Best Bites: Dining out in Dallas-Fort Worth April 25

by Teresa Gubbins

To say that TruFire Kitchen & Bar offers "comfort Italian and American creations" doesn't get much of a pulse. But say it comes from two guys who worked with Brinker and P.F. Chang’s ... who are partnered with seasoned restaurateur Steve Hartnett ... who co-founded Fox & Hound and co-owns Bob’s Steak House and Cool River, and it creates an impression. The impression being, Here comes another chain.

TruFire logo sure is polished for what is currently merely a single, stand-alone restaurant.

But let's not put the cart before the horse, say partners David Kazarian and Jay Clark, who for now are focusing on this inaugural branch, which opens May 14 at The Shops at Starwood in Frisco.

"We're going for the small neighborhood restaurant that has been lost in this new chain-driven mindset," Kazarian says. "The menu is 'comfort Italian creative American,' and there's an Italian bent to a large part of our menu, but there's hummus and a lot of American interpretations of other ethnicities. We are an American concept."

At 3,500 square feet, the restaurant seats about 105 with an additional 35 seats on an outdoor patio.

"Keeping it relatively small allows us to do some of the things we’ll do," he says. That includes making their own salad dressings, sauces, and pizza dough, and -- keeping with the latest trend -- importing their flour from Italy. The menu includes pizzas, pastas, salads, and appetizers, priced from $8 to $18. Pizzas will run from mainstream options like meatballs and pepperoni to shrimp Diablo with red sauce, or prosciutto with Maytag blue cheese and fresh fig glaze. Cocktails such as the apple martini will include real fruit, and the wine list will include a segment of 15 or so bottles where prices are under $30 and by-the-glass is under $10.

Vetoni hits Main

After 12 years as a Garland neighborhood favorite, Vetoni's Italian has spawned a new young sibling: Vetoni on Main.

The original -- on Broadway in the southeast corner of town -- cultivated a following with Garland's ISD, police department, and firemen. They longed for a Vetoni's closer to them. So owner Eddie Krasniqi scouted around until he found this convenient location on Main Street at the corner of 7th, in the space that used to be Main Street Bar & Grill (and a coffee house before that).

The new spin-off opened a little over a month ago and has the same reasonably-priced Italian food, starting at $6.95 for spaghetti with marinara and running up to $10.95 for veal dishes. But it has nicer décor -- check out the stonework and the nice copper-top bar -- and a sharp young staff, headed by Cody Davis, who was previously with Spike, the now-closed sushi place at Mockingbird Station.

Vetoni on Main is waiting on its liquor license, so until then, it's BYOB. But the pizza still reflects the New-York-style techniques Eddie learned when he was 14 years old in Queens, N.Y.

Pan handling

Caribbean Pan, the Caribbean place whose proximity to Caribbean Grill (just a few doors down on Forest Lane) made it somewhat confusing to differentiate the two, closed because of "issues with the old location," says spokesman Peter Walker. "It had a leaky roof."

In May, he and his family will re-open a Caribbean restaurant at 14833 Midway Road in Addison. They'll use this move as an opportunity to make a fresh start: change and expand the menu, offer vegetarian dishes, more fish. Maybe change the name.

"I think there were some negative connotations with the other name, but a lot of staffers have been switched out," he says. "It's just us in the family running it now."

Buffet went away

Taking over a space on East Belt Line Road that used to house China Moon Buffet comes Callispo Sports Bar & Grill, from Nick Hidi; he was previously involved with a series of downtown Dallas clubs including, most famously, Uropa. Callispo, which he says means "group of new stars", is open from 3 p.m. to 2 a.m. and serves food until closing time. That includes bar food, finger food: pizza, Italian, burgers, all running between $5.95 and $6.95.

Open and shut

- Sorbeteria, the sorbet shop located next to the Container Store, directly across from Northpark Center, is now open. Hooray for sorbet.

- A notice posted by the TABC says that the new Italian seafood place being opened by Alberto Lombardi, in the West Village space that was formerly Ferre, will be called Pesca.

- Five Guys Burgers and Fries, a Virginia-based chain that'd been talking about opening a branch in Dallas for a couple of years, is finally gonna do it, says Kim H. Meanwhile, OC Burgers, a gourmet-ish burger joint in Watauga from two ex-Californians ("O.C." = Orange County) has already opened.

- Bistro Nous, the dreadful North Dallas restaurant whose irrationally positive write-ups on Chowhound hammer home just how much of an idiot-fest Chowhound has become, finally, inevitably closed, as noted by Nancy N. Bistro Nous definitely won my vote for worst meal of 2007.

- Nancy N. also reports on the closing of Chaparral Club, the fine-dining spot that was on the tippy-top floor of what used to be Adam's Mark Hotel and has since become a Sheraton. An employee at the hotel said that the operation is being turned into a catering business and the space will be available for private parties but is unlikely to reopen as a restaurant.

- Speaking of Nancy N., her item about the mysterious disappearance of World Delicacies is a timely reminder for a follow-up: Scott from DallasFood.org forwarded this item which says that Chicago-based European Imports Ltd. acquired Dallas-based Gourmet Foods International and then also World Delicacies.

- Scott from DallasFood.org also pointed out that a new Jake's Hamburger is going up on Belt Line Road, east of Montfort, in that area that seems like Dallas but is really Addison.