, applewood-
smoked Peking duck, Szechuan pepper-crusted filet, and golden pineapple sticky cake with black-pepper ice cream. Feb. 1 from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Five Sixty, 300 Reunion Blvd., Dallas. $125, $175 with wine pairings. 214-741-5560. wolfgangpuck.com.

Compiled by Tyra Damm

POST YOUR EVENT ON GUIDELIVE.COM
Add your dining event listing (such as cooking classes and demos, wine dinners, wine tastings and culinary fundraisers) by logging in to GuideLive.com. (New users will be required to register, but it's free and fast.) We will consider online submissions for print listings in Guide. If you would like to submit information on happy hour specials and dining specials or deals, please email guide@dallasnews.com. Deadline is two weeks before publication. Information must include description of event, date, time, address, cost and a phone number for the public to call.

'THE' REUBEN SANDWICH at DELI-NEWS

In a city with very few New York-style delis, Deli-News feels closest to the real McGoldberg, beginning with the plate of crunchy half-sour pickles that lands on the table and ending with textbook black-and-white cookies. Recently I kvelled over the open-faced Reuben -- grilled rye topped with excellent corned beef, a mess of sauerkraut and melted Swiss. At $12.99 it's not cheap, but oy gevalt, it is big and good.

Leslie Brenner

17062 Preston Road at Campbell Road, Dallas. 972-733-3354. delinewsdallas.com.

Photo by David Woo/The Dallas Morning News

Valentine's Day will be here before you know it, and GuideLive.com has several options for local events and dinner plans you can make to celebrate. Here's a sampling of the interesting choices D-FW offers:

- Dine by candlelight at The Old Warsaw
- Have some wine and chocolate covered insects at Texas Discovery Gardens
- Pop the question at Ristorante Nicola and receive a complimentary dinner

And more!

Tell us in a comment where you love to celebrate a romantic dinner.

I just caught up with Julian Barsotti, the talented chef behind Nonna, who's been working hard to open Carbone's Fine Food and Wine -- an Italian-American deli. He's hoping to open the doors soon, he says, maybe toward the end of March.

Barsotti is extremely excited about the project -- inspired by Jimmy's Food Store here in Dallas, Torrisi Italian Specialties in New York and Italian-American delis in San Francisco. He just returned from an R+D trip to San Fransciso, and seemed quite energized by it.

The shop will be a deli by day and a restaurant one night a week -- Sunday evening, when Nonna is closed. It's all about the Italian-American experience as felt by Barsotti. "The idea is to sell as many dry goods and Italian ingredients that come from the U.S.as possible," he says "and try to avoid Italy." That will include house-made ricotta and sausages, olive oils from California and Texas, cured meats (such as prosciutto) from La Quercia in Iowa -- and lots of dried semolina pasta, which is very ambitious and exciting. "It's something I've wanted to do forever," says Barsotti. "I've had the machinery to do it" -- he extrudes the pasta through bronze dies, and has been studying the process of drying and packaging, which is way more involved than it sounds: "Trying to figure out the proper humidity to dry it out -- either not be too wet or too dry -- it's not easy." There will be fresh pastas too, raviolis all boxed and ready to go, dishes to take home like lasagne and meatballs, and American wines that work with the food, which he sees as a challenge.Of course there will be sandwiches: "Great Italian-American sandwiches -- our versions." Like a meatball hero, chicken parm, and sausage and peppers. "We'll also do a hot Italian beef sandwich and a roast pork sandwich made with porchetta."

Bruce Tomaso has the story on the Scoop blog: Tim Love plans to open his high-toned barbecue spot in Fort Worth next week. You may remember reading about it here last summer. Something to look forward to!

We didn't expect Graham Dodds, the longtime Bolsa chef who took over the kitchen at Central 214 last month, to introduce his new menu until the spring, but he's ready to roll it out tonight.

There's lots to look forward to tasting: appetizers like "popcorn" sweetbreads with lime zest and butter or salt cod fritters with piquillo pepper rouille; salads of shaved celery root with Honeycrisp apple and pine nuts or dinosaur kale, ricotta salata and raw artichoke; and main courses like blood sausage ravioli or lamb breast with smoked paprika-honey glaze and crushed canellini beans. Where do you ever see lamb breast? Pretty cool. Desserts include a lemon-honey cake with sweet mascarpone; churros with cajeta ice cream and Fuji apple; and a chocolate-cranberry Pavlova with pistachio-white chocolate cream.

He's introduced an enticing new menu, too, for Central 214's bar, a popular hangout. How about a chicken liver parfait with crostini and fennel marmelade? Or crispy pig's ears with radish and buttermilk dressing?

There are changes coming to the dining room, too: The restaurant will get a face-lift this spring.

Central 214, Hotel Palomar, 5680 N. Central Expressway, Dallas; 214-443-9339; central214.com

Photo by Central 214

Here's some exciting news: Coleen O'Hare and Jeana Johnson, the chefs behind Good 2 Go Taco, plan to open a fine-dining restaurant this spring. Acme F+B will be in the former Cretia's (and more recently Bull and Bear) space at McKinney Ave. and Monticello.

For the concept, which they're calling "come as you are fine dining," they're partnering with bar entrepreneurs Brooke Humphries and Brianna Larson, founders of Barcadia Bars in Dallas and Fort Worth and the Beauty Bar on Henderson Ave., who will manage the bar.

Says O'Hare via the press release, "We're going to cook dinner the way we would at home - where we grab a baguette and pate and a bottle of wine. It's about the five senses, the enjoyment of cooking, eating, of sitting down and sharing a meal and enjoying some one's company."

Meanwhile, is F+B the new "Social"? DFW.com reported yesterday that Consilient Restaurants plans to open a new restaurant, American F+B, in Fort Worth's West 7th District; Consilient's Tristan Simon confirmed the details reported.

2009 file photo of Jeana Johnson (left) and Coleen O'Hare

I got a call last night from Randall Copeland, co-chef-owner of Restaurant Ava and one of the four partners in Left Bank, and he told me the name of his forthcoming Bishop Arts District restaurant has been changed to Boulevardier.

'Seems there was another Left Bank (there are several across the country) challenging the use of the name, and the Anderson Brooks brothers of Veritas, two other partners in the venture, decided in their legal wisdom not to fight it. Brooks and Bradley (Anderson) practice law by day.

Boulevardier takes its name from a cocktail that mixes bourbon, Campari and vermouth, a kind of kissing cousin to a Negroni, made with gin and not bourbon. Boulevardier is also a word for a man about town.

The opening date for Boulevardier has been pushed back to May 1.

Anastacia Quiñones, the talented chef who ran the kitchen at the erstwhile Alma, told me her good news via Facebook message yesterday: She has started work at Komali, Abraham Salum's Mexican restaurant. Today I caught up with Salum, who tells me Quiñones has come aboard as the restaurant's chef. "I'm very excited," he says. "She brings a lot of technique and a lot of experience to the kitchen."

Salum had been feeling like the restaurant needed some refining, he says. "It was a little too homey, and the interior didn't help. Our logo says 'contemporary Mexican cuisine,'" -- so that's the direction they're taking it. "We'll be playing around more, using Mexican ingredients and being a little more adventurous with our food." He expects Quiñones' new menu to debut on the restaurant's first anniversary, Feb. 1.

I'm excited to check out her cooking once she settles in -- I really loved what she did at Alma, which as I wrote in my Best in DFW: New Restaurants of 2011 story, I'd likely have chosen as Restaurant of the Year had it not closed.

Komali, 4152 Cole Ave., Dallas; 214-252-0200; komalirestaurant.com

2011 File Photo

Celebrity chef Stephan Pyles has his hands busy getting ready for the opening of Sustenio at boutique Hotel Eilan in San Antonio. As he explains it, it's an arrangement where he's hands-on as if it were his restaurant, but another group, Interstate Hotels and Resorts, will be responsible for day-to-day operations "under my guidance."

"David Gilbert and Keith Cedotal are joining me from Dallas as (respectively) executive chef and pastry chef," Pyles says.

Gilbert briefly made a splash at the shuttered Luqa, did some turns in the Ritz-Carlton chain and was named a Rising Star Chef in 2007 by Starchefs.com. He writes the blog, BeyondTheKitchen.
Cedotal comes most recently from Malai Kitchen.

John Tesar, who opened the Commissary -- his burger-plus place in One Arts Plaza -- just nine months ago, plans to sell his shares in it, he told me by phone yesterday. It was a follow-up conversation to an embargoed press release he sent out earlier in the day. The remaining ownership shares, he said, will go to One Arts Plaza's Lucy Billingsley. Tesar had asked me to hold the story until this weekend, which of course I agreed to. This morning he sent me a note saying that one of the blogs had run with the story despite the embargo, freeing me to write about his plans.

Tesar plans to open a new signature restaurant, Spoon Bar and Kitchen, in Preston Center in July. The restaurant will have a raw bar serving oysters, clams, lobster and the like, along with a lineup of crudos. The preliminary dinner menu includes appetizers like black garlic soup with Burgundy snails; pig's trotter Milanese with fried duck egg; and marinated tomato and arugula salad. Main courses run from rabbit three ways to pulled lamb shank with toasted potato gnocchi, Barolo sauce and mint gremolata. Says the chef: "It's going to be John Tesar going back to being a chef and having his own restaurant and doing more focused things in a cool spot."

