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Category: News (Page 7 of 25)

No, that's not a burnt crust! The "caramelized crust" is completely intentional and one of Pequod's trademarks.

Best Chicago Deep Dish? Pequod’s, Says Grant Achatz

November 21, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Grant Achatz, he of the three Michelin stars at his Chicago culinary temple Alinea, was asked about his favorite Chicago restaurants. When the subject turned to deep dish pizza, Mr. Achatz admitted that he no longer enjoys the “doughy” stuff, preferring to go thin crust these days. Nonetheless, he proclaimed Pequod’s the best of the lot: that crispy crust has won him over. For the uninitiated, what Pequod’s does is sprinkle lots of cheese around the edge before baking, resulting in a crisp and chewy, blackened rim of cheese and crust. Some folks call it burnt but Pequod’s many fans know better!

The leg on Hart's Turkey Farm's dinner plate comes from a 35-pound bird!

Turkey America

November 20, 2015 / / 0 Comments

As Thanksgiving approaches each year, foodie articles begin to pop up bemoaning the so-called flavorless turkey accompanied by starchy and sweet dull sides. We cry Scrooge (or whoever the embodiment of Thanksgiving humbuggery is)! We love the sides and we adore the flavor of the bird — and make no mistake about it, turkey HAS flavor, although it may take an unjaded palate to appreciate it. Label us unjaded, because we don’t limit our turkey feasting to the fourth Thursday of November. And neither, apparently, does Larry Olmsted, as evidenced by his survey, for USA Today, of eateries across America that do right by the bird all year round. Continue reading

27th Annual Free Thanksgiving at Dallas’ Norma’s Cafe

November 19, 2015 / / 0 Comments

For the 27th consecutive year, Norma’s Cafe will be serving free Thanksgiving dinner, from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, at their Oak Cliff location (1123 West Davis Street in Dallas). While they don’t say anything about who the meal is for (in fact, they explicitly state it’s for anyone who comes), we suspect it’s meant more for people in need than anyone else, so if that’s you and your family, we suggest you show up early and enjoy the holiday and Norma’s hospitality.

Gus's addictive fried bird is making its way to Knoxville early next year.

Gus’s Fried Chicken Hits Knoxville TN Early 2016

November 18, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Gus’s Fried Chicken, which began life in the 1950s in the small town of Mason, Tennessee, northeast of Memphis, will be opening their 13th store early next year in Knoxville, TN. That’s not all for the spicy-crusted bird that many folks put on their top-ten lists. By early 2016 there should also be new stores in Los Angeles, Detroit, Fort Worth, and Kansas City (where it will face especially stiff competition). Future stores are in the works for St. Louis and Philadelphia.

Gingerbread, chocolate peppermint, and Christmas cookie - three new holiday shakes at Shake Shack

Holiday Shakes Have Arrived at Shake Shack!

November 17, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Many folks have a serious problem with any sign of Christmas that shows itself before the day after Thanksgiving. (That includes half of us: Sue decries the early arrival of mistletoe and Ho-Ho-Ho!, while Bruce thinks she’s displaying too Grinchly an attitude. He’s content with the thought that Thanksgiving is a great, mid-Christmas-season feast.) We doubt, however, that anyone will complain about the appearance yesterday of three new  holiday shakes at Shake Shacks across the country. (Holiday shakes, not Christmas shakes? Quitcher bellyakin – we don’t want to hear it!) Continue reading

The Meaty Legend: pepperoni, Italian sausage, Canadian bacon, and bacon

Gino’s East Dallas Debut on Thursday

November 16, 2015 / / 0 Comments

The first Dallas area branch of the Chicago deep dish pizza chain Gino’s East arrived earlier this year in Arlington. This Thursday, November 19th, will see the opening of the first Gino’s East in Dallas proper, at 10310 Lombardy Lane. This will be the seventh Texas Gino’s East. Other branches can be found near Houston, San Antonio, and Austin. Like the other Texas Gino’s, we expect this one will be serving their unique BBQ Brisket Za filled with BBQ brisket, caramelized onions, and roasted peppers.

Grimaldi's is bringing their coal-oven pizzas to The Volunteer State.

Grimaldi’s Bringing Coal-Oven Pizza to Tennessee

November 15, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Brooklyn, NY coal-oven pizza specialist Grimaldi’s has been expanding like mad across the U.S. This year’s new openings in Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina bring the total number of Grimaldi’s to 39. And the expansion hasn’t slowed: they’ve just announced their first Tennessee store, in the Memphis suburb of Germantown in the Saddle Creek center. If there isn’t yet a Grimaldi’s in your vicinity rest assured there probably will be before too long.

