International Food Fest

Harwood District festival to tantalize Dallas taste buds with exotic eats

Exotic eats at the festival will include fare from Mercat Bistro.
Photo by Teresa Gubbins
Harwood District has some beautiful grounds, including this precisely trimmedgarden.
Photo courtesy of Harwood International

Neither downtown nor quite Uptown, the Harwood District is the newest and fastest growing area near Dallas' center, and it needs a festival to mark that fact. The Harwood District will host its first-ever Global Street Feast on August 24, noon-7 pm, with foods from around the world.

Harwood is home to the corporate headquarters of Harwood International, along with companies such as Amegy Bank, Boston Consulting Group, Emirates Airlines, Frost Bank, HollyFrontier Corp., Jones Day, MoneyGram International, Prologis and Rolex.

Global Street Feast will feature foods from Cuba, France, Greece, Italy and Jamaica.

Harwood International has a six-building development at 2501 N. Harwood St. that it calls a "campus." It includes three undeniably excellent restaurants: Marie Gabrielle Restaurant and Gardens, Mercat Bistro and Saint Ann Restaurant & Bar; all will participate at the festival. The district is also home to the Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller Museum: The Samurai Collection.

Having a name for the area is actually pretty handy. Calling it "the area between Uptown and American Airlines Center" feels so nebulous. It's being labeled as a 17-city-block district that will eventually include more than 7 million square feet of high-rise and mid-rise office, retail, and multi-family residential developments.

Harwood District is within walking distance not only to AAC but also to the Perot Museum, Meso Maya, La Ventana and El Fenix. More phases, including cafes and retail, are planned.

According to a release, the festival will be an international tour featuring foods from Cuba, France, Greece, Italy, Jamaica, Korea, Mexico, Taiwan and the United States. Participants include food trucks such as BoBaddiction, Little Greek Food Truck, Mr. Snowie, Salsa Limon, SsahmBBQ, Sweetie V’s and Taste of Cuba.

Marie Gabrielle, Mercat and Saint Ann will present a cooking demonstration, and bubbly will be served in Veuve Clicquot's Airstream. Games will include Jenga, Petanque, Twister and Yard Yahtzee. Picnic blankets and umbrellas will be provided, and there'll be live music.

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Pizza News

Donatos Pizza totes its unique crust to new location in Flower Mound

dallas.culturemap.com

Donatos

A pizza chain with a quirky obsession on its crusts is coming to Flower Mound: Donatos Pizza, the franchise famous for spreading its toppings to the very edge of the pizza, will open a location at 1400 Long Prairie Rd. #160.

According to a release, it'll open on December 17.

Donatos Pizza was founded by Jim Grote in Ohio in 1963 from a single stand, and remains family-owned. Their signature is to place the toppings on their pizzas "edge to edge" — for clueless diners who do not like plain crust edges. (Come on, the crust is the best part.)

Their menu features more than a dozen varieties of pizza such as veggie, four cheese, and pepperoni with hot honey. Their signature crust is a thin-crust but they also offer thicker alternatives as well as a cauliflower crust. Pizzas come in a 7-inch individual and go all the way up to a 14-inch large. Prices range from $15 to $25.

Fans appreciate their better-than-average ingredients and describe it as more flavorful compared to other corporate pizza chains, with a crisp thin crust and generous toppings.

In addition to pizza, Donatos' menu includes oven-baked wings, sub sandwiches, including meatball and Italian cold cuts, plus appetizers and salads.

The Flower Mound location will be a family affair, owned by Lynne and Ralph Pence, whose son Travis will oversee day-to-day operations. The Pence family has deep connections to Donatos including the fact that Lynne's sister used to work for the company, while her brother-in-law still does.

"We're from Columbus, Ohio — it is where our kids grew up and where our family is—it also happens to be the hometown and birthplace of Donatos Pizza," Lynne says. "Our daughter in Oklahoma found out Donatos was coming to Edmond, where she lives, and called us. She was so excited that Donatos was finally coming down south and we wanted to be a part of it."

This is the second Donatos in the Dallas area: a location opened in Frisco in November — the first in Texas.

There are currently 470-plus locations in 28 states. That includes 175 stores plus nearly 300 non-traditional locations nationwide, including select Red Robin restaurants, sports, and entertainment venues.

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