Spoon will feature, on one wall, a collection of spoons from "famous chefs, celebrities and regular VIP customers." Maybe one of them will be Alain Ducasse, who had a number of restaurants called Spoon by Alain Ducasse around the world. (I believe there's only one remaining, in Hong Kong.)

Tesar also plans to open two new Commissary Burger Bars in the coming year -- one in Dallas and one in Fort Worth.

As for One Art, the 12-seat, two-seatings-only restaurant he opened adjacent to the Commissary four months ago (in the same space he had used for The Table, its previous incarnation), tonight is the last night dinner will be served there. The chef tells me no seats are available, though; it is sold out.

Staff file photo

Joel Harloff is the new executive chef at the Second Floor Bistro and Bar, the Galleria restaurant run by chef-partners Scott and Gina Gottlich (owners of Bijoux). Harloff was last seen running the kitchen at the resurrected Green Room, which closed last winter, after a brief run. Prior to that, he was executive chef at Dali Wine Bar; his resume also includes positions at the Warwick Melrose hotel, Mi Piaci and Nana Grill at the Hilton Anatole.

"Not only on paper was Joel a good fit, but I can personally attest to his skills as he has helped me out on several occasions at Bijoux," the press release quotes Scott Gottlich as saying. "Joel has proven that he is successful in leading multiple kitchens. I look forward to a new progressive dialogue between us. Just like a person progresses and develops to reach their greatest potential, a restaurant does the same. We believe Joel will be able to do just that by bringing some of his individual cooking style to The Second Floor."

The release continues: "Patrons of The Second Floor will definitely see a good amount of change to the menu in the upcoming months. Gottlich's meticulous finesse is to be harmoniously blended with Harloff's personal style and direction to create a fresh and exciting new menu with the promise of a new voice by way of Harloff. Daily features orchestrated by Harloff are just one of the things guests can expect. Menu to be announced at a later date."

The Second Floor Bistro and Bar, Westin Galleria, 13340 Dallas Parkway, Dallas; 972-450-2978

File photo

Reservations may be required or recommended at some locations below.

1 PANCAKES FOR PUGS The DFW Pug Rescue Club will host an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast, with proceeds benefiting the care of rescued pugs (476 dogs were helped in 2011). Jan. 14 from 8 to 10 a.m. at Applebee's, 1901 N. Belt Line Road, Irving. $8 general admission, $5 for ages 10 and younger. 972-313-0081. dfwpugs.com.

2 OAK CLIFF ETHICURIANS Folks who are interested in good food and drink -- and in choosing and processing those items in a healthy, ethical way -- are invited to the first meeting of the Oak Cliff Ethicurians. Take a dish to share for the potluck lunch. Jan. 15 at noon at Unitarian Universalist Church of Oak Cliff, 3839 Kiest Blvd., Dallas. Free. 361-788-3442. oakcliffuu.org.

3 GALA DINNER Support the Orchestra of New Spain at its annual "Courcelle Dinner," featuring French food and live music. Black-tie attire is optional. Jan. 15 at 6 p.m. at L'Ancestral, 4514 Travis St., Dallas. $125. 214-750-1492. orchestraofnewspain.org.

4 OLD HICKORY STEAKHOUSE The restaurant at the Gaylord Texan resort hosts a winemaker dinner featuring Janet Trefethen of Trefethen Vineyards. Chef Joanne Bondy's menu includes coriander ahi tuna with grapefruit ponzi, along with lobster and couscous salad. Jan. 19 at 6:30 p.m. at 1501 Gaylord Trail, Grapevine. $125. 817-778-2215. gaylordtexan.com.

5 TEXAS WINE DINNER Brian Christensen from Becker Vineyards helps lead a five-course dinner with wine pairings. Menu includes grilled portobello quesadilla, pork empanadas and seared skirt steak. Jan. 19 at 6:30 p.m. at WineStyles, 6100 Long Prairie Road, Flower Mound. $60. 972-874-9315. winestyles.net/flowermound.

Compiled by Tyra Damm

POST YOUR EVENT ON GUIDELIVE.COM
Add your dining event listing (such as cooking classes and demos, wine dinners, wine tastings and culinary fundraisers) by logging in to GuideLive.com. (New users will be required to register, but it's free and fast.) We will consider online submissions for print listings in Guide. If you would like to submit information on happy hour specials and dining specials or deals, please email guide@dallasnews.com. Deadline is two weeks before publication. Information must include description of event, date, time, address, cost and a phone number for the public to call.

A shoutout to Nancy Nichols on the SideDish blog for getting the word out that Bartolino Cocuzza has reopened Amici Signature Italian Restaurant less than a year after the historic downtown Carrollton restaurant was destroyed by fire.

This time, he's rebuilt downstairs and expects to add a liquor license. That's a disappointment to all who loved the BYOB feature before. I've got a call into him now to see whether you can still bring your own and pop the cork for a fee.

For all his fans eager to return, he's open Tuesday-Friday for lunch and Tuesday-Saturday for dinner; last seating Friday and Saturday is 9:45 p.m. He emphasizes on SideDish that this is a very soft opening, and he's still working out the new-restaurant kinks.

UPDATE: Cocuzza says your can BYOB (corkage fee $4.50) until he gets his liquor license.

1022 S. Broadway St., Carrollton; 972-245-3191; www.amicisignature.com

Randall N. Lantz/Staff Photographer
Amici on March 9, 2011

For a limited time, all 730 Whataburger locations across 10 states are offering spicy ketchup in addition to the regular Fancy kind.

Pegasus News took the bullet and reported on the not-that-big-a-deal condiment news last week. (Read the entertaining story here.)

Since then, the Internet has lit up with opinions on this fascinating development. Let's hear yours.

Here's some pretty big news concerning the renovation of the Joule: Charlie Palmer at the Joule will become Charlie Palmer Steak -- the fourth in the country. Erin Jevis, director of PR and marketing for the Charlie Palmer Group, tells me that the target opening date is in March. The new menu will be similar to those at other Charlie Palmer Steak restaurants (in Washington, D.C., Las Vegas and Reno) -- "generous portions of great American artisan beef cuts as well as updated seafood classics, paired with bold wines." But the Joule restaurant, she says, will also feature "locally inspired twists from our Dallas chef team."

Well, the Joule already has a dry-aging room, so that's pretty boss. You can check out the menus of the other Charlie Palmer Steaks here. What do you think? Will you be sad to see Charlie Palmer at the Joule go, or excited to have a snazzy new steakhouse downtown -- or both?

Photo of the dining room at Charlie Palmer at the Joule by Ben Torres/Special Contributor

Eater Dallas reports that Lumi has closed its doors -- a bit of news that makes me sad. Only yesterday I wrote a note to myself that it was time to stop by and check it out again.

And on Side Dish, Nancy Nichols reports that Joel Harrington has taken a position at Charlie Palmer at the Joule rather than lighting out for Beaver Creek, Colorado, as originally planned. "I am officially executive sous chef of The Joule," she quotes Harrington as saying, "but I am basically going to be executive chef of the restaurant when the renovation is complete."

I just checked in with the restaurant's publicist. "Joel Harrington is our new Executive Sous Chef," she writes in an email, "however, there are plans to hire an Executive Chef soon." The hotel's renovation is scheduled to be completed toward the end of 2012. In addition to 31 new hotel rooms, penthouses and suites and a new spa, there will also be a new Charlie Palmer food hall. Eater had an item about it in November.

Sounds like a good thing for anyone who works downtown!

File photo

One2One Restaurant and Bar, which opened in the summer of 2010 with chef-partner Jeff Moschetti in charge of the kitchen, has a new chef, Tommy Simpson. His resume includes stints at N9NE Steakhouse, Nobu Dallas and Dragonfly at Hotel ZaZa; more recently he was executive chef at AMPM Lounge, the downtown spot that opened in 2009 and later closed.

Actually, I quite liked his cooking at AMPM, which I gave a three-star rating when I reviewed it. Having started at One2One in mid-December, according to the press release, he already has a new menu in place, though it's remarkably similar to the opening menu. There are some dishes that look promising, though, such as a sage-brined pork chop and "Granny's fried chicken." You'll find the menu on the restaurant's website.

UPDATE: I misunderstood the press release. Simpson's new menu is not yet posted on the website; co-owner Amy Cole just informed me he'll be introducing it next week. "It's going to be all his own and much different then the one you see on our website," she wrote in an email. She also answered my query about what happened to Jeff Moschetti. He left One2One in September, she said, adding that he's now at Sfuzzi.

ANOTHER UPDATE: I just heard back from Sfuzzi owner Robert Colombo, who confirms that Jeff Moschetti is executive chef at Sfuzzi in Las Colinas.

