Best Bites: Dining out in Dallas-Fort Worth October 31

by Teresa Gubbins

A big howdy welcome to Jason Cuglietto, 34, who moved here from New Jersey in January and brought with him a few commodities we dearly need: good-quality Italian food and real-deal bagels from New York. Add in a cup of good Italian Lavazza coffee and you'll find yourself at Carmen's Bagel Cafe Italian Deli, which he opened in Richardson last month.

"I had a chef friend here who wanted to do a place, so I put together the two things I really missed from being in New Jersey," he says. "I couldn't find bagels I liked here. If you're from the East Coast, you know what a bagel is supposed to taste like. I have a friend from A&S bakery in Brooklyn so that's where we're getting our bagels. The second thing I missed was an Italian deli. I added the Lavazza coffee, just threw the three together, and that became our concept."

He opens every day at the ungodly hour of 5:30 a.m., and stays open until 4:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 1 p.m. Sundays. He originally planned to open in Addison but then in a stroke of backwards luck, stumbled across his location on Arapaho at Custer.

"We were supposed to be going into a new development but the developed decided he didn’t want to do it anymore," he says. "Then I found this location, because I got lost on 75. I noticed this Northridge Plaza, it was an end spot and the right size. Thank goodness I made a wrong turn."

Remember the Alamo

On paper, Alamo City Grille -- a new upscale-casual entry which opens in mid-November on US 75 in Plano in the spot vacated by Mac's Steaks & Seafood -- may not seem revolutionary; but it comes with a highly credentialed team. Founder Daniel Kisthardt helped co-found Holy Smokes Barbecue (and has since been laying low on a no-compete clause). Chef Mark Moberly is a CIA grad who previously cooked at Maguire's, Toscana, Riviera, and Voltaire. Marketing manager CoreyAnn Beavens comes from Kirby Steakhouse.

Alamo's concept is to have a menu as diverse as a major chain (which it surely aspires to be one day, as well), but with the food being fresh instead of whatever it is they're serving at Chili's or what-not. And while the "Alamo" part is intended to be subtle, it also shouldn't be ignored.

"It's multi-cuisine but you can definitely tell where we're from," Kisthardt says. "Obviously, I think barbecue is awesome, Tex-Mex is awesome, we have chicken-fried steak; but we also have steaks, sandwiches, a Philly cheese steak."

Signature dishes include peppercorn-encrusted center-cut sirloin with garlic mashed potatoes, tomato Provencal, and grilled asparagus, and hickory-smoked dry-rub baby-back ribs -- "so good, we don't serve them with sauce, we put it on the side," Kisthardt says.

On the subject of Mac's, the branches in Plano and Denton may have closed, but a new Mac's Steaks & Seafood opened on 7th Street in Fort Worth in the hipster-ish Montgomery Plaza.