This Week in Gluttony

Beaujolais & Beyond Wine Festival tops best food and drink events in Dallas

With temperatures colder than most Dallasites can handle, there is only one way to keep warm: booze. This week there is so much alcohol, from a special bourbon dinner to a craft brewer’s 10th anniversary to the 31st edition of a popular wine festival.

Tuesday, November 18

Chipotle Benefit for Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children
Eat at any Dallas Chipotle and help the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children as part of the MetroPCS Dallas Marathon. (TSRHC is the primary beneficiary of the marathon.) It’s pretty simple: Order your burrito as you normally would, mention this promotion, and 50 percent of your meal’s proceeds will be donated to TSRHC. This is going on all day.

Wednesday, November 19

Eat Meat Drink Buffalo Dinner at Filter Building
Buffalo Trace Distillery, Kent Rathbun Catering and Eddie “Lucky” Campbell host a dinner and rare bourbon tasting in the spirit of the Dinner Lab. Attendees can taste some of the rarest bourbons from the Buffalo Trace Distillery while dining on such courses as pan-seared cod, molasses-lacquered roasted duck, wood-grilled venison and caramel apple bread pudding. Tickets are $200 a person. Reserve a spot by emailing events@kentrathbun.com.

Thursday, November 20

Basic Knife Skills: Thanksgiving Edition at Urban Acres Farmstead
Urban Acres founder Steven Bailey shares his culinary experience and proficient knife skills. This class is hands-on, so students need to bring their own knives and cutting boards. The instruction focuses on chopping and dicing produce such as carrots, onions, garlic and potatoes. Students also learn how to choose the best knife for their cooking needs and receive resources for maintaining knives. As a week-before-Thanksgiving bonus, the class also covers carving the Thanksgiving turkey. It runs 6-9:30 pm and costs $55 a person. Buy tickets online.

Deep Ellum Wine Walk
The Deep Ellum Community Association and the merchants of Deep Ellum are combining two great things — wine and shopping — at this event. Visitors can purchase a collectible Wine Walk glass for $5, raise it and repeat as they enjoy wine samplings and explore one of Dallas’ hottest neighborhood. The event, which takes place on the third Thursday of every month, features different venues every time. The walk lasts from 5-8 pm.

November Wine and Food Dinner at Sevy’s Grill
The Wagner family of winemakers is partnering with Sevy’s Grill for a special dinner. The reception starts at 6:30 pm; a four-course dinner paired with wine begins at 7. Cost is $89 per person. Call 214-265-7389 to reserve your table.

Oysters and Ruinart Champagne Thursday at Proof+Pantry
This is your second-to-last chance to indulge in French Champagne and oysters for crazy prices. Thursdays through November 27, from 4 pm until close, get a half-flute of Ruinart for $11 paired with three 25-cent oysters, a full flute for $22 with six 25-cent oysters, or a full bottle for $105 with two dozen 25-cent oysters. Ruinart would typically be $35 per glass and $120 per bottle, and East Coast oysters are usually $3 each.

Friday, November 21

31st Annual Beaujolais & Beyond Wine Festival at Irving Convention Center
The French-American Chamber of Commerce welcomes oenophiles to this French Riviera-themed event, where guests can sample an impressive collection of French wines from Beaujolais, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Loire Valley, Provence, Alsace and Rhône Valley, as well as American wines and craft beer. Admission includes a commemorative wine glass for tastings, food from local chefs, live entertainment, silent auction and more. Entry is $55 for members and $65 for non-members, and the fun lasts from 7:30-9 pm. Buy your tickets online.

Rahr & Sons 10th Anniversary VIP Beer Dinner
Rahr & Sons hosts a 10th anniversary VIP beer dinner featuring rare beer tastings with food pairings, as well as live music from High School Caesar. Attendees can sample more than 20 beers on tap with food by Chadra Mezza & Grill, Reata’s Mike Micallef, T&P Tavern, and chef Terry Chandler of Fred’s Texas Cafe. Dress is “tuxedo casual.” Tickets are $75, and you can buy them online. Fun starts at 6 pm.

Saturday, November 22

CornucopiBus
This special tour explores three local breweries: Collective Brewing Project, Panther Island and Martin House. Attendees get to sample several brews at each place and learn how they are made. Between stops the guides educate guests on the growing craft beer scene in North Texas. Guests can also enjoy grub from some of the area’s best food trucks parked at some of the breweries. Cost is $50 per person, and that gets you a seat on the bus, complimentary beer samples at each brewery, a snack from Luck and a commemorative snifter-style glass. The tour takes off from Community Beer Company and lasts from 11:30 am-5 pm. Buy tickets online.

