This Week's Hot Headlines

New 'better burger' joint flips into this week's 5 most-read Dallas stories

Carver 150 does not shy away from the wrap, here served with country-style potatoes.

Photo via Yelp

Editor's note: A lot happened this week, so here's your chance to get caught up. Read on for the week's most popular headlines.

1. Bizzy new burger joint from Dallas F&B mastermind will be unlike any other. There's an exciting new burger in the works, from acclaimed Dallas restaurant mastermind Mark Brezinski. Called Bizzy, it's a new concept that will embrace the "better burger" trend but in a fast-food setting, and it will make its debut in North Dallas on Montfort Drive, across from the old Valley View Mall and not unfittingly, right between a McDonald's and a Burger King.

2. The 10 top neighborhood restaurants in Dallas keep it close to home. CultureMap Dallas brings back the 2022 edition of its annual Tastemaker Awards, our culinary celebration shining a light on the top talent in Dallas-Fort Worth's restaurant and bar communities. We are launching a 10-part editorial series, starting with Neighborhood Restaurant of the Year. These are the places that are nearby, convenient yet good, and that often reflect the neighborhood in some way. Here are the nominees.

3. Where to eat in Dallas right now: 10 Asian restaurant finds for March. For this edition of our monthly Where to Eat, we hand the microphone to what has become a priceless source of intel for diners in Dallas-Fort Worth: the Facebook page called Asian Grub in DFDUB. With the idea that not everyone is on Facebook or has the time to regularly comb through the page, this edition of our monthly column highlights some of the recent finds brought to light by the diligent members of the group.

4. 'World's most powerful woman' MacKenzie Scott gives $9 million to Dallas charity. Philanthropist and author MacKenzie Scott has gifted Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity $9 million, the largest unrestricted donation in its 36-year history, the organization revealed March 22. Scott — who is also well known as the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos — donated to Habitat for Humanity International and 83 of its U.S. Habitat affiliate organizations in a grand sum of $436 million.

5. In-demand Dallas designer expands with colorful new boutique in NorthPark Center. A Dallas fashion designer with a well-established flagship in West Village is branching out to another premier shopping destination: NorthPark Center. Nicole Kwon has soft-opened a second location of her eponymous boutique on the second level between Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom, across from Eataly.

Behold the veggie stack.

Photo courtesy of Bizzy

Behold the veggie stack.

MOVING ON UP

Texas rises through the ranks of most innovative states, says new report

Photo via Getty Images

Texas has seen year-over-year improvement on an annual list that ranks states based on their innovation economies.

The Lone Star State has again taken a step up on an annual report that ranks the most and least innovative states in the country — this time cracking the top 15.

Texas ranked No. 15 in personal finance site WalletHub's 2023’s Most and Least Innovative States ranking. It's a steady improvement for the state, which ranked No. 16 in 2022 and No. 17 in 2021.

The report analyzed the 50 states and the District of Columbia and how each performed across 22 key metrics, including population of STEM professionals, venture capital investment activity, number of technology companies, patents per capita, and more. The data was pulled from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Science Foundation, National Center for Education Statistics, United States Patent and Trademark Office, and other records.

Here's how Texas performed at a glance:

No. 18 – for share of STEM professionals
No. 16 – for projected STEM job demand by 2030
No. 25 – for eighth grade math and science performance
No. 21 – for share of science and engineering graduates aged 25 or older
No. 13 – for share of technology companies
No. 31 – for R&D spending per capita
No. 18 – venture capital funding per capita

For the 11th year, Texas won Site Selection Magazine's Governor's Cup, the governor's office announced earlier this year. The award, which Texas has won 19 times since its inception in 1978, recognizes the nation’s top-performing state for job-creating business relocations and expansions.

"Texas truly is America’s economic engine, and we stand apart as a model for the nation. When choosing where to relocate or expand their businesses, more and more innovative industry leaders find themselves at home in our state," Governor Greg Abbott says in a news release about the award.

"I congratulate the exceptional economic development teams at the local, regional, and state level who have worked so diligently to attract and retain these growing businesses and the jobs they create in diverse communities across this great state," he continues.

The most innovative states included the District of Columbia, which ranked at No. 1, followed by Massachusetts, Washington, Maryland, and California, respectively. The least innovative state was identified as Mississippi, followed by Louisiana, North Dakota, West Virginia, and Arkansas, respectively.

Source: WalletHub

Access to quality education is a significant contributor to each state's innovation economy, the experts say in the report.

"Investing in education, particularly K-12 but also at the University level, it is no accident that innovative ecosystems develop in states with strong education systems and research universities," says David L. Deeds, professor at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis. "These institutions build strong capable modern workforces that attract capital, and jobs and create innovations. The benefits do not happen overnight, in fact, they take years if not decades, but consider what The UC’s or the University of Texas at Austin have meant for the development of premier innovative ecosystems."

Texas WalletHub innovation