This Week in Gluttony

These are the 10 best food and drink events in Dallas this week

This week has just about everything you could want from a food event standpoint: a beer brunch (and dinner), a wine walk, a crawfish boil, the reopening of a revered sushi spot, cupcakes for a cause — even a taco festival. (Should we keep going?) When there's this much food goodness happening, you know it's going to be a good week.

Tuesday, April 25

The Bruery and Funkwerks Pairdiné at Meddlesome Moth
Chef Robbie Lewis pairs five courses with 10 beers from these two craft breweries. Special guest hosts are Bruery head sour brewer Jeremy “Sour Jesus” Grinkey and Funkwerks’ head brewmaster Gordon Schuck. Tickets are $85, and the evening kicks off at 6:30 pm.

Wednesday, April 26

Dallas Observer Iron Fork at Centennial Hall
During this chef challenge moderated by restaurateur Kent Rathbun, two top chefs receive a basket of ingredients and go head to head for the prestigious Iron Fork award. During the event, attendees enjoy the chef challenge; tastings from local restaurants; and wine, beer, and cocktail samplings. Tickets start at $35, and the event starts at 7 pm.

Thursday, April 27

Grand Reopening Party at Steel Restaurant & Lounge
This party celebrates Steel's remodeled interior and new menu items created by Steel’s executive chef, Tysun Thomas. Steel is providing sushi bites, a hosted bar, live DJ performance, raffles, photo booth, and more for all the attendees. Admission is free and the party kicks off at 6 pm.

Friday, April 28

Granbury Wine Walk at Granbury Square
The festivities kick off on Friday with a VIP Sip and Savor event that features an evening of hors d’oeuvre and hand-selected wines from North Texas celebrity chefs. Saturday and Sunday are full of more wine, as well as food, music, and art, while guests take in the local sights, sounds, and flavors of Granbury. Tickets start at $35, and the walk starts at 2 pm on Friday.

Saturday April 30

Crawfish Boil at Episcopal Church of the Epiphany
Partnering with the Arts Incubator of Richardson, this event features dozens of local artists showcasing and selling their art. In addition to live music and games, there is also all-you-can-eat crawfish and other food and drink for sale, like barbecue and pulled pork. Tickets are $25 and the event starts at 10 am. All proceeds from this event benefit Missions and Outreach.

Taco Libre at Dallas Farmers Market
Taquerias are coming from as far as El Paso and San Antonio for this event, with taco options ranging from authentic street style to contemporary. Tickets for the third annual taco and music festival start at $16, and the general admission gate opens at 3 pm.

Cupcakes for a Cause at University Park Methodist Church
Enjoy delicious cupcakes from bakeries all over Dallas-Fort Worth, and participate in fun activities like cupcake-eating contests, bounce houses, face painting, and more. All proceeds support LEAP Global Missions, a Dallas-based nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing and enriching the lives of people around the world by providing free specialized surgical and medical care. The fun starts at 11 am.

Breakfast at Trinity Falls
Enjoy pastries, quiche, fruit, and mimosas — then go tour a home at Trinity Falls in McKinney. The KLUV FM Street Teams will also be on hand with a live remote stream of the event, which is a part of the DFW Showcase Tour of Homes. Admission is free, and the breakfast kicks off at 11 am.

Alton Brown Live: Eat your Science at Majestic Theatre
The follow-up to the Edible Inevitable tour, fans can expect more comedy, more antics, multimedia presentations, and music. For this tour, however, Brown is adding in a slew of fresh ingredients including puppets, songs, and bigger (and more dangerous) experiments. With his knack for mixing science, music, and food, this show will be two hours of pure entertainment. Tickets start at $53, and there are showings at both 3:30 and 7:30 pm.

Jester Kings Beer Brunch at Meddlesome Moth
This four-course beer-paired brunch features Jester Kings head brewmaster Averie Swanson taking guests through each course's brew. Courses include humita Benedict, ducks in a blanket, five-spice skirt steak, and crème brûlée.Tickets are $70, and the brunch starts at 10 am.

