Best Bites: Dining out in Dallas-Fort Worth October 6

by Teresa Gubbins

DALLAS — One of the hottest spots for new restaurants these days is in the northern part of Oak Cliff, especially around Bishop Arts. Three recent openings have sparked the interest not just of the locals but of foodie type people, too.

Zen Sushi comes from Michelle Carpenter, who worked at the legendary Yamaguchi's (in the space that now houses Shinsei) for 12 years until it closed a couple of years ago. That gave her the push to open her own place in what used to be Brooklyn Jazz Cafe, although you'd never recognize it from her spiffy, soothing remodel. Her menu includes sushi, appetizers, and small plates.

"I wanted to take Japanese food and modernize it," she says. "I use the traditional ingredients but also some regional things like cilantro and lime. And since the trend has been to do smaller plates, I have appetizers and sharing plates so that everyone can try a little bit of everything." That includes miso-marinated cod, coconut panko lobster, and her signature item, the Zen roll with cucumber wrapped around tuna and albacore and fish roe. She waited a long time to get the right location; she loves the neighborhood. "It's Oak Cliff’s first sushi bar and they deserve it," she says.

Don Panza brings a new-ish cuisine to Dallas: Argentinian, namely gorgeous empanadas filled with spicy meat; but also Mexican and Italian items, too, including thin-crust pizza that's drawing raves. This is a family-run place with brothers-in-law Marcello Rivarola, who's from Argentina, and Samuel Garcia, who's from Mexico, overseeing a menu that runs from burgers to Italian food, which is popular in Argentina, including a line of nearly 30 pizzas with extra-thin crust.

"We both cook, both clean, both run the place," says Garcia.

The Quinn is a bar and neighborhood restaurant from Kris McLauchlan and Robert Ramirez, who suffered a tragedy six years ago when they opened the Twilight Café (what is now Grill 400) with great fanfare only to see it burn down after being open just a few months. It didn't scar them permanently, and they're back to try it all again with this casual place, open like a bar until 2 a.m., but also serving sandwiches, appetizers, and salads, light stuff like smoked brisket quesadillas and "Zang Blvd. chili". Personal anecdote: I still worked at the DMN when Twilight Café opened, and I rallied to review the place so it would stir some business. As always, the review came out on a Friday, one December 13, 2002 -- and at 4 a.m. that morning, while DMN carriers were still delivering the paper, the place burned down.

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