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Restaurant City of the Year

DFWTexEx

By DFWTexEx
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DFWTexEx

DFWTexEx 276

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Posting this here instead of the main thread so it doesn't derail into a Houston vs. Dallas vs. Austin troll war.

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In a year that has seen Dallas -- and Texas in general -- grow increasingly prominent on the national food scene, the city has picked up its greatest accolade so far.

Today, Bon Appetit named Dallas its 2019 Restaurant City of the Year in a story that declares (with a bit of a wince): "Texas' oft-skipped food destination is no longer skippable." Past winners include Portland, Maine (2018), Chicago (2017), Washington, D.C. (2016) and San Francisco (2015).

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"I was blown away by nearly every place I visited," she said. "There was a real energy in the food scene. Donny Sirisavath at Khao Noodle Shop and Misti Norris (whose cooking I loved at Small Brewpub a few years back) at Petra and the Beast really exemplify that creative energy and distinctive vision. There are no other restaurants in the country like those two places!"

Very interesting to read especially since Dallas has historically been largely ignored by the national food press and the Beard awards.  I have to say that a lot of interesting places have opened up recently to supplement the great steakhouses.  I haven't been to Petra yet, but all my friends are enthusiastic about how good it is and I did love Misti's cooking at Small.   Khao is the tits.  I have been twice and it is all that.  Simple, unpretentious, almost fast foody, but creative and so good.

I think the recent good press is also helped by the new good editor at the DMN who has more national good will than Leslie did.  Plus Bon Appetite named Trompo one of their best new restaurants a couple of years ago, so Dallas was on its radar.

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C-Man

C-Man 27230

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Hmm. Interesting. This doesn't have much to do with Dallas but there's some definite buzz out there that Fort Worth has -- or is about to -- pass Austin as the new metro BBQ king in Texas. (Though I must admit the Houston area has quite a few fantastic places now but I don't ever want to give Houston credit for ANYTHING.)

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C-Man

C-Man 27230

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49 minutes ago, HRSchenker said:

As long as Heim is the king of Fort Worth that ain't gonna happen any time soon

Heim has been passed by Panther City, Flores and BBQ on the Brazos at a minimum. There are a half-dozen or more places that have just opened -- or are doing pop-ups in advance of an opening -- in the last few months along.

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Jive Turkey

Jive Turkey 12603

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here's the Bon Apetit article.

https://www.bonappetit.com/story/dallas-texas-city-of-the-year-2019

Dallas Observer food critic Brian Reinhart deserves some praise.  He helped the author curate the places to go and he's been a huge supporter of the small, ethnic, and/or suburban restaurants that turn out incredible food but get ignored by DMN and D Magazine.  Hell, D Magazine named him Critic of the Year in the Best of Big D issue.

Edited by Jive Turkey
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Landomatic

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4 hours ago, C-Man said:

Heim has been passed by Panther City, Flores and BBQ on the Brazos at a minimum. There are a half-dozen or more places that have just opened -- or are doing pop-ups in advance of an opening -- in the last few months along.

BBQ on the Brazos ain’t that great, buddy.  I mean it’s better than Peggy Sue I guess 😉

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Landomatic

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4 hours ago, Zepol87 said:

My cousin is the chef/owner of Petra. She busts her ass for her craft. Glad she is getting some love

Dude that’s awesome.  I think she’s been getting lots of love for a while now.  Forget what else she recently just won, but I get the feeling her place is pretty highly regarded.  So the real question is...when are we goin?

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Zepol87

Zepol87 9188

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13 hours ago, Landomatic said:

Dude that’s awesome.  I think she’s been getting lots of love for a while now.  Forget what else she recently just won, but I get the feeling her place is pretty highly regarded.  So the real question is...when are we goin?

I am down whenever man just hit me up

10 hours ago, Firemans4Horn said:

Khao is a great place to go with a group. Me and a couple buddies went for lunch and BYOB a sixer and sampled pretty much everything on the menu. Think it was under $25 with tip. 

This sounds like a great idea.

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Landomatic

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On 9/12/2019 at 10:28 AM, DFWTexEx said:

I think the recent good press is also helped by the new food editor at the DMN who has more national good will than Leslie did.

No doubt Michalene Busico has a TON of skins on the wall.  Whether you agree with her stuff or not, it's hard not to respect her opinions.  

On 9/12/2019 at 2:47 PM, Jive Turkey said:

here's the Bon Apetit article.

https://www.bonappetit.com/story/dallas-texas-city-of-the-year-2019

Dallas Observer food critic Brian Reinhart deserves some praise.  He helped the author curate the places to go and he's been a huge supporter of the small, ethnic, and/or suburban restaurants that turn out incredible food but get ignored by DMN and D Magazine.  Hell, D Magazine named him Critic of the Year in the Best of Big D issue.

Yeah, I have to say that, unlike above, I have a hard time taking anything Brian Reinhart says as a food critic too seriously.  What is he like 25 with literally zero food critic experience before he started doing it for the Observer?  I've always just kind of viewed him as someone on their staff who probably works pretty hard, writes pretty well (and fast) and does it for cheap, which is the direction of a lot of newspaper writers.  Not to mention, the Observer is a totally different demographic than DMN or D Magazine.

