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DFWTexEx

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Posts posted by DFWTexEx

  1. For us, Bbbop in Oak Cliff's spicy chicken is the best in Dallas.  Perfectly fried, juicy and full of flavor.  It's pretty much the only fried chicken we eat now.  It's won "Best Fried Chicken" in Dallas from whatever magazines and we agree.

  2. 51 minutes ago, mdmost said:

    Goodfriend over by me closed down for 2 weeks due to an employee testing positive 5 days ago. This from a place that's been trying to do everything right and taking all the right precautions. 

    Same with Sandwich Hag.  Some members of staff there had compromised immunity so she did everything right.  Customers had no contact with employees.  You had to stand back from the window to talk to them, etc.  It was somewhat draconian.  But, the virus still got in and they had to close.   I don't know if there is an answer.

  3. 15 hours ago, Helobious said:

    Louie’s Backyard has turned into a fucking shell of itself. Don’t go there. Wanna Wanna is still ok, and there’s a cool little bar called Cocunut Jacks on the bayside that has good coconut shrimp.

    I get emotional every time I think about SPI. Went there literally every summer as a kid. Usually 10ish relatives staying in one hotel room, swimming at the beach with my cousins all day, seeing how many different hotel pools we could sneak into, crab hunting at night. Some of my favorite memories in life.

    I have no idea what Louie's is as a night spot any more.  25 years ago it was fantastic.  But, on our post Memorial day trip we had an early lunch there.  Because of the size of the place, you can sit outside as far away from anyone else as you like.  Totally socially distant.  Servers should be wearing masks now.  The crab stuffed jalapenos were legit and the fish tacos were good enough.

    Some of the best moments in my life are also on SPI.  Shit.  Since we can't go anywhere now and since the drive from Dallas is an easy 9 or less hours now (and may include a stop in Lockhart for some meat), we may just need to get a place there. I'd never use a lakehouse, but I would go down there just to sit and watch the waves.

  4. We were down there the week after Memorial Day.  It was hot but the breezes were cool.  The water was awesome.   Not a lot of people masked up walking around, but fair amount in businesses.  Cameron County has a mask order now (didn't then), so that will be different.   At restaurants, we only ate outside, which is easy to do there.    And in each place we were pretty far away from anyone else.  The fried fish sandwich at Clayon's was a winner.  Overall, it was fun.  I grew up down there and am biased, but it's by far my favorite beach in Texas. 

    The only downside is the bridge traffic, which is often unreasonable.  Do not plan your trip to get there on a Friday or leave on a Sunday.     Someday, they will build the 2nd bridge that they have been talking about for 40 years.

     

     

  5. Yeah, count me in on no indoor dining for a while   This sucks because I miss it and I would kill to eat at the new version of Revolver:  La Resistencia.  Purepecha delivered one my favorite meals of all time, but he couldn't have that room and the taco bar and fill them up only 50% so he combined the whole thing into a fixed price experience.  It sounds really good.   8 people per seating.  I wonder if we booked it with only 8 people I knew and trusted.  The mask is part of the server look and feel of the place so I know they will be covered.

    We will do patio dining if we are distant.  We sat one of the tables outside of Nova t the far end of the row.  No one close to us.   That was the first non takeout meal we have had since March.   Server was masked up and it felt fine.  But, as Lando said, with the heat, that may not sound fun any more.  Oh well.  2021 it is.  We will see what restaurants are still around.

    Boulevardiere, a favorite of ours for sure, just reopened.   We will get takeout soon or maybe go early and sit on the patio if its not full.   But, for the first time, I noticed a serious price increase.  Maybe that has been the case, but I had not seen it at other places (Taco y Vino's pandemic special was a price drop, for instance)  The Boulevardiere burger, which I have long said is the best restaurant burger in town, is now $23!   It was $18 prepandemic after it was $14 when the restaurant opened.  If that's what it takes for them to make it, so be it.

