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.
Son of a Butcher Opens on December 7
There is no shortage of restaurants along Greenville Avenue. But one roofline in particular stands out: The triple gable restaurant that had for 40 years housed Melios Bros. Char Bar until its closure last September. Now Son of a Butcher, the wagyu slider joint from Front Burner Restaurants, will open in the space early next week. You’ll find the same prime palm-size burgers as you would at its Legacy Hall location in Plano, but this one will be open late and have a drive-thru. The once bright blue building is now painted a crisp white; expect less of the Melios Bros. patina, as well.
Pecan Lodge Game Day Meal Kits for Sunday
When I read the Deep Ellum barbecue favorite was making stadium nachos with smoked brisket, I was nearly brought to tears. Is it that I missed going to stadiums? Is it that brisket-topped nachos have got to be some of the best there is? Or maybe it’s just the nostalgic tug of molten nacho cheese? (My emotion regulation might not be the strongest nine months into pandemic.) Whatever the case, Justin Fourton at Pecan Lodge has “Stadium Meal Kits” that include Luscher’s Red Hots, fixings (onions, peppers), and spicy Tabasco Chipotle Sauce mayo. Another kit has the smoked brisket nachos, which includes: chips, brisket (you don’t have to smoke that yourself), queso blanco, onions, peppers, and more Tabasco Chipotle Sauce. Both are $55 and serve four people. Order it for delivery via