News You Can Eat
Coffee, Cane Rosso and Restaurant Week perk up Dallas food news
Weekend Coffee at the Joule downtown is open — gasp — every day.Photo courtesy of Weekend Coffee
Norman Grimm will be the first chef at Trinity Groves pop-up Kitchen LTO.Photo courtesy of Kitchen LTO
The oven is a key ingredient for Cane Rosso White Rock to achieve its VPNstatus.Photo courtesy of Cane Rosso
Pecan Lodge is now open Wednesdays too.Photo courtesy of Pecan Lodge
Downtown Plano will get the coffee shop it deserves with Fourteen Eighteen.Fourteen Eighteen Coffeehouse/Facebook
Coffee, there is never enough. Brunch, there's a bunch. And now that summer is practically here, we can already start thinking about the annual Restaurant Week, which this year will be August 12-18. Bud Kennedy's Twitter hints that the list and reservations will be announced July 15.
Downtown doings
Brewing as of June 19 is Weekend Coffee, the coffee shop at the Joule hotel in downtown Dallas, from neighboring boutique TenOverSix. The TenOverSix folks come from Los Angeles, which is promising, because California knows its coffee. Weekend is open every day — gasp! — from 6:30 am to 6 pm. That's already a cut above the local coffee places in downtown Dallas, which are open weekdays only. Then again, if downtown residents supported their local businesses, maybe the businesses would stay open.
Speaking of downtown coffee, Old Downtown Plano gets a coffee shop in July called Fourteen Eighteen Coffeehouse. It's named for its address at 1418 Avenue K, two doors down from stalwart Kelly's Cafe. Owners Melissa and Gerry Owen are so into coffee, they honeymooned in Seattle. They'll have a La Marzocco espresso machine plus beans from Oak Cliff Coffee Roasters. Downtown Plano always seemed like prime turf for a coffee shop. Yet many have tried and failed, including Coffee Haus (waaay back in the day), Fusion Cafe and Posh Nosh Market. Maybe this will be the one?
Another Capriotti's has opened downtown, at 1800 Main St., in the Mercantile Place apartment building. The release announcing the opening reads that hours run until 7 pm on Sundays. But on its first Sunday, the store was already cutting back to 6 pm. "We're still working on the hours," said a staffer. This makes the second Capriotti's in downtown Dallas; the other is in the West End.
The Google search-challenged Work Bar & Grill is now serving barbecue in Deep Ellum. It's in the former Sambuca spot, a prime space that was vacant forever. The furniture is hip and modern, but the waitresses in low-cut tops and schoolgirl getups are not. Come on, this is Deep Ellum, not Hooter's in the West End.
Pizza news
A second branch of Goodfellas Wood-Fired Pizza will open on Park Boulevard at the Dallas North Tollway in the old Tin Star spot. You may remember that the landlord priced Tin Star out of the space; Goodfellas seems to have been willing to pony up. The Goodfellas empire is fascinatingly inscrutable. There are various branches of Goodfellas pizza located not only around Dallas, but also in far-flung places like New Jersey and Florida. This Goodfellas is not related to those; it's a spin-off of the Goodfellas on Preston Road at SH 121, whose website calls it Santino's Goodfellas. But wait: A staffer there said that owner Sunny Samuels was previously affiliated with the other Goodfellas, but he isn't anymore. Oy!
Speaking of second branches, Cane Rosso White Rock has earned its stripes as an authentic Neapolitan-style pizzeria. Peppe Miele, president of L'Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, will come like the Pope to make a presentation on June 18. VPN rules specify that each location must be inspected and approved. Owner Jay Jerrier and pizzaiolo Dino Santonicola can't just photocopy the certification from their original Deep Ellum restaurant, oh no. They celebrate their dual-VPN status with a party at White Rock at 7 pm.
Menus and chefs
Kitchen LTO, the pop-up restaurant at Trinity Groves with rotating concepts, announced its first chef: Norman Grimm, formerly of Acme F&B. His menu will be "modern French/American" with oxtail, rabbit confit salad and sake-glazed pork belly. The restaurant is scheduled to open September 3.
The Second Floor has a new menu reflecting the output of new-ish chef Daniel Tarasevich. The lineup includes steak and eggs, goat cheese gnocchi, pork chop with yam gratin, and sweet beignets for dessert.
El Corazon de Tejas, the Mexi-Tex-Mex in North Oak Cliff in the old Tejano space, has launched brunch from 11 am to 3 pm on both Saturdays and Sundays. In addition to classics such as migas and huevos rancheros, the menu has a few original creations, including Corazon tacos with eggs and choice of ham, sausage or bacon in flour tortillas; omelets and breakfast burritos; huevos la Mexicana with tomatoes and peppers; "breakfast" chile relleno stuffed with eggs, beans and Jack cheese; guacamole, of course; and last but not least, menudo.
Pecan Lodge has extended its hours. Previously open four days, Thursday through Sunday, the hottest little barbecue joint in Dallas is now open on Wednesday too. Good idea, because the line to eat there has only gotten crazier and longer than ever since it made Texas Monthly's top 50 barbecue list in May.
Strawberry-Elderflower Sorbet at Nobu.Photo courtesy of Nobu
Torchy's nachos.Photo courtesy of Torchy's
Soft-serve frozen margarita at Barrel & Bones.Photo courtesy of Barrel & Bones