Friday, July 11, 2008

Best Bites: Dining out in Dallas-Fort Worth July 11

By Teresa Gubbins

Bishop Arts locals seeking a coffee fix won't have to wait for Cafe Brazil to open. Bolsa, the wine-bar-gourmet-market-restaurant, opens on Friday July 11 for a soft opening, starting with dinner first and then expanding to daytime hours in the next few weeks.

Owners Christopher and Jessica Jeffers moved to Oak Cliff two years ago and decided to open the kind of concept in the neighborhood that they felt was missing -- a place they themselves would go to. They're in a space that for years was the Davis Street Garage & Body Shop, until it was repurposed by Bishop Arts guru David Spence, who has offices on the second floor. The Jeffers worked with Plan B Group, whose principal, Royce Ring, has had a hand in half the restaurants open in Dallas in the past 20 years. They're starting out with signature bruschettas and flat-bread pizzas, and will eventually add sandwiches, hamburgers, and rotating specials. They have their own coffee blend and free wi-fi.

"We care about the neighborhood and want to be part of the transformation," Jessica says.

This happens to be the rose-tattoo-ed ankle of one Heather Locklear. People magazine says that "Finch" is for bird, as in Heather feels free as a bird.

Food not ink

Rose Tattoo comes from chef James Rose, and takes over the space in Richardson previously occupied by the ill-fated Parlour Wine Bar. James spent nearly 15 years as with Bob’s Steakhouse, as executive chef in the Plano, Denver, and San Francisco branches, before consulting with Phil Romano when he re-purchased Eatzi’s in November 2006. Rose and his wife Malesa had been talking about doing their own place and when they saw that the Parlour had closed, they called Dale Wamstad with whom Rose had worked when he was with Bob’s. They're keeping the wine-bar aspect but, given the bedroom-community nature of the area, they're making it more of a restaurant with wine, rather than the other way around. He's doing small plates to accompany the wine and then entrees such as veal chop, flat-iron steak, salmon, rosemary shrimp, and grilled chicken breast -- "gotta have that," he says.

Behold a free-standing ice creamery.

Cold stuff

The Dallas area hasn't had a lot to choose from when it comes to ice cream but it does have a branch of growing national chain: Bruster's Real Ice Cream, located on Cooper Street in Arlington. The first Bruster's opened in 1989 in Bridgewater, Penn., northwest of Pittsburgh, by a guy named Bruce. Now there are more than 235 company-owned and franchised stores on the East Coast into the Midwest and down South, through Florida and all the way to Arlington. It's a free-standing walk-up shop and each branch makes its ice cream on-site, along with frozen yogurt, smoothies, sundaes, shakes, blasts, ice cream cakes and pies.

The Web site says that locations typically offer up to 38 flavors from more than 140 flavors in the recipe book, although the employee who answered the phone at the Arlington branch said they had more like 20. However, she'd just gotten done making a batch of black raspbery which is usually a New-England-only flavor (also available in a rather thick-and-sticky version at Milwaukee Joe's). Other flavors include butter pecan, white turtle, chocolate raspberry truffle, peanut butter puddles, and cotton candy explosion. They have limited hours during winter months but for now they are open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. 7 days a week.

End pieces

Nancy says that Tucker, the quaint restaurant near downtown from chef Andrew Ormsby, is closing to go catering-only. But rumors of the demise of Duce in Fort Worth are premature; they simply got a new manager, Daniel Nobile. Corner Bakery stores have stepped up their frozen-fruit-drink menu with a new pomegranate-flavored blended lemonade. Frozen blended lemonade is also a new summer drink at Starbucks; it's being described as "tart" by some wags, which is probably a good thing since so many of these kinds of beverages are usually too sweet. Meanwhile, Papa John's has followed the lead of California Pizza Kitchen by adding a whole-wheat crust option for its pizzas. This is surprisingly innovative for a national chain and definitely not easy to execute.

"Veritas" not so accurate

For some breathtaking muckraking, check out the posting by DallasFood.org regarding Veritas, a new wine bar on Henderson Avenue. The posting uncovers what appears to be a systematic campaign by the owners of Veritas to promote their own place on beleaguered foodie Website Chowhound and not-so-subtly dis everyone else's.

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Comments

twisteddog Anonymous

Oh sure, you just had to mention Cafe Brazil again.

11 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Billusa99 Anonymous

Cafe Brazil

11 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )