Fried Food News

Dallas restaurants fill the State Fair of Texas gap with new fried foods

Hey now, fried foods via Abel Gonzales.

Abel Gonzales

One of the most painful tolls taken by the coronavirus in Dallas has been the cancellation of the 2020 State Fair of Texas — but local restaurants are doing their best to take the sting out.

They're doing this via menus that summon the annual Big Tex Choice Awards, aka "fried food" awards, which have become a fun if slightly fading annual tradition in which State Fair vendors submit dishes of sometimes dubious value to compete for titles.

None of that will happen in 2020, but here are some places you can get your State Fair-style corny dogs, funnel cakes, and more.

Norma's Cafe
The Dallas diner-ish restaurant chain has released a new State Fair-themed menu that it hopes will give customers a taste of the Midway.

"Texans may not be able to ride the Ferris wheel or hear Big Tex say 'Howdy Folks' this year, but that doesn't mean they can't enjoy a taste of their favorite Fair Park treats," says Norma’s Cafe owner Ed Murph in a release.

The menu launched on August 1 and features fried favorites such as:

mini corn dogs
funnel cake fries
chili cheese tots
funnel cakes
chicken fried steak
deep-fried Oreo churros
bacon mac and cheeseburgers
sausage on a stick
Belgium waffles

Cocina Italiano
Abel Gonzales, AKA the State Fair fried food king, has won numerous awards in the annual Big Tex competition, and is set to fulfill your Fair food fix. Gonzales is a longtime State Fair vendor and repeat winner who rose to fame in 2010 with his fried butter, which won the prize for most creative.

In 2019, he opened Cocina Italiano, a casual lunch spot and catering kitchen serving Italian food at 7101 Harry Hines Blvd.

The items are currently available for catering, but Gonzales will start doing Saturday "fair" food items to go along with their weekly Saturday pickup/delivery packs they introduced after COVID-19. The Saturday packs can be anything from fajita to lasagna to smoked brisket. As Fair time nears, they'll rotate in weekly fried treats.

Offering include:

  Fried PBJ & B: Peanut butter, jelly, and banana sandwich battered and fried, quartered, and topped with jelly
  Fried Cookie Dough: Original recipe of cookie dough deep-fried and topped with chocolate syrup
  Fried Jambalaya: Jambalaya with sausage, chicken, and shrimp, deep fried and topped with spicy sauce, served with onion rings
  Fried Butter: Topped with honey, cinnamon, and sugar
  Fried Lobster: Lobster tail, breaded and deep fried, served with Champagne gravy, French fries, and Texas caviar
Fried Coke
Fried Pizza

Call 214-868-8125 to order.

Fletcher's Original Corny Dogs
If any one foodstuff embodies the State Fair of Texas, it is this cornmeal-crusted hot dog on a stick. Getting your Fletcher's is at the top of pretty much every fairgoer's list.

Not to worry, the Fletcher family has come to the rescue with a series of pop-ups at restaurants across Dallas-Fort Worth, and the ones they've already hosted have drawn lines. Here's the lineup for the next few weeks, thoughtfully spread across the DFW area:

August 7, 4-8 pm - Lakewood Growler
August 8, 12-7 pm - Honey's Shaved Ice, Rockwall
August 11, 3-7 pm - Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Dallas
August 15, 12-7 pm - Atwoods Ranch, Waxahachie
August 29, 4-8 pm - HTeaO, Plano
September 1, 3-8 pm - Tupps Brewery, McKinney
September 3, 3-7 pm - The Squire Shop, Fort Worth

Maple Leaf Diner
North Dallas restaurant known for Canadian specialties such as poutine is doing its own ode to Big Tex: Maple Leaf is serving Fried Oreos and a new Chicken Fried Bacon Burger. The dishes are available Friday-Sunday from 3 pm to close, and for a limited time only: through the end of Fair season, IE late October.

Big Al's Smokehouse BBQ
Family-owned and operated BBQ restaurant and caterer is doing smoked turkey legs for $9. Order online or call 214-350-2649; available for curbside pick-up or delivery within 3 miles of the restaurant.

Turkey Leg Paradise
The turkey legs at this small restaurant in the South Side district became a viral sensation ater a video posted on Twitter showed a customer shaking one of owner Corey Bradley Jr.'s turkey legs until the meat fell off the bone.He does eight flavors, sarting at $13, plus four that are "smothered."

Frank Seoul
The specialty at this chain from Korea is a corny dog, but with a twist on the good old American Fletcher's Original Corny Dogs. Rather than corn meal, Korean-style hot dogs are coated in a batter made of regular flour, rice flour, or a combination of both, with a final coat of panko crumbs before they get deep-fried. In addition to the classic Seoul dog, there's a hot dog with cheese, an all-cheese version no hot dog, and the wild-looking Potato Dog, coated in diced fried potatoes and stuffed with choice of hot dog or cheese.

state-fair

Deep Ellum News

Trinity Cider partners with Picadera street food in new Dallas venture

Trinity Cider

An exciting new food & drink venue is coming in Deep Ellum: Called Trinity Cider X Picadera, it will combine two great tastes — Trinity Cider, the sophisticated craft cider maker; and Picadera, the award-winning Dominican street food concept — under one delicious roof.

The new spot will be located at 2721 Main St. in Deep Ellum, in the former Crowdus Bar and, before that, home of Drugstore Cowboy, and is scheduled to open in December.

Trinity Cider is the laid-back bar that's been serving house-made craft ciders, sake, and beer at their current location at 2656 Main St. since 2018. They'd already been thinking about a larger space, and jumped at the opportunity when Crowdus Bar closed. The new bar will be triple the size of their current spot, and it comes with a kitchen, which allows them to have a consistent food offering, as opposed to the pop-ups they currently host.

For Trinity Cider owners Evan Kalstad and Brian Meyer, Picadera was the perfect choice.

“We have had over 20 companies who do pop-ups, and a lot of them were interested in running our kitchen, but it came down to the food I liked," Kalstad says.

Picadera is from Michael Tavarez, who started the concept as a pop-up in 2020, doing Latin street food, setting up camp at buzzy spots around town, creating a space where he could give Dominican people a taste of home. He drew a large and loyal following not only for his authentic and heartfelt dishes but also for the festive patio party experience that always arose.

Trinity Cider Picadera Trinity Cider X PicaderaPicadera

In 2023, Picadera moved from pop-up model to ghost kitchen, with three Latin food concepts at Commerce Fork Food Co. While this expanded the business, it also diluted the street parties Picadera was known for. Cooking in a closed kitchen focusing on to-go items took out all the fun.

“Mentally, I was done, so I had to close it," Tavarez says. "But I got a lot of positive comments and support, so I knew I could not let my brand die."

It was a breath of fresh air when Tavarez got a chance to participate at the State Fair, and real validation when he helped work on the dish that won the Big Tex Choice award for Best Savory item, the Dominican Fritura Dog. (Tavarez partnered with the Martinez family who've been at the state fair of Texas since 1977.) The positive energy continued when he got the chance to partner with Trinity Cider.

They're still finalizing the menu, but it will include favorites like empanadas, croquettes, tostones rellenos, Dominican smashed burgers, a bodega chopped cheese sandwich, and a Wagyu hot dog.

They're also working on dishes that can be enjoyed while dining in and paired with draft cider. The star dish will be a Dominican twist on steak frites, with skirt steak, plantain fries, and Wasakaka sauce, a herby sauce resembling chimichurri. This plate will be also available with camarones al ajillo as an add-on, for a surf and turf option.

Options include mofongo, a traditional Puerto Rican dish of mashed plantains, served with proteins such as pork belly, churrasco, camaron al ajilllo, and queso frito as a meatless option. Dessert will include a tres leches cake made with famous Entenmann's pound cake; and Yaniqueque, a Dominican dessert similar to buñuelos, cut into strips, with dulce de leche ice cream.

The food menu is designed to complement the all-natural, gluten-free hard cider provided by Trinity Cider. Seasonal cider flavors will include pineapple, passion fruit, watermelon, peach tree, and slightly spicy mango, which they will rotate regularly. Their drink menu will also include non-alcoholic cider, as well as their famous sake bombs.

“Hard cider and Dominican food go very well together. A lot of the things that pair well with cider are ingredients that Dominican food is based on. It is a match made in heaven," Evan says.

deep-ellum openings