Friday, July 18, 2008

Best Bites: Dining out in Dallas-Fort Worth July 18

By Teresa Gubbins

Lewisville lucks out with the imminent arrival of Fresh European, a new vegetarian restaurant opened by Danielle Carvalho, 33, a Boston transplant and technical sales pro who moved to Texas four years ago and wanted a place where she herself could eat.

"After having my son, I realized I couldn't travel anymore, and basically decided I was going to do what I'd always wanted to do: open a restaurant," she says. "I know the business world, but my father was a chef. I was balancing a plate when I was 6. I was raised vegan; I didn’t have my first piece of meat until I was 10. I'd go off and on these kicks where I was eating meat and then not eating meat, until I got to the point where I wasn't interested anymore."

Meanwhile, traveling around Europe for her job exposed her to a different, lighter style of eating. Her menu -- which she breaks into bite-size categories such as "Something Warm" and "Something Sweet" -- has a tapas feel, with plates for sharing. She pulls dishes from all over Europe, from Austrian pear salad with arugula, fennel, and almonds, to Sicilian salad with celery, pimientos, and olives.

Located in what used to be a pizza place, Fresh European seats about 44 people, and everything is recycled: from the furniture to the dishware and everything in between.

"In Texas, everything’s meat and potatoes but I had a hard time finding a place where I could have good fruits and vegetables that wasn’t $20 per entrée," she says.

The mighty Z

Fort Worth is home to a new concept called Zorro's Buffet. Well, sortof new. New but familiar. It comes from Moshe and Ricki Epstein; she's a caterer and he was one of the owners of the Palomina Ranch Buffet chainlet, before it was sold. Zorro is similar to Palomina, including a daily theme such as "Italian" or "BBQ" -- though of course Epstein insists that it's better.

"We have a little more selection, better quality of food, a couple of items added here," he says. "But I give all the credit to my wife. I’m too fat and ugly to get credit."

The prices are $8.99 weeknights at dinner and $10.99 on weekends. Fort Worth is the first branch but there are also branches coming to Houston and San Antonio, with more coming to the Dallas area next year.

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