All On The Same Team

CultureMap Dallas' winning Tailgate bash unites sports fans + foodies

CultureMap fans know how to party, especially when they're cheering on their favorite sports teams with a taco in one hand and a beverage in the other.

That was precisely the vibe on Sunday, October 5, at The Empire Room, where fan assembled to celebrate all things sporty at The Tailgate.

Decked out in plenty of blue and silver, in honor of the Dallas Cowboys taking on the New York Jets that afternoon, guests arrived at the indoor-outdoor venue ready to score an afternoon to remember.

Dallas Tailgate 2025 Grace Tudor, Tanner Agar, Dee Lincoln, Bella Dinardo.Photo by ASHGPHOTO

A strut across the football field-inspired "green carpet" brought hungry attendees inside, where their taste buds were not disappointed. No tailgate is complete without killer eats, and this year’s restaurant roster was championship caliber. Attendees indulged in a dizzying spread of creative, tailgate-inspired bites, including:

Assorted po'boys from Antone's Famous Po' Boys
Chicken and tofu lettuce wraps from Feng Shui
Roast beef sandwiches on Heritage wheat bread from Empire Baking
Pastalaya: penne pasta with shrimp, andouille sausage, chicken, and Creole cream sauce from Dee's Table
Football-shaped Jamaican jerk pork tostadas from Loro
Fried chicken sandwich with gochujang, caramelized onion, mayo, and pickles from Kona Grill
JOA Grill's bulgogi ssam and akaushi sausage kimbap
Five spice slow-braised pork bao from Komodo
McRae's American Bistro & Cocktails' cherry BBQ short rib sliders with feta cheese and apple-cabbage slaw
Harissa-glazed chicken wings with black garlic ranch and scallions from Fearing Restaurant Group
Taqueria La Ventana's bistek and al pastor tacos
The All American, Kevin Bacon, and The Western burgers from Twisted Root Burger Co.
Slow-cooked pork carnitas tacos from Señor Oink
Lil' BRGs from STK Steakhouse
Corn Holes (petite deep-fried Better Balance vegan hot dogs dipped in a cornmeal-infused beignet batter on a stick, and drizzled with a spicy bourbon mustard) from Richardson International Food Festival (RIFF)
Scout at the Statler's pineapple char siu pulled pork sliders
Spiced apple crisp cups from Ruby Baking Co.

To wash it all down and keep spirits high well past the fourth quarter, there were Patron Silver margaritas and ranch waters, Reyka Vodka's Midfield Mule, The Ryes of Texas and the Bourbon Peach Buzz from Still Austin Whiskey, water from Saratoga, and an array of beers from Yuengling.

Dallas Tailgate 2025 Loro brought football-shaped Jamaican jerk pork tostadas.Photo by ASHGPHOTO

Following last year’s fan-favorite Ultimate Wing Showdown, this year’s competition turned up the heat with the Top Taco Tournament. After weeks of online voting, the champion was revealed live at The Tailgate: Taqueria La Ventana.

Kona Grill's spicy, savory chicken sandwich scored big as attendees' official favorite dish of the day.

In between nibbles, guests could browse Mizzen+Main's collection of high-performance and collegiate shirts, explore holiday party options at Puttshack, and learn about crowd-funded college football from Sportsmo.

Those ready to get a jump on holiday shopping — or eager to complete their own collections — bid on sports and pop-culture memorabilia in the silent auction.

Dallas Tailgate 2025 Crystal Hardman, Michelle Vo.Photo by ASHGPHOTO

Photo by ASHGPHOTO

Guests received quite a welcome.

Guests who arrived early scored big with an appearance from former Texas Rangers pitcher Derek Holland, who greeted fans, signed autographs, and snapped photos for the first hour. Holland, who famously helped pitch the Rangers to their 2011 World Series run, was all smiles as fans lined up to meet him.

As the cherry on top, the Cowboys trounced the Jets as Tailgate fans whooped and celebrated — no need for overtime here.

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The Tailgate was sponsored by FLIGHT by Yuengling, Sportsmo, Puttshack, Mizzen+Main, Antone's Famous Po' Boys, NXL LVL Events, Patron, and Still Austin Whiskey.

dallas cowboys derek holland sports tacos taqueria la ventana the empire room the tailgate

Movie Review

The End of Oak Street can't live up to its Spielberg inspirations

Photo by Daniel McFadden

Ewan McGregor and Anne Hathaway in The End of Oak Street.

Steven Spielberg is the iconic director of the last 50 years, so it’s no surprise that many other filmmakers have borrowed from his classic films. But most of the time those come in the form of references or homages, not straight up theft, which is what it feels like watching The End of Oak Street play out in front of your eyes.

Set in the early 1980s in an idyllic suburban neighborhood of an unnamed city, Denise (Anne Hathaway) and Greg (Ewan McGregor) are parents to two teenagers, Audrey (Maisy Stella) and Brian (Christian Convery). They’re also possibly heading toward divorce, as Audrey is secretly writing a novel with a thinly-veiled plot about their life, and Brian is cagey about having to earn extra money with a pizza delivery job.

That all gets put on the backburner when a mysterious event takes their entire neighborhood back to the time of dinosaurs. Armed with little more than a shotgun and sledgehammer, Audrey and Brian do their best to keep the family safe in their house. But the longer the ordeal goes on, circumstances force them out onto the streets and into the increasing danger that’s all around them.

Written and directed by David Robert Mitchell, the film tries immensely hard to be like the Spielberg movies its filmmaker clearly adores, but fails at almost every turn. It never earns the broken family in ‘80s suburbia vibes that were prevalent in E.T., going all in right away in the opening scene with a neighborhood block party that feels forced. Other elements like a bully who has it out for Brian, the family dog that disappears, and an angry neighbor come across as the tropes they are and not as organic parts of the plot.

When it finally gets to its dinosaur sequences, they pale in comparison to those found in Jurassic Park. The strange manner in which the dinosaurs appear is a big part of that, but the action involving them forgoes ominous moments that could build tension for those that play up gore in an unexpected way for a PG-13 movie. Many of the attacks have so little emotional meaning that they come off as comical, which is entertaining but in a hollow way.

As if those weren’t enough, Mitchell - perhaps at the behest of producer J.J. Abrams (who made his own Spielbergian film, Super 8) - tries to honor Spielberg in other ways. Just like in Jaws, he employs the use of a split diopter lens, which keeps characters in both the foreground and background in focus. But instead of using it judiciously, it’s brought out in three separate scenes, including a laughable one with the four family members where it turns into overkill.

Hathaway, coming off of a role in The Odyssey that could earn her an Oscar nomination, is the best part of this film. But even her evident skills are dragged down by the ridiculousness of the story, which requires hysterics that even she can’t sell. McGregor can normally be counted on for a good performance, but he gives several line readings with strange cadences that make his already-underwritten character come off worse. Stella and Convery are okay, but their roles are unmemorable overall.

Mitchell and his team can never settle on exactly what type of film they were trying to make, and so even though The End of Oak Street has a few moments that work, they’re surrounded by many others that don’t. In trying to emulate Spielberg - there’s even a blatant Back to the Future (produced by Spielberg) rip-off towards the end - all Mitchell has done is show how difficult it is to be the master.

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The End of Oak Street opens in theaters on August 14.

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Movie Review

The End of Oak Street can't live up to its Spielberg inspirations