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Restaurant News

News Bites: Udon Is Coming to North Texas and Dallas Bars Are Reopening

SideDish’s weekly digest of need-to-know dining happenings in Dallas.
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A ceramic bowl of udon noodle soup with two shrimp tempuras on the side.
Courtesy Marugame Udon

Welcome to SideDish’s weekly dispatch of need-to-know News Bites, from quiet closures to opening updates and everything in between, including coronavirus-related intel.

Postino Slated to Open a Location in Deep Ellum
The Phoenix-based chain is opening an Italian wine bar on Main Street next to a supposedly soon-to-come John Fluevog shoe store and Merit Coffee. So far its only two other locations in Texas are in Houston. Postino, so named because it’s original location converted an old post office in Phoenix into a wine cafe, means “postman” in Italian. Playing to that theme means a lightly Italian-leaning menu with a long lineup of bruschetta, charcuterie and cheese boards, and a deep-ish international wine list.

Tokyo’s Marugame Udon Comes to Carrollton
It seems Dallas’ food cognoscenti are all abuzz for this Tokyo-based udon restaurant coming to North Texas by way of Mark Brezinski (Pei Wei Asian Diner, Velvet Taco, Banh Shop, Tin Star, eatZi’s). It’ll be one of the first and few udon-focused restaurants in the area. It opens August 31, with a second spot slated to open this fall in the Old Town shopping center on Greenville Avenue near the Village. Marguame Udon will serve Japanese Sanuki-style udon noodles, tempura, the ever-trendy katsu sando in four styles (like a Kobe beef cheeseburger), plus sake and Japanese beer. There will also be robatayaki, or robata for short, which refers to food cooked—chicken meatballs, veggie skewers—over hot charcoal.

Bon Appetit Loses Journalists of Color
For many in the food world, it has been a rollercoaster watching the Bon Appetit reckoning unfold on the national sphere. The food magazine’s former staff and contributors of color, who have been advocating for fairer treatment and pay, have left Bon Appetit after unfruitful discussions about equity in the work place. Of those contributors is Priya Krishna, a New York–based journalist who hails from Dallas. In a statement on social media, Krishna said, “These past few months have been disappointing and insulting. I am constantly being told that I am an important part of the Test Kitchen, yet leadership refuses to acknowledge that in the form of compensation or opportunities.” She continues, “I refuse to be part of a system that takes advantage of me, which insisting I should be grateful for scraps.”

Dallas Bars Are Reopening…as Restaurants
When Gov. Greg Abbott shut down bars a second time to help slow the spread of COVID-19, bars were already deep in survival mode—shifting gears toward takeout and to-go cocktail kits. After filing a $1 million lawsuit against the Texas governor in July for forcing bars to remain closed (except takeout), several North Texas bar owners have figured out a way to reopen. Katy Trail Ice House in Uptown announced on its Facebook page on Friday that it was reopening. Co-owner Buddy Cramer told Dallas Morning News that “he worked with the TABC to reopen his establishment under the agreement that it will begin to sell more food than alcohol.” Any place where 51 percent or more of sales came from alcohol must remain closed according to the governor’s mandate. Now bars and even music venues like Billy Bob’s are becoming de facto restaurants by ensuring guests order more food. Stay tuned to SideDish for more reporting to come.

Cheetos Mac and Cheese Is Now a Thing That Exists
If I have to know about it, so do you. Plano’s Frito-Lay (whose parent company is PepsiCo) has released a line of mac and cheese based on three Cheetos flavors: Flamin’ Hot, Bold and Cheesy, and Cheesy Jalapeño. I wouldn’t say that anyone needs to try a gimmicky, spicy mac and cheese, but if they did I would definitely welcome an email about it. It comes in boxed and cup format with corkscrew style pasta rather than the classic macaroni shape. (It’s available at Walmart now, but eventually other retailers will carry it come 2021.)

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