Foodie News

What it was like to be a contestant on Alton Brown's show in Dallas

Alton Brown at the Music Hall in Dallas on December 10.

Geoff Keah

NOTE: Geoff Keah, a food-savvy Dallas resident, attended the Alton Brown show in Dallas on December 10 and shares his first-person account of participating as a contestant on stage.

I thought I knew my steaks — but I got tripped up by the T-bone.

That was my downfall when I joined culinary whiz Alton Brown on stage as a contestant in his Alton Brown Live: Beyond The Eats - The Holiday Variant! show at the Music Hall at Fair Park.

Since 2013, Brown has periodically mounted this culinary variety show tour featuring food trivia, cooking lessons, and a game show with volunteers.

I've always been an AB fan - I love his quirky way of introducing the science behind why things work the way they do when cooking/baking. His style isn’t for everyone, which makes it even more appreciable.

I brought my dad along for the ride, which included tickets to a pre-show VIP Q&A featuring Alton and his wife, Elizabeth: It consisted of a 30-minute session where attendees asked whatever they wanted about his shows such as Good Eats and The Next Iron Chef, as well as a multitude of questions about food.

The official show opened promptly at 7:30 pm, when Brown and his band played a comedic, holiday-themed ditty, followed by a bit called "Rolodex of Regrets" -- humorous outtakes from various times in his life. One example involved his Aunt Verna and a case of mistaken chocolate that turned out to be Ex-Lax.

alton brown The T-bone was especially tricky.Geoff Keah

Fun and games
Next came the game show segment, requiring volunteers from the audience. Many raised their hands, but luckily enough, I was seated dead center in the front row, right in front of the mic, and got called on stage, along with my two food-savvy opponents, a woman named Liz and another woman named Chris.

In the first round, Alton asked culinary questions, often bizarre, and we hit our buzzers to answer. Unfortunately, I scored only one point here, and I can't even recall the question. Years of Toastmasters go out the window when you’re in front of a live audience and Alton Brown is the emcee.

For the next round, we each faced individual challenges. These would determine who would reign supreme.

Liz had to identify ingredients that were in one of his famous recipes.
Chris had to identify tins of spices. (Post-segment, one of the producers said this challenge was harder than you’d think. He said that people usually take a big sniff of the first tin, and it’s so overpowering, it throws off their palate for the rest of the segment.)
I had to identify cuts of beef.

I was led to a chalkboard-style diagram of an Angus Beef Chart and tasked with correctly placing a whole slew of beef cut tags -- brisket, chuck, skirt, rib eye, filet, sirloin - into their corresponding areas of the cow. All within a glorious 60 seconds.

The T-bone was especially tricky, because it also includes the filet/tenderloin as well as the strip steak. I am certain I could nail this sitting in the comfort of my own home, but when the pressure is on, things go south quickly!

And yet, I still made second place. My prize: a four-inch golden trophy with the show logo stickered onto the side. Liz, who'd skunked us all in the first contest, won first place.

My time on stage now done, I could sit back and enjoy the ride, but Alton wasn't done with me yet.

Intermission
After intermission came the "spicy segment," in which contestants must eat spicy wings on stage.

A pair of 22-year-old twin girls from Louisiana, who'd also attended the VIP segment, were selected, and powered through some pretty spicy wings with aplomb.

They threw Alton off his game so much, that he approached me in my seat and asked what was in my drink that I'd left sitting on stage. "Vodka," I said. He chugged half my drink and gave me his nutmeg in exchange.

Post show note: Some of us were able to taste the chicken wings. They had a nice heat signature/zing, but they weren’t nearly as hot as you might expect.

reviews concerts

Vinyl Record News

Dallas record store chain Josey Records spins new location in Garland

Josey Records

Vinyl at Josey Records

Dallas music maker Josey Records has extended its reach east: The record store chain, whose empire includes one of the largest single independent record stores in the U.S., has opened a location in Garland, at 1005 Northwest Hwy., at the intersection of Centerville Road, where it's selling its trademark assortment of vinyl records, CDs, cassettes, turntables, music posters, new releases, and music accessories.

This is the sixth location and the third in the Dallas area, joining the original in Farmers Branch which owners Waric Cameron and Luke Sardello opened in November 2014. They've since opened locations in Plano, Tulsa, Kansas City, and Vidalia, Missouri.

The original location is a giant place with 16,000 square feet devoted to vinyl, 45s, CDs, turntables, and T-shirts. They do a good job showcasing new releases and collector vinyl — they made CultureMap's list of 5 best places in Dallas to buy vinyl records — and are known to host album release and listening parties such as a recent blockbuster celebrating Linkin Park.

They made headlines in June 2020 when they acquired the vast musical inventory of Bill’s Records following the death of owner Bill Wisener; Cameron and Sardello both worked at Bill’s, and knew the sprawling collection first-hand.

"It has taken us years to even start going through it, but in last two years, we've made some headway," Cameron says. "Bill's has its own audience, so we created a specific Instagram account, just for Bill's Records merchandise called @billsrecordsvault."

They chose Garland because they saw it as an area that was under-served.

"There are very few record stores in that area of northeast Dallas, Casa View, Garland, Rockwall, Mesquite," Cameron says. "We have customers who live over there, so it seemed like a good place for a store."

The storefront they're in was most recently The Music Store, which sold and rented musical instruments and accessories; but coincidentally, it's next to an address that was once RPM Records, a hip record store from the '90s.

The Garland store follows the same model as their others: selling new and used records and merchandise, and buying used goods, as well.

"One thing that's cool is that each location takes on its own identity," he says. "We buy used CDs, vinyl records, cassettes — we're a used resale business — and what we buy from our customers dictates what that store becomes. For example, our Plano store has a lot of classic rock. So we're looking forward to seeing what Garland gravitates to."

Garland does have one thing that the other locations do not.

"Right now, Garland has this incredible collection of jazz," Cameron says. "We bought a great collection of jazz records — someone called and wanted to sell it. We get that a lot, we buy major collections from all over the U.S., we even make house calls. So we saved it for the Garland store."