Neighborhood Services

WhatsUpPorkchop says:

• Food:

  4/5

• Vibe:

  3/5

• Service:

  4/5

• Value:

  3/5

• Overall:

  4/5

After being bombarded by some of the best reviews I have see in quite some time for a new Dallas restaruant and inspired by the mouthwatering descriptions of the kind of upscale comfort food that Badovinus made a mainstay at The Porch, my wife and I decided to venture outside our normal comfort zone to Neighborhood Services. Although only about a 12 minute drive from our home, Neighborhood Services is located a world apart in the bubble that is Park Cities. Despite is proximity to downtown, its singular minded insularity leads me to treat Park Cities as a suburb and, therefore, only approached infrequently and with very good reason.

As an aside, I hate driving through the Park Cities. The main thoroughfares tend to reduce down to two lane roads which, when not blocked by the SMU campus or a shutdown for the regular reminder that they are rich and can still afford to fix the potholes in their streets, are constantly backed up by a glut of stoplights which appear purposely set to insure that you cannot ever make two greens in a row. The pure road rage that usually builds in me as I sit through a light for the sixth time as the 8 cars in front of me attempt to turn left with no arrow against the ever-oncoming traffic reached a new boiling point on our drive to Neighborhood Services as some hot shot managed to virtually shut down Lovers Lane with valets running back and forth parking cars for some fancy-pants party.

Much in need of a drink to calm my nerves, we managed to miss the relatively non-descript entrance twice despite what should have been an obvious tip off of the long valet line filled with Mercedes, BMW’s , Lexus (Lexi?), Land Rovers and assorted other look at me vehicles common to Dallas and especially the Park Cities area. When the valet finally took our keys, he politely informed us that the current wait for a table was approximately 2 hours (for the life of me, I cannot understand why people would ever wait this long to eat for any meal other than Thanksgiving). The time was then 6:40. Neighborhood Services opens at 6:00 and does not take reservations. This seemingly Lost-like temporal impossibility only added to what appeared to be the start of a very bad evening. I certainly did my part to ensure this by picking that exact moment to remind my wife that I wanted to leave the house earlier but she once again took way too long to get herself all prettied up to go out. [How she puts up with me on a regular basis, I will never know.]

My mood, already in a death spiral, hit rock bottom when we entered the restaurant. Neighborhood Services is a cozy location, warmly lit and nicely decorated, but when I say “cozy,” I mean it in the real estate sense. I was surprised by what appeared to be a small number of tables as well as the diminutive size of the overall space. Generally, I don’t care about the wait for a table because my wife and I prefer to eat at the bar. We find bar service far superior giving you the ability to enjoy dinner at your own pace but with the added benefit of having your cocktails refreshed more often and more quickly. There is also often a TV showing sports which no doubt adds to my enjoyment and certainly improves the “conversation” between my wife and me. Plus, I find that the bartenders are always more forthcoming on what is or is not actually good on the menu. However, there was not a seat to be found in the tiny bar area which operated more as a holding cell than a relaxed wait.

To make matters worse, we found it difficult to wade through the crowd to get a drink. The place was packed by Park Cities residents in their 50’s making sure they had tried the latest thing in order to one up their friends at the country club. Although there were a fair number of couples in their 30’s waiting it out, the room was dominated by people who thought themselves way too important to provide even a modicum of politeness. Not only were they going to take up 2-3 bar stools even though they had not ordered and had no intention of ordering a drink or were just nursing their one white wine spritzer so as not to look like that is what they were doing, but not one of these high class individuals would even provide a sliver of space within which to allow any other patron to order. If not for the shear will it took me to get to this place, the loss of precious babysitter time and the pure hassle of retrieving my car from the valet, we would have left.

