Category — Dining

 The 4th annual Texas Fall Fest and Wine Auction was held in Marble Falls at the Marriott’s Horseshoe Bay Resort Friday, October 31st – Sunday, November 2nd. This is a great event sponsored by the Texas Department of Agriculture and the Texas Wine & Grape Growers Association with a three - fold mission. Expose the public to the merits and importance of Texas wine and food by spotlighting the best wines, foods, chefs and restaurants in our state and to raise funds for much needed Texas wine research as well as for other worthy healthcare needs. The lovely Susan Auler, co-owner of Fall Creek Vineyards started the fun in 2004.

Winn Meat Company and the Texas Beef Council teamed up to support the Fall Fest and lots of chefs involved this year. Let me run down just some of the fun Carol and I enjoyed ! Friday night was a big dine around held outside at the Palm D’ Or Pavillion. (pictured below)

Many of our customers were there and dishin’ up some great grub. Like Gerard Thompson from Rough Creek Lodge (right with me) with our great Berkshire pork, Chef Jesse Lemos from Boot Ranch(below,with me) in Fredericksburg with some short rib sliders and chef Paul Peterson from the Gage Hotel in Marathon . He had a killer canape with smoked grapes! A list of  Friday’s participating restaurants with hyperlinks is at the end of this post.

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John Franke, executive chef for the new ‘Texas” themed eatery in the old Bahama Breeze space, Cadillac Ranch, invited some of the Winn meat folks for their mock service last Friday.  Todd and Julie Winn, Steve Stumpf and his wife Tamber along with me and Carol are sure glad we went! Located at 857 W. Highway 114 in Irving, on the north east corner by Champps, this place is going to be packed! The grand opening is Monday, November 17th.

I’ve been to many mock services and believe me they are not always fun. In fact, they are often a disaster! Kudos to chef John and his team. This is a big restaurant and they packed it pretty good. The service,  food and beverage was excellent. 

They have given the space a very Texan feel. The bar has a roadhouse – honky tonk look and will  have live music. I found the lady bartenders uniforms to be …interesting in a Twin Peaks kind of way. We enjoyed Stevie Ray Vaughn on the big screen while we waited on our table. The restaurant is much more upscale with a sophisticated, Hill Country vibe. While the space is large, it is sectioned off in a way that makes it seem cozy. The plates and cutlery are heavy and feel expensive.

The food was really impressive all around. Braised short ribs, red snapper, chicken fried steak and bacon wrapped shrimp were all impressive and complete with seasonal, well thought out sides. The star of the show, without a doubt was the American Kobe flat iron steak. Wow, this was like eating beef butter.

John and I worked together at the then Harvey Hotel DFW Airport back in the mid 90’s. Small world. As great as the food and experience was, the kicker is it is very reasonably priced. Good food, good price, good atmosphere, good service, this just might work!

  God I love the fair. I’ve been going since I was a little squirt and I probably haven’t missed 10 since then. I made a joke when I was speaking to the folks at my demo that I missed the 10 because I was in jail for a food poisoning incident. I don’t think they got it.

I dig Fletcher’s corny

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I have recently  delightfully dined at two “neighborhood” restaurants, and I ain’t talkin’ Applebee’s. Jeffery Hobbs, Gilbert and Lisa Garza’s Suze and Sharon Hage’s York Street. Great eats at both establishments. These are two places that provide real, approachable, expertly executed food that focuses on quality ingredients and technique. A great piece of meat or fish with a great sauce and some great sides followed by a great dessert is what you’ll get at both restaurants. Nothing is so tall you’ll feel the need to yell, “TIMBER!” when you knock it over with your fork, no page long menu descriptions with 6 hyphens and three sets of quotation marks. Good food prepared perfectly.

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My partner in crime, wife Carol, and I had the opportunity to experience Stephan Pyles the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. We went to see Wayne Brady perform as part of the DSO’s Pops Series at the Myerson. On the way there we were having the usual dining discussion. Where do you want to eat? I don’t know where do you want to eat? I decided last time. OK name three places… do you have this discussion every single time you go out with your wife?

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The snooty foodie party was a huge success! The food flowed from about 8-11:30 and, based on the festive banter in the room, the wine flowed deep into the night! I always like to celebrate the successes and examine the opportunities revealed by events like this.

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My friends at snootyfoodie.com bought Winn Meat Company’s  live auction item at the Signature Chef event last year and, after bringing a young one into the world, are ready for me to make good. My wife Carol, she does the flowers and anything else I need, her daughter Cassie and I will serve up the little shin dig for 1o at their place this Saturday. Being the ever efficiency minded chef that I am I thought I’d kill two birds with one stone. Create a blog entry and menu for their party at the same time. I want to let you see what I’m thinking about when I put a multi course menu together.

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I had the opportunity to "get rolled", at all three of Kevin Rathbun’s Atlanta restaurants  recently and fortunately, unlike Nancy Nichols, the power stayed on! In chef parlance "getting rolled" means sit down, forget the menu and get ready for one fabulous dish after another to roll out of the kitchen.

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