One2One Restaurant and Bar, 1339 Legacy Drive, Frisco; 214-618-2221

2009 file photo of Tommy Simpson at AMPM Lounge

Hot plates coming through in the Design District! Chef Jason Maddy, whose résumé includes David Bouley's Danube in New York and the Mansion Restaurant here in town, has serious kitchen cred. The Danube influence touches the menu (beets with horseradish, fromage blanc and Styrian pumpkin oil; veal schnitzel with cucumber salad and lingonberry), but brandade fritters, dandelion pesto and berbere-spiced lamb shoulder signal that Mediterranean flavors will be more than a footnote. So who did the space? Plan B, the boys behind Bolsa and Bolsa Mercado. In this neck of the woods, all eyes are bound to be focused on that dining room.

Leslie Brenner

1628 Oak Lawn Ave., Dallas. 214-712-9700. oakdallas.com.

This is pretty big news: Central 214, the restaurant at Hotel Palomar that's been without an executive chef since Blythe Beck left in September, just announced that Graham Dodds will be heading the kitchen beginning at the end of this month. The local-produce-loving chef, who was the founding chef at Bolsa, will be introducing his new menus sometime in the spring.

2009 File photo

Teamwork makes the dream work, doncha know? That's one of the happy-talk catchphrases I picked up from a brush with direct sales, but the team that owns Bolsa, Bolsa Mercado, Smoke, Bar Belmont AND coming soon, The Foundry and Chicken Scratch, seems to exemplify the concept.

Right now, Chris Zielke is drilling down with Bolsa Mercado. (I had lunch there today, as in killer artisanal kolaches and smoky house-made pastrami.)

Christopher Jeffers' baby is the Chicken Scratch-Foundry complex that's going to be another amazing addition to North Oak Cliff. It's not just a bar (factory-themed Foundry) tied into a restaurant (family-friendly Chicken Scratch), it's a whole city block, whose shambling structures date to the 1920s. He took me on a tour to show me the vision.

Logo by Dirk Fowler

Dough Pizzeria Napoletana owner Brad Liles sends word that Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives host Guy Fieri and his crew visited last night to eat and have an end-of-year awards party. Fieri is all over town this week filming for his Food Network show, but told Liles they made the special visit to Dough because it was so memorable eating at the San Antonio location earlier this year.

"After eating he told us,'You are hitting it out of the park' and he offered to sign our restaurant with his famous signature and painting on our wall," Liles wrote.

Photos courtesy of Dough Pizzeria Napoletana: General manager Terry Rodgers, owners Brad Liles and Keith Hall, and chef Robert Proehl with Guy Fieri.

Matt's Rancho Martinez has signed a lease for an 8,000-square-foot space at Skillman and Live Oak. Looks like Matt's will be staying in the neighborhood.

Now say that six times fast. Whew!

On Dec. 13, when the Hillcrest Avenue Burger House location turns 60 years old, all locations in the Dallas/Fort Worth and Lubbock areas will celebrate the event by offering a single-patty cheeseburger for just 60 cents each. Stop in any time throughout the day. No more than five deals per person.

They're usually $3.49, so sounds like a delicious deal to me, but I've never had a burger from the House. What do they compare to?

Photo: Angelo Chantilis Jr. and Christopher Canellos are the sons of the orginal owners of Burger House.

I have not heard back from the owners of Shine's Mediterranean Market, which recently closed, but I did get a note from Erkan Zohre, who tells me he was a manager at Shine's who also sometimes helped out in the kitchen. He and Yustun Yasa, a chef from New York, are now running Olive Tree Specialty Foods in Richardson, on the southeast corner of Coit and Arapaho . The "long serving" kitchen staff from Shine's is working there as well, he says.

"In addition to Shine's mouth-watering falafel, gyros/shawarma, Greek salad, baklavas, hummus, tabouli, and babaganoush," he writes, "one will find adana kebab (ground lamb marinated with special spices), empanadas, kunefe (kataifi with sweet cheese), and a delicious lunch buffet served daily for $ 8.99 plus tax." They also bake their own bread and desserts, and they sell produce, meats and grocery items from Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Israel, Russia, Ukraine, Croatia, Bosnia, Lebanon, France, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Argentina and the Middle East.

Definitely sounds like a place to check out. Or maybe you've been? What did you think?

Olive Tree Specialty Foods, 970 N. Coit Road, Richardson; 972-238-7154; www.olivetreeonline.net

Craving a falafel sandwich, I swung by Shine's Mediterranean Market on Saturday -- you know, the cool shop on Preston and Belt Line where you could pick up lots of great Turkish ingredients or order doner kebabs, falafels and many more Mediterranean treats?

I was chagrined to find it was closed up tight, with a "For Lease" sign in the window.

I'm trying to find out what happened. The website and phone still work, but the machine doesn't take a message. If I can reach the owners, I'll update.

File photo

Kent Rathbun, head of a restaurant empire that starts with Abacus, has partnered with the North Texas Food Bank to produce its Hunger & Thirst Calendar for 2012.

Every month, chef Rathbun offers a recipe and a coupon for dollars-off on his Kent Rathbun Elements line of sauces, condiments and more.

Now, cynics might say this is just self-promotion for chef Rathbun. But the bottom line is, 100 percent of the purchase price goes to the food bank. So I think it's a pretty cool deal. And if Rathbun gets a bump, great.

The Hunger & Thirst Calendar is sold at the Dallas and Plano Central Market locations for $19.95 and at NTFB.org for $22 (includes shipping).

Alberto Lombardi's Italian restaurant formerly known as La Fiorentina Tuscan Steakhouse is now called La Fiorentina Tuscan Grill. The change, says the press release, reflects a "more relaxed image." White tablecloths have been replaced by bare wood with a homey-looking cloth used as a skirt under it.

The new executive chef, Ben Ackland, comes to La Fiorentina by way of the Common Table, where he was development chef, according to publicist Lindsey Miller. Prior to that he was executive chef at Six Steps in Toronto and chef de parti at the Ivy in London. The menu is designed to be "more approachable," and that means, from the looks of it, more pasta dishes. The last couple of times I dined there (most recently in early September), I didn't feel pastas were Fiorentina's strong suit, so I'll be curious to taste them. The release says the menu combines the talents of Ackland and corporate executive chef Carlo Allesina, a native of Piedmont, drawing on "centuries-old recipes." I guess seared ahi tuna with tomato-basil tartare, shaved fennel and basil oil has a longer history than I'd thought. There's also pappardelle al ragu, fettucine with crabmeat and heirloom tomatoes, wild mushroom capellacci, potato-spinach gnocchi and spaghetti carbonara. I wish the spaghetti carbonara didn't mention cream in the description, but it does. I don't know what they do in Italy, but where I come from, spaghetti carbonara does not have cream in it.

Alessio Franceschetti, chef-owner of the erstwhile Alessio's Il Ristorante, last seen running the front of the house at Zio Cecio, is the new general manager.

Bistecca alla fiorentina for two is still on the menu, at $56. I'm told the prices have dropped, and in fact the branzino, for which I paid $38 in September, is now $29.

La Fiorentina Tuscan Grill, 4501 Cole Ave., Dallas; 972-528-6170

Photo by La Fiorentina

Got this in the inbox today:

The Granada Theater is opening a neighborhood restaurant and beer garden on Greenville Avenue and hiring all positions.

Sundown at Granada is hosting a Job Fair Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday so you can meet the chef and owner. Currently looking to meet GM, wait staff, bartenders, hostess, sous chef, line cooks, prep cooks, and dish washers.

Please bring a resume and arrive at 3520 Greenville Ave. (old M Street Bar beside the Granada Theater) from either 12pm - 2 pm or 5pm - 7pm and earn a chance to interview further.

Pegasus News reports that Sol's Nieto on Mockingbird has closed. It seems business just wasn't booming.

"Sol's is done," manager Blanca Perez said in an email. "Business wasn't as good anymore, and we got a bit behind on rent. The landlords refused to make any kind of deal with us, so there is nothing we can do. After 10 years, it's heart-breaking for us to go down this way."

I never ate at this location but did frequent the Deep Ellum original and loved their chicken nachos before they closed in February. Anyone else sad to hear of an affordable Tex-Mex place closing?

NOTE: If you choose to write in your Tex-Mex choice in the poll above, please let us know the name of the place in a comment on this post. Thanks!

Once that initial shopper's adrenaline rush wears off on Friday, you will want something to eat. Here are three places that will have free food:
*Rudy's Country Store and Bar-B-Q will give away brisket and egg tacos from 8 to 10 a.m. You have to show a store receipt to prove you're a shopper; one per person limit. They have locations in Arlington, Allen, Frisco and Denton, and the deal also includes Waco, Killeen and Houston, if you're headed south.
*Kids under 12 eat free all weekend at Ikea in Frisco.
*Sam's Clubs will have free breakfast -- members only -- from 5 to 8 a.m. Choose from hot egg sandwiches, fresh fruit, yogurt and coffee. Then you can go sample your way through the store for dessert.

When I was told that Jason Weaver would be not only executive chef for the new Omni Dallas Hotel, overseeing all the restaurants except Bob's Steak and Chop House, but that he'd also be executive chef at Texas Spice, I was super excited. After all, Weaver earned rave reviews at the French Room, where he was executive chef from 2005 to 2009, and I never got a chance to experience his cooking there -- or anywhere.

