Friday, December 14, 2007

Best Bites: Dining out in DFW December 14

By Teresa Gubbins

Sometimes Dallas waits to see a trend blossom in New York or California before jumping in, but we've seen no slack on wine bars: from Cru (in Dallas and Plano), to Mercy in Addison, to Cork (both the one that used to be at 2711 McKinney by Boll Street, and the new Cork at 3636 McKinney in West Village).

Parlour Cafe & Wine Bar takes it to the suburbs, specifically the northern edge of Richardson in the Shire shopping center built by Dale Wamstad that also houses Silver Fox, Main Street Bistro, and a coming-soon branch of Scalini's Pizza & Pasta. (Speaking of, the original Scalini's at Abrams and Gaston seems to have shut down; the phone's been disconnected.)

Parlour was opened at the beginning of '07 by Wayne Cummins, who learned the ropes by working at nearly every wine bar in town. He was previously manager at Mercy, worked at the original Cork, as well as Liberty Noodle and the Green Room; but music fans might remember buying CDs from him back when he worked at legendary record stores such as Bill’s and Pagan Rhythms.

His New Orleans birthplace made the connection for him at the Shire -- "Dale Wamstad is a New Orleans guy, too," Cummins says.

Chef is Jason Wade who graduated from the Art Institute of Dallas, and who Cummins met while they both worked at Mercy; Wade also worked at Nana. The menu has full-scale entrees but also plenty of bites and starters including Cummins' family gumbo recipe, plus "savory beignets" such as potato-leek with "rosemary sugar."

The wine list has about 60 by the glass, and they host a wine dinner every Tuesday night, three courses with wine for $50. They also do flights and tastings, such as the Tuesday night special, 6 to 9 p.m., with 4 wines and a cheese board for $20.

Zenna and the Art of Dining

Zenna sprang up in the space off US 75 at Park previously occupied by Bangkok City (which was a sibling to the Bangkok City on Greenville though not the one on Bryan). However, Zenna has a new owner, Dave Derek, who came from Nandina, whose concept and progressive Thai-Japanese-fusion menu he helped create.

"We're doing some of the same things as Nandina," Derek says. "All the chefs, all the staff, they come over here."

If you know Nandina, you'll likely recognize Zenna's menu, with its unusual, upscale dishes such as Thai pepper steak, lamb chops with wasabi-cabernet sauce, and sea bass with ginger-tamari glaze. And cosmopolitan as it is, Zenna stays open late -- until 3 a.m.

Rest & Deluxe-ation

A diligent diner points out that Cafe R&D, the new casual concept from Hillstone (owners of Houston's), finally opened in Preston Center; sure did take 'em a while. The prototype opened a couple of years ago in Southern California, and more are being built. Described as "somewhere between deli and pâtisserie," it sounds extremely practical, and you won't have to dig hard to find raves online for its Chinese chicken salad with mango, cucumber, jicama, and cabbage over thin whole-wheat noodles.

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