Party Time Part II

Champagne toasts and even more fine dining: What to do in Dallas for New Year'sEve, reprise

Boulevardier's French food is plenty enough motivation to keep your New Year'sresolutions for at least two days longer than the normal week and a half.
Photo courtesy of Boulevardier
Start your 2013 adventure with Bolsa's offerings, such as veal cheek and charredSpanish octopus.
Bolsa/Facebook
The Front Room at Hotel Lumen is offering a three-course prix fixe for $55 from5 pm-midnight.
Photo by Shannon Faulk
Relax on the Social side of Private Social with shared plates and live jazzmusic, or go sophisticated on the Private side with a five-course meal courtesyof chef Tiffany Derry.
Photo courtesy of Private Social

When I put together the first roundup for New Year’s Eve, I had no idea just how many more emails would be forwarded to me. So many, in fact, that I figured I might as well put out a New Year’s Eve Roundup Part II. Let's do this.

Cedar’s Social is offering a three-course dinner for $75 with seating at 7, 9 and 11 pm. Choose from dishes including duck confit, Colorado lamb rib-eye and chocolate gateau. Complimentary glass of champagne. For reservations, call 214-928-7700.

Chef Patrick Russell at Max’s Wine Dive has put together a four-course meal with dishes including tuna and caviar, pork rillettes, Akaushi sirloin and bordelaise and fried chicken and Champagne. The dinner is $75 with optional wine pairings for $25. Available from 4-11 pm. Call 214-559-3483 for reservations.

Boulevardier has an à la carte menu for those looking for variety. Check out the raw bar with oysters and shrimp, or try the crawfish beignets or seared foie gras for starters. Main dishes include wood-grilled bison filet au poivre and cast-iron red snapper. For reservations, call 214-942-1828 or email at brooks@boulevardier.com.

Bolsa is doing NYE from 5-10 pm with a menu that includes charred Spanish octopus, Muscovy duck breast and veal cheeks. Plenty of time to eat and then head out for the rest of the night. For reservations, call 214-367-9367 or email contact@bolsadallas.com.

The Windmill Lounge is throwing its eighth annual NYE party with no cover. Owner Charlie Papaceno is making black-eyed peas from scratch and each hour, on the hour, you get a complimentary Champagne toast. To paraphrase Alan Jackson, it’s midnight somewhere. No reservations required.

Private Social is doing its two-face thing on New Year’s Eve with live jazz music by Brett Laquercia and cocktails by Rocco Milano to go with your shared plates on the Social side. The Private side is offering a five-course meal for $125 with optional wine pairings for $50. Dishes include bacon apple ravioli with pork belly and apple cider, salt and pepper lobster with butter-braised cabbage and scallion-ginger sauce, and short ribs with wild mushroom risotto. For reservations, call 214-754-4744.

Chef and owner Pascal Cayet is serving up a French bonne année menu at Lavendou Bistro Provençal. The five-course meal includes lobster bisque, warm venison pâté in puff pastry with black currant sauce, grilled sea bass with a Champagne and caviar sauce, and a French apple tart with Calvados and vanilla ice cream. The five-course is $74.95; there is also a three-course option for $64.95. For reservations, call 972-248-1911 or email provencial@aol.com.

The Front Room at Hotel Lumen is offering a three-course prix fixe for $55 from 5 pm-midnight. Choose a salad or starter from the menu; the second course is pan-roasted filet, butter-poached lobster, truffle mashed potatoes and shaved winter vegetables. Top it off with malt chocolate cake with vanilla milk and a complimentary glass of Champagne. For reservations, call 214-219-8282 or visit the website.

Hotel St. Germain is getting swanky on the dance floor and going old school. As in 1920s Hollywood nightclub or a Gatsby-esque soirée. But if you’re not interested in cutting a rug, there are early seatings at 6 and 6:30 pm that are dinner only for $95 per person. The second seating goes from 8-10:30 pm and is $160 per person with dancing afterward to the Memphis Soul Band. For reservations, call 214-871-2516.

The Pyramid Restaurant is hosting a five-course dinner for $250 per couple with optional wine pairings for $100 more. Dishes include crab bisque soup, sous vide eye of rib-eye with potatoes Lyonnaise and braised mushrooms, and honey Sauterne pears for dessert. For reservations, call 214-720-5249.

Dallas Chop House is preparing a four-course dinner for $65 with dishes that include lobster fritter, oysters Rockefeller, five pepper-crusted strip steak and peanut butter mousse tart. For reservations, call 214-736-7300 or visit the website.

Chop House sibling Dallas Fish Market also has the same four-course, $65 set-up for dishes like green papaya crab salad, black truffle-wrapped sea bass and grilled Australian grass-fed filet. For reservations, call 214-734-3474 or visit the website.

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Hummus News

New Mediterranean restaurant in McKinney spotlights Greek and Lebanese

Ilio's

Chicken shawarma plate at Ilio's Greek & Lebanese

A new Mediterranean restaurant starring two cuisines has debuted in McKinney: Called Ilio’s Greek & Lebanese Restaurant, it's now open at 210 N. Custer Rd. #130, with a collection of Middle Eastern favorites like gyros, shawarma, kebabs, hummus, falafel, and pita wraps.

The restaurant, which opened in mid-May in a center on the newer west side of McKinney, is from a pair of restauraunt veterans, Anas Abu-Ziad, nicknamed "Ziad," and Talal Hammad, who owned a similarly-themed and similarly-named concept in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Managing the front of the house is Ziad's affable wife Jessica Gardener, whose doting customer service has quickly made her a diner favorite.

"The idea with combining Greek and Lebanese was to make the restaurant inviting to everyone," Gardener says.

Baton Rouge has a reputation for good Greek and Lebanese food, even boasting a few restaurants that feature "Greek & Lebanese" as part of their name. Those two cuisines are slightly less common in Dallas, where the Middle-Eastern restaurant scene has been dominated mostly by Turkish and Syrian places.

Ilio's, which was the ancient Greek name for the city of Troy and is a popular moniker for Greek restaurants across the U.S., specializes in sizzling grilled kebobs, which are available in chicken, beef, shrimp, and kafta, the Lebanese favorite consisting of ground meat — often a combination of beef and lamb, with spices, onions, and herbs — molded into a long cylinder.

Greek dishes include dolmas (stuffed grape leaves with rice), spinach pie, and lamb shank — all dishes that can appear on many Middle Eastern menus but are most closely allied with Greek cuisine. That includes moussaka, the homey casserole dish made with eggplant, meat sauce, and bechamel — although Ilio's version is deconstructed, which is easier for restaurants to execute than the traditional layered version favored by home cooks.

Hummus comes in three options: traditional, Mediterranean, and Sultan, topped with chunks of meat. Other Mediterranean classic dishes include chicken shawarma, gyro plates, falafel, and fried halloumi cheese.

Most dishes come in under $15 and the restaurant is also BYOB.

There are extra-healthy dishes including salads, lentil soup, and pita wraps, made with pita that's a little softer and less doughy than many pitas in town. And there's also a fusion twist that's very Texas: a "Greek quesadilla" with your choice of grilled meat stacked between pita bread.

greek cuisine lebanese cuisine mckinney mediterranean restaurant middle eastern favorites openings