Saturday, March 31, 2007

Best Bites: Dining out in DFW March 31

By Teresa Gubbins

Rembrandt's Night Watch. You know -- his most famous work.

We have Italian, we have French, we have Mexican, oh yeah we have Mexican. We have Caribbean, we even have Ethiopian.

Well, now we have Dutch! Sortof. Café Rembrandt comes from Ronnie Smeink, a native of Holland who moved here for work, and stayed after he fell in love with a local; isn’t that always the way.

He envisions Café Rembrandt as an "Amsterdam café", he claims it's somewhere between restaurant and bar, but won't commit to either one. He says the menu will have "Dutch influences", which will give everyone the opportunity to make dumb puns like "Let’s go Dutch on this." Smeink says that Holland has lots of Indonesian food, things like beef satay. The café, which opens next week, is in the space that used to be A.J. Gonzales. Smeink has given it a warm makeover with a massive (6X8 foot) reproduction of what he says is Rembrandt’s most famous work: Night Watch.

Try Tomo tomorrow.

Tomo

Like most new Japanese restaurants these days, Tomo doesn’t stop at sushi. It has a hibachi grill. A robata grill. Yakitori (Japanese chicken barbecue served on a stick). Bento boxes. And 50 types of sushi and sashimi. Tomo is a relative of Royal Tokyo, one of Dallas' very first Japanese restaurants, currently located at the Tollway and Trinity Mills, ever since the original branch on Greenville burned down. Tomo is in Plano, right off 75 at Park. The bar stays open late: until midnight on weekdays and 2 a.m. on weekends, when they have karaoke; and you can get $1 sushi after 10 p.m.

Flavor Asian Fusion

Flavor Asian Fusion and Dessert Bar opened in January at Skillman near LBJ, specifically so that customers can cruise in from any direction, says co-owner/manager Piyada Huatcharoen. She’s teamed up with her boyfriend, award-winning chef Weerayut "Oudi" Utedpornratanakul, who’s worked at Chow Thai Pacific Rim and Tom Tom Noodle House (but don't hold that against him), among other places; most recently, he’s been consulting and helping open restaurants in places like San Francisco and Jackson, Miss.

Anyway, Oudi’s back in town and doing this cool Asian fusion deal. Check it out: Tamarind sake baby back ribs glazed with tamarind BBQ sauce; pork tenderloin vindaloo with ginger sweet potato, broccolini, and spicy red wine reduction (for a mere $14.25); or how about East Meets West chicken breast, stuffed with spinach and provolone cheese, grilled assorted vegetables, coconut yellow rice, mango-sake glaze. Who else is even doing this stuff? Plus, don’t forget the words "dessert bar". Oudi was trained as both a regular chef and a pastry chef, which is rare, and his desserts -– 5-spice chocolate mousse, coconut-mango cheesecake -- are off the hook.

The Impulsive Buy

You can breathe easy, as this thing has been processed in a humane fashion.

Leftovers

Buying and eating food that's been processed "humanely" seems to be the biggest trend in 2007: Burger King, the second-largest fast-food chain in the U.S., announced this week a new policy of buying pork and chicken that's not been raised in cages or slaughtered in a manner that causes undue suffering. It's a huge deal not just because of the amount of bacon, eggs, and chicken tenders sold by BK, but also because, as the Humane Society puts it, "Burger King is signaling to agribusiness that the most inhumane factory farming practices are on the way out."

Also this week, Wolfgang Puck announced he will no longer serve foie gras at any of his restaurants, and will use only eggs from hens that have lived cage-free, veal from roaming calves, and lobsters that have been removed from their ocean traps quickly to avoid crowded holding tanks.

Chris Curotolo contributed to this story.

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Comments

Billusa99 Anonymous

OK, TG... what does Cafe Rembrandt have in their brownies for roughage... nudge, nudge, wink, wink?

And an Asian cafe on the hinterlands edge of Lake Highlands? I AM impressed!

1 year, 6 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Billusa99 Anonymous

TG has an inside line to Lamont Cranston... 'cause the Shadow knows....

1 year, 6 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Teresa Gubbins Staff

well, the credit this time goes to my diligent coworker Chris Curotolo, who spotted a couple of these new places in a flyer; dude has a good eye

1 year, 6 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

kirk Anonymous

Is this an Amsterdam cafe a la The Bulldog(s)? If so, as Billusa suggests, the corned beef hash will be wildly popular. And by the way, TG, "Night Watch" is actually a depiction of men trying to find their way home after an evening in the Walletjes.

1 year, 6 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )