This Week in Gluttony

Tacos + Beer tops the best food and drink events in Dallas

Did everyone know that October is right here? It can really sneak up on you when you’re not paying attention. That’s what my grandpa always said about October.

He said it about the Belgians too, but he was Dutch and that just comes with the territory. He hated the Belgians. Not as much as he hated October, but it was a real close second.

Anyway, this week we’ve got two pub crawls — one with bikes! — plus Oak introduces a seven-course Exquisite Dinner, and world beer expert Stephen Beaumont hosts an event at Meddlesome Moth.

Wednesday, October 2

Tacos + Beer at Urban Taco with Deep Ellum Brewing
Urban Taco teams up with Deep Ellum Brewing and Taco Trail for a beer dinner at 6:30 featuring a special Holy Mole Brew available exclusively at the dinner. Loaded with seven chiles, Abuelita Mexican chocolate, Mexican Coca-Cola, and additional secret ingredients, the Holy Mole Brew is served with the Churrnut, a churro-doughnut filled with house-made cajeta topped with chocolate abuelita. Other pairings include pork belly chicharron taco and Double Brown Stout. Tickets are $45.

Friday, October 4

Pappas Bros All-American Wine Tasting
Pappas Bros. welcomes fall with its All-American Wine Tasting beginning at 6 pm, which highlights 13 wines from New York to Texas to Washington State. The restaurant also serves seasonal hors d’oeuvre. Reservations are $55 and can be made at 214-366-2000.

Camp Bowie Fall Crawl
Rahr & Sons Brewing pairs up with Camp Bowie District for a Fall Crawl beginning at 5 pm. The three-stop crawl raises money for the beautification of the area as drinkers crawl from Oscar’s Pub to Jakes Burgers and then Baker St. Pub and Grill. The crawl is $10, which gets you a pint of Rahr, $3 refills and food specials. The first 100 guests get a commemorative pint glass.

Saturday, October 5

The Craft and Growler Bicycle Brewery Tour
Craft and Growler and Bike Friendly Oak Cliff host a bicycle brewery tour crawl beginning at 11:15 am at Main Street Garden. The event is free to attend, but the beer costs you along the way as you bike from Craft and Growler to Deep Ellum Brewing to Community Beer Co. to Four Corners Brewing and, finally, Small Brewpub. The whole circuit is around eight miles and ends around 6 pm. Cash is recommended.

Sunday, October 6

Exquisite Dinner at Oak
Executive Chef Richard Gras introduces his Exquisite Dinner series at Oak with a seven-course menu highlighting seasonal ingredients beginning at 6:30 pm with hors d’oeuvres. Plates include Maine lobster flan with sea urchin, pickled cucamelons and olive oil marmalade and crispy duck breast with duck chorizo, parsnip, beets and white chocolate. Reservations are $125 with a $50 option for wine pairings and can be made at 214-712-9700.

Monday, October 7

Stephen Beaumont Dinner at Meddlesome Moth
World beer expert Stephen Beaumont hosts a tutored beer dinner at Meddlesome Moth beginning at 6:30 pm. Beaumont is promoting his new book, The Pocket Beer Guide, which features more than 3,600 reviews of beers from around the world. The five-course dinner will featuring pairings from the Moth’s cicerone, Matt Quenette. Beaumont clearly thinks highly of Meddlesome Moth, as he named it one of the two best beer bars in the world last year. Tickets are $75 and can be ordered at 214-628-7900.

Meddlesome Moth hosts beer expert Stephen Beaumont for a beer dinner on October 7.

Photo courtesy of The Meddlesome Moth

Meddlesome Moth hosts beer expert Stephen Beaumont for a beer dinner on October 7.

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Spicy Food News

New restaurant Dallas Spicy Chinese Cuisine does it for real in Plano

Dallas Spicy

Fried rice and chicken at Dallas Spicy Chinese Cuisine

An authentic Chinese mom-and-pop restaurant has debuted in Plano: Called Dallas Spicy Chinese Cuisine, it opened in late 2025 at 4140 Legacy Dr. #310, at Coit Road, in the same center as Sprouts, taking over a space previously occupied by 369 Chinese BBQ, a long-timer that closed in 2025 after more than a decade.

Dallas Spicy Chinese Cuisine stands apart in the Chinese restaurant field thanks to a trio of elements:

Unusual dishes
They offer an array of Sichuan, Shanghai, and Taiwanese dishes, some not commonly found in DFW, such as:

Hot & Spicy Crayfish
Cumin Beef
Sweet & Sour Pork Ribs
Sauteed Bullfrog with Pickled Peppers

Dishes like their humongous Braised Lion’s Head Meatballs, a Huaiyang-style dish from Eastern China featuring pork meatballs simmered with Napa cabbage, and their Spicy Stinky Tofu — a Chinese tofu dish often sold as a snack at roadside stands — are earning raves for their home-cooked authenticity.

The menu has a big assortment of vegetable dishes, mostly stir-fries such as stir-fried shredded cabbage and stir-fried green beans with garlic, which has emerged as a major crowd-pleaser.

There are rice and noodle dishes such as chow mein, beef noodle soup, and dan dan noodles, a Sichuan classic with noodles, minced pork, scallions, and peanuts. An "American Chinese" category on the menu offers familiar staples such as honey walnut shrimp, orange chicken, and broccoli & beef.

Set price
A second distinction at Dallas Spicy is their "set price" dinner, like a Chinese version of omakase, featuring 10 dishes for about $150. It can be ordered in spicy or non-spicy versions.

The pandas
Dallas Spicy is obsessed with pandas: They've made pandas their decorative them, putting them everywhere: panda wall stickers, panda condiment shakers, and a massive installation featuring dozens of stuffed panda toys tacked to the wall in a heart shape.

The owners are hard to reach; they rarely answer the phone. But they'll provide attentive service if you dine in. They vow to be more than just a restaurant. According to their manifesto, they're a place "where stories are told through taste."

Dallas Spicy decor Pandas rule the decor at Dallas Spicy Chinese.Yelp

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