  6. 15 minutes ago, DFWTexEx said:

    We were planning a driving trip to New Mexico in July for the specific purpose of finding cool weather.    But it looks like NM still has a 14 day quarantine (do not leave hotel room / house rental except for medical reasons or something like that) for people coming from out of state (except for business travel), per order this week.   I am not sure if I want to plan out a trip and book a place to stay and hope the quarantine ends by the time I go.  I won't go knowing I will be breaking the rules and risking some bigger issue even if there are people out there that will be happy to lie there way around it.   I don't know, for instance, how I can fake a business trip if my husband and dogs are with me.

    EDIT: as weird as it sounds, the order only applies to people arriving by airport.  So, the driving trip may be back on.

    NM Executive Order June 2020

  7. We were planning a driving trip to New Mexico in July for the specific purpose of finding cool weather.    But it looks like NM still has a 14 day quarantine (do not leave hotel room / house rental except for medical reasons or something like that) for people coming from out of state (except for business travel), per order this week.   I am not sure if I want to plan out a trip and book a place to stay and hope the quarantine ends by the time I go.  I won't go knowing I will be breaking the rules and risking some bigger issue even if there are people out there that will be happy to lie there way around it.   I don't know, for instance, how I can fake a business trip if my husband and dogs are with me.

  8. We have always spent a lot of time on our porch.  During the pandemic, hanging out with neighbors outdoors has been terrific.  But, with the Texas heat blast coming, this is becoming less attractive. I'd like to buy something to keep us cool and am not interested in misting systems.   We live in Dallas.   I keep getting pointed to evaporative air coolers.  I read that they don't work well  in areas with high humidity, but I don't know if that just applies to using them indoors and if 60% humidity is too high.   Thoughts?  I am not trying to cool a big area, just keep 4-6 people cool enough to not melt in the evening.  Thinking about something like this:

    Outdoor Swamp Cooler

     

     

  9. I grew up on Luby's and never stopped loving it.  Some of is simply nostalgic, but I do think the food holds up well for what it is.  I'd put the CFS up against anyone's.   My LuAnne plate with either the little rectangle of crispy fried fish or liver and onions has been a go to for just about all my life.  I hope they do find a buyer and find a way to keep it all alive.   

    • Like 7
  10. To be clear, when it has come to refunds and credits and all that for the 10 or so flights I cancelled, American was terrific.   And I think how they addressed the AAdvantage stuff was fair.  I am definitely taking advantage of the million miler credit card credits this year.  I didn't mean to slam them generally, but I do think that the better they do in communicating and building trust, the sooner people will be buying more tickets on their airline.

  11. First post-pandemic flight this week. I'm in Dallas, so it's AA.

    1.  I picked a mid Sunday morning flight to TPA.  It was less than half full as of Friday night, empty rows around me in Main Cabin Extra.

    2.  AA had social distancing, no middle seat policy (with exceptions) through May 31, my flight date.  And they announced a program that would notify fliers who booked on flights with lots of space if the flights got full so they could rebook if uncomfortable.

    3.  No "plane is full" notice received from AA.  Arrived at gate.  Plane is full.  100%.  Every seat.  No upgrades available to front cabin.

    4.  Mask required to board and while on plane.  

    5.  Full uniform AA pilot on my row, no mask and no intention to put on a mask.  I nicely asked him about it and he grudgingly went to his luggage in overhead bin and got a mask.

    I am locked in with AA and am rooting for them to come back strong, but this was not an impressive showing.  I get that this hard for them and everyone, but at least they should follow their own policies.  We need to be able to trust them.

  12. 19 hours ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

    Going back a page.  The Latin Deli.  Didn't this place have a location downtown?  I swear I ate at a place with the exact same menu last year while stuck in jury duty for 3 weeks.  I'm only seeing a location near White Rock and one in Addison now. 

    Pretty sure it's the best walkable place for a quick but good jury duty lunch.  I did the same thing when I was there for 5 days.    Great stuff.  I hope it is still there.

  13. 2 minutes ago, gyroprotagonist said:

    Anyway, Jim will missed if he does not surface again writing about City Hall.  I miss the Unfair Park blog on the old Observer site, where wileyH would actually post stuff instead of just retweet 100 things per day

    All of this.  That Unfair Park blog was classic Dallas.  As was City of Ate.

