Declaring that “Texas Food Conquers the World!” in her 1996 feature story of the same name, Texas Monthly’s Patricia Sharpe described “a loosely knit group of…young Texas chefs” united in “the realization that each, in his or her own restaurant or hotel kitchen, was doing something exciting and very new with Texas food.”
Forming the group’s core was the “Texas mafia” of Dallas chefs, Dean Fearing and Stephan Pyles, Houston’s Robert Del Grande, and cookbook author and restaurant consultant Anne Greer. In the 1980s, they began blazing the culinary revolution known as Southwestern cuisine. Reinventing Texas tradition with outside ingredients and influences, from Mexican to French, this is the group responsible for putting chipotle, jicama, mole and other Southwestern signatures on menus around the world.
How does the epicenter of the revolution fare today?
“Dallas has definitely matured over the years, becoming a culinary destination recognized for ‘being local’ within Texas,” said Donald Chalko, executive chef at the 1,001-room Omni Dallas Hotel headquarters hotel.
“Once, the thought process for many restaurateurs was to go for the best product available,” continued Chalko, whose resume includes The Mansion at Turtle Creek (where Fearing ruled for 20 years) and Mandarin Oriental in Las Vegas. “This has evolved to wanting to know who the farmers and ranchers are, and making sure products are truly local. Our story at the hotel, ‘Let’s Make it Dallas,’ is about providing guests with a true local culinary experience.”
That theme echoes across the Metroplex, where to borrow from Mesquite’s brand name, groups will discover plenty of “Real. Texas. Flavor.”
Past Meets Present
Announcing the rebrand of the Dallas CVB to VisitDallas at the organization’s annual meeting last month, President and CEO Phillip Jones commented that “Dallas is catching on, and we must discover the social currency and triggers that will make Dallas a must-visit destination.”
Count Big’s D dining diversity among the lures already in place.
“Dallas is an innovative and fresh culinary city,” Jones said. “From the incubator concept at Trinity Groves to famous chefs like Dean Fearing and Stephan Pyles, the fathers of Southwestern cuisine, Dallas offers great culinary variety for locals and visitors. Yes, you can find the expected fantastic steaks, barbecue and Tex-Mex, but Dallas also delivers many surprises, from Asian restaurants to vegan foods.”
The original masters are still going strong. This year, Fearing marks the 10th anniversary of his eponymous restaurant at The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas, which is available for private events, while serial restaurateur Pyles (who just closed his own long-revered self-named restaurant), is firing up Dallas at group-capable concepts including Stampede 66 and the brand-new Flora Street Cafe.
Another Dallas veteran, Jason Weaver, opened the Omni Dallas Hotel in 2011 as executive chef and now serves as director of food and beverage for the LEED Gold-certified hotel (see Zoom In, page 72), which is skybridge-connected to the Dallas Convention Center and offers multiple dining concepts, including farm-to-table Texas Spice.
The next generation of chefs and restaurateurs, meanwhile, present innovative new concepts to experienced chefs via the incubator program at Trinity Groves. Located at the base of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in West Dallas, this growing complex features a collection of restaurants, a brewery and the 3015 at Trinity Groves event center. Providing gourmet catering, cooking classes and culinary-themed teambuilding activities, 3015 also routinely hosts premier and corporate gatherings.
East of downtown in Deep Ellum, the city’s historic nightlife center, gastropub-style Independent Bar & Kitchen is the latest concept from star Metroplex chef Andrew Dilda, hosting 50-plus guests for private events. Serving home-style cooking with local beers and cocktails, The Rustic, with a spacious open backyard for live- music events, welcomes private groups of 20 or more people.
At the George W. Bush Presidential Library on the campus of Southern Methodist University, Cafe 43, named in honor of the 43rd president, is a full-service restaurant with a “local first, Texas second” menu flexibly accommodating up to 150 guests for evening events. Pioneering, too, is Cafe Momentum, which provides intensive culinary, job and life-skill training to at-risk youth who have spent time in juvenile facilities, and offers on-site and off-site catered events.
Since 2000, when local and state culinary ambassador Tim Love helped raise the city’s profile with his flagship Lonesome Dove Western Bistro in the Stockyards National Historic District, Fort Worth has extended its range well beyond its chuck wagon yesteryears.
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“Fort Worth’s major convenience, world-class attractions and flexible meeting spaces make the city a natural fit for events of all kinds, with dining options to match,” said John Cychol, vice president of meeting sales for the Fort Worth CVB. “For example, groups can dine under the stars in downtown’s Sundance Square Plaza while sipping craft cocktails or enjoy the rustic charm of the Fort Worth Stockyards at River Ranch all in one day.”
