This Week in Gluttony

These are the 9 best food and drink events in Dallas this week

Tulum is hosting a special dinner that'll spotlight a collaboration between two acclaimed chefs.

Photo courtesy of Tulum

This weekly roundup of dining events around Dallas is an exciting run-up the week before Thanksgiving. There's a cool star chef dinner, plus dinners featuring pairings with whiskey, tequila, and beer. There's also lots of art. Maybe everyone's getting geared up in anticipation of Thanksgiving. (Speaking of, we have a list of restaurants that are hosting Thanksgiving dining-in, as well as a list of restaurants offering Thankgiving to-go.)

Thursday, November 18

Tulum X Shinsei Dinner
"Infused with Tulum: A Chef Collaboration Series" is a new quarterly event series at Tulum, the upscale Mexican restaurant on Oak Lawn Avenue. This first installment features 2021 Tastemaker Awards Chef of the Year nominee Jose Meza with Chef Shuji "Elvis" Sugawara of Shinsei Restaurant, who together will bring a fusion of flavors extending beyond traditional Mexican and pan-Asian cuisine. The evening includes a five-course dinner with special dishes not found on the menu of either restaurant. Limited seating between 6-9 pm. Tickets are $100. Make reservation by emailing Tulum@thetulumexperience.com.

Nelson's Green Brier Whiskey Dinner at Knife Steakhouse Plano
Knife Steakhouse Plano has partnered with Nelson's Green Brier Distillery to host a whiskey and Belle Meade Bourbon pairing dinner. The evening will feature a cocktail reception followed by a four-course tasting menu paired with Nelson’s Green Brier Whiskey and bourbon. The meal begins with a mushroom risotto & duck confit paired with Nelson’s Green Brier Original Sour Mash Tennessee Whiskey. The third course combines braised beef cheek with polenta & mushrooms with Belle Meade Reserve Bourbon. Dessert includes an original cocktail using Louisa's Caramel Coffee Pecan Liqueur with a pecan tart. The reception starts at 6 pm sharp, in Knife Plano's private dining room. Tickets are $99 and reservations can be made online.

El Patio Mex-Tex Tequila Dinner Featuring Cincoro Tequila
Mexican/BBQ restaurant in Lewisville is hosting a three-course dinner created by chef Slvador Hernandez featuring the celebrity-backed tequila co-released by Michael Jordan. First course is citrus butter-poached sea bass on a fall green salad. The entree is braised short rib with roasted huitlacoche with corn tamale and a broccoflower medley. Dessert is a carpirotada, IE Mexican bread pudding with pistachio ice cream and Grand Marnier creme anglais. Tequilas poured will include the blanco, anejo, and reposado. Given what the tequilas cost, it's a pretty reasonable $95. Dinner starts at 7:30 pm. Call 972-410-2096 or email info@elpatiomextex.com.

"Let's Plant and Sip" at the Beeman Hotel
Show off your green spirit in an interactive workshop at the Beeman Hotel, in collaboration with Energy Gardens Terrarium, where you can design and plant your own succulent garden. The important part: The sipping. You do it with a glass of wine or Champagne. The workshop is from 7-9 pm. $40 gets you a glass of wine or champagne, one container and three succulents to take home. Tickets can be purchased online.

Friday, November 19

Community Beer Dinner at Virgin Dallas Hotel
Virgin is partnering with Community Beer Co. for a Community Beer Dinner, an intimate dining experience featuring five of their brews, served alongside chef-driven dishes from the Commons Club culinary team. The menu includes bacon mac & cheese bites, pork belly sope, zesty shrimp with smoked Gouda grits, quail with butter molasses glaze squash puree & puff sorghum, and panna cotta with snickerdoodle crumbs and caramel popcorn, paired with honey-citrus blonde, Mosaic IPA, and Snickerdoodle Ale. The Community Brewery team will guide the experience while sharing stories of their craft. It's $60 per person and runs from 7-9 pm. Make a reservation here.

Texas Ale Project Caucasian 2021 Release Party
Dallas Design District brewery introduces its latest limited release beer called The Caucasian. This White Russian Imperial Stout is brewed with Madagascar Bourbon vanilla beans, Full City Rooster cold brewed coffee, and American Oak with a 9 percent ABV, perfect for winter. They'll also pour other year-round beers. It'll run from 3-10 pm at 1001 N. Riverfront Blvd. and entry is free, with food, live music, bowling (you're encouraged to wear your favorite bowling sweater). 214-965-0606.

Saturday, November 20

19th Annual Cedars Open Studios at Canvas Hotel
Check out an exclusive exhibition of works from some of Dallas' most loved artists while sipping on specialty cocktails from Canvas Hotel including a Lavender in Motion, and for the spice lovers, a Mango Jalapeno Margarita. The hotel reception is free and is part of Cedars Open Studios, a neighborhood-wide tour from 11 am-6 pm, with free performances and activities, including live music and painting demos.

Boba and Doughnut Tasting at TeaLatte Bar
Sample mochi chewy doughnuts while you sip on a boba flight from TeaLatte Bar at 7001 S. Custer Rd. in McKinney. Tating includes a flight of four 8-oz drinks, mochi doughnut samples, one regular size drink, and a goodie bag with treats from local bakers Classic Macaron, EJ Sweets, Meraki Baked, Cauly's Cakes, and Marshell's Sweets, plus boba-themed gifts. $30. 12 pm. Go to thebobatomytea.eventbrite.com for tickets.

Monday, November 22

Farm to Fork Showcase at The Ranch
Las Colinas restaurant celebrates its 13-year relationship with local vendors at its annual Farm to Fork showcase, with a complimentary farmers market-style tasting event featuring many of the partners that helped put the restaurant on the map. Guests are welcome to meet the farmers, growers, and ranchers while enjoying complimentary food and beverage samples. For some reason, they're also doing a petting zoo, which means transporting a bunch of hapless baby sheep, goats, chickens, ducks, rabbits, and piglets to an event that will also have live music. Come on guys, is it really necessary to trot out the animals to serve as props in a stressful, noisy show-and-tell?

event-planner

There Goes the Biscuits

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

Photo courtesy of Biscuit Bar

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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 the owners, the closures are effective immediately.

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

The chain has five locations in the DFW area and one in Abilene. All locations are closed including these five in DFW:

Deep Ellum, at The Epic, the mixed-use project at 2550 Pacific Ave.
Plano, at The Boardwalk in Granite Park, at 5880 TX-121 #102B
Arlington, at Champions Park, at 1707 N. Collins St.
Fort Worth Stockyards, at Mule Alley, at 122 E. Exchange Ave.
Coppell, at 104 S Denton Tap Rd. #102

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."

The concept made its debut in April 2018 at The Boardwalk in Granite Park in Plano, before expanding in 2019 with a bang, targeting five locations all at once — a bold move for a new concept, especially one dedicated entirely to one food group. (They also opened a short-lived location on Hillcrest near SMU which is now home to D.L. Mack's.)

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.

Its most popular menu item, The Hoss, featured Southern fried chicken, bacon, Jack cheese, sausage gravy, and honey butter.

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 refusal 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've launched a GoFundMe for their employees and are encouraging their fans to contribute.

"If The Biscuit Bar ever served you a meal, became part of your routine, or gave you a place to gather with family and friends, we humbly ask you to consider donating or sharing this campaign," they say.

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