Best Bites: Dining out in Dallas-Fort Worth October 10

by Teresa Gubbins

DALLAS — Chill #1: Yet another cool restaurant-bar down by the Bishop Arts district: Jack's Backyard, from Kathy Jack, who previously spent many years managing bars in Dallas' Cedar Springs neighborhood and who "jumped at the chance" to have a place of her own.

"The concept is a comfortable place where you can sit outside under a bunch of old trees, listen to music, have a drink, and eat some really good food," she says. She and her partner, caterer Susie Buck, took an old building and refurbished it with an aesthetic she calls "salvage chic". They did all the demolition themselves, managing to retain quite a few of the trees on the property.

Buck designed the menu and most of the food will have a "homemade" vibe, be it burgers or chicken-fried steak, although there'll be healthy stuff, too, as well as a full bar with Stella and Blue Moon on draft. Targeted opening date: October 17.

"The Fort Worth Avenue corridor to Oak Cliff is coming alive," Kathy says. "In a couple years, it'll be going strong. Everybody is so supportive. It's more like a small town than it is anything."

Speaking of Chill

Chill #2: All of our bubble tea places so far have been mom-and-pops who open one or two stores. Don't they know that Dallas is home to the chain restaurant? Here comes Chill Bubble Tea to the rescue. Founded in 2004, the Chicago-based outfit says it'll build 10 to 20 stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in the next five years. (They also have stores in North Carolina and are also expanding into Arizona, but we don't care about that.) They're opening a store near Galleria Dallas, on 5005 Galleria Drive, next month.

Since most of the bubble tea places around here are in outlying suburbs, it's good to see this one located closer to the center of town. But it's a pity they've opened just a few blocks west of Fat Straws. Why not closer to downtown? A spokesman involved with the chain said that they tried to get into Mockingbird Station and the deal couldn't be done.

The Web site shows that, in addition to bubble tea, they also sell frozen yogurt.

Another $5 sandwich chain

Mr. Goodcents Subs & Pastas is another samwich chain launching an attack on the Dallas area. Its first branch is at 2817 Howell Street at McKinney Avenue, on the first level of the Post Square building.

Mr. Goodcents, whose logo is a cartoon penny, was founded in 1989 in Lenexa, Kansas, and now has more than 130 locations, all down the middle of the country, from Minnesota through South Dakota and Nebraska down to this Uptown location. It has earned praise for "not overdoing flavor", which seems like an odd tout. Eight-inch sandwiches range from $2.99 for veggie sub to 16-inch-long sandwiches for $6.99. Its other signature food is pasta, which runs from $4 to $6.

Cucos=cuckoo

If you've driven north on the Dallas Tollway, maybe you've spotted the banner draped across the building at 1900 Dallas Parkway (at the corner of Park, near the Wal-Mart) announcing the "open soon" arrival of Los Cucos. It's the first Dallas branch of a Houston-based Tex-Mex chain founded by hard-working brothers Sergio and Manuel Cabrera, which sharpie Donna Cooks says has 14 locations in Texas (she also likes the deep-fried avocado). Oddly, the restaurant's yellow-page listing refers to it as "Los Cucos Mexican Cafe XXIII".

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