Plate lunch extraordinaire: fried catfish with greens, fresh tomatoes, and mac and cheese

Nashville’s Arnold’s Country Kitchen Expanding and Opening 2nd Spot

November 14, 2015 / / 1 Comment

Arnold’s Country Kitchen of Nashville, the popular meat-and-three cafeteria open for lunch only, Monday through Friday, will be undergoing two major changes in the near future. First of all, sometime next month, a second location will open in the Green Hills section of Nashville, at 2209 Abbott Martin Road (in a former location of Sylvan Park Restaurant, another Nashville favorite of ours). They plan to start off with table service, with the same menu as the downtown cafeteria. They’re leaving open the possibility of later switching to cafeteria service.
Continue reading

The Southern Cake Queen is one of 14 trucks at Charlotte's Food Truck Friday. These chocolate cupcakes are filled with chocolate Nutella ganache, topped with hazelnut buttercream, and drizzled with caramel. They go by the name Paris Renea'.

Charlotte NC’s Food Truck Friday Moving, Cloning

November 13, 2015 / / 1 Comment

Today, from 5 until 9 p.m., marks the final Food Truck Friday of the year in Charlotte, NC. What started about four years ago with a few trucks has maxed out at 14 food trucks and a secure place in the hearts and stomachs of Charlotte residents. The food trucks have gathered in a lot at the corner of West Park and South Tryon, in the Historic South End neighborhood, since the beginning, but the property has been sold and development is about to begin, requiring a change of venue. Continue reading

Johnson's Corner's cinnamon roll is a mammoth square of pastry.

Fire Temporarily Closes Always-Open Johnson’s Corner

November 10, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Firefighters responded to an alarm Sunday evening at the always-open, since 1952, truck stop restaurant legend (for their immense iced cinnamon rolls) Johnson’s Corner of Loveland, Colorado. The kitchen fire was small and easily extinguished but, unfortunately, it also set off the restaurant’s chemical fire suppression system. They had to close the place down until it could be thoroughly cleaned, and inspected by the health department. Johnson’s Corner managed to reopen Monday at 12:30 p.m. While they were closed, employees were stationed in front of the restaurant turning customers away and giving out free cinnamon rolls!

No pasteurization, no UV sterilization - Cider Hill Farm's fresh-pressed cider is the real thing.

A Jug of Cider, a Loaf of Bread–and Thou

November 6, 2015 / / 0 Comments

For us, there is nothing as seasonally evocative — not eggnog, not strawberry shortcake, not ripe fresh-from-the-tree peaches — as cold, crisp, and fragrant fresh-pressed apple cider. The cider presses have been operating for weeks now but the apples that make up the autumn elixir are always changing, depending on what the trees are offering. Right now, cider is at its best. As Cider Hill Farm of Amesbury, Massachusetts says, “October and November ciders pick up the fruitiest, deepest, and most complex flavors.” Continue reading

65¢ Cheesecake Today at Junior’s of Brooklyn, NY!

November 3, 2015 / / 0 Comments

We’ve enjoyed Junior’s famous Brooklyn cheesecake for decades, so imagine our delight when the 65-year-old deli moved their cheesecake baking operations to Burlington, NJ, just a short hop down the interstate for us. And, yes, they have a factory store on site. For those who don’t live in central Jersey, all day today Junior’s original location in Brooklyn will celebrate their 65th anniversary by offering slices of plain cheesecake for 65 cents (regular price is $6.95)! The offer is for eat-in or take-out, and an entrée purchase is required for eat-in only. Stop by today to help them celebrate, and get yourself a true slice of New York history at a bargain price.

Deep-fried rippers topped with Rutt's Hut's unique relish

America’s Top 21 Hot Dogs

October 30, 2015 / / 2 Comments

A best hot dog list apparently is released on a daily basis. Why? Because people love ’em – hot dogs AND best lists. We read them not only to see what they have to say about our favorites (the yellow-relish-topped deep-fried rippers from Rutt’s Hut of Clifton, NJ appears on today’s list in question) but to pick up on the new, unfamiliar joints (Luscher’s of Dallas, TX, from a fancy-pants chef). You’ll also find coneys, Sonoran dogs, half-smokes, and dogs topped with SpaghettiOs on the list. Have at it!