Don't miss the free reopening party at Steel Restaurant & Lounge on April 27.

Vietnamese Shaken Beef, Steel Restaurant & Lounge

Photo courtesy of Steel Restaurant & Lounge

Don't miss the free reopening party at Steel Restaurant & Lounge on April 27.

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Coffee News

East Dallas coffee shop Killer Joe crackles with sharp New York style

Killer Joe

Killer Joe Coffee

A hip new coffee shop is energizing a busy corner in East Dallas: Called Killer Joe, it's a new shop at 108 N. Fitzhugh Ave. right on the northeast corner of Columbia Avenue, next to (and in the same building as) Pupusas To Go.

Killer Joe is from Christine Sweet and Christian Napolitano, who moved from New York to Dallas in 2022 in search of entrepreneurial opportunity.

"We had been wanting to open up a business in New York for a long time," Christine says. “After the pandemic, it was really hard doing business there. We were looking for a good place to move that offered an opportunity to open our business."

Christine previously worked in travel/destination marketing, living in different places around the world. Christian was in hospitality, having worked in high-end restaurants in Manhattan, most recently at Bond Street Sushi in Soho.

Their goal: to bring a little New York culture to Dallas.

“We are more than a coffee shop — we're a place for foodies and musicophiles, we are really into music and rock & roll. Our shop is not a sleepy, quiet coffee shop," Christine says.

They serve notice of their intentions on the exterior with a quirky, personal mural by Anthony Z. Padilla, rendered in taxicab yellow, with elegant line drawings of the Statue of Liberty and highway-style signs that say "Now leaving New York" and "Welcome to Texas."

The interior is casual-chic, with pale wood furniture and an original cement floor that still sports intentional patches of old paint. The walls have a mix of B&W vintage photos and the occasional cowboy hat. The space was for many years a closed-in bar called Los Dos Reales; but now, the building boasts expansive windows that look out on Fitzhugh and create a bright and sunny space.

For their coffee program, they use organic espresso beans and make their drinks in an Italian Sanremo machine. They serve all the classics plus signature drinks such as French Toast Latte, Sea Salt Caramel de Leche, and Caliente Mocha with a hint of cayenne pepper.

Seasonal drinks include a pistachio caramel matcha latte — featuring toasted pistachios like a baklava, but balanced by the earthiness of the matcha. Other specialty drinks include rose water matcha, orange blossom matcha spritz, and cucumber lemonade.

Panini at Killer JoeKiller Joe

They also serve food, including breakfast all day: steak & eggs, avocado toast, and bagels with plain, scallion or vegan cream cheese. The "Spaghetti Western" is a twist on the traditional ham & cheese sandwich with spicy capicola, roasted tomato, Calabrian pepper sauce, and chimichurri on toasted ciabatta.

Bread is from Empire Baking Company and the bagels are from Shug's.

At lunch, they serve an umami tuna melt; a "K-Pop Cuban" with ham and cheese, plus kimchi pickles and wasabi mayo; and The Texican, with soyrizo spicy sausage, cheddar roasted poblano peppers, tomato, and avocado.

Reeves Family Farm in Princeton provides fruits and vegetables, and DiveDWN brings their microgreens. Pastries are baked in house and sauces such as black olive pesto and Killer chipotle sauce are made from scratch.

“We are trying to blend our edgy New York style with a Southern Texas flair," Christine says.

They're open daily from 7am-3 pm, with a late-hour program every second Saturday featuring live DJs; people gather inside and outside the shop for music, food, and drinks.

"This community is just so great, very eclectic, and has really embraced our style," Christine says. In fact, a few customers had a tattoo made at neighbor Franklins Tattoo and Supply with the coffee shop's skull logo.

"I had to follow and get one done too," she says.

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