Other options include Fort Worth’s Ale Trail, offering planners access to 10 spacious taprooms just minutes away from downtown, or the adjacent Near Southside district, where culinary options go from Egyptian to Turkish to vegan fare.”
Still doing its part, Lonesome Dove, hosting groups of up to 400 people, is for bold “urban Western” cuisine such as rabbit-rattlesnake sausage and kangaroo carpaccio. Also in the Stockyards are Love’s event-capable White Elephant Saloon, accommodating 125 guests in the Wild Game Room, and adjacent Love Shack burger joint, offering versatile indoor and outdoor options, including buyouts. On the Trinity River, Love’s Woodshed Smokehouse features outdoor space for up to 100.
Founded in 1935 and as popular as ever for its fajitas and other Mexican fare, Joe T. Garcia’s near the Stockyards is a dynastic choice for catering and private events. For traditional Western cuisine, four-level, 22,000-square-foot Raeta (Spanish for rope) is a Sundance Square favorite with the scenic rooftop among multiple versatile private dining spaces.
At the Omni Fort Worth Hotel, interactive meeting breaks include 30-minute nutrition classes and chef-led cooking demonstrations. Groups of 18 to 90 can also participate in chef-guided cooking challenges covering both cocktails and food preparations, including guacamole, salsa and ceviche.
Set within a historic brick warehouse, the new Wild Acre Brewing Company offers its air-conditioned 5,000-square-foot Tap Room and connected outdoor beer garden for events. Another recent newcomer, Heim Barbecue & Catering, announced a second location with an outdoor patio and live-music stage in the new River District for this year.
Introduced in 2014, the Fort Worth Food + Wine Festival is a tasty late March tie-in for groups, featuring more than 100 local and regional chefs and tastemakers.
Expanding Menus
In Irving, the menu is truly global.
“There’s literally a world of F&B experiences here in one of the country’s most diverse zip codes,” said Irving CVB Executive Director Maura Gast. “For visitors to Texas, excellent barbecue, Tex-Mex, home-cooking and premium steaks are guaranteed, and Irving can easily deliver on those fronts, along with the usual ‘big city’ ingredients for farm-to-fork, classic Italian, seafood and traditional Asian.
“However, attendees’ palates can also be intrigued by locally owned restaurants serving the cuisines of the Himalayas, Nepal, Peru, India, Puerto Rico, East Africa, Mexico, Argentina, the Mediterranean and more,” she continued.
Gast also hails the Irving Convention Center’s chef, Eduardo Alvarez, “whose culinary expertise has had clients repeatedly coming back for more, always to rave reviews.”
With “roots reaching deep into Texas soil,” the contemporary Ranch at Las Colinas offers technology-enabled banquet spaces for groups of 10 to 150, with live music in the popular event-capable Ranch Pavilion.
LAW (for “Land, Air and Water”), the new buyout-capable signature restaurant at the Four Seasons at Las Colinas, puts a “Texas twist” on game, poultry, fish and other dishes. Private spaces include the 16-person Wine Room, combinable with the show kitchen for pre-dinner receptions.
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Offering seven private rooms accommodating between 30 and 80 guests, the lodge-style Cool River Cafe, a Southwestern-influenced steakhouse and cigar bar, features billiard tables, fireplaces and 50-inch HDTVs. Fronting the entertainment stage, the Upper Deck is ideal for catching live music.
Slated to open this September, the pedestrian-friendly Irving Music Factory at Las Colinas will reportedly include more than 20 restaurants. Anchored by an eight-screen Alamo Drafthouse Cinema and 8,000-person capacity Live Nation Pavilion indoor/outdoor concert hall, the entertainment district is phase two of a 40-acre mixed-use development anchored by the Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas. Slated for a 2018 opening, a new $110 million, 350-room Westin brand convention center hotel completes the district.
In Frisco, The Star, the new 91-acre experience-driven World Headquarters of the resurgent Dallas Cowboys, headlines a dynamic and ever-expanding product set. The continuing wave includes the new 300-room Omni Frisco. Targeting a summer 2017 opening, the property will connect to the Star’s 12,000-seat Ford Center and offer 24,000 square feet of flexible space, plus a pool deck with a reception area for 400 people, and a restaurant serving new American fare.
“Meeting planners are always seeking new ideas for off-site events, and we are fortunate that we have a variety of options to provide,” said Frisco CVB Executive Director Marla Roe. “From unique connections with the Dallas Cowboys, via more than 30 special meetings rooms at The Star, to the upcoming National Soccer Hall of Fame, offering breathtaking views of the Toyota Stadium field, there is a little bit of everything for our groups.”
