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Gimme your DFW Metroplex "big night" go-to restaurants


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Posted
Al Biernet passed away. He was diagnosed with ALS a couple years ago so it might be a small mercy he didn’t live a few more years. RIP to a Dallas legend. 

Just saw the news. Sad shit.
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Posted
On 11/11/2024 at 6:48 PM, Jive Turkey said:

Tatsu was the only Dallas restaurant to get a Michelin star.  Just embarrassing.  Houston and Austin had 6-7 apiece, I bet.

Yea it sucked. I could tell my cousin was bummed out we had a chat yesterday about Xmas trip we are planning.

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Posted
1 hour ago, C-Man said:


Just saw the news. Sad shit.

Tough way to go.  I can't say that I knew him well, but had been acquainted with him through a Dallas food writer that I hung out with some all the way back to The Palm days.  He was a natural at his chosen profession.  RIP.

Posted
9 hours ago, DalTxHornFan said:

Tough way to go.  I can't say that I knew him well, but had been acquainted with him through a Dallas food writer that I hung out with some all the way back to The Palm days.  He was a natural at his chosen profession.  RIP.

I'd only met once or twice through a friend who knew him from going to AB a lot. He had the ability to remember anybody's name even if he'd only met you once 20 years ago. A good friend of mine was the chef part of Al Biernat's when it first opened. He got them their very first high rating and on DMN's Top 100 list, then had a falling out with AB about 18 months into the restaurant being open.

ALS is a bitch. My cousin's husband died from ALS a couple of years back. It was awful to see. I was a little surprised to see Al was 69. Isn't that a little later in life to contract ALS? I thought it usually hit you earlier than that. My cousin's husband was mid 50's when he was diagnosed.

Posted
13 hours ago, C-Man said:

ALS is a bitch. My cousin's husband died from ALS a couple of years back. It was awful to see. I was a little surprised to see Al was 69. Isn't that a little later in life to contract ALS? I thought it usually hit you earlier than that. My cousin's husband was mid 50's when he was diagnosed.

Not sure about the age thing.  I had a HS buddy die of it at at age 66 or so last month.

  • 1 month later...
Posted
18 hours ago, Firemans4Horn said:

Petra and the Beast closing tomorrow. I guess the space was too big. 

Rumor I've heard, from someone who would know, is rent went up through the roof.

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Posted
On 12/30/2024 at 10:29 PM, DDD Dad said:

That space has been a killer to businesses since Wyatt’s left. 
 

what year did it close?  i moved to Lakewood in 1998.  right there off La Vista.  was it open then or had it just closed?  i don't remember it being open because i definitely would have eaten there.  i took my appetite to Dixie House for home cooking.

i do remember Ali Baba in that space.  great for takeout Mediterranean. i was sad when it closed.  Lakewood BBQ was nothing to write home about but it was good in a pinch.  i just couldn't see a quaint, funky restaurant like Petra & the Beast succeeding in this space.

Posted (edited)
8 minutes ago, Jive Turkey said:

what year did it close?  i moved to Lakewood in 1998.  right there off La Vista.  was it open then or had it just closed?  i don't remember it being open because i definitely would have eaten there.  i took my appetite to Dixie House for home cooking.

i do remember Ali Baba in that space.  great for takeout Mediterranean. i was sad when it closed.  Lakewood BBQ was nothing to write home about but it was good in a pinch.  i just couldn't see a quaint, funky restaurant like Petra & the Beast succeeding in this space.

We moved back to Dallas in ‘96. I think it closed shortly after we arrived. It was a Red Coleman’s and a Carraba’s and then Ali Baba after that. Then it was the barbecue place before Petra moved in. 

Edited by DDD Dad
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Posted
On 2/23/2025 at 1:09 PM, The Original Greaser Bob said:

Old funky Petra was one of the coolest meals I've ever had about three years ago.

Not sure if Sachet qualifies here, but meal there last night (fish) was outstanding.  The pita is laced with magic dust.

New deathbed bucket list:  Just Spanish Gin & Tonics.

