Ten Bells Tavern in Bishop Arts opens with “butty” on the menu

by Teresa Gubbins

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Sandwich has penny-pinching roots.

DALLAS — Oak Cliff restaurant-bar Ten Bells Tavern opened last week with a menu that includes a new item to Dallas called the "butty."

It's basically a French fries sandwich -- i.e., a layer of French fries between two slices of bread. It's also known as a "chip butty," revealing its English roots, since they call French fries "chips." The sandwich was originally a penny-pincher's delight -- designed as a way to avoid wasting old French fries, and is generally served with some kind of sauce. According to Ten Bells owner Meri Dahlke, Ten Bells serves it with a ramekin of house-made Jack Daniels mustard. They also add cheese to the sandwich, making it a kind of grilled cheese.

The closest parallel in these parts is the tendency for people to insert chips -- Fritos and the like -- inside their sandwich.

The word butty is a contraction of "bread and butter"; the sandwich is $9. Ten Bells is named for a bar in England and loosely follows a British theme. Other menu items include:

• pickled eggs in rotating flavors such as curry and jalepeno
• a Cobb salad ($12)
• baby beet salad ($10)
• fish & chips ($14)
• a three-cheese grilled cheese sandwich with Jarlsberg, mozzarella, and cheddar ($9)
• chicken-Cobb sandwich ($12); and wings ($9)

The bar is open until 2 a.m., but the restaurant closes at 10 p.m.