But I just got my hands on Texas Spice's menu, and at the bottom it credits Cory Garrison as chef.

Whoa -- what's up? Whose menu is dat? What happened to Weaver? I spoke with the publicist, Brandon Smulyan, who tells me that Weaver created the menu, with Garrison's help. Weaver will be in and out of the kitchen, as he'll have so many operational duties at the hotel.

Yes, the word is out (sort of). The chef at Driftwood, Oak Cliff's recently announced restaurant, will be Omar Flores, executive sous chef at Abacus. As I understand it, he's given notice but is still working at Kent Rathbun's flagship restaurant.

The Culinary Institute of America grad will develop the Oak Cliff restaurant's mid-range seafood menu with owner Jonn Baudoin.

Jonn Baudoin has taken over the old Con Fusion space at 642 W. Davis St., next door to Bolsa Mercado, where he's poised to open Driftwood, a chef-driven, mid-level-priced seafood restaurant in the coming months.

He calls it "New American influenced by the East and West coasts," and it will offer small and large plates from $7 to the mid-$20s. It's designed, he says, to be a place locals can dine several times a week - a perfect match, I might add, for the budding mercado next door. I've heard who the chef might be, and if it's true, this will be a place to watch.

Baudoin has managed a string of Dallas restaurants, including Salve!, Mi Piaci, Nikita (remember Nikita?), Dallas Fish Market and, most recently, Rsitorante Nicola.

This morning, Steven Doyle reported on Crave DFW that Stephan Pyles signed a lease for a new restaurant Uptown.

I just confirmed with Pyles: He did sign a lease at Granite Properties' Park 17 development. The restaurant, which he hopes to open in the second quarter of 2012, will be something "very modern Texas," he told me.

"it won't be Star Canyon," he said, "but hopefully we'll evoke that spirit -- a celebration of Texas." It will be much more affordable than his namesake restaurant, with main courses in the $20's, and check averages in the 40s. "I haven't quite developed it fully," said the chef. "It'll have influences from the south -- a lot of southern food. The techniques and tastes in general have come so far since Star Canyon was around; it's been 15 years." There will also be Mexican influences -- he plans to have a taco bar, with corn and flour tortillas made in-house -- plus range and cowboy cooking, along with a bit of Cajun and Creole, "because that's around in the state."

Pyles has always wanted to do a "really good fried chicken," he said. He offered one at Baby Routh, but only at lunch time. Using sous vide and C-Vaps, he'll be able to cook fried chicken at his new place to order. "When i found out Tiffany [Derry] was doing it over at Private Social," he said, "I thought shoot! Somebody beat me to it!" His will be a honey fried chicken.

He is close to deciding on a chef, probably someone from within his organization. The name? That's another story. He's looking for something that evokes modern Texas. A couple of ideas he liked were shot down by the trademark attorney, he said.

Hey -- maybe you have an idea. What should Stephan Pyles call his new restaurant?

Photo by Chris Plavidal/Special Contributor

Campo Modern Country Bistro, which we wrote about back in August, opens tonight in Oak Cliff. The restaurant, brought to us from Miguel Vicéns and John Paul Valverde, owners of Coevál Studio, a design firm, has a menu created by consulting chef Matt McCallister, whose last gig was as executive chef at Stephan Pyles. Apparently there's no website yet, but here's The website is still just a landing page; look for updates onCampo's Facebook page.

I'm trying to get my hands on a menu; will update. McCallister told me in August that he'd be creating the menu and overseeing the kitchen, but that one of his top priorities would be hiring a chef. The press release makes no mention of a chef; will let you know about that, too. The liquor license is still pending, so presumably it's BYOB till then. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: McCallister will be running the kitchen for now. His brief menu, which changes "every few days," is intriguing. Appetizers include smoked baccalao dip; chorizo donuts (!) with charred oregano aioli; something called "rabbit in porchetta"; and crushed beets with beet top pesto, beet mostarda and sheep's yogurt. There's a trio of daring pastas (braised oxtail orecchiete with butternut squash and mushrooms; Gulf shrimp tagliarini with oregano pesto and sea urchin; Gorgonzola country ham gnocchi with pear and walnut). Mains include leg of lamb with mint salsa verde; cinnamon short ribs with braised romaine, raisin chutney and celery root; and hay-smoked scallops with charred cabbage puree, Brussels sprouts, bacon and bone marrow. The mains are $17 to $21.

BYOB is fine until the restaurant gets its liquor license. "Folks are welcome to bring a bottle of wine," writes publicist Amity Thomas in an email, "but they will be pouring a glass or two for them if not."

1115 N. Beckley, Dallas; 214-946-1308; campodallas.com

Kyle McClelland can say goodbye New York apples, hello Texas sweet potatoes. The former New York chef who worked at Caviar Russe has left the Big Apple to oversee the kitchen at The Cedars Social. 'Turns out he worked with bartender-co-owner Michael Martensen before.

"I loved working with Michael Martensen on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts," McClelland says in the press release. Presumably when he sous-cheffed at Toppers in chef David Daniel's kitchen at The Waiwinet luxury resort.

McClelland will be reworking The Cedars Social menu, developed by consulting chef John Tesar, with "a more seasonal approach," the release says. He's a grad of the French Culinary Academy in New York City.

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Taylor Adams catches up with the story on the East Dallas Blog. Back in the spring, Hypnotic Donuts owner James St. Peter sent a couple of huge boxes of his donuts to the newsroom, and the reaction was decidedly mixed.

Have you tasted them? What did you think?

Cafe San Miguel will serve its last dinner on Saturday night. The news came via an email to restaurant patrons. "After making a home at 1907 N. Henderson Ave. for over 6 years, with great sadness we announce the closure of Cafe San Miguel," it said. The owners still have Hacienda San Miguel in Fort Worth's West 7th development.

Have you been to Cafe San Miguel lately? Will you miss it? Do you plan on stopping in between now and Saturday Sunday brunch?

UPDATE: I just spoke with Cafe San Miguel's owner, Hugo Galvan, who told me the restaurant's final meal with be brunch on Sunday. "It's time to move, time to do something else," he said. "It's not doing that well anymore." The location was the problem, he said -- that stretch of Henderson is "more like a bar destination at this point." He added that he'd like to re-open elsewhere; around the first of next year he'll start looking for a new location. Cafe San Miguel opened in 2005. Galvan told me he and Ron Guest owned the restaurant together, and he bought out Guest about three years ago. Then eight months ago he opened Hacienda San Miguel in Fort Worth.

Staff file photo

Chef James Neel, who closed his long-running Tramontana in September, is an instructor at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts Dallas.

I ran into him at the Caesar Salad competition Sunday, where he was among the past winners (1998) competing against other winners.

"I'm happy," he says, "just truly, truly happy." And you know what? He looks happy. Congratulations on the new post, James.

No doubt you've heard about the bar that Eddie "Lucky" Campbell and Michael Martensen have been planning to open downtown on Main Street in partnership with Ed Bailey,, owner of the Bailey's Prime Plus restaurants.

It will be called the Chesterfield, and it will be a restaurant -- not just a bar. And Martensen is no longer involved. "It's myself and Ed Bailey moving forward with this," says Campbell. "Michael Martensen has resigned from the project and we wish him much continued success" wrote Gary Van Gundy, president of Edward C. Bailey Enterprises, in an email.

The chef will be Michael Ehlert, a recent transplant from New York City, where he was executive sous chef at DBGB Kitchen and Bar, one of Daniel Boulud's New York restaurants. Ehlert's menu will include small plates, such as short ribs braised in veal stock enriched with roasted coffee beans and poblano chiles, served with a parsnip puree. And main courses. And salads, like a nicoise featuring deviled quail eggs and preserved tuna he'll make in-house. And flatbreads. And sandwiches. He's brining a pastrami as we speak, with the idea of featuring it in, say, a Reuben.

Did you ever eat at the Grazing Cow, the cheerful grass-fed burger place that opened last year in Plano? If not and you've been meaning to go -- as was the case for one of my newsroom colleagues, who happened to mention it was on his must-do list a few days ago -- it's too late. The burger place, in an unfortunate hidden strip mall location on Avenue K and E. Spring Parkway in Plano, closed three and a half weeks ago. They just couldn't make it, co-owner Amy Martin told me on the phone. "Honestly, the only people who came in were couponers," she said. "People say they want to pay for great beef," she added, but they don't really.

Martin was using excellent locally raised, grass-fed beef from Burgundy Pasture Beef in Grandview, with 20% fat in the grind, and cooking them to order -- even rare. Martin still has her catering business, Mangez. When I stopped by for burgers in spring of 2010, they were charging $5.95 for a 1/3 pound burger.

This raises a question. We know lots of people love coupons, and when you're struggling financially, they can be a godsend. But is the coupon craze hurting the restaurant business? If so, how much? In the case of the Grazing Cow, I suspect the dismal, hard-to-find location also had something to do with it.

Staff File photo of the Grazing Cow's "Pow Burger"

Taylor Adams, a clever editor at Neighbors Go, turned up a surprising post on Craig's List: Charlie Palmer at the Joule is looking for an executive chef.