Sachet is fantastic and you’re right about the pita. I’ve had a couple of work lunches there and I get one of their bowls that is outstanding. Need to check out their new concept around the corner from the house — Claremont.

  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

I'm buddies, or at least good acquaintances, with one of the guys behind The Mexican and this new place. He's a good dude. Still haven't made it to The Mexican, though.

  • 2 months later...
Posted

Doing some anniversararying this weekend.  Gonna wander over the Ritz for dinner at Fearing's (love that guy!).  Not gonna bother walking home.  Get in some pool time on Saturday, do a wine tasting with Paul Botamer (love that guy, too!), and then...random shenanigans, I guess.  Not planning on staggering back home until Sunday, and then we're gonna repack and I will join my girl on the road for a short work-trip just because I can. 

 It just occurred to me that I did not plan Saturday dinner.  Shit.

 

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Posted
1 hour ago, Firemans4Horn said:

If you’re looking for a drink after Fearing’s Bowen House is always worth a stop. 

Excellent thinking!  I was just thinking the same thing.  Although, there is a bottle of Willam Larue Weller that requires my attention at The Rattlesnake Bar.  Haven't killed it yet.  It's an ongoing project.

Posted (edited)
On 12/28/2024 at 6:07 PM, Firemans4Horn said:

Petra and the Beast closing tomorrow. I guess the space was too big. 

looks like @Zepol87's cousin has a new spot.  Far-Out.  not surprisingly, it's supposed to be really outstanding.

https://www.papercitymag.com/restaurants/far-out-dallas-new-restaurant-bar-misti-norris/

https://www.faroutdallas.com/

also, Nuri needs to be on the list of big night out go to restaurants.

Edited by Jive Turkey
Posted
2 hours ago, Jive Turkey said:

looks like @Zepol87's cousin has a new spot.  Far-Out.  not surprisingly, it's supposed to be really outstanding.

https://www.papercitymag.com/restaurants/far-out-dallas-new-restaurant-bar-misti-norris/

https://www.faroutdallas.com/

also, Nuri needs to be on the list of big night out go to restaurants.

We went to Far Out several months ago. One of my best college friends is really tight with Chris Jeffers, who is part of the group that opened Far Out. Chris (with others) opened Bolsa, The Theodore, Smoke and a few other places. He introduced us to Chris many years ago back when Bolsa was relatively new.

Anyway, Far Out was serving mostly pizza when we went so it appears things have changed quite a bit. They were short-staffed so Chris had an old buddy who used to be a server at one of his other places but now has a regular gig waiting on us. He was high AF and couldn't get a grasp of the hand-held ordering/tab device so Chris told him to go home halfway through our dinner. LOL.

It's in an interesting area of town and turns into a Latin Dance Club after 10 or so on weekend nights. At least it did.

  • 4 weeks later...
Posted
On 6/23/2025 at 4:37 PM, C-Man said:

We went to Far Out several months ago. One of my best college friends is really tight with Chris Jeffers, who is part of the group that opened Far Out. Chris (with others) opened Bolsa, The Theodore, Smoke and a few other places. He introduced us to Chris many years ago back when Bolsa was relatively new.

Anyway, Far Out was serving mostly pizza when we went so it appears things have changed quite a bit. They were short-staffed so Chris had an old buddy who used to be a server at one of his other places but now has a regular gig waiting on us. He was high AF and couldn't get a grasp of the hand-held ordering/tab device so Chris told him to go home halfway through our dinner. LOL.

It's in an interesting area of town and turns into a Latin Dance Club after 10 or so on weekend nights. At least it did.

I keep meaning to give this place a shot now that Misti is there.  It's not far from me but just never think to venture south of Columbia Ave.

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Add Evelyn to your list.

We had dinner there Friday and damn, we can’t wait to back. Everything (but for the creamed spinach) was terrific.

We are two guys who qualify for AARP and still enjoyed the music and vibe. It’s one of those restaurants that is also a lounge but it works. By 8:30 a DJ had kicked in playing all 70s and 80s, our groove. We stayed for an extra drink after dinner. Great people watching.

