Best Bites: Dining out in Dallas-Fort Worth March 2

by Teresa Gubbins

It was a big week for high-profile restaurant openings, with Trader Vic's at the Hotel Palomar (see here) and three at Victory Park:

Do you suppose her last name is Bush?

Nove Italiano comes from the folks that opened N9NE Steakhouse: Scott DeGraff and Michael Morton, whose father Arnie founded the Morton's of Chicago steakhouse chain. Nove is Italian for "nine", a theme they hammer relentlessly: they met when they were nine, founded the company in 1999, they call their company N9ne Group, their shoe size is 9 (OK, I don’t know that). They're pretty socked in to Victory Park, as they also own Ghostbar and have plans for another lounge, Liquid, to open later this year.

Victory Tavern opens today. If it sounds generic, with its "casual American" cuisine and "boutique beers," keep in mind that it comes from Patrick Colombo, responsible for winners such as Sfuzzi, Nick & Sam's (which he co-founded with Phil Romano), Ferré, and Cru. With so many restaurants at Victory being themed, this becomes the fallback for diners not in the mood for Italian or pricey steak. The Tavern’s already had chef turnover as Jeff Moschetti left to go to Stephan Pyles, to be replaced by Zachary Wilber, who worked at Duce and Del Frisco’s in Fort Worth.

Pink chandeliers + battery-operated candles = suave atmosphere.

Anyway, Nove had its opening party on Thursday night. It's a handsome place, with pink conical chandeliers, huge installations of battery-operated candles (super goofy!), topiaries of females, a bar lined with glass beads, and digital fine-art portraits on the wall with images that surreally changed every few minutes.

Coming in April is Kenichi, the third branch of Austin’s top Japanese/sushi restaurant (the second is in Aspen). Like Nobu, Kenichi does the gimmicky hot-rock deal where you cook thinly sliced slabs of meat at your table on a sizzling hot rock (Kenichi claims its rock is 1,000 degrees – ouch). It’ll be open for dinner only. And opening later this year is The Olive, which revives the tired themed restaurant owned by celebrities – in this case, a sports-themed place whose owners include Ashton Kutcher and, by association, Demi Moore. (You may remember that she had a stake in Planet Hollywood with her then-husband Bruce Willis; don’t these people learn anything?)

Swinging doors

The writing is on the wall – literally ha -- for Dish Neighborhood Cuisine in downtown Plano, which now has a For Lease sign in its window. Dish represented an upscale step for the historic old downtown area, but food and service were inconsistent, and the place has been dark since January 1. Another dead duck in downtown Plano is Porta di Roma, an offshoot of a restaurant in downtown Dallas.

In Denton, The Tomato -- as symbolic of Fry Street culture as anything -- must vacate its current location in the center of town at the corner of Hickory and Fry streets by May 15. This is actually a new extension; the original date was March 15. The restaurant is part of a slew of businesses being evicted by Houston developer United Equities. Once Tomato owner Mike Slusarski's tragic eviction tale hit the media, the landlord sheepishly called last Friday and gave him two more months.

Meanwhile, Mesquite just got a new branch of Wood Pit Bar-B-Q, the barbecue joint run by the Nikolopoulos family. Just because they’re Greek doesn’t mean they have to make dolmas. Parents Ann and Pete opened the original on Scyene Road in 1979; sons Jimmy and Sam are in charge of the second branch on East Davis Street, where they’re serving the same hickory-smoked steaks, chicken, ribs, beef, ham, and sausage (from Rudolph’s), plus signature house-made potato salad and garlicky cole slaw.

Voila! does crepes now, too.

And Voila! Bakery in Allen, whose head baker Jean-Christophe Blanc is a bona-fide Frenchy, has begun to serve crepes on weekends. Fillings include nutella, banana, apple cinnamon, berry, cherry, and Chantilly, defined by its use of whipping cream.

Leftovers

This probably won’t come as a surprise to most wine drinkers, but a Danish study published this week says that wine drinkers buy healthier food than beer drinkers.

People who bought wine also bought olives, fruits, vegetables, fish, lean meats, and dairy product. But people who bought beer bought frozen dinners, cold cuts, pork, lamb, crackers, sugary products, butter, margarine, and soft drinks. The researchers compiled their data by collecting 3.5 million grocery receipts from October 2002 to February 2003.

What the wine drinkers probably won’t be buying is whole wheat Krispy Kremes. Have you ever heard of a dumber product?