  14. I don't watch the press conferences and tend to ignore news stories about feuds and bitchiness.  So, I am good with Jenkins' handling of this.  I may not agree with each decision, but the decisions seem thoughtful.

    Pretty sure he is not JWPs water boy now.  Price has been pretty vocal opposing the shelter in place orders and helped limit Jenkins' authority.

     

  15. On 5/10/2020 at 2:17 PM, mdmost said:

    Got more crowlers and cans from Lakewood Growler yesterday. They've increased their hours even though they still aren't letting people inside. The other spots around them like Dream Cafe and Taco Joint had pretty full patios, with tables spaced far apart. Picked up some lasagna from Goodfriend for Mother's Day. Easy process with everything done online.

    I have to say, I'm in no rush to go back to sitting inside a restaurant. I get the allure of the food being fresher, drink refills, chip refills, etc. But I really have very little desire to sit down at a place. I'm not sure when that desire will return. Maybe when it's balls hot outside and eating on our patio isn't as great a concept. Currently, I'm good with how things are and willing to let other be the Covid canaries in the coalmine. 

    We are in no hurry.  But we have great outdoor space and space for neighbors to talk to us while we are on the porch, so we're lucky.  If I were in an apartment building, I may feel differently and I may feel differently when the weather isn't as beautiful as it has been.  For, now we are good.

  16. Nova opened unexpectedly last night with an announcement on Facebook.  Takeout only.  The owners are hustling the orders to the cars.   Limited, menu but the highlights are there, including my favorite pizza in Dallas.  We jumped on it and got a hummus and Jimmy's 4 meat pie.  So good. A taste of pandemic life.

    Lucia opened too with fairly elaborate meals for 4 (or 2 meals for 2) of pork or pasta to take home and finish.  I'd love to try it, but we don't need the meal for 4 or leftovers.  Maybe, we'll stop and get just the salumi and a bottle of wine.  Actually, that sounds perfect.

  17. We walked up the illegal pedestrian bridge across the Trinity, along I30.  We intended to just go up the ramp a bit to get near the barriers, but the blockade appeared to be down so we got all the way up (we chose not to go onto the part of the bridge that could collapse at any moment).  It was a perfect view on a beautiful day.  Our dogs had a good adventure.  No one got closer than 20 feet to us.   A cool distraction.  Well done!

  18. To date, we have been sticking to our neighborhood restaurants in North Oak Cliff / Bishop Arts (Taco y Vino, Nora, Zen Sushi, Cibo di Vino, Emporium, Sketches of Spain, Enos...still haven't tried Stock and Barrel, but it's on the list).  But, we had some friends do an anniversary dinner from Petra and the Beast.  Holy shit.  It looked awesome.  You can get the food and do a picnic on their lawn to eat it hot or just take it all home.  I think we may cross the river for this.  You can't see that Sunday "Beast Menu" now because they publish it on Fridays for Sunday only pickup.  I saw it over the weekend and looked killer.  Petra...you are on the list!

    Petra And The Beast

    • Like 2
  19. This thing as evolved into something more and more personal.

    In the early stages, I did what I normally do:  donate cash to trusted institutions like the regional food bank, well established shelters, etc.

    Then came the more specific relief efforts.  For instance, the restaurants that banded together to get donations for out of work service industry folks.  I donated cash.  

    Then, I started getting takeout exclusively from restaurants that I used to frequent, were owned by friends, donated to the neighborhood in the past, etc.  These are important parts of my community and I want them to make it.

    Then, my own livelihood became threatened and I had to hit pause for bit on the donations and takeout.

    As I began to feel a bit more confident that I would keep getting my paycheck, I redirected my giving to a much more personal level:  I am giving cash and food to my housekeepers who are really struggling.  I am paying my trainer for virtual sessions on top of paying what I normally do.  I am paying a lady really into dog rescue to help train my dogs.  Etc.  These are people that are my neighbors and friends and they are hurting.  That is where my cash is going instead of donations to institutions.    This has never happened before.  I’m lucky I can do this, so I do.  For how long? I don’t know.  And I don’t know what happens after that. 

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