Which begs the question: What happened to Scott Romano? He'd headed that kitchen since the hotel opened in early 2008. Calls have been placed. Will keep you posted as I learn more.

UPDATE: OK, I am so out of it. Crave DFW had this ages ago, as Andrea Grimes, who's about to leave Eater Dallas -- and Dallas itself -- for Austin -- was kind enough to point out. Please tell me I'm not the only one to have missed the very big news that Scott Romano resigned. According to Steve Doyle, Romano is going to work as a personal chef for six months, then open his own restaurant in the Dallas are with Charlie Palmer's assistance.

According to Charlie Palmer at the Joule food and beverage director William Friedrichs, Richard Blankenship -- who served as Romano's executive sous chef -- is heading the kitchen while the search for new top toque is underway.

Photo of Scott Romano by Ben Torres

In my review of Dough Pizzeria Napoletana that appears in this morning's Guide, I wrote that the management of the pizzeria takes pride in its Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana certification. Well, that may be true -- only the restaurant does not have that coveted certification. A source who did not want to be named tipped me off to the fact late yesterday.

Up until this morning, Dough's website stated that both the San Antonio and Dallas locations were VPN-certified. "DOUGH Pizzeria Napoletana, located in San Antonio and Dallas, Texas is to date one of an elite 54 restaurants in the United States and #292 in the world to receive the prestigious certification from L'Associazione Vera Pizza Napoletana for serving authentic Pizza Napoletana," the website said.

In fact, only the San Antonio location is has the VPN certification, says Peppe Miele, president of the U.S. Association Verace Pizza Napoletana. This morning I spoke with Lori Horn, co-owner with Doug Horn of Dough Pizzeria Napoletana in San Antonio; Keith Hall and Brad Liles are the licensees who run the Dallas location. Horn said she knew that the Dallas store was not certified. "You have to be open at least six months to be certified," she said. But she said she was unaware that the website said that the Dallas location was VPN-certified. "I guess we'll have to update that," she said. She took care of that right away; the mention that the Dallas location was VPN-certified has already been removed.

There's also the matter of Dough's menu, which does not say outright that the pizzeria is VPN-certified, but in reading it, I think many diners would be led to believe that it is. I know I did.
"AUTHENTIC PIZZA NAPOLETANA" says a line in bold type across the back of the menu.

A big "happy birthday" goes out to Dickey's Barbecue Pit, which just celebrated its 70th anniversary. The original location, opened by Roland Dickey in 1941, is still in business on North Central Expressway at Henderson.

True confession: My very first bite of Texas barbecue so many moons ago was at a Dickey's. It was amazingly good to me, I still like the sauce and the red-bell-pepper-flecked coleslaw remains a fave.

It's a franchise now, with 177 locations in 35 states. But you can still detect the early vibe in the patina at the original (pictured), just as 'cue heads exalt the original Sonny Bryan's on Inwood.

A bombshell of an email just landed from Casey Thompson, the "Top Chef" star who until ten minutes ago was chef at Brownstone in Fort Worth. Here it is in its entirety:

Hello all,

I will no longer be serving as the consulting chef of Brownstone restaurant. I have enjoyed my time creating the menus with the team at Brownstone and wish them much success. I will continue to focus on my other projects including opening my new restaurant in the Napa Valley area.

Thank you.

Casey Thompson

2010 Staff File Photo

I drove by the sign on Greenville on a vacant lot between Rusty Taco and Desperados. It said "Start - real fast food." I think it also said coming soon. Now you know almost as much as I do.

I can find nothing online about this restaurant except its trademark logo with the words "Start - real fast food" incorporated into a design that shows a bird. Now, crazily, I can't call it back up.

Anybody got any information out there?

Yesterday we learned on Eater Dallas that the Zio Cecio opening had been delayed to next Tuesday. Well, I just got word that it's been pushed back again -- to Friday, October 21. We'll see.

Francesco Farris' restaurant will be opening its doors -- whenever that may be -- in the old Cafe Italia spot, near the old Patry's space Farris originally planned to occupy. Stay tuned.

4615 W. Lovers Lane, Dallas; 214-351-1100; www.ziocecio.com

I was stunned and saddened over the weekend by the news that Consilient Restaurants closed Alma on Saturday. I felt that the N. Henderson spot -- which was only eight months old -- was the best Mexican restaurant in Dallas.

Executive chef Anastacia Quiñones is super-talented. Of course the corn tortillas were stupendous, made from corn ground in-house. I don't know another chef in the country who does that. But it was about much more than that. Did you ever tastes Quiñones' albondigas? Made from pork jowls and Wagyu ribeye, they were tender, sumptuous, deep-flavored, incredible. Quiñones sauced them voluptuously in a smoky chipotle sauce that was at once deep and bright. Wrapped in that fabulous corn tortilla, it was one of the most delicious things to eat in town. I celebrated my birthday at Alma recently (yes, among all the restaurants in Dallas, that's where I felt like eating), and we'd had our order all planned out -- and then changed everything once we heard the specials. I loved Quiñones' velvety winter squash soup, served garnish-first (roasted corn, diced squash, peppers, cilantro, I think, and a dash of crema), then the soup poured over. Her gorditas de res -- another special that night -- rocked.

I loved the feel of the room, and the service was wonderful. The cooking, I felt, was even stronger than it had been under opening chef Michael Brown, and I'd planned to re-review it soon.

So what happened?

Teresa Gubbins reports over on Pegasus that Alma, the practically new place in the former Cuba Libre space on Henderson, has closed, according to the phone message:

"We regret to inform you that Alma is closed for business as of Oct. 9, 2011. We'd like to thank all of our wonderful guests who supported us along the way."

Gubbins suggests people never really let go of Cuba Libre and the fact that Alma's prices were higher. What a shame. The kitchen not only made its own corn tortillas, but ground the corn that went into them.

Espartaco ("Taco") and Dunia Borga -- the couple behind the La Duni restaurants -- recently opened La Duni Latin Kitchen at the Village at Fairview. It shares a space with Dulce by La Duni, which they opened in June. La Duni Latin Kitchen is a handsome spot with a stylish feel (love the bar) and a menu similar to the other La Duni restaurants. Dulce is a quick-service cafe that sells pastries and a long list of coffees. Oh, and "micrema" -- the frozen dessert that was the subject of Kim Pierce's last post.

When I got the press release a couple days ago -- which only described micrema as an "innovative" frozen dessert, I started to get very curious, so I headed up there to check it out. First I had a salad at La Duni Latin Kitchen -- which isn't even separated by the cafe by a wall -- you can just walk from one into the other. After lunch, I told the server I wanted to taste micrema -- and he'd never heard of it.

I filed away the release about the opening of Dulce by Duni at The Village at Fairview to post Friday, and lo, Ron Ruggless over at Nation's Restaurant News groks that this is a cutting-edge concept that's totally news today.

Here's what Ruggless writes: "Dunia Borga, who created Dulce with her husband, Espartaco Borga, said the restaurant offers customizable flavors of ice cream that are chosen by the customer and then whipped with liquid nitrogen for nearly instant fresh ice cream.

"'Our most popular flavor is the caramelized pistachio,' Dunia Borga said.

"The ice cream, which the Borgas call 'micrema,' is priced by weight, similar to many frozen yogurt shops."

Liquid nitrogen comes to the corner ice cream shop! Check out Ruggless' story here.

233 Town Place, The Village at Fairview. 972-549-4069, www.laduni.com

Those sleek little dark leather place mats adorning the tables in the main dining room at the Mansion Restaurant? They're gone -- replaced by white tablecloths.

Not since mid-2007 has the room felt so very formal. Or so I presume -- I didn't get to dine there until 2009. The restaurant was redesigned four years ago, part of a $20 million renovation, and when it reopened that fall, with John Tesar as chef, the tablecloths disappeared from the main dining room and the garden room. The new, more contemporary look was gorgeous wood and sleek leather mats.

Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, which owns the Mansion, is under new ownership -- Hong Kong-based New World Hospitality acquired it in July. But that's not why the tablecloths went back on, says restaurant manager Ryan Harvey. "There were a lot of traditional diners, the folks that have been coming to the Mansion since 1980, when it changed, as far as the look and the feel. A lot of the new clientele and some of old clientele adapted to the new look."

But not everyone. "A lot of them had so many great memories with the older decor that they felt like it was a whole new restaurant," he says, and that's why they're trying out the new-old look. Now, once again, it feels completely different -- just because of the linens. "We want to give the guests what they want," says Harvey.

Does that mean jackets will once again be required? "I don't foresee that happening," he says. And the white tablecloths are only at dinnertime -- the place mats come out at breakfast and lunch.

