Read all about it

Texas leans liberal, hot Dallas dates and brand new stores: The 5 most popularstories this week

Christian Dior/Facebook
This graphic from the Huffington Post shows that President Obama carriedpopulous pockets of Texas but Gov. Mitt Romney won going away in most everyother part of the state.
HuffingtonPost.com
Photo by Katie Hutchison/Palladium Ballroom
Photo courtesy of Gina Occhipinti

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. The great divide: President Obama carries top 4 Texas cities and still gets trounced in Lone Star State. Mitt Romney may have gotten all the electoral votes in Texas, but Barack Obama won the popular vote in Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. Could Texas turn blue by 2016?

2. Five great dates in Dallas, from drive-in movies to gallery strolls. Our city must be a romantic at heart, because this peice by associate editor Rachael Abrams made the rounds. Impress that special someone with a picnic at the Dallas Arboretum, dinner at The Grape or a canoe ride on White Rock Lake.

3. Beloved Dallas restaurateur Steve Occhipinti loses bout with cancer. One of death's few comforts is a life well-lived, and Steve Occhipinti certainly made his mark on the Dallas fine dining scene. Senior editor Teresa Gubbins digs deeper with a look at Occhipinti's private life, including a doting daughter and a love of butterflies. Pass the tissues, please.

4. Why is the Palladium Ballroom a magnet for underage controversy? You may recall the Palladium as the backdrop for a Ghostland Observatory concert where Highland Park High School student Ryan Romo met up with a co-ed who would later accuse him of rape. This is far from the first controversy to settle over the historic concert venue. What gives, Palladium?

5. Nine new and noteworthy stores coming soon to Dallas. If there is one thing we know how to do in this town, it’s shop. Lucky for you, there soon will be more places than ever to do just that. Stores coming soon include NorthFace, Christian Dior and Alexander McQueen.

unspecified

This Week's Hot Headlines

Guy Fieri visits 7 lucky Dallas restaurants in this week's top stories

Santo Spirits

Guy Fieri in Dallas on December 7.

Editor's note: Guy Fieri is back in this week's most popular stories. Plus: the latest Dallas restaurant openings and closings and a peek inside the glamorous 2024 Crystal Charity Ball. Here are the most-read Dallas stories of the week.

Find the best things to do in Dallas this weekend here.

1. Which 7 Dallas restaurants did Guy Fieri visit for Diners Drive-ins & Dives. Celebrity chef Guy Fieri came to Dallas on December 7 — officially on a meet-and-greet in support of Santo Spirits, a tequila brand he owns in partnership with rocker Sammy Hagar. But the visit was also an opportunity for Fieri to spotlight a new round of restaurants in Dallas on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives, his massively popular long-running show on the Food Network.

2. 12 restaurants in Dallas that have either just opened or just closed. In the inevitable ebb and flow of Dallas restaurants, openings and closings are part of the deal — often coming at the end of the year, when restaurateurs, like the rest of us, take stock of the future. Here's a roundup of Dallas restaurant openings and closures.

3. Where to drink in Dallas: 7 holiday drink specials for December. Dallas in December is brimming with holiday festivities, and that includes cocktails: from over-the-top pop-up bars to extravagantly priced cocktails to drinks with a festive Christmas theme. This edition of Where to Drink covers all that and more.

4. Glimpse all the gowns and glamour of Dallas' Crystal Charity Ball 2024. Crystal Charity Ball 2024 whisked Dallas patrons away on an opulent "New York Holiday." In choosing to bring the Big Apple to Big D with her theme, ball chairman Cheryl Joyner had imagined “the beauty of fresh snow, peeking into the elaborately decorated windows on Fifth Avenue, and strolling through Central Park with a chill in the air." It was all of that, kicked up a notch with a spectacular Rockettes-style dance show, too.

Dallas Crystal Charity Ball 2024 Crystal Charity Ball 2024 chairman Cheryl Joyner and Richard Joyner. Photo by Ashley Gongora

5. Donatos Pizza totes its unique crust to new location in Flower Mound. A pizza chain with a quirky obsession on its crusts is coming to Flower Mound: Donatos Pizza, the franchise famous for spreading its toppings to the very edge of the pizza, will open a location at 1400 Long Prairie Rd. #160 on December 17.

guy fieri crystal charity ball where to drink openings closings popular stories