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11 North Texas Culinary Artisans We’re Thankful For

Meet the hands behind the crafted foods and beverages we have come to crave.
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11 North Texas Culinary Artisans We’re Thankful For

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Everett & Elaine

Everett & Elaine
Everett & Elaine

Kevin Lampman and Yang Wu started out selling hand-selected pecan halves harvested from the Lampman family’s 1,500 acres of orchards in Comanche County. They sold them plain, as well as dusted with lavender sugar and kissed with honey and habanero. Then Wu, a trained chef from the Culinary Institute of America, combined his French cooking techniques with the Japanese sensibilities honed while working at Morimoto in New York to create pecan-based pastries. The gourmet business has expanded from there. Wu uses local and regional honeys and jams to make seasonal pies, such as bourbon pecan, a lattice-topped ginger peach, and a richly spiced deep-dish apple, baked in all-butter crusts. His fluffy cotton cheesecake is a sensation, as are his maple bacon and dark chocolate cookies and ratatouille or Florentine quiches. 1010 S. Pearl Expwy. 460-779-8050.

Noble Coyote Coffee Roasters

The husband-and-wife team of Marta and Kevin Sprague has been roasting under the Noble Coyote banner since 2011. Always prioritizing fair, direct-trade relationships with growers who use organic and sustainable practices, the couple has gone from a tiny stand at the White Rock Local Market (now Good Local Market) to becoming the go-to cold brew supplier at coffee shops all over. The storefront and coffee lab they recently opened as part of their Expo Park roastery feels in every way like a place of discovery. Kevin’s meticulous small-batch approach brings out nuanced profiles—beans from Ethiopia, Panama, or Bali, for example, get a light roast so as not to cover up their unusual fruity and floral aromas. But his complex brews aren’t limited to the gorgeous custom Slayer espresso machine. The couple has begun collaborating with other local artisans, such as Lakewood Brewing Company and Dude, Sweet Chocolate, showing what can transpire when their coffee meets seasonal beer and chocolate.  

Cheese & Chutney

cheese-chutneyAt Chitra and Jeff Foster’s shop in North Oak Cliff, it’s not just about the cheese case, with its oft-rotating selection of Old World and American cheeses. There’s that other word in the title. Chitra’s love of chutney—she was born in Bangalore and ate her mother’s south Indian versions flavored with coconut, tomato, cilantro-mint, and tamarind—means shelves well-stocked with treasures: fruit-based, English-style chutneys; Indian chutneys with tartness and heat; a French selection that includes fig, shallot, and apple cider Calvados confit. The couple enjoys the cultural mix, combining red pepper jelly with local Haute Goat chevre, or introducing a classic Indian tamarind chutney with cow’s-milk espresso-rubbed cheese. 1318 W. Davis St. 469-917-7318.

D&D Shrubs & Syrups Co.

Chris Dempsey, the bar manager at the Quarter Bar in Trophy Club and a 20-year bartending veteran, is picky about the ingredients he uses to make cocktails. In December 2015, he teamed up with Brandon Drew, the chef de cuisine at the Pyramid in the Fairmont Dallas. Together, they concocted a line of seasonal, small-batch infusions—honeys, shrubs (drinking vinegars), flavored syrups, and nut-based orgeats—that make great mixers for cocktails and marinades. Dempsey gently toasts the pecans for a Hatch chile-spiced pecan orgeat that makes an Old Fashioned glow at the back of the throat. Farmers market strawberries go into his apple cider vinegar-based strawberry shrub that’s refreshing in a bottle of Topo Chico. White balsamic might be the base for a pear shrub that features the best in season (Bartlett or Comice). And D&D’s subtle mushroom demerara syrup—a blend of shiitakes, brown sugar, black sesame, and black pepper—makes a wonderful marinade. Think of their crafted elixirs as multipurpose
pantry ingredients. 469-418-2679. 

T-Rex Pickles

T-Rex Pickles
T-Rex Pickles

Travis Bush keeps a healthy, eight-bed herb garden in his backyard. He likes to cook. He also happens to have a few years’ experience working in breweries. So when he read a story about someone in Boston who was making pickles with beer, Bush took a giant leap of faith and decided to do the same. He’s now partnered with Four Corners Brewing Co., pairing their specialty brews with herbs and vegetables to create one-of-a-kind pickles. Starting with a simple brine of vinegar, pickling salt, and beer, he boils off the carbonation and alcohol, then pours it over hand-chopped vegetables and herbs. Regular flavors include bread and butter, mint and juniper berry, and hot dill and horseradish pickles, but he’s also pickled cranberries for Thanksgiving as well as green beans packed with chile flakes and dill. He always seems to be trying out something new. Recently, he sampled a Grapefruit Gose and immediately thought “pears.”

The Salty Pig Sausage Co.

Salty Pig Sausage
Salty Pig Sausage

After Nick Walker graduated from high school in Seattle, he got a job at a butcher shop, working his way up from dishwasher to sausage maker. “I’m 32 years old,” Walker says. “Making sausage has been my only real job.” He still works as a meat cutter at a major grocery store, but he and his wife Rachel Upson have launched a small side business making specialty sausages using local, all-natural pork. In less than a year, the couple has created a loyal following who show up at The Clearfork Farmers Market in Fort Worth on Saturday mornings to see what Nick has ground up. He makes Italian, jalapeño cheddar, and breakfast sausages, chorizo, and bratwurst, as well as a seasonal summer sausage with jalapeños and peaches, and a winter sausage with cranberries and pecans. The young couple’s dream is to get a storefront, but until then they are expanding their product line through experimentation. “Our customers encourage us,” Upson says. 972-345-7792.

 

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