This week in gluttony

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

Sample bites from The Rustic and other Uptown restaurants at a big event this week.

Photo courtesy of The Rustic

It’s a week of elegant experiences, with several upscale events on the list, including a truffle dinner, high-end dessert tasting, Chartreuse liqueur tasting, and a fine Italian wine dinner featuring a guest sommelier from a tony Colorado restaurant. Save room by week’s end for a soul food festival featuring comfort cuisine favorites.

Tuesday, October 19

Frasca Takeover – Fruili Food & Wine Dinner at Meridian
Sommelier and restaurateur Bobby Stuckey of Boulder, Colorado Italian restaurant Frasca Food and Wine, will visit Meridian for one-night takeover. Stuckey will collaborate with Meridian chef Junior Borges on a six-course dinner with wine pairings. Menu highlights include roasted scallops on the shell, polenta with burgundy truffle, and short ribs with apples and horseradish. The dinner is $225 per person, plus tax and gratuity, and includes a signed copy of Stuckey’s new cookbook, Fruili Food and Wine: Frasca Cooking from Northern Italy’s Mountains, Vineyards and Seaside.

Thursday, October 21

Spooky Omakase at Make Your Life Sweeter
The high-end dessert boutique at the Galleria Dallas is offering a sweet and spooky dessert experience. Taste 13 different Halloween-themed desserts during this one-hour tasting. (Have your iPhones ready for lots of Insta-worthy shots.) Reservations are $65 per person and the tasting will be offered through October 31.

Wine Dinner with Pinea at The Crescent Club
Located at the Hotel Crescent Court, The Crescent Club will host a three-course wine dinner featuring Pinea Wines. Guests will partake in seared yellowtail tuna, filet mignon, and chocolate gateaux. Reservations are $110 per person and a welcome reception begins at 5:30 pm, with dinner to follow at 6 pm.

Trolley Taste of Uptown
To be held at the Marriot Dallas Uptown (and not on an actual trolley), this tasting event features bites from restaurants located along the M-Line Trolley route. More than a dozen participants include Sixty Vines, Meso Maya, and The Rustic. The fundraising event will include live music and silent and live auctions, too. Tickets are $100 per person and the event will run from 6-10 pm.

Truffle Dinner at The Adolphus Hotel
It’s white truffle season and we’re here for it. Lap in a little luxury at this five-course dinner in The French Room inside The Adolphus Hotel. The progressive experience will begin in the Salon for canapes, proceed to the dining room for dinner, and commence in the bar with a digestif. Reservations are $185 per person, plus $85 for optional wine pairings (plus tax and gratuity). Valet parking is included and the dinner begins at 6:30 pm.

Saturday, October 23

Wine 101: Zinfandel at Neighborhood Cellar
The Bishop Arts wine bar and bottle shop will host a class all about Zinfandel (which spans beyond Beringer of the 1990s). Participants will try four types along with snacks from Fount Board & Table. Class is $35 per person and will run from 12-1 pm.

Sunday, October 24

Soul Food Festival
Taste comfort cuisine from 20 different Texas caterers who’ll set up to sell dishes like pork chops, oxtail, candied yams, collard greens, fried chicken, barbecue, turkey legs, tacos, and more during this all-day dining event. Located at Lofty Spaces in Dallas, the festival will run from 12-7 pm. Reserve your ticket by Wednesday and admission is free. After that, the entry free is $5 per person.

Monday, October 25

Supper Club at The French Room with Chartreuse
A centuries-old herbal liqueur, Chartreuse is finding new life in the modern bartender’s repertoire. Try it in cocktails and straight pours during this tapas-style supper club event at The French Room inside The Adolphus Hotel. Reservations are $95 plus tax and gratuity. Valet parking is included and the event begins at 7 pm.

uptown desserts festivals news-you-can-eat wine

Global tastes

New food truck in Carrollton puts a Venezuelan spin on empanadas

The central Venezuelan variation of empanadas is fried whole before being sliced open to hold additional fillings and toppings.

Photo courtesy of Empanada Factory.

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A unique new food truck serving authentic Venezuelan empanadas has parked in Carrollton. Called Empanada Factory, the trailer joins a pod of quick-service food trucks at 3490 Rosemeade Pkwy., at Marsh Ln.

The new initiative comes from Gloria Romero and her husband, Samuel Gómez. Originally from central Venezuela, the couple brings a regional variation to the local food scene known as empanadas operadas ("operated empanadas"). Unlike traditional empanadas, these are fried whole first and then sliced open to add additional fillings and toppings — the "surgery" that gives the dish its name.

Made with cornmeal dough rather than wheat flour, they are significantly larger than standard empanadas, holding up to 4 ounces of filling compared to the typical 1.5 ounces in traditional empanadas.

At Empanada Factory, customers can choose from six fillings: queso blanco, jamonada (cooked ham in cubes), chicken, shredded beef, cazón (dogfish), or a seafood mix. Base empanadas range from $4 to $6, with $1 add-on toppings including black beans, cheese, plantains, chorizo, sausage, melted Gouda, and avocado.

Beyond empanadas, the menu features $12 arepa bowls — crafted from arepa dough and served with a choice of one protein and three toppings — as well as quesillo venezolano ($4), a traditional Venezuelan dessert similar to flan but with a firmer texture.

The Arepa Bowl, featuring a crispy arepa dough base filled with shredded beef, black beans, avocado, and house sauces.Photo courtesy of Empanada Factory

Drink options include lattes, drip coffee, Venezuelan sodas, and fresh fruit shakes (served frappé or on the rocks) in flavors like mango, passion fruit, blackberry, and Caribbean native fruit guanábana (soursop).

After selling out during their first two weeks, Romero and Gómez feel confident in their new home.

“Carrollton is very established in Latin culture, and the location is accessible to everybody,” Romero says. “People know the area, so they know where to find us.”

Romero and Gómez describe themselves as "eternal entrepreneurs" who have owned several businesses, including Redy POS — an all-in-one ordering platform designed for food trucks and quick-service restaurants. In addition to sharing their cultural heritage, Empanada Factory serves as a real-world test kitchen and showcase for their software, which streamlines ordering and fulfillment to keep wait times minimal. Several neighboring food trucks in the area are already Redy POS clients, they say.

Alongside a streamlined ordering system, the owners emphasize that product quality remains their primary focus.

"What you see on social media is what you actually get; we focus heavily on maintaining the quality of our food, making sure it looks and tastes just as it is displayed in our photos," Romero says.

To deliver on that standard while maintaining fast service, the couple chose to start small with a food truck model and limited weekend-only hours (8 am-2 pm). Pre-ordering is available via their website, and they offer direct, home delivery within a 10-mile radius with no third-party app markup.

carrollton food truck

This week in gluttony

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

Global tastes

New food truck in Carrollton puts a Venezuelan spin on empanadas

High 5 Exchange bowling and entertainment mega-center rolls into Allen

Dallas bar veterans open Italian speakeasy-restaurant in Denton

Acclaimed Goodwins duo to open Mediterranean spot on Dallas' Greenville Ave