Where to Eat

Where to eat in Dallas right now: 5 restaurants with standout warm dishes

How about some hot pot.

Photo courtesy of Pop Pot

Winter 2019-2020 has been pretty mild in DFW so far. But February is looking to settle that score. Brrr it's cold.

Does eating warm food warm you up? Actually, no: The foods that raise your body temperature are those that take longer to digest — things like complex carbohydrates. Like oats.

That said, eating or drinking something hot is said to make you think you are warmer. So let's just go with stereotypical hearty dishes and call it a day.

For February Where to Eat, here are five Dallas restaurants with dishes to warm things up:

CrushCraft Thai
Tom kha gai, aka Thai coconut soup, is a dish with which you can almost never go wrong. It's a complex dish that combines so many sensations all at once: spicy and sour, filling yet light, delicate yet bursting with flavor, with coconut milk serving as a medium to pull it all together. And most of Dallas' Thai restaurants are good at what they do. CrushCraft in Uptown is one of the most centrally located, and their version of this classic is especially delectable, thanks to its potent dose of seasonings and fresh ingredients, balanced by the richness of the coconut milk. If only they didn't use plastic utensils. C'mon, CrushCraft, get us some silver.

Eddie Napoli's
This small, loosely-connected chain dishes out Italian-American standards in unpretentious locations in Frisco, Garland, and Plano. The concept was founded in Amarillo a decade ago by Enver "Eddie" Kolenovic, aka Chef Eddie, aka Chef Eddie Kola, and the locations are owned by various friends and family. They have many minor variations on the name be it Eddies Napoli's, Eddie's Napoli's, or Eddie's Napolis. Eddie's owners, get your stories straight.

Like many "Italian" restaurants around DFW, the background here is actually Albanian, which has not always been a positive force on the local Italian restaurant scene. But in this case, the food is decent, with hearty pastas and respectable pizzas where the crust is made in house, not too thin, not too thick, with a nice browned edge; and fresh spinach is a topping option. One great and informal dish to order: garlic knots with a side of marinara sauce for dipping. Very warming.

Lakewood Smokehouse
Easygoing neighborhood spot in Lakewood Shopping Center is loved by the locals for its commendable barbecue, sandwiches, wings, pizza, and queso, including one noteworthy queso doctored up with brisket. That's not even getting into the long list of Texas beers on tap as well as craft cocktails.

Like many restaurants, they do chili — but not just any chili. This is a chili made with Prime brisket that's been smoked for 14 hours, then simmered with tomatoes and Shiner bock and 14 spices, layered in while it cooks. You can get it in a bowl, or get it piled onto a baked potato topped with melted cheese, scallions, and sour cream.

Pop Pot & Tea
Small spot inside the food court at the 99 Ranch Mart in Frisco is a hidden find. It's counter service, and maybe that's why it's a pleasant surprise to find that they do hot pots, both in individual size or bigger versions to share, where you get a bowl of steaming broth that's filled with ingredients that cook while you watch. The presentation is cool (but a bit dangerous): The pot is served atop a box that holds a charcoal fire. When your order is called, you need to ferry it verrry carefully to your table, where it will continue to cook.

You can choose from their pre-set options or customize your ingredients from a selection that includes seafood, beef, tofu, vegetables, noodles, and more. If that's not warming enough for you, they also have crunchy fried brown rice cakes and the rare Chinese fermented treat called stinky tofu, which comes with plenty of Chinese pickled cabbage. That'll warm you up for sure.

Spiral Diner
Gumbo, Louisiana's favorite stew, makes for a quintessential good cold-weather dish, and thanks to a strong Cajun presence in our local restaurant scene, there are no shortage of options. For a novel twist, consider a vegan version, now being offered by DFW's most famous vegan restaurant, available throughout the month of February.

Their "Old Fashioned File Gumbo" has okra, carrots, celery, vegan sausage, and a new item for the mini-chain: vegan "shrimp" by Plants Lead Our Way, an Austin-based company that sells amazing vegan versions of meats and cheese. The gumbo boasts a Creole roux with hints of sassafras and cayenne, and is served over a bed of rice. It's available at all three Spiral Diner locations: Dallas, Fort Worth, and Denton.

where-to-eat

Burger News

Family-owned Patty Lou's Smashburgers will open in old downtown Plano

Photo by Sara Aurora Cimminiello on Unsplash

Smashburger

A new restaurant starring a buzzy burger is coming to old downtown Plano: Called Patty Lou's Smashburgers, it will feature the namesake smashburger, and will open at 1004 E. 14th St. #105, in a historic location that was most recently home to a Starbucks.

Patty Lou's is a new concept from Urban Family Concepts, the hospitality company whose other restaurants include Urban Seafood Co., Urban Rio Cantina & Grill, and Italian restaurant Urban Crust, all located in the downtown Plano area.

Patty Lou's is their burger entry, a quick-service spot serving smashburgers, the flattened version of a burger with crisp edges that's been a hot trend for the past year.

According to Urban Family Concepts partner and spokesperson Dana Blaugrund, the restaurant will open in late spring.

Patty Lou's is also a sweet homage to a family member — named for Patty Lou Peters, of "Patty Lou and her Texas Sweethearts" fame, an all-female country & Western / Western swing group founded in the '40s, when female groups were a rarity.

Patty Lou was the mother of Bonnie Shea, who co-founded Urban Family Concepts with her husband Nathan Shea. Infusing the personal touch into everything they do is part of the company DNA, says Urban partner Michael Lee.

"Urban is generally driven by what we like," Lee says. "Urban Rio, our Mexican concept, came about because Bonnie loved that cuisine, and Urban Seafood Company, Nate loves seafood. Burgers are a favorite of their son-in-laws."

Their version of the smashburger will feature American cheese and onions that melt into the meat, Lee says. They'll be served on potato buns, and there'll be some toppings — but they won't go too crazy.

"It'll have onions, lettuce, and pickle, but we're going to stay minimal, with additional toppings on the side," he says. "Going overboard with ingredients can get complicated. Our goal is, very simple burgers that taste very good, at a value price, so that everyone can enjoy coming back and getting a burger."

The menu will also feature smashed chicken burgers, hand-cut French fries skin on, lightly battered onion rings, and milkshakes. They'll also serve alcohol, including bottled beers, wine by the glass, and a signature frozen cocktail. Eventually, they'll add specials like a burger of the month.

The location was originally home to the Ice House, built in 1917, an institution that provided ice products to Plano residents and businesses, says Urban partner Payton Hickey.

"You could pull up and get a block of ice from workers with tongs," Hickey says. "During remodeling, we could still see the raised floor where the freezer was, where they kept the ice."

They operated a licensed location of Starbucks in that space until 2024, when Starbucks opened a store nearby with a drive-thru in the former longtime Jack in the Box at 15th Street and US-75.

Decor at Patty Lou's will embrace a diner feel with counter seating, while incorporating elements from Patty Lou Peter's life, Blaugrund says. (It's a nice coincidence that her name syncs up with "hamburger patty.")

"We'll have her original guitar and some memorabilia in the restaurant — a cool mixture of country music and burger restaurant," Blaugrund says.

burgers openings