This Week in Gluttony

DIFFA Burgers & Burgundy with John Tesar tops best food and drink events in Dallas

This Week in Gluttony is front-loaded with wine dinners. Four-course wine dinners to be exact, because it’s important to have three square meals a day, and the number four is a perfect square and the square root of a perfect square and there are four sides to a square. Wake up, sheeple, the answer is right under your noses.

There’s also the Greek Food Festival, a lesson on how to make raw cheesecake (on purpose), and John Tesar and company creating burgers for DIFFA. For $20 extra, Tesar will yell at you after dessert.

Wednesday, September 25

Asador’s Fall Harvest Dinner
Chefs Dean James Max and Brad Phillips host a four-course dinner at Asador beginning at 6:30 pm. Dishes include scallop ceviche with tostones, and house-smoked spare ribs with Kimchi barbecue sauce and grilled Texas peach. Wine and cocktail pairings are featured. Reservations are $50 and can be made at 214-267-4815.

Thursday, September 26

Clayhouse Vineyard Wine Dinner at the Landmark
The Landmark Restaurant at the Warwick Melrose hotel invites Clayhouse Vineyard for a four-course wine dinner beginning with a reception at 6:30 pm. Pairings include seared ahi tuna with arugula, lychee vinaigrette and kiwi with 2011 Clayhouse Adobe White, and veal osso buco with red wine reduction, smashed potatoes and green beans with 2010 Clayhouse Syrah. Reservations are $85 and can be made at 214-224-3152.

Joseph Phelps Vineyards Wine Dinner at Pappas Bros.
Bill Phelps of Joseph Phelps Vineyards hosts a four-course wine dinner at Pappas Bros. beginning at 7 pm. Pairings include warm duck terrine with foie gras, salad of wild mushrooms and vinaigrette with 2010 Joseph Phelps Pastorale Vineyard Pinot Noir and 2010 Joseph Phelps Quarter Moon Vineyard Pinot Noir. The main pairing is roasted dry-aged Prime strip loin with sauce zingara, mousseline potatoes and broccolini with 2005 Joseph Phelps Napa Valley Insignia and 2001 Joseph Phelps Backus Vineyard Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon. Reservations are $195 and can be made at 214-366-2000.

Friday, September 27

2013 Greek Food Festival of Dallas
The Greek Food Festival of Dallas, hosted by the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, lets you enjoy all your favorite Greek foods, discover new ones and take part in a number of other Greek traditions. There are no imposters here — food comes directly from the festival kitchen, supported by live music, dance, a kids area and a marketplace with a wide range of Greek wares. You can also tour the church and visit the Greek Cultural Center and church bookstore. Tickets are $6 for 13 and up.

Sunday, September 29

Be Raw Food Cheesecake Class
Be Raw Food and Juice hosts a Raw Food 101 class highlighting cheesecake from 5 to 7 pm. The class features discussion on science and benefits of a raw food lifestyle plus demonstrations for Be Raw’s chocolate and berry cheesecakes. Spots are $50 and include cheesecake tastings. RSVP at paula@BeRawFoodandJuice.com.

DIFFA/Dallas presents Burgers & Burgundy with John Tesar
Join chef John Tesar and his celebrity chefs at the home of Bill and Karen Seanor at 4 pm for the fifth annual Burgers & Burgundy event benefiting the Dallas Chapter of DIFFA (Design Industry Foundation Fighting AIDS). Each chef has been tasked with the challenge to serve up the best burger sliders and complement them with a Burgundy. Tickets are $100 or $150 for VIP, which includes a private bar, butler service and an exclusive seating area.

Be Raw Food and Juice teaches you how to create raw cheesecake on September 29.

Raw chocolate cheesecake at Be Raw Food & Juice in Dallas

Photo by Melisa Ambers

Be Raw Food and Juice teaches you how to create raw cheesecake on September 29.

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Market News

Small specialty grocer in Celina is a go-to for imported foods

Di Mantzios Greek & Italian Gourmet Market

There's a gourmet shop in downtown Celina offering imported European foods: Called Di Mantzio’s Greek and Italian Gourmet Market, it's a small grocery and cafe at 204 E. Pecan St., Ste. C, where it's bringing in goods you might not find elsewhere in town.

Owner Vasilios Mantzios is a native of Greece and former NATO military serviceman who moved to the U.S. in 2008. Missing the foods he'd enjoyed in Greece and Italy, he started a booth at the Frisco Fresh Market in 2015 selling olive oils, Balsamic dressing, olives, and Mediterranean salt. In late 2024, he made the move to open the storefront in Celina (coincidentally down Pecan Street from Mangiamo Italian Market & Deli, another highly personal deli and market, making pecan Street a fun destination for a foodie field trip).

Di Mantzio's carries olive oils, pizza, cheese, charcuterie boards, flour, refrigerated meals, and meatballs with a Greek red sauce, made from a family recipe from Mantzios' aunts and their grandmothers. He also imports marinated lamb and beef meatballs from Greece.

"I only have things that I would put on my table to personally eat — I pick out my items by the quality because I don't want people to have issues with the food," Mantzios says. "I have my mother test everything, so if you pass her, you're in the store."

While he does offer Greek foods such as a recent special with beef kebabs and pita bread, there's a big demand for Italian items. He has a big selection of cheese: parmigiano reggiano, feta, mozzarella, and cheese from Il Forteto. Dry goods include Molino Paolo Mariani Manitaly flour, Caputo gluten-free flour, and Hellenic Farms and Lia extra virgin olive oil.

Mantzios prioritizes small, family-owned businesses because they enjoy what they're providing to customers and value quality.

Di Mantzios Greek & Italian Gourmet MarketDi Mantzios

On the prepared food front, he does pizza using a wood-fired crust imported from Pizza Food Love in Italy, delivered to the shop every three weeks. The base can be topped with ingredients from Tuscany, Italy for a truly authentic experience. More prepared foods are one of the biggest requests he gets from customers, and it's a category he's continuing to expand, as well as adding wine and beer.

They also have cakes and desserts such as cannoli, baklava, Greek rice pudding, French macarons, and gelato from Gelatys.

The interior is neatly organized, with refrigerated foods as well as Greek and European decor such as pestle and mortar, a gladiator helmet, and Greek and Italian flags pinned to the walls.

Mantzios thrives from the personal contact he gets with customers, and they find him equally charming as well.

"The bulk of my customers come from Prosper and Celina, and Celina is the number one growing city with people coming from all around who can appreciate what we are doing," Mantzios says.

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