This is called The Mother of all Green Chile Cheeseburgers, from Cowgirl BBQ in Santa Fe. The menu description: "Our secret blend of all-natural beef, local buffalo and applewood smoked bacon, grilled to your liking and served in a cheddar/green chile bun with melted brie, truffled green chile, a slice of heirloom tomato and some hand cut truffle fries." We did not, alas, eat this - it was ordered by a dining companion.

Where Do Sante Fe Chefs Eat?

October 22, 2015 / / 0 Comments

We always enjoy stories about the restaurants chefs visit when they’re off the clock. And we love dining in Santa Fe. So we’re fans of the Santa Fe Reporter’s The Food Chain series, in which a chef talks about her favorite place in town to eat, and then they ask the chef of that restaurant for his favorite spot in town, and so on. This week the chain begins at Anasazi Restaurant, an upscale restaurant which we can highly recommend. Anasazi’s chef, Juan Bochenski, likes to eat burgers at Cowgirl BBQ. Continue reading

Stone crab season has begun!

25 Stone Crab Claws in 14+ Minutes

October 18, 2015 / / 0 Comments

To mark the long-awaited start to the stone crab season, which begins in Florida on October 15th each year, Keys Fisheries holds a stone crab claw eating contest (open to amateur eaters only). The goal is to eat 25 medium claws in the fastest time. This year’s winner, in the contest held yesterday, consumed his 25 claws in 14 minutes and 20 seconds. Now, to stone crab novices, that may not sound like speed eating, but part of the contest involves cracking the claws to get at the meat, which is no easy task — in restaurants, the claws generally come pre-cracked. Continue reading

Shake Shack Coming to Dallas

October 15, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Residents of Dallas, Texas will see for themselves if all the fuss is warranted when Shake Shack opens their first branch in the city in 2016. They’ll be moving into The Crescent retail complex in the New Urbanist neighborhood known as Uptown. The Shack currently has a presence in Texas with two stores in Austin. No word yet on the location-specific concretes, which always feature cookies, candies, cakes, and other sweet treats made by local food artisans, for the Big D.

After five years of renovations, Clifton's finally reopened to the public October 1st.

Clifton’s Cafeteria of LA Finally Open!

October 11, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Actual waterfalls, a giant (fake) redwood, a big hunk o’ meteorite, and Jell-O — it’s all back in Los Angeles as Clifton’s Cafeteria finally made its long-awaited return! Andrew Meieran purchased the 80-year-old California landmark that had seen better days in 2010 and promptly closed it for renovations, which dragged on for so long we were skeptical Clifton’s would ever reopen. But the doors were flung open on October 1st and over 12,000 customers were served over the first four days. Check out this series of panoramic photos of the five-story restaurant on the LA Times website.

Outdoor dining at Two Lights, the most dramatic setting in Maine in which to enjoy a lobster roll

The Full Maine Lobster Experience

August 16, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Sharon McDonnell, a travel writer for the Napa Valley Register, arrives in Maine for lobster and desires full immersion. So she digs into a lobster roll at Two Lights Lobster Shack just outside of Portland, heads out on a lobster boat with a newly licensed lobsterman who waited seven years for the right to trap the creatures in Maine’s cold waters, and endures a purification process before visiting a lobster processing facility. Along the way, she tells us what she learned about the life of these prized sea bugs. Read her story here.

New York's famed Carnegie Deli

The “Shyster of Smoked Meat”

August 7, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Justice Matthew Cooper of Manhattan Supreme Court, apparently interested in future screenwriting work, proclaimed the former manager of Gotham’s famed Carnegie Deli, Sanford Levine, to be the “shyster of smoked meat,” and compared him to Jordan Belfort, the Wolf of Wall Street. Mr. Levine married into the family which owns the Carnegie. He is now separated from his wife, Marian. Continue reading

The town of West, TX is known for the Czech pastry called kolache.

The Texas Kolache Movie

August 4, 2015 / / 0 Comments

“The Home of the Official Kolache of the Texas Legislature.” West, TX received that designation back in 1997 and, while such an honor perhaps leaves you less than awestruck, don’t sell the town, or the pastry, short. The kolache today is truly as Texan as it is Czech, and Texans go to great lengths to nab some of the fruit or poppy seed-filled pastries from one of West’s Czech bakeries. Continue reading

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