Thankfully, we didn’t. My wife finally found an old man that was leering at her long enough to give her an opportunity to reach the bar. After ordering our first drinks of the evening at 7:00 (20 minutes being a near record for me during a night out), we told the bartender, who had asked us to let him know if we needed anything else, that we wanted to eat at the bar and make our way through the menu. Enlisted in our battle by the possibility of a large tip, the bartender helped us out by letting us know that the couple in the matching fur coats (yes, the man had one on too evening ala Seinfeld; I kept looking for his European man purse), had just paid their tab.

Finally seated at the bar and well into our second drink each, we began meandering our way through the menu over an order of the House Ground Fennel Sausage Flatbread. The perfectly bubbly cheese and spicy sausage got us re-focused on our gastronomic mission and greatly improved our attitudes. Next up was a bowl of tortilla soup each. Called a tribute to his time at The Mansion, according to the bartender, the soup represented Badovinus’s desired improvements on the classic Dallas version. It was without a doubt my wife’s favorite part of the meal as she declared it the best tortilla soup she had ever eaten. I have never been to The Mansion so I can’t compare it to the original, but, the soup was a bit on the tomato-y side for me, and I much prefer the versions at Fearing’s (another Mansion alum) and The Porch (which you should stop down for if it is ever on the specials board). That said, it is small criticism at best, and, although not at the top of my food experience for the night, the taste and warmth of the soup on that surpisingly cool Spring night 9(you know, the 30 degree ones we get on Saturday recently after a gorgeous and sunny work week) along with the steady flow of Jack and Diets had me relaxed and ready for more.

It was now around 8:30, and my wife and I both realized that the bar had cleared out a bit. The older crowd and families which eat out at way to early an hour had largely left and the 30 somethings had only started to trickle in, leaving a window of about 45 minutes or so during which the wait for a table may actually have been manageable for those of you who insist on eating your dinner in such a fashion. During this relative lull, we moved on to the three jack & mac gratin (their version of a mac and cheese, a dish I feel I need to order whenever it is on the menu) and the fried asparagus so we could say we had eaten a vegetable. For those of you other mac and cheese connoisseurs out there, you know this dish comes in all varieties. Personally, I prefer the smokier flavor brought in by a stronger white cheese and having ham or bacon added in. Therefore, although quite good, I think Badovinus’s prior version at The Porch is better. The asparagus, however, was perfectly al dente and the tempura-style batter had a great salty almost French-fry like flavor that I thoroughly enjoyed washing down with what I believe was my fourth cocktail, but, hey, who’s keeping track?

Although my wife claimed to be full, we had an hour or so to go before we needed to be home, and I couldn’t leave just her and that bottle of wine to their own devices. So, at my insistence, we ordered entrees. I ordered the burger, for which Neighborhood Services is quickly becoming known, and for good reason. Blended with brisket, it was melt in your mouth good albeit difficult to eat. I ranked it right up there with my favorite burgers in Dallas if not all time after just one bite. Like a girl, my wife ordered the pasta of the day which was a farfalle with roasted chicken that was tasty but unremarkable in light of the other food we had eaten during our prior 2+hours of dining.

Capping our meal and our final round of drinks, we shared the butterscotch pudding which harkened me back to my childhood. If you are going to be bold enough to not only serve pudding but call it pudding and not mousse or pot de creme, it better be good, and this was every bit of good. It was all my wife could do to stop me from licking the bowl (or having it serve as the glass for a newly-invented dessert version of my favorite cocktail).

At about 10:45, we finally departed filled to the brim on great food and drink. What had started as a disaster waiting to happen in large part due to the Park Cities crowd which makes up the neighborhood in Neighborhood Services, ended as a great dining experience that we were pleased to share with a wonderfully attentive bartender and the patrons more our speed who arrived after 9:00. In the end, Neighborhood Services provided an excellent meal top to bottom but in a location and with an early crowd I may find difficult to fight once more. Perhaps when (and if) it is replaced by the next big dining experience for the Park Cities elite, we will venture there again. Until then, we will be just as happy hanging out at The Porch.

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pabloindallas says:

The location map for this place sure is screwed up.