Rahr & Sons 10th Anniversary Celebration
Rahr & Sons hosts an extended tour and tasting event featuring more than 30 rare beers, including Regulator, Midnight Cab 2013, Iron Joe, Ninth Anniversary Belgian Golden Ale, Bourbon Barrel Aged Winter Warmer 2013, Batch 1000 Pilsner, Iron Thistle, Angry Santa, and more. Attendees receive a collectible glass and can customize a commemorative T-shirt at a mobile screen printer. Also expect live music from Big Mike’s Box of Rock and snacks from food trucks such as Lee’s Grilled Cheese, Chadra Mezza & Grill, Schnitzel Shack and Gepettos Pizza. VIPs get early access from 11 am-1 pm, with live music from Brad Thompson, for $20. General admission starts at 1; tickets are $10. Buy them online.

Urban Acres is hosting a knife skills class on November 20.

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Urban Acres is hosting a knife skills class on November 20.

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Closure News

The original Dick's Last Resort in Dallas closes after 40 years

Dick's Last Resort

A venerable destination in the downtown Dallas area has closed: Dick's Last Resort, the notoriously saucy restaurant and bar at 2211 Lamar St., has closed permanently, after 40 years.

According to a representative from the Nashville-based chain, the final day for the Dallas location was November 30.

"Business at that location had been declining, and they were facing an increase in rent, so they made a decision to close," the representative said.

Dick's Last Resort was founded right here in Dallas in 1985 as a winking, impudent good-time spot with good bar food and cold beer, at a time when leg warmers and mullets were the rage.

The concept was hatched by bon vivant "Buffalo George" Toomer and Richard "Dick" Chase, centered on a saga about a bad boy named Dick whose big-league plans had failed and who pivoted to open a laid-back bar full of attitude and dick jokes. The restaurant featured gruff staffers and a Southern-style menu in a rowdy roadhouse environment.

It became a huge success, with customers coming eagerly to be insulted, get pelted with napkins and straws, and wear paper hats with crude comments and insults written in a sharpie such as "I've nailed more wood than HGTV." That atmosphere made it a popular destination for bachelorette parties and other group events, and it was a big tourist draw at its then-location in the West End. (It relocated to its current location close to American Airlines Center in 2005.)

Although the food took a backseat to the atmosphere, the menu — written on the wall — featured ribs, chicken, wings, and burgers, served casually in paper and buckets. In its heyday and for many years, it remained lodged on the TABC Top 10 list for beer sales in Dallas.

Chase was ousted for embezzling by the financial backers, who went on to grow the concept into a national chain, with locations in Boston, Chicago, and London. Those are now closed, but there are currently a dozen Dick's across the southeast in Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee, as well as Las Vegas and a longtime location in San Antonio on the Riverwalk.

Dallas restaurateur Mike McRae, who currently owns restaurants such as Dodie's Cajun Diner in Rockwall, Stan's Blue Note, and McRae's Bistro in East Dallas, worked for Dick's for 23 years and owned the Dallas location for 12 years.

"I was hired as their general manager 18 months after it opened," McRae says. "Richard Chase was kind of a hothead. He would fire people on the drop of a pin. We had a pink plastic flamingo with a light inside behind the bar, and he was adamant that the light be on all the time. He once fired a GM because the light was off."

Dick's was owned by Steven Schiff, a Dallas entrepreneur who was in real estate and oil, but had no experience in the restaurant industry.

"Steve talked to Norman Brinker and said, 'I've got this place but I don't want to be in the restaurant business — how do I sell this?'" McRae says. "Norman said, 'You need to open two more locations in different cities.' So we opened the location in San Antonio and a third in downtown Chicago. Both were wildly successful — way more than Dallas. These places were netting over $1 million in yearly profits, which was a lot of money back then. We opened one in London, Boston, San Diego, Myrtle Beach, they were in major cities all over the U.S."

McRae eventually became director of operations and they kept it running until 2009 when they sold the company to its current ownership group based in Nashville. McRae bought the Dallas location in 2010, later joined by his partner Gabe Nicolella; they owned it for 12 years before selling it back to the corporate owners in 2021.

"We did some crazy things in those days, like creating a fake restroom with a pair of tennis shoes visible and a tape recording of farting sounds," McRae says. "We only hired people who had been class clowns, who couldn't get jobs anywhere else. We served food in buckets and the placemats were torn-off butcher paper — things you couldn't get away with now."

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