This Week in Gluttony

These are the 8 best food and drink events in Dallas this week

The Playwright gets into the Irish spirit this week.

Photo by Kathy Tran

Whether or not you celebrate St. Patrick's Day, it is coming in hot with parades, festivals, block parties, and food specials. The good news? You definitely don't need the luck of the Irish to take advantage of some of the other great food events happening this week.

Tuesday, March 12

St. Patrick's Day Festivities at The Playwright
What better time to familiarize yourself with One Arts Plaza's newest, traditional Irish pub than St. Patrick's Day week? From now through Sunday, the pub is celebrating with everything from tastings to live music. Here's the schedule:

March 12 (7-9 pm) – Guinness pint engraving
March 13 (5-7 pm) – Jameson IPA tasting
March 14 (5-9 pm) – Killian’s pint night
March 15 – Guinness and oyster specials
March 16 and 17 (2-9 pm) – Live music

Wednesday, March 13

Trinchero Family Estates Wine Tasting at Jasper's Richardson
This happy hour wine tasting features wines made by the highly skilled female winemakers of Trinchero Family Estates. Featured pours include Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, Rosé and more. The event also features appetizers from the chefs at Jasper's. Tickets are $30, and the event starts at 6 pm. Contact Ivy at 214-716-2612 or ivyh@abacus-jaspers.com to reserve your spot.

Thursday, March 14

Women in Wine Tasting at Del Frisco's Grille
In celebration of Women’s History Month, the restaurant is featuring 20 women winemakers and winery owners with a special wine tasting event. This walk-around wine tasting features passed hors d'oeuvres of some of the most popular Grille appetizers like cheesesteak eggrolls and ahi tacos. Tickets are $55 and the event starts at 6:30 pm.

Saturday, March 16

St. Patrick's Day Celebration at Truck Yard
Immediately following the annual Greenville Avenue St. Patrick’s Day Parade, the favorite truck stop is serving up a variety of food courtesy of four trucks — Southern Gourmet, Nomadic Grill, Bellatrino, and Azucar. The outdoor bars are pouring drinks, including beer, Irish mules, and frozen Irish coffees. There will also be green Jell-O shots. The live music kicks off at noon with Atlantis Aquarius. They’ll be followed by DJ Jesse Koo, and the finale is headliner The Roomsounds.

St. Patrick's Day Celebration at Upside Dallas
This new bar with a killer view is celebrating St. Patrick's Day in West Village both Saturday and Sunday. Starting at 10 pm on Saturday, they're having themed drink specials and live music with no cover charge. On Sunday from 11 am to 2 pm, there's a themed brunch for $45 a person. The brunch includes live music, one mimosa, appetizer, and dessert stations. An Irish coffee bar will also be available for $2 per cup.

Sunday, March 17

St. Patrick's Day Celebration at The Rustic
Appropriately, country favorite Pat Green takes the stage for a rollicking St. Patrick's Day performance. Tickets start at $27, and the fun starts at 7 pm.

Plant-Based & Gluten Free Pop-Up Dinner at Prime Farm to Table Restaurant
Join Brooke Ali and Chef Armando Perez as they take over the Flower Mound restaurant for a pop-up ahead of the opening of My-FARMacy Cafe. The menu includes flatbread, pesto lasagna, and a dessert. Tickets are $25, and there are a variety of seatings between 5:45-8:45 pm.

Monday, March 18

Food in Fashion at The Joule
The Greater Dallas Restaurant Association presents this interactive event that combines North Texas’ restaurant, hospitality, fashion, and restaurant industries during a fun-filled evening that benefits career education. The event will consist of VIP receptions, a food-infused fashion show, silent and live auctions, and appetizers and drinks. Tickets start at $75 and the event kicks off at 6 pm.

where-to-eat

Skewers News

Chinese restaurant Yang's Smokehouse in Plano has sensational skewers

Yang's Smokehouse

Crispy tofu balls at Yang's Smokehouse

A new family-owned Asian restaurant specializing in skewers has opened in Plano: Called Yang's Smokehouse, it's a Chinese place now open at the Mitsuya Marketplace center at 240 Legacy Dr #306, with a menu featuring dishes you won't find anywhere else in Dallas.

That includes skewers of all kinds: meats such as beef tongue, pork belly, lamb, sausage, mini pork ribs, pork skin, and duck gizzard; and veggie skewers including green beans, cabbage, eggplant, zucchini, and lotus slices.

These skewers have a history that dates back to the restaurant's roots in China, says Yang's founder Candice Cao.

"The legacy of Yang's Smokehouse began in 1980 with secret family recipes from my Grandma Yang, which were passed down through generations," Cao says.

After being widowed at the young age of 30, Grandma Yang launched a charcoal stall from which she served skewers, enhanced by her hand-crushed spice blends and cooked over live fire. She eventually built a small chain with six locations, each serving about 10,000 skewers per day, Candice says.

Candice's mother joined the business and now Candice, who came to Dallas more than a decade ago to attend Dallas Baptist University, represents the third generation.

"I'm proud to follow the family tradition of women owning their own business," Candice says.

While skewers are the star, Yang's also serves unique dishes that are native to the Guizhou province in southwestern China where Candice is from.

That includes spicy stir-fried clams in black bean sauce with garlic, ginger, scallion, and cilantro; and a dish called Spicy and Numbing Chicken Knee Cartilage featuring a delicacy taken from the small joint connecting the drumstick to the foot.

"Asians know about this dish — it has a really strong, spicy flavor that almost has a numbing effect," Candice says.

There are also crispy tofu balls, popular snacks in Guizhou featuring a crisp tofu skin wrapped around soft mashed tofu filling which is dressed up with radish and spices and fried.

"It's crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, and we serve it with a spicy dipping sauce that has radish and cilantro," Candice says. "We recommend poking a little hole and adding some of the radish to make it juicy. It's one of our most popular items, equally loved by vegetarians and diners seeking truly authentic Chinese food."

Other menu items include egg fried rice, Korean kim chi egg rice, stir-fries, potato pancakes, potstickers, cucumber salad, and "Southern" cold noodles — featuring sweet potato noodles in a simple but satisfying sauce made with soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, and chili, topped with cucumber, perfect for summer.

They recently added an all-you-can-eat skewers offering at lunch, Monday-Friday, for $40 that'll last through the summer.

To guarantee a smooth and successful launch in the U.S., Candice brought in a secret weapon: Grandma Yang herself.

"Grandma traveled here to help get Yang's off the ground," Candice says. "That's her coaching the team in the kitchen."

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