This week in gluttony

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

If you want these tacos, you'll have to bike for them.

The theme this week: get moving. From rock-climbing to bike-riding, events are as active as they are tasty. For those who prefer to sit and stay a while, there are two multi-course wine dinners for doing just that. Also on the list are a couple of celebrations: a grand opening for a new Asian concept, and a one-year anniversary party for a popular wine bar. Cheers!

Wednesday, May 18

Red Stix Asian Street Food Grand Opening in Farmers Branch
A new location of the popular pan-Asian casual concept will celebrate its grand opening in Mustang Station in Farmers Branch. The restaurant’s original location, near SMU in University Park, is a hot spot for custom noodle bowls, rice bowl, salads, and oversized banh mi sandwiches. Visit from 2-5 pm for complimentary cocktails and bites, dragon dancer performances, DJ music, and a photo booth.

Thursday, May 19

Huneeus Wine Dinner at Knife Plano
This five-course wine dinner comes with a ribeye tasting as an entrée course featuring three varieties of the flavorful cut from 44 Farms. Also on the menu is wood-fire grilled octopus, big eye tuna with foie gras, and 240-day dry-aged carpaccio with shaved black summer truffle. Wines will range from Sauvignon Blanc to Pinot Noir. Dinner is $150 per person, plus tax and gratuity, and begins at 6 pm.

Clink Wine Bar + Bites One-Year Anniversary Celebration
The Flower Mound wine bar will host a three-day soiree to celebrate its first birthday. Visit each evening Thursday through Saturday for live music, giveaways, food and wine samplings, and bottle engraving. Festivities start at 6 pm on Thursday and 7 pm both Friday and Saturday.

Boulders, Brews, and Trivia
A rock-climbing gym on Walnut Hill Ln. called Movement Dallas is hosting a climb meet-up followed by drinks. After the climb from 6-7 pm, participants will walk over to nearby Civil Pour coffee shop and beer bar for craft brews and trivia night.

Deep Ellum Wine Walk: Rosé Olé!
Sip and stroll the shops of Deep Ellum during this evening wine walk. Participants pay $15 (in advance, $20 the night of) for a ticket to receive a tasting glass good for wine samples throughout the Deep Ellum district. Check in at 2650 Main St. The event will run from 6-9 pm.

Saturday, May 21

7 Leaves Cafe - Grand Prairie Grand Opening
New location of coffee and tea shop chain opens near Asia Times Square in Grand Prairie with a host of festivities. There'll be free samples, games including trivia and coffee bean count, plus gift bags for the first seven people in line (it is 7 Leaves Cafe, after all), and raffle tickets for the first 100 people in line for prizes including airpods and airline vouchers. 10 am-3 pm.

Eastside Taco Ride
Meet at White Rock Alehouse & Brewery for an eight-mile bike ride to Tacos, Bites & Beats, an outdoor taco stand with a big menu and covered seating. Then head back to the brewery for a post-ride beer (or two). Check out the route map here. Cyclists should meet at White Rock Alehouse & Brewery by 10:30 am for the 11 am start time. Note that the route is suitable for all levels and the event is not a race, but rather a leisurely lunchtime ride. Riders will return to the brewery by about 1:30-2 pm.

Monday, May 23

Ziata Wine Dinner featuring Karen Cakebread at Sea Breeze Fish Market & Grill
Legendary wine entrepreneur Karen Cakebread will visit the Plano seafood restaurant for a five-course wine-pairing dinner. Sip wines ranging from Sauvignon Blanc to Cabernet Sauvignon paired with dishes like crispy skin branzino with stonefruit salsa, broiled halibut, and roasted monkfish medallions with New York strip. The dinner is $135 per person, plus tax and gratuity. Arrive by 6 pm for cocktail hour before dinner is served at 7 pm.

news-you-can-eat deep-ellum wine

Steakhouse News

High-profile Palladino's Steak & Seafood heads to Preston-Royal Dallas

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Filet Mignon will be on the menu.

A high-profile new steakhouse is coming to North Dallas: Palladino’s Steak & Seafood, an eponymous concept from Dallas restaurateur Joseph Palladino, will open at 5959 Royal Ln., in the former Spec's space.

Palladino is the larger-than-life ex-NYPD police officer-turned-restaurateur known for concepts such as Nick & Sam's Steakhouse and the Coal Vines pizza chain.

Palladino first landed on the Dallas restaurant scene in 1998 to partner up with the equally larger-than-life restaurateur Phil Romano, and went on to have a hand in the creation of Nick & Sam’s, the glitzy steakhouse on Maple Avenue (now run by Sam Romano, son of co-founder Phil Romano), Nick & Sam's Grill, Dos Jefes, and more. He created Coal Vines as an homage to the casual neighborhood restaurants reminiscent of his upbringing in New York.

Palladino's Steak & Seafood is a newly created concept, which will combine steakhouse, Italian dishes, and seafood, particularly sushi. The first location is already penciled in for New York, opening in the former Michael Jordan Steakhouse at Grand Central Terminal, which closed in 2018. It's being designed by the international design firm Rockwell Group and is slated to open in early summer.

Joseph Palladino and Troy Aikman Joseph Palladino and one of his many celebrity pals, Troy Aikman.Instagram

Palladino was approached by the landlords to open a restaurant in the center. Given Palladino's local following and celebrity draw, as well as the large local appetite for steakhouses, Dallas made sense as a second location, particularly at the highly desirable intersection of Preston and Royal.

On the culinary side, Palladino is partnered with veteran chef Sam Hazen, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America as well as an instructor there. His star-studded resume includes La Côte Basque, the Quilted Giraffe, Quatorze, Michelin three-star Le Gavroche, Terrace in the Sky, Cascabel, and Tavern on the Green. He was most recently at Tao, the glitzy Asian concept from Tao Hospitality, where he worked for a decade, giving him sushi expertise.

Palladino is busy getting the New York location open first, with a target date of "soon," and the menu has yet to be revealed, although Hazen previewed a dish on Linked In, consisting of a slice of toast with a cut-out center of pate, with accompaniments that included cornichons and mustard — like a pate version of the classic "egg in a hole."

"But it'll have high-quality steaks and seafood, along with some of my trademark specials and Italian dishes," Palladino says.

The hospitality will match the cuisine and ambience. “I intend to bring a very special steakhouse to the city, one that the locals can embrace," Palladino says. "They’re going to receive a good experience — that’s important to me.”

"Pate in a hole" dish shared by Palladino's chef Sam Hazen.Sam Hazen

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