2000 staff file photo of the Mansion back in the day

Long in the making, Bistro 31, the new restaurant from Alberto Lombardi debuts tonight in Highland Park Village. Longtime Mansion alum Eric Brandt is the chef. The restaurant's publicist Lindsey Miller was kind enough to let me peek at the menu, which is still being tweaked, but at this point there's plenty to intrigue, all in a Mediterranean mood. For dinner, starters include salt cod croquettes with piquillo aioli; escargots with crisp pork belly, a fricassee of trumpet mushrooms and walnut pistou; and a charred tomato soup with Gruyere crouton. Pastas depart from the ordinary, with handmade spaghetti alla chitarra with lobster bolognese; trofie with crispy pancetta, roasted cauliflower, parmesan cream and anchovy bread crumbs (yes, please!) and torchio with Dungeness crab, sweet peas and lemon confit. For mains, you can go simple with a pork-belly-enriched Wagyu burger or quiche and salad, or go all cheffy with brioche-crusted lemon sole or a roasted duck breast with Valencia oranges, picholine olives and toasted almond couscous.

The streamlined, one-page wine list omits vintages, but offers many selections by the glass, and some promising bottles from Europe and the U.S. priced under $50.

Lombardi is the restaurateur behind La Fiorentina, Toulouse, Taverna and more.

Service begins with dinner tonight; lunch starts tomorrow and brunch on Saturday and Sunday. Breakfast starts next Monday.

Bistro 31, 87 Highland Park Village, Dallas; 214-420-3900
www.bistro31dallas.com

I love taking my first peek of a new restaurant's menu, and I was curious to see what chef Gabriel DeLeon would have in store for diners at Mi Dia From Scratch, the Mexican-Tex-Mex-New-Mex spot that debuts today in Grapevine. DeLeon had me at the first antojito on the menu: quesadillas de huitlacoche. That's house-made blue corn tortillas filled with queso asadero, sauteed huitlachoche (Mexican corn fungus, a delicacy) and roasted veggies. He serves it with crema and New Mexico red and green chile sauces. I am so there!

There's also pork belly sopes with a salsa negra; quails grilled over pecan wood; guajillo chile-rubbed grilled duck breast (with a duck confit flauta); and cochinita pibíl, plus "street style" tacos (duck carnitas!) and a bunch of Santa Fe dishes (New Mexico Tampiquena, stacked enchiladas).

DeLeon's cooking at the short-lived Masaryk was pretty impressive -- it'll be interesting to experience his contribution to the ongoing Mexican Revolution. It's open daily for lunch and dinner.

Mí Día From Scratch, 1295 S. Main St., Grapevine; 817-421-4747; www.midiafromscratch.com

You know the old fashion rule that you're not supposed to wear white after Labor Day? Well, the cocktail world's kind of like that too -- out with the gin, in with the whiskey. That's more or less the subject of the latest Table Talk column. With guest appearances by cocktail whizzes Eddie "Lucky" Campbell, Michael Martensen and Sean Conner.

And here is Juicy Bites -- a roundup of recent restaurant news.

Photo of Bailey's Prime Plus' Smoked Pecan Old Fashioned by Jason Janik/Special Contributor

I just had a phone chat with Jason Weaver, who filled me in on his plans for Texas Spice and the other restaurants he'll be heading up at the Omni Dallas Hotel, which opens Nov. 11. Food and beverage director Charles Riley was also on the line.

The restaurant will be a farm-to-table concept. "We want to get to the farmer's market," says Weaver, "really bring a local farm to table type of restaurant to Dallas." I pointed out that we already have a few farm-to-table concepts here. So what will distinguish his? "I think it'll be of course our own style, my recipes and my vision for the cuisine."

How about the menu? "We definitely want to do some kind of sous vide short rib," says the chef, "and an awesome brisket." Yes, he'll have a wood smoker. "And I'm on the hunt for some good grass-fed steak."

For starters, he's thinking "a chicken fried quail dish, some time of local pork belly, maybe even a crispy pig's head torchon. I'm also looking at doing some kind of house-made pickles -- pickled eggs, that sort of thing."

Teresa Gubbins scooped this yesterday on Pegasus News: Cane Rosso's Jay Jerrier has brought on Dino Santonicola to head his kitchen.

Born in Naples, Italy, Santonicola is a master pizzaiolo who worked, according to the subsequent press release, at Fiorenzano Pizzeria and Brandi, birthplace of the pizza Margherita. In 2004 he opened Via Tribunali pizzeria in Seattle, then last year he moved to Washington, D.C., where he opened Pizzeria da Marco.

Jerrier says, via email, that besides making pizza, Santonicola will be rounding out Cane Rosso's menu with traditional Neopolitan dishes. "We already have started doing calzones and will likely add gnocchi and eggplant parmigiano," Jerrier writes. "We are also looking at some typical friggatoria [fried] items like arancini, croquettes, timballo, fried sardines, etc."

For the record, it is Cane Rosso, not Il Cane Rosso. The mistaken name keeps getting reprinted/reblogged everywhere, no doubt in part because the restaurant's website is ilcanerosso.com. The first time I wrote about Cane Rosso, Jerrier told me in the course of my fact-checking (a vanishing art, I guess) that the reason the website is ilcanerosso.com is that the domaine name canerosso.com was already taken.

Months later, I noticed that the website refers elswhere to the restaurant as Il Cane Rosso, not just in the url. Huh? I shot a email to Jerrier asking him about it, and here's what he answered: "Our website still says 'Il Cane Rosso' because I am the world's worst webmaster.... We are launching a 'real' website on 10/1 that will have all the branding corrected and in place."

Photo of Dino Santonicola by Cane Rosso

Just this morning I said to a colleague, "I wonder who's going to head up the kitchens at the Omni?" Well, I just got the answer: Jason Weaver, who was executive chef at the French Room at the Adolphus hotel from 2005 to 2009. Weaver will serve as executive chef for a lineup of restaurants at the Omni Dallas Hotel, slated to open downtown on November 11, that includes Texas Spice, the Owner's Box, the Uptown Terrace, the Lobby Lounge and Morsels. Weaver will also oversee in-room dining, banquets and catering. There will also be a Bob's Steak and Chop House in the hotel, but Bob's will have a different executive chef.

When then-Morning News restaurant critic Bill Addison reviewed the French Room during Weaver's reign there, he gave the restaurant a coveted five-star rating, lauding Weaver's "virtuosic" starters and "stately" main courses. "If Mr. Weaver plays it fairly safe in his use of commonly recognizable ingredients," wrote Addison, "it's in his constantly evolving compositions that he distinguishes himself as both a showman and a provocateur."

Weaver's most recent gig was as executive chef at La Torretta Lake Resort & Spa in Montgomery, Texas; his resume also includes serving as opening executive chef at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Las Vegas and the Mandarin Oriental in Manhattan, plus stints as Cafe Sambal at the Mandarin Oriental in Miami and the Grill at the Ritz-Carlton in Dearborn, Michigan.

Thoughts? Did you ever get to experience Weaver's cooking at the French Room?

2005 staff file photo

As Pegasus News and SideDish have noted, Kenichi founder Billy Rieger was found dead on Tuesday.

According to the the Aspen Times:

"Bil Rieger of Aspen, founder and co-owner of Kenichi Aspen restaurant, was found dead in his apartment above Clark's Market on Tuesday night. According to a report Wednesday evening from the Pitkin County Coroner's Office, Rieger committed suicide by hanging. He was 50."

Very sad news. We snapped this photo of Rieger in June at the Texas Outlaw party for this year's Aspen Food & Wine Classic. He was as outgoing as ever at the time.

After the jump, I've included a portion of a 2007 story I did when Rieger opened Kenichi Dallas at Victory Park. Talk about an amazing life, here's what came up while discussing the restaurant's over-the-top light fixture:

"Rieger says he wanted to 'replicate a glowing squid' that he saw at age 10 while diving off the Great Barrier Reef with his father and Jacques Cousteau. (The adventurous restaurateur's obsession with the undersea world extends to his cellphone, for which his message urges callers to "please eat more sushi.")

Photo by Courtney Perry

Way back in February, Kim Pierce broke the story that Francesco Farris planned to open his own restaurant, Zio Cecio, in the former Patry's spot on Lovers Lane. At that point, he was hoping for a spring opening. The Sardinian chef was one of the two brothers who opened Arcodoro and Pomodoro.

Well, now Farris is actually close -- according to his publicist, he'll open sometime in October; he's shooting for Oct. 7. The restaurant will not be in the old Patry's space, but rather in the old Cafe Italia spot, as Nancy Nichols noted recently on SideDish.

When Kim interviewed him last winter, he described what he'd be turning out at his new restaurant as "simple, home-style (real) Italian - affordable, casual and family-friendly."

A look at the menu (which publicist Mallory Jensen was kind enough to share with me in its not-yet-finalized form) indicates that maybe he's gone a little more ambitious than that. Antipasti include bottarga crostini with Parmagiano Reggiano butter (need some, now!); two octopus dishes (one's grilled with spicy tomato sauce; the other's baby octopus with squid ink and orzo); and there's a section of the menu devoted to carpacci -- three of beef and two seafood. Salads and antipasti are $8.50 to $13.50. Among pastas, there's a classic carbonara; fettuccine bolognese; mezzaluna with seafood and ricotta in pistacho-cream sauce and more, and four risotti -- which you can order as a quartet, for at least three people. Wood-fired pizza will be offered too, and secondi like grilled Cornish hen; Tuscan-style steak; osso bucco braised in Barolo; and a salt-crusted whole Mediterranean fish for two -- with the price stated up-front on the menu ($62.50). Other secondi range from $18.50 to $31.50; pastas are $12.50 to $18.50; risotti "per tutti" (apparently intended to share) are $21.50 to $22.50.