That said, as you mentioned, he apparently played a pretty big role in this Bon Appetit article and "Restaurant City of The Year" award.  It's surprising to me they would use him as a resource as I would have guessed Bon Appetit to be much more in line with DMN or D Magazine than the Observer.  Which brings me to my next point...

I'll probably get negged for this, but if we're really being objective here...as nice as it is to have this award for Dallas, I'm not buying it at all.  In looking closer at that article, there are maybe 2-3 restaurants mentioned that could be considered really great on a national scale.  And that's enough to make us the "Restaurant City of The Year"?  Hell, for the most part, the article only really covered about 3 basic food categories (Mexican, Asian, other).  Or 3 basic areas of town (Bishop Arts, Deep Ellum, other).  Admittedly, I haven't been to most of the restaurants mentioned, but the ones I have been to aren't that great.  We're really pointing to Ceviche Oyster Bar and Jalisco Norte as some kind of great restaurants?

Sorry, not to be a wet blanket, but unless we're being total homers, this article and award is pretty laughable.  You look at their own top 50 restaurants list (of which Dallas had 2 - Khao Noodle Shop & Petra and the Beast) and there are several other cities with more than 2 restaurants.  I'm guessing they feel they need to spread the love around from year-to-year otherwise NYC would probably get it every year and it would be a pretty worthless award.  But that aside, overall, this looks to be lazy journalism at best.  I expect better from Bon Appetit.

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DFWTexEx

DFWTexEx 276

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7 hours ago, Landomatic said:

No doubt Michalene Busico has a TON of skins on the wall.  Whether you agree with her stuff or not, it's hard not to respect her opinions.  

Yeah, I have to say that, unlike above, I have a hard time taking anything Brian Reinhart says as a food critic too seriously.  What is he like 25 with literally zero food critic experience before he started doing it for the Observer?  I've always just kind of viewed him as someone on their staff who probably works pretty hard, writes pretty well (and fast) and does it for cheap, which is the direction of a lot of newspaper writers.  Not to mention, the Observer is a totally different demographic than DMN or D Magazine.

That said, as you mentioned, he apparently played a pretty big role in this Bon Appetit article and "Restaurant City of The Year" award.  It's surprising to me they would use him as a resource as I would have guessed Bon Appetit to be much more in line with DMN or D Magazine than the Observer.  Which brings me to my next point...

I'll probably get negged for this, but if we're really being objective here...as nice as it is to have this award for Dallas, I'm not buying it at all.  In looking closer at that article, there are maybe 2-3 restaurants mentioned that could be considered really great on a national scale.  And that's enough to make us the "Restaurant City of The Year"?  Hell, for the most part, the article only really covered about 3 basic food categories (Mexican, Asian, other).  Or 3 basic areas of town (Bishop Arts, Deep Ellum, other).  Admittedly, I haven't been to most of the restaurants mentioned, but the ones I have been to aren't that great.  We're really pointing to Ceviche Oyster Bar and Jalisco Norte as some kind of great restaurants?

Sorry, not to be a wet blanket, but unless we're being total homers, this article and award is pretty laughable.  You look at their own top 50 restaurants list (of which Dallas had 2 - Khao Noodle Shop & Petra and the Beast) and there are several other cities with more than 2 restaurants.  I'm guessing they feel they need to spread the love around from year-to-year otherwise NYC would probably get it every year and it would be a pretty worthless award.  But that aside, overall, this looks to be lazy journalism at best.  I expect better from Bon Appetit.

Not negged at all.  I agree with a lot of your take.  I think the premise is that Dallas is not just about steakhouses any more and it's worth a look for its evolving and improving food scene, which is true. I didn't take it as, "We thought about and decided that Dallas has the best restaurants in the country".  It's like, "Wow!  Dallas has interesting food?  Who knew?"  

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HRSchenker

HRSchenker 2268

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Bon Appetit

https://www.bonappetit.com/story/hot-10-best-new-restaurants-2019?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=ba&utm_mailing=BA_ROTD_091719_AM_Hot10&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&bxid=5caac45e2ddf9c3f3076ea7a&cndid=56492917&esrc=AUTO_PRINT&utm_term=BA_Recipe_Of_The_Day

Edited by HRSchenker
yes
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AustinMT

AustinMT 952

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So I’ve lived in Houston and Dallas, and now live in Austin.  Get back to Houston and Dallas fairly often and eat out, so I try to keep up with the food scenes.

No question that Dallas and Houston > Austin.  I can’t say that Dallas is better than Houston for food, but don’t argue with someone making that determination either.

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DFWTexEx

DFWTexEx 276

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On 9/12/2019 at 7:24 PM, Landomatic said:

Dude that’s awesome.  I think she’s been getting lots of love for a while now.  Forget what else she recently just won, but I get the feeling her place is pretty highly regarded.  So the real question is...when are we goin?

When is this Surly dinner at Petra happening?  😀

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