The cheesesteak bite appetizer was great. The wedge was perfect (although not in wedge form, which made it easier to share) and the steak (bone in strip from some farm in ND) was just right. Service was professional and friendly and the wine list was interesting and approachable with fair pricing.

Recommend.

Posted
6 hours ago, DFWTexEx said:

Add Evelyn to your list.

We had dinner there Friday and damn, we can’t wait to back. Everything (but for the creamed spinach) was terrific.

We are two guys who qualify for AARP and still enjoyed the music and vibe. It’s one of those restaurants that is also a lounge but it works. By 8:30 a DJ had kicked in playing all 70s and 80s, our groove. We stayed for an extra drink after dinner. Great people watching.

The cheesesteak bite appetizer was great. The wedge was perfect (although not in wedge form, which made it easier to share) and the steak (bone in strip from some farm in ND) was just right. Service was professional and friendly and the wine list was interesting and approachable with fair pricing.

Recommend.

Had lunch yesterday with a client/buddy who is one of the investors (in addition to another friend/acquaintance who is one of the owners as mentioned further up the thread.

Definitely need to check it out.

Posted

looking for a nice weekend in dfw, and a place with a great pool. you're grandmas are safe, i'm bringing female friend #1 from hou 

any suggestions ?

 

thanks 

Posted
looking for a nice weekend in dfw, and a place with a great pool. you're grandmas are safe, i'm bringing female friend #1 from hou 
any suggestions ?
 
thanks 

We’ve done fun staycations at the W. Pool scene is great and nearby to Victory restaurants.

But pool club at the Virgin also looks fun too
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Posted
On 8/5/2025 at 4:04 PM, tx 3 putt said:

looking for a nice weekend in dfw, and a place with a great pool. you're grandmas are safe, i'm bringing female friend #1 from hou 

any suggestions ?

 

thanks 


The Joule

Posted
2 minutes ago, Firemans4Horn said:


The Joule

Wife and I spent a weekend at The Joule a few years ago and the crowd at the pool was pretty low rent.

Posted
5 minutes ago, Firemans4Horn said:


I was there two weeks ago and the crowd was great. 

We may have just caught it on an off weekend. We loved the hotel, but the pool scene when we were there was odd given the room rates. To my benefit, it contributed to my wife not liking Dallas and her marking it off the list of a potential city for us to move to when we were relocating to Texas.

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Posted
1 minute ago, The Original Greaser Bob said:

Does that patio area get crazily hot?  My wife axed one of my reservations because she thought it was too early and we would have been out there.


We ate inside. And the night we went I would not have ate on the patio. Looked way too hot. 

  • 1 month later...
Posted

Michelin Star awarded to 57-day-old restaurant in Dallas: Mamani.

https://www.dmagazine.com/food-drink/2025/10/mamani-michelin-starred-dallas-restaurant/

Quote

Yesterday was day 57 for Mamani, the long-awaited new French restaurant in Uptown Dallas. On day 57, it earned a Michelin star. That news is equal parts exciting and intimidating.

Now everybody is going to want to judge Dallas’ newest top restaurant. Mamani is, after all, one of just two Michelin-starred restaurants in the whole North Texas region, and the only one that serves meals a la carte.

I wouldn’t want that pressure. And make no mistake: it’s pressure. An eight-week-old restaurant is a baby. It’s still finding its voice and proving its consistency. It’s waiting for diners, not the chef, to decide what will become famous as the signature dish. If Mamani grows up and Michelin stops liking it, that star can be taken away next year.

What does the pressure look like? I took a screenshot of Mamani’s reservations page at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday, two hours before the Michelin ceremony. OpenTable reported it was booked “52 times today.” After the ceremony, that number was 788. (For comparison: Gemma and Mot Hai Ba, which retained their Bib Gourmand status from 2024, got about 20 new bookings each, not 700.) As of publishing this morning, Mamani has been booked “967 times today.”

I also checked Mamani’s availability on Halloween, a night when many restaurants experience a lull because everyone with kids is busy and everyone else is watching scary movies and eating king-sized Reese’s Cups. At 5:15 p.m. on Tuesday, a table for two could be reserved at almost every time slot this Friday. Wednesday morning? None.

After the ceremony, I asked just one question to Mamani owners Brandon and Henry Cohanim and executive chef Christophe de Lellis. The question: are you terrified?

De Lellis was more dazed than anything else. “We were really surprised,” he said. “Like, really, really surprised. When we saw the invitation, we started asking ourselves questions. We were like, ‘Why?’ I’m just speechless. I’m not sure what to think right now. But I’m so proud of the team, so proud of what we’ve done.”

The Cohanim brothers were just as surprised. “This is something that we didn’t expect at all,” Henry Cohanim said. “From when we opened the restaurant until we received the email invite from Michelin, we weren’t even thinking about Michelin. It didn’t cross our mind at all.” At the time we spoke shortly after the ceremony, they had checked their reservation system, but the 700-strong cascade of new bookings was still an early trickle, and they felt sure that Mamani could continue to be a neighborhood restaurant, with plenty of space for walk-ins every night, except Friday and Saturday. (Not to say they don’t accept any walk-ins on those nights. Just that walking in was already hard.)

Butter, butter everywhere: buttered spinach with an extra scoop of butter in the background, at Mamani.Brian Reinhart

“I worked 14 years for Robuchon Las Vegas, a destination restaurant,” de Lellis said. “People come once a year, twice a year. Some people more often, but it’s really rare. The first thing that me and Brandon [Cohanim said] was, ‘Let’s create a restaurant where people feel comfortable to come every week if they want to.’” The price makes Mamani a restaurant most people couldn’t visit every week—mains start at $49—and now the crowds will complicate that goal, too.

If a Michelin star creates destination-style expectations, it will cause a tension, because Mamani is not that kind of restaurant. You know: the “best in the world” kind. It’s supposed to be the once-a-week-if-you-have-money kind. If you’ve read a Dallas menu before, you’ll recognize all the characters: steak, roast chicken, whole branzino, stuffed pasta with squash and brown butter, seafood crudo, oysters, chocolate mousse. The difference lies in the techniques used to prepare each dish to the greatest degree of refinement.

“You can customize your experience the way you want it,” de Lellis said. “You can come, get just a bowl of pasta, or you can come for a celebration and have a whole feast if you want to. The way I designed the menu, you have a to-share section where you can enjoy our duck, it’s really incredible, the preparation is unique with the kebab, with the dry-aged duck. But at the same time, you can come in by yourself and get an appetizer, a pasta, and go.”

I’ve been to Mamani only once so far, because professional dining critics give a restaurant a monthlong grace period before visiting, a courtesy to allow chefs and managers to work through early kinks. (Am I throwing shade at Michelin’s inspectors? No comment.) I see room for hope and concern. The hopeful side first: Mamani really does feel like a tailor-made combination of Dallas’ conservative tastes and Paris’ most skillful execution. The newcomer has a dozen or so direct competitors in this town, all of them inferior, and now Dallas diners will get to see what the superior model looks like.

The pessimistic point of view? Everyone in Dallas who just booked tables at Mamani will be expecting it to be the best restaurant in the city, period, in their own judgment as much as anyone else’s. For that reason, it feels like Michelin did Mamani dirty. A brand-new restaurant wants to be at its best so it can generate new regulars. But now it has to provide not just its best experience, but the whole city’s?

Hype can be a trap. Mamani is now the most hyped new Dallas opening since Fearing’s arrived at the Ritz-Carlton in 2007, when the Cohanims were in elementary school.

My plea to Dallasites: set the hype aside. Don’t go to Mamani expecting it to be The Best Ever. That’s not fair to them or to your own experience. The Michelin Guide’s early honor conceals another important fact. The best restaurants, the truly great ones, get better with time. At a truly great restaurant, your dinner will be far better in year eight or nine than it was on day 57.

“This is just the beginning,” de Lellis. “We have so much more to do and to give. I’m even more motivated for the future. I know we’re going to be doing a lot better.”

That’s good, because nothing, not even steak, is more Dallas than a restaurant that peaks in year one.

 

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