Awards Time

Dallas' best restaurant and top chef revealed at 2018 Tastemaker Awards

This photo should give a clue as to who won top chef.

Whistle Britches

For weeks, we've been celebrating the bars, restaurants, and people that make Dallas-Fort Worth a vibrant culinary community, as part of our 2018 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards.

In our special editorial series, we honored nominees in a wide range of categories. A panel of expert judges helped compile the contenders, and the panel selected all of the winners — except for Best New Restaurant. That was determined by you, our readers, in a bracket-style tournament.

On April 19, the winners were revealed at an awards ceremony and tasting event at Sixty Five Hundred, emceed by award-winning television personality and Good Morning Texas co-host Jane McGarry.

These are the 2018 Tastemaker Award winners:

DALLAS

Restaurant of the Year: Town Hearth
Chef Nick Badovinus really gets what Dallas is about, and he brings it to the Design District in an over-the-top manner with this blown-up steakhouse. We’re talking $75 steaks, a raw seafood bar, and 64 glowing chandeliers.

Chef of the Year: Omar Flores, Whistle Britches
Critical acclaim follows Flores wherever he cooks: First at Oak Cliff seafood restaurant Driftwood, then at Casa Rubia, his Spanish tapas restaurant at Trinity Groves, and now at Whistle Britches, his restaurant in North Dallas where his chicken and biscuits are impossible to resist.

Rising Star Chef of the Year: Anastacia Quinones, The Cedars Social
"AQ" is known for her elevated take on modern Mexican food at restaurants such as Alma, Komali, and Kitchen LTO. She’s currently wowing diners at Cedars.

Best New Restaurant: Ferris Wheelers
This over-the-top restaurant in Dallas' Design District features barbecue from chef Doug Pickering, along with craft beer, games, live music, and a 50-foot running Ferris wheel. The brisket queso served with chips is divine.

Neighborhood Restaurant of the Year: Nova
This gastropub in North Oak Cliff is beloved by the locals for its comfortable atmosphere and great food by chef Eric Spigner, with homey dishes like scallops with grits.

Best Biscuits: Crossroads Diner
People rave about Crossroads’ sticky bun, but chef Tom Fleming’s biscuits are winners, too. They’re everything you want from a biscuit: golden-brown on top, buttery and moist inside.

Pastry Chef of the Year: Keith Cedotal, The Joule
Keith Cedotal is a highly inventive chef who’s been at the Joule since 2017, where he does all the desserts for CBD Provisions, Americano, and Mirador.

Bar of the Year: Parliament
Speakeasy from legendary mixologist Eddie "Lucky" Campbell is oft-cited as the best bar in Dallas, for good reason. With a welcoming staff and perfectly mixed drinks, Parliament is hard to beat.

Bartender of the Year: Trevor Landry, Jalisco Norte
Prior to his post at Jalisco Norte, Trevor created cocktail menus for the Front Room and Dakota's Steakhouse. He’s worked at many establishments around Dallas and has won numerous awards. None better than this Tastemakers Award!

Wine Program of the Year: Bullion
Downtown Dallas restaurant from chef Bruno Davaillon has a French theme on the menu, and a wine list by sommelier Andrew Schawel to match. It's a stunning collection with some rare bottles and a big selection of wines by-the-glass.

FORT WORTH

Restaurant of the Year: Piattello Italian Kitchen
Chef Marcus Paslay's restaurant in Fort Worth’s Waterside area serves comfortable Italian fare, including pizza and some of the city's best house-made pastas.

Chef of the Year: Lanny Lancarte, Righteous Foods
Part of the legendary dynasty of Joe T. Garcia's, Lancarte has been a culinary trailblazer for Fort Worth, first with his upscale Lanny's Alta Cocina Mexicana, and then again with Righteous Foods, where he blazed another trail with health-conscious food, juices, and great coffee.

Best New Restaurant: B&B Butchers & Restaurant
Steakhouse from Houston is a meat-lover’s paradise with 22 cuts that include Japanese Wagyu, Texas Wagyu, and pA5 Kobe Beef from Japan — and it’s all now being served at the Shops at Clearfork in Fort Worth.

Bar of the Year: Proper on Magnolia
Lisa Adams' cozy neighborhood bar on Magnolia Avenue serves nicely made cocktails in a casual, upscale environment that’s great for dates and grown-up conversation.

Movie Review

Tetris blocks out a taut international story about popular video game

Photo courtesy of Apple TV+

Nikita Efremov and Taron Egerton in Tetris

The term “origin story” is typically associated with superheroes these days, but a growing trend involves filmmakers taking a look back about famous consumer products came to be. In the next few months, Air (about Michael Jordan’s initial shoe contract with Nike), BlackBerry (about the now-defunct smartphone), and Flamin’ Hot (about the popular Cheetos flavor) will be released in either theaters or on streaming services.

First out the gate, though, is Tetris, which tells the highly complicated story of how the video game made its way from the USSR to players’ fingers worldwide in the late 1980s. The protagonist of the film is Henk Rogers (Taron Egerton), a small-time video game developer who sees an opportunity when he plays the then-unknown game at an electronics show.

Understanding its potential right away, he convinces a sales rep to sell him distribution rights in Japan, where he lives with his wife and children, and where – not so coincidentally – Nintendo is located. What seems to be straightforward at first turns quickly into a quagmire, with Rogers competing against English software company Mirrorsoft for various rights, including handheld video games, as Nintendo is about launch a new system they call Game Boy.

Directed by Jon S. Baird and written by Noah Pink, the film starts out relatively lighthearted, as the ever-optimistic Rogers bounces from country to country to convince a variety of people that his plans for the game will work. But the film gets more dramatic by the minute, with the second half – taking place almost entirely in the Soviet Union - taking on the feel of an international espionage story.

The filmmakers start with the premise that everyone watching knows Tetris and the immense popularity the game has enjoyed over the years, especially right after it launched. But even if somehow you aren’t one of those people, the film does a good job showing its importance, with multiple different parties fighting for its rights in four different countries.

Is all of what’s shown true? Probably not, but as with most movies that are “based on a true story,” there’s an understanding that the filmmakers use a good amount of dramatic license. On a pure filmmaking level, the story works because it shows the passion of Rogers for his business and the number of obstacles that stand in his way. It doesn’t hurt that one of those barriers is the USSR political machine, which practically has “evil” stamped all over it.

Egerton, known for the Kingsman series and playing Elton John in Rocketman, is a delight in this role. The somewhat shlubby character offers him a chance to utilize a different type of charm, and he knocks the part out of the park. Save for Toby Jones, most of the supporting roles are filled by lesser known actors, but all are enjoyable, especially Nikita Efremov and Oleg Stefan.

Tetris the movie could be viewed as just one big ad for the game that’s still popular, now in app form for smartphones. But the way the film is made, it’s easy to look past the commercial aspect of it and just enjoy the taut storytelling and interesting performances.

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Tetris is now streaming on Apple TV+.

Photo courtesy of Apple TV+

Nikita Efremov and Taron Egerton in Tetris

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