For dessert? How about torta di limone with a grappa infusion? Or fresh ricotta with bitter honey and black pepper? For the less adventurous, there's tiramasu and that great Sardinian classic, crème brûlée.

Curious about the name? Cecio is a nickname for Francesco, and Zio means "uncle."

The highly anticipated Uptown restaurant where chef Tiffany Derry will strut her culinary stuff does not open tonight -- instead the restaurant is having a private VIP sneak preview, as Alan Peppard reports in his column today. But Private Social will open to the public tomorrow night.

"Social" refers to the informal lounge, which will serve shareable small plates; "private" refers to the dining room. I haven't seen the Social menu yet, but the Private menu looks pretty appealing: starters like sweetbreads with braised radishes and smokey ham broth; "Top Chef" pork buns; and pastrami-cured hamachi with tomato jam, coriander vinaigrette and pickled chile, and main courses such as white sturgeon with blue crab chowder, pancetta and licorice (!); braised beef cheek with pepperoni sauce and cheese grits; and smoked venison with Texas creamer "cassoulet."

3232 McKinney Ave., Dallas; 214-754- 4744; privatesocial.com

As promised, on Tuesday John Tesar plans to open a new mini-restaurant in the Commissary-adjacent dining room that was briefly the Table. As at the Table, there are only 12 seats. Unlike the Table, it will be open Tuesday through Saturday nights, offering two seatings -- at 6:30 and 8:30 -- by reservation only.

"Our new concept is dedicated to the passion and art of cooking," the press release quotes him as saying. "We will be using as many local and seasonal products as possible to create interesting and inspiring cuisine five nights per week. That is the essence of One Art."

Tesar will offer an a la carte menu, with dishes like mackerel crudo with tomato compote, caper relish and pecorino shards; a salad of persimmon, watercress, pomegranate and Brazos Valley blue cheese; pig's ear Milanese with a fried duck egg, green tomato chutney and wild arugula; and Alaskan halibut poached in almond milk and clover honey with celery root puree, almond foam and shaved almonds. White-on-white-on-white! After-dinner offerings will include a cheese selection, desserts like a grapefruit gratin with pink peppercorn-rosé Champagne sabayon and pies made by Tesar's wife Tracy.

There will also be a 3-course fixed price menu that will change weekly.

One Art, 1722 Routh St., Dallas; 469-600-4660

Photo of John Tesar in the kitchen at the Commissary by Sonya N. Hebert/Staff Photographer

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Straight off Bolsa's Facebook page:

Bolsa and the soon-to-open Bolsa Mercado are pleased to announce that Jeff Harris (formerly of Craft) has been named Executive Chef of Bolsa and Bolsa Mercado. Joining him on the Bolsa team is Matt Balke (formerly of York Street).

Graham Dodds, who opened Bolsa in 2008 and held the Executive Chef position ever since, announced last week that he has decided to pursue another opportunity.

Teresa Gubbins over on Pegasus quotes Tommy DeAlano of Candleroom fame saying, "Jason Maddy will be our executive chef at Oak. We'll have a formal release next week."

Oak is a new Design District resto. John Tesar hired Maddy as his chef de cuisine at the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek. Before coming to the Mansion, Maddy worked with David Bull at Austin's Driskill Hotel and competed on Bull's Iron Chef team.

Get Gubbins' complete take here.

Yippee -- a new restaurant! (We've been stuck in such a desperately dry spell vis a vis openings....) Patrick Colombo is opening an Italian place tomorrow in Preston Royal Village: Princi Italia. It is a typographically challenging concept, as there's a typographical element between Princi and Italia that's like a completely vertical slash. I can't find it on my keyboard.

Colombo has engaged Kevin Ascolese as executive chef, and design firm JonesBaker went for a limestone Tuscan farmhouse look, according to the press release. There's also a garden with two "historic" live oaks (really? In Preston Royal Village shopping center? How cool!) David Brawley, who was pastry chef at N9NE steakhouse and who worked with Ascolese at Sfuzzi and Ferre, is pastry chef. Ascolese, who most recently headed the kitchen at Cru A Wine Bar in Denver, has a resume that also includes executive chef positions at Salve and Mi Piaci.

Princi Italia has a wood-burning pizza oven, natch; the menu is "modern Italian." That would be things like rock shrimp scampi; burrata with rapini, arugula, lemon and olive oil; bruschette with fava beans or fig and Gorgonzola; rigatoni with chicken meatballs; veal saltimbocca and pan-seared scallops with lemon-spinach risotto and saffron-parsley sauce.

Princi Italia, 5959 Royal Lane (northwest corner of Royal and Preston Road), Dallas; 214-739-5959; www.princiitalia.com

Chef James Neel has closed Tramontana, the Preston Center bistro he bought in 1999 and had been running ever since. "Thank you to all my loyal customers and now friends who have made the last 12 years at Tramontana, the best of my life," he wrote in a note to his email list. His lease has ended, he explained, and given the state of the economy, he decided not to renew. "Let's vow to continue to enjoy great food and wine and support our local chef owned restaurants," he concluded. "I hope to cook for you again as I will continue cooking in the Dallas area."

Photo of James Neel in Tramontana's kitchen by Ryan C. Henricksen/Staff Photographer

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The Place at Perry's, which celebrates its 10th birthday this year, will be closing its doors at the corner of Routh and Cedar Springs after dinner on November 18 and moving to shiny new digs a block north on Cedar Springs.

CEO Devin Cox is quite excited about the move. The new space will be brighter and lighter, with 22-foot ceilings, he says. "And we have a fabulous new patio that will seat a little over a hundred." A 35-foot-tall rotunda will feature a glass sculpture created by Grapevine glass blower David Gappa, and Jimmy Turner, senior director of gardens for the Dallas Arboretum, is designing a garden of edible herbs and plants that will wrap around the patio. There will be a small, speakeasy-type bar in back called 1049 Bar. The servers will be getting new uniforms designed by Michael Faircloth.

Chef Jaime Corona's menu will remain largely the same; it will continue to feature meat raised sustainably and without hormones.

"We've had some changes over the last couple years," says Cox. "We're keeping the name the Place at Perry's. There's not too many places of our stature in Dallas that belong to Dallas. We are Dallas' restaurant. We're just moving a few yards north." Depending on how construction goes, he says, they'll reopen in the new location around the end of the year, "first of the year, latest."

The Place at Perry's, 2911 Routh St., Dallas; 214-871-9991

Renderings by The Place at Perrys

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Nancy Nichols breaks the story on SideDish: Chef Blythe Beck is leaving Central 214. Beck confirms it in a tweet: "Well I guess the word is out! I will be at Central 214 until September 30th and I am doing my cooking class and my 9/11 event!! Come see me!"

2009 staff file photo of Blythe Beck

Pat Snuffer, whose eponymous restaurant on Greenville Avenue has been attracting diners for decades, shot down rumors Monday that the Greenville Avenue location would close.
"We've been there 33 years," said Snuffer of the chain's original location near the Granada Theater. "I don't plan on going anywhere. We have a lease there, with options to renew."
The Greenville location is one of seven in the chain.

Wednesday is D-day - as in Done Day - for Kay Agnew at what's morphing into Wendy Krispin's Royal Sixty, her current-almost-former address for Margaux's A Restaurant By Design.

Agnew will be serving lunch through Wednesday, with dinner Friday followed again on Tuesday with live music by flamenco-jazz guitarist Isai Chacon. Make reservations at 214-740-1985 - last chance for gumbo, soft-shell crabs and etouffee.

At least for now. Agnew will spend the next several weeks readying Bridge Bistro at 921 Riverfront Blvd., at Payne. Margaux's Catering will continue seamlessly, and along with Bridge Bistro, Agnew will finish out the Twilight Room behind the bistro, where the wall of roses will bloom again.

Bridge Bistro will open serving breakfast and lunch. Stay tuned.

June Naylor has the story on dfw.com: Celebrity chef Tim Love plans to open a groovy-sounding new place in Fort Worth -- Woodshed Smokehouse. I caught up with the chef by phone this afternoon; he was beyond excited about what he's cooking up for Woodshed, on a waterfront site off University Ave., near where the old Hoffbrau steakhouse was, if you happen to know Fort Worth restaurant history better than I do. "It's a triangle of land right on the water," he says. "It's the most beautiful setting."

What Love refers to as his "quasi-barbecue spot" will feature the smoke of four kinds of wood and a lot of wild game, and have an "ethnic, world barbecue" spin. "For a long time, I've wanted to do something that has to do with open fire," says the chef. Each day he'll be doing a different whole animal on the rotisserie -- things like goat, wild boar, pig, lamb, half-steers and whole birds. Other dishes are wood-roasted vegetables; a beef shin he rubs with cayenne then smokes for 16 hours that he'll serve with fresh ricotta, lime and tortillas and serves for four and herb-rubbed-then-brined pork shoulder that he smokes -- with a bourbon-Coke cocktail in the smoker -- for some interesting steam. He'll serve that with pickled vegetables and chile. "Kind of a banh mi effect," he says, "but very Texas."

His opening date is still very much up in the air. "Certainly before the end of October," he says.

Photo of Tim Love by Courtney Perry/Staff Photographer

Steve Doyle has the story at Crave DFW: Coéval Studio, a design group that specializes in restaurants, plans to open Campo Modern Country Bistro in Oak Cliff. Matt McAllister, whose last steady gig was as executive chef at Stephan Pyles, will be consulting chef and oversee kitchen operations. The restaurant will be next to Jonathon's, in the space that was briefly La Carreta Argentina.

I caught up with chef McAllister and asked him about his role there -- how is this consulting/overseeing position different than being executive chef?

"The menu fully reflects my creative judgment," McAllister responded in an email, "and I will be involved in the hiring process, and well as kitchen management while I am there. However, one of my top responsibilities is hiring an chef to run the kitchen - a huge responsibility. I will assist and advise the chef, serving as a consultant."

I dropped by the new Dallas location of Dough Pizzeria Napoletana at Preston and Forest for lunch today and the place was hopping. Only a few tables were available -- I opted to sit at the "chef's table," a counter where diners can watch the staff toss dough in the air and slide the pizzas into the wood burning oven. The location's owner/partner Brad Liles was moving from table to table, chatting with customers.

I ordered the lunch special: a small salad, a small Margherita pizza and a soda for $9.95. Despite a few tiny bumps in service -- hey, it's the first day -- the experience was awesome. The vinaigrette on the salad was great and the pizza was light and fresh with a crackly crust. I'm looking forward to going back to try the famous Pork Love pizza.

Have you been to Dough, either here or in San Antonio? Tell us about it!

Barsotti will debut Carbone's Fine Food & Wine in the former Talbot's space on Oak Lawn Avenue. (FYI ... that's just doors down from Asian Mint and Avner Samuel's Nosh, making this quite the foodie block.)

Escape Hatch Dallas' Mike Hiller got the scoop and has all of the details. Take it away, Mike ...

The annual event officially kicked off yesterday (after a preview weekend) and continues through Sunday. We know you've had your reservations made for weeks and can't wait to get your grub on. So after your lovely meal at one (or more) of the over 120 participating Dallas-Fort Worth restaurants, come back to this very blog post and share in a comment below what you ate that makes this whole shebang amazing.

I don't really understand why the North Texas Food Bank and Lena Pope Home fundraiser is deemed just a week. It's actually nearly a month long! The First Extension Week runs Aug. 22-28, and the Second Extension Week runs Aug. 29-Sept. 4.

We look forward to hearing about your experiences and your recommendations!

Saint Ann Restaurant and Bar, which opened last fall in Uptown next to Saint Ann Court office tower, has a new chef: Chad Starling. He took over the kitchen about two weeks ago, says Saint Ann's marketing person, Nikki Engstrom. Starling comes to Saint Ann via Chicago, where he was chef at Aria.

When I dined at Saint Ann a while back, I wasn't exactly bowled over by the food, and I found the menu a little dull. Final touches are still being put on Starling's new menu, but Engstrom was kind enough to give me a peek, and it looks decidedly more interesting than the old menu. Dinner starters might include a young coconut soup with olive-oil-poached shrimp and cilantro, chorizo-stuffed dates wrapped in bacon with a roasted tomato-piquillo pepper sauce or crispy rock shrimp with celery root slaw, chile aioli and blue cheese fondue. Large plates run from house-made ricotta gnocchi with favas, wild mushrooms and arugula to seared golden trout with roasted corn and beet succotash and applewood smoked bacon.

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Here's an exciting addition to the thriving Dallas pizza scene: Dough Pizzeria Napoletana soft-opened on Saturday (as reported on SideDish over the weekend), and its official opening will be tomorrow for lunch. I just caught up on the phone with Lori Horn, who owns Dough with her husband Doug Horn. The menu will be the same as their original San Antonio pizzeria of the same name, she told me, Like the original store, the new Dallas outpost has a mozzarella bar, but this one will be bigger. Lori is particularly excited about that. "It's similar to a sushi bar," she said; the cooks will say, "Hey, check this out -- try this!" Also, unlike their San Antonio spot, the Dallas restaurant -- in the Preston Forest shopping center -- has a full bar.

Dough opens at 11 a.m. and will stay open "until the fresh mozzarella runs out" -- about 9 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, says Horn and about 10 p.m Friday and Saturday. The restaurant is closed on Sunday and Monday.

Dough Pizzeria Napoletana, 11909 Preston Road (northwest corner of Forest), Dallas; 972-788-4600; www.doughpizzeria.com

Sam Benoikken and Yaser Khalaf, the team that gave us Medina Oven & Bar in Victory, announces the opening of Baboush in West Village.

"Our menu combines the best ideas of Eastern Mediterranean (Lebanese) and Moroccan cuisine," explains Benoikken in the press release. "The fine, fresh ingredients used in Lebanese cuisine come together with the dry, traditional spices of Morocco to create the exotic, distinctive flavor profile of our dishes."

The release continues: "Signature dishes include grilled beef kabobs marinated in pomegranate molasses, traditional Moroccan chicken pastila.... Everything at Baboush is made in-house including the saffron, cinnamon pickled cauliflower, Moroccan spiced olives, and pickled turnips used to garnish several dishes. Jars of the exotic preserves can be purchased from the restaurant's mini-market shelf." Cocktails have an Eastern Mediterranean slant, too, with ingredients like fresh tamarind juice.

Looks intriguing. Tell us what you think if you've been.

3636 McKinney (but around the corner between Cork and The Fish); 214-599-0707; www.baboushdallas.com

I recently wrote a tease about a new eatery (and hopefully a lounge) coming to the Design District:

Shannon Wynne's suds-soaked Meddlesome Moth in the Dallas Design District is getting company. Construction is under way in the former Kreiss showroom across the street for a "to-be-announced" eatery from a Dallas restaurateur. We also hear that a couple of SMU alums are hoping to open a cocktail lounge in the neighborhood and have brought in Park creator Donald Chick to help with design ideas. Chick most recently snazzed up Tristan Simon's Alma on Henderson.

Today, SideDish maven Nancy Nichols has the details on Oak, a new eatery coming from Candleroom's Tommy DeAlano with partners Richard & Tiffanee Ellman.

Photo by Jason Janik:Tommy DeAlano (far right) with Krystal DeAlano and Shawn Egerton (left) at Candleroom.

Idlers start your engines.
The next two North Texas locations of the line-inspiring In-N-Out Burger chain are set to open Thursday, the California-based company said late Monday.
A location at the LBJ Freeway near Coit Road, just west of the High Five in Dallas, and a store on W. 7th Street in Fort Worth, near downtown, will expand the chain's Lone Star presence to five locations, with more on the way.
The High Five store is only about four miles north of the newest In-N-Out at Central Expressway and Caruth Haven. That store, which opened in June with much less fervor than two suburban locations, nonetheless continues to draw burger lovers willing to burn fuel for up to an hour waiting for a double-double with grilled onions.
While restaurant chains often avoid putting outlets too close together - for fear of cannibalizing sales -- an In-N-Out executive said he thinks the two stores will compliment each other - and reduce the multi-car back up along Central.
The High Five is a "great area, and the LBJ/Coit site puts us right there," said Carl Van Fleet, vice president of planning and development for In-N-Out.
"That area is so vibrant that we feel very comfortable with restaurants four miles apart there."
In-N-Out locations under construction in Arlington and Las Colinas at Royal Lane and MacArthur Boulevard are expected to open "probably toward the end of summer," Van Fleet said. Normally it takes up to five months to build an In-N-Out, he said.

MesoMaya has taken over the former Chic From Barcelona space and its soft opening is tentatively scheduled for Aug. 16. This is only a few doors down from The Mercury and from Dough Pizzeria, whose hard opening date is Aug. 16.

Early word is MesoMaya will do "adventurous" interior, regional Mexican. But we don't know much more than that. The website isn't up yet, but should be within a few days, says a rep.

11909 Preston Road, at Forest Lane (northwest corner); 469-726-4390; www.mesomaya.com

As John Tesar (The Commissary, Cedars Social) said tonight in his Extreme Chef opening voice-over: "I'm old school ... 53 years old, but don't let that fool you. I run ten miles a day and work in my own kitchen from night until dawn."

So, we pretty much all knew we were being set up to watch him trounce his two younger chef-testants on the farm and go on to win $10,000. (Tesar says the extra change will go to his nine-month-old son.)

Not familiar with the show? I think the opening scene said it all. The chefs had to improvise a breakfast using either quail, duck or goose eggs. The catch: They first had to traverse a series of hay bales, cross a plank, crawl under an 18-foot-tunnel, climb over a 10-foot-tall pyramid and crash through a wall to collect them. I'm surprised the producers didn't go ahead and set them on fire. (Hey, write that down.)

Let's process how it all turned out after the jump ...