Critic News

Dallas Morning News hires another restaurant critic from Los Angeles

Michalene Busico.

Photo courtesy of Twitter

After nearly a year-long search, the Dallas Morning News has hired a dining critic: Michalene Busico, a native of Southern California and journalist at publications such as The Robb Report and The Los Angeles Times.

Busico replaces Leslie Brenner, the newspaper's most recent critic, who left in 2017 and now works for Rebees, the moniker-challenged company founded by restaurateur Tristan Simon.

Although Busico was once a food editor, this will be her first crack at being a restaurant critic. According to her Linked-in page, she was deputy editor for the Robb Report for eight years, and was previously with Entrepreneur magazine. The last time she worked at a newspaper was in 2008.

According to sources who prefer to remain unnamed, Busico was not the first candidate to be offered the job. Her salary is rumored to be "within the six-figure range."

Sadly, her hire is a rejection of our five suggestions for who should be the next critic, which included chef Jeana Johnson, man-about-town Wylie H. Dallas, and Instagram. With sites such as Facebook and Yelp, and a declining readership in the newspaper world, restaurant critics seem like a dying breed.

Busico represents a doubling down on the part of the DMN to a more old-school style of criticism. Her social media presence is currently slim, with a Twitter account currently boasting only 199 followers and a total of four tweets issued from 2016. Nonetheless, she will not be anonymous, and posed for a photo in the column that announces her hiring.

Among her stated goals is a plan to reshape the newspaper's star rating system, "so we can recognize less formal restaurants in a stronger way."

Busico has already written articles for the newspaper, including a profile of chef Julian Barsotti. In her column, which is behind a paywall, she divulges that she and Brenner are friends. (Her very first tweet was a retweet in support of Brenner, awwww.)

But dang, their friendship would seem to put her out of the running to cover Billy Can Can — which the paper momentously dubbed "the Texas saloon that might finally save Dallas' Victory Park" — or for that matter, any of the other Tristan projects coming soon to Victory Park.

Brenner's reign was controversial. She had some lingo issues, was banned from some local restaurants, and endured run-ins with chefs such as John Tesar and local heroes such as "BBQ Snob" Daniel Vaughn after "BBQ-Gate," in which a best barbecue list she crafted featured a number of restaurants he'd written about first.

reviews media

There Goes the Biscuits

Mom-and-pop restaurant chain Biscuit Bar closes all Dallas locations

Photo courtesy of Biscuit Bar

undefined

A Dallas-Fort Worth restaurant chain dedicated to biscuits is shutting down: The Biscuit Bar, a chain with six locations including five in the Dallas area, is closing them all. According to a series of Facebook posts, the closures are effective immediately.

Owners Jake and Janie Burkett say they were poised to sell off the chain but the sale fell through at the last minute.

The chain has five locations in the DFW area and one in Abilene. All are closed, as follows:

Deep Ellum
the Boardwalk in Plano
Arlington
Fort Worth Stockyards
Coppell

And Abilene.

The couple blamed a variety of factors, including "rising costs, supply chain instability, and a commercial environment increasingly shaped by large institutional interests" which "created pressures no small business was prepared to endure."

They debuted the concept in 2018 with a location in Plano, before expanding in 2019 with a bang, targeting five locations all at once — a bold move for an unproven concept, especially one dedicated entirely to one food group.

They were open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days a week, offering biscuits, tots, and beer on tap — very ambitious — with a menu featuring both savory and sweet biscuit sandwiches made in house; tots, which could be customized; plus a bar with cocktails, local beer, cold brew coffee, and kombucha, all offered on tap.

Their post says that by early 2025, they entered Chapter 11 — "not to walk away but to rebuild and secure a future for our employees," they say. "And for a time, it looked like that future was within reach. A respect restaurant group stepped forward, committed to acquiring and growing Biscuit Bar. The sale was structured, terms were agreed upon, and the closing was set for December."

Unfortunately, not everyone was on board.

"While many partners supported a workable plan, several key financial stakeholders did not," their post says. "This included a few landlords whose participation was essential. Their refussal to compromise or support a path forward ultimately made the sale impossible, leaving us with no legal or financil ability continue operating. And so just days before Christmas, we were forced into the most painful decision of our lives.

They say that "every earned wage will be paid," but to cover the loss of income and security so close to the holidays, they've established a GoFundMe and are encouraging their fans to contribute.

closings