Editor’s note: Another week has come and gone, and there’s a lot we all probably missed. But we’re looking out for you, kid. Here are the most popular stories from this past week:
1. Downtown Dallas sushi restaurant goes out with a half-priced bang. After 10 years of slinging sushi and sake in Victory Park, Kenichi will close at the end of April. That's the sad part. The happy part is half-price discounts until the day it closes.
2. The 10 best bartenders in Dallas know how to pour it on. Hope you're getting hungry, because the 2017 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards, our annual event honoring the best in local food and drink, is in the wings. Now we take a look at the city's best bartenders, whose creativity allows them to take simple ingredients like spirits and mixers, and transform them into something transcendent.
3. East Dallas dive bar Elbow Room finally drops the curtain. After nearly a year of doom hanging over its head, East Dallas dive the Elbow Room will finally close its doors for the last time. It'll finally pour its last draft. It'll finally serve its last bowl of hummus. Alright already, enough with the fanfare, the last hurrah is April 15.
4. Plano lands uncommon comfort-food restaurant straight from Japan. Do you like Japanese fried chicken? A new restaurant concept from Japan called Yayoi is coming to the Dallas area. It's a "teishoku" style restaurant, described as Japanese comfort food, and the first branch in Texas will open in Plano.
5. 16 best new restaurants in Dallas compete for Tastemaker top title. In this year's Tastemaker tournament, powered by Whole Foods Market, 16 new restaurants go head to head. You can vote daily for your favorite in our bracket-style elimination challenge. After four rounds, two finalists emerge. We'll announce the winner at our party on April 20.
Bartender Andrew Stofko of Victor Tangos in Dallas.