Group-ready dining choices include gastropub Mash’d (also in Fort Worth), renowned for its moonshine cocktails. It can host around 25 people in the Moonshine Shed. Located in a landmark home from 1869 in downtown Frisco, family-owned Randy’s Steakhouse, with seven dining rooms, is popular for private functions.
With siblings in Dallas and Arlington, La Hacienda Ranch is part of a family of restaurants with birthrights to the frozen margarita. Invented by patriarch Mariano Martinez in 1971, the World’s First Frozen Margarita Machine was inducted into the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in 2005. Serving the frozen treat along with sizzling Tex-Mex, the restaurant hosts private events and provides off-site catering.
Also booming, Plano’s continuing development and expansion is providing fertile ground for culinary opportunities.
“Considered an ideal test market because of its diverse customer base and prime real estate, Plano is where many of the nation’s hottest new restaurant concepts get their start,” said Mark Thompson, director of Visit Plano. “Creating a vast array of restaurant and dining options to explore, this obviously stands to benefit groups. Many top choices are clustered in easily accessible and walkable destinations like our downtown Arts District, the Shops at Legacy, and in 2017, Legacy West, where the exciting new food hall will include a brewery and entertainment stage.”
With appearances on Top Chef and Iron Chef America, star local chef Tre Wilcox “combines the excitement of a network television studio with state-of-the-art demonstration kitchens” at his new eponymous school and event space, Cooking Concepts. Group programs include private classes based on his TRE philosophy (“Technique. Recipes. Execution.”) and themed culinary challenges for up to 40 participants.
Overlooking the fountain at Shops at Legacy, Mexican Sugar is a 300-seat hacienda-style restaurant serving Mexico City-inspired fare, small-batch specialty cocktails on tap, award-winning margaritas and an extensive tequila selection, with private space for large parties.
Named for its tap wall of some 40 wines and 20 beers, 300-seat newcomer Sixty Vines, with its locally sourced, wine country-inspired menu, offers private space for 40 seated or 60 standing guests, plus patio seating at the charming adjacent greenhouse.
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Serious Eats
“There’s a running industry joke that convention food is really rubber chicken, but nothing can be further from the truth here in Arlington,” said Jon Hixon, vice president of sales at the Arlington CVB. “For instance, Robert Stehlin, head chef at the Arlington Convention Center, is dedicated to including fresh, creative recipes for all delegates meeting at the venue, however eclectic their appetites might be. That’s a rule that extends to the entire city, too; we are not afraid to be innovative with our catering and beverage options.”
With the Dallas Cowboys chasing their first Super Bowl in 20 years, fans have the new Stadium Club restaurant at AT&T Stadium, combining first-class dining with the comfort of a sports bar. Just off the lobby of the nearby Hilton Arlington, the chef-driven R Bar & Grill serves regionally inspired Texas cuisine and offers non-private gathering space, with private space for up to 86 guests at adjacent F1rst restaurant.
Offering versatile event space that includes the 250-person Grand Courtyard, the boutique Sanford House Inn & Spa, featuring private villas and cottages, is home to upscale Restaurant 506, serving what it calls “Inspired American” cuisine and hosting private events in the Monet Dining Room.
With some 310 wineries, Texas is the nation’s fifth largest wine-producing state. Headquarters of the Texas Wine and Grape Growers Association and home to the annual four-day GrapeFest in September, which celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2016, Grapevine, with 200-plus restaurants, is a fruitful destination for both wining and dining.
“The tremendous diversity in Grapevine’s restaurant scene makes it the perfect destination for any meeting or group,” said Brady Closson, managing director of sales and marketing for the Grapevine CVB. “From Tex-Mex and barbeque to upscale and trendy, our options satisfy every appetite and price point.”
Featuring 10 winery tasting rooms, including Messina Hof Grapevine, the state’s most-awarded winery, Grapevine’s preeminent Urban Wine Trail is for tours, seasonal themed events, and sampling wines from Texas and around the world.
Unique dining choices include Tolbert’s Restaurant & Chili Parlor. First opened in Dallas in 1976, this famed restaurant and live-music venue is renowned for its Bowl of Red (chili). Housed in Grapevine’s first automotive garage from 1911 and featuring an original 1928 Model T, Willhoite’s restaurant offers a Texas buffet, live music and provides party rooms and catering.
True to its smoke-infused name, Mesquite is a hotbed for authentic barbecue, steak and Tex-Mex flavors.
“With more than 100 restaurants, Mesquite offers many choices for groups,” said Judy Skowron, director of the Mesquite CVB. “For adventurous delegates, our Barbecue Trail features seven great BBQ restaurants within easy driving distance of the Mesquite Convention Center and Exhibit Hall. “Other local options include family-owned Martinez Restaurant for Tex-Mex, with event space for 100 people, and Spring Creek BBQ, hosting smaller groups.”
