Drinking News

The Meddlesome Moth earns title as World's Best Beer Place of 2012

World Atlas of Beer author Stephen Beaumont commended the Moth for having avaried and eclectic selection of craft beers.
Yelp
Beaumont also loved the food and beer pairings. For instance, this BurgundyPasture meatloaf with bacon, mashed potatoes and sautéed spinach, paired with aGreat Divide Chocolate Yeti.
The Meddlesome Moth/Facebook
Meddlesome Moth tied with a bar in Rome for the honor of World's Best Beer Placeof 2012.
The Meddlesome Moth/Facebook

Little known fact, but the best bar in the world — yes, the world — is in our backyard. The Meddlesome Moth was recently named one of two Best Beer Places of 2012, tying with a bar in Rome.

At least that’s the opinion of Stephen Beaumont, co-author of The World Atlas of Beer and the website World of Beer, who logged more than 70,000 miles in the air visiting beer places around the globe.

The other, Bir & Fud in Rome, makes this a truly international affair. Beaumont couldn’t decide which one merited the top spot, so he simply called it a tie.

Meddlesome Moth bar manager Ryan Schmidt said that the award has been vindicating.

"Obviously, we’re extremely excited," he says. "We felt rewarded for the hard work and research we put into planning which beers we have and making sure they pair well with chef David McMillan’s food."

In fact, Beaumont said that the blending of the menu and the beer listing was one of the things that led him to his decision. In comparing Moth to big brother Flying Saucer, he wrote:

The Moth is a creature of a decidedly different sort, with a more formal but still casual aesthetic, a fine list of beer offerings on tap and in the bottle, and a creative menu that veers from basic sandwiches in the afternoon to steak frites and other brasserie favourites at night, each listed with a recommended beer pairing.

Although Beaumont mentions that Dallas is "not exactly a long-standing craft beer Mecca," he commends the Moth for keeping its beer list "as carefully selected and stylistically diverse as its Texas location allows it to be."

"When customers come in, we like to give them what we call ‘the Moth experience’ where the food and beer match the customer’s palate," Schmidt says. "We want it to be a tour of craft beer and the food that goes with it."

Schmidt also says that they’re more dedicated than ever to supporting the local craft brewery scene, which despite Beaumont’s criticism, is exploding at an impressive pace.

"We’re not trying to change our recipe of how we do things," he says. "But we want to be growing with the breweries and support them with spots on the draft wall and getting them out there."

Schmidt, who will become the general manager in February, says that the Moth will partner with the new Community Beer Company to have its first releases in stock on the same day Community starts shipping out its first commercial batch. Still, he says, being named one of two best beer places in the world is a huge honor.

"Of all the places in the world, we're here in Dallas, and we got picked."

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Benedict News

West End Dallas breakfast favorite Ellen's makes sudden comeback

Ellen's

Ellen's Southern Kitchen will return

A beloved breakfast spot in downtown Dallas is making a surprise comeback: Ellen's Southern Kitchen, the all-day restaurant concept founded in Dallas in 2012, is reopening its original location in downtown's West End.

According to founder Joe Groves, the restaurant, located at 1790 N. Record St., will open in June, following a "temporary" closure that lasted nearly two years.

The restaurant will reopen with the same hours, menu, and down-to-earth personality, serving breakfast, brunch, and Southern comfort food such as chicken-fried steak, fried catfish, meatloaf, shrimp & grits, and macaroni & cheese.

"We're still going to be the same — but better," Groves says. "We've kept the same management team, and we're thrilled that some of our waiters and bartenders and familiar faces are coming back. We're not taking anything for granted."

Groves is a voluble sort who disappeared from public view, due to landlord lawsuits that have since been resolved.

"There were two years of silence, we didn't know if we were going to be able to reopen or not," he says.

Named in honor of Groves' mother, Ellen's made its debut in 2012 with a special focus on breakfast — pre-dating the explosion of breakfast-and-brunch concepts that have opened across DFW in recent years.

Opening at time when the West End was on the upswing, Ellen's drew tourists, conventioneers, and downtown residents, with its menu of steak & eggs, migas, huevos rancheros, and Ellen's omelet with spinach, bacon, strawberries, mushrooms, and bleu cheese, served with toast and hash browns.

Signature dishes include pancake pot pie, a layered creation with pancakes, maple cream sausage gravy, bacon, sausage, hash browns, scrambled eggs, and cheddar cheese; and benedicts in eight options including Cajun shrimp benedict and crab cake benedict.

They were open for lunch and dinner hours as well, with a full bar. Groves' mischievous charm earned a following of its own, with stunts like his fearless 2018 run-in with the NRA in which he advocated for gun regulations during the organization's convention.

Bolstered by their success in the West End, Groves and his partners Andrew Chooljian and Russell Mertz went into what Groves calls "aggressive expansion mode," opening locations in Casa Linda and Allen, with plans for more. Casa Linda remains open; Allen closed in 2023. (They also opened Jack Ruby's, a restaurant-bar in the West End, which is thriving.)

But their momentum was derailed when one of their main financiers hit a wall. They closed the West End location temporarily, but the New York-based landlord at the time locked them out, spurring a domino effect with their other landlords, as well.

The building at 1701 N. Market St. where Ellen's resides has since been acquired by Five Smooth Stones, the development company owned by Owen Hannay, a longtime proponent of the neighborhood. He's working with Groves and company to get it back open.

"I've known Joe for a long time, and feel like Ellen's has always been such a great draw for the West End," Hannay says. "We're delighted that it's reopening and that we're able to get it going so quickly."

Once Groves and his staff were able to get back inside the beloved location, they found a time capsule — a romantic concept but one that also called for updates to the furniture, AC, and kitchen gear.

"After a couple years away, those holes in the upholstery became more obvious, and some of the kitchen equipment needed to be replaced," he says.

Ellen's reopening will restore breakfast and brunch to the West End, and Groves says they also hope it will bring them back to where they started.

"We have a big hole to dig out of — we want every vendor and individual we still owe to be fully paid," he says. "Reopening finally gives us hope for that."

"Ellen is my mom, this is our home location, and I've always felt a personal connection to the West End," he says. "I want the legacy of Ellen's to continue."

openings downtown west end