Mercury Rolls Out a New Menu

Last night I took our Restaurant 101 teacher, Miss Amy, to dinner at Mercury. I don’t know if it’s Mercury or Mercury Grill–they may have dropped “grill” from the name. Whatever it’s called, it is freakin’ good. Oh, I forgot to tell you that Mercury co-owner, Dick Washburne, and “Mr. Amy” came along too. During the day he runs Sevy’s Grill and goes by Jim “Sevy” Severson. (That’s him to the left looking like a red-tongued devil about to devour a lobster souffle, which he did.) Mercury chef Chris Ward came over and he and Sevy talked shop, sadly out of my ear range–lots of talk about trying to keep their restaurants alive during this economic crunch. Anywhoo, Ward’s new menu is over-the-top good stuff: poached halibut, short ribs sous-vide, and the best fried okra in the world. OK, in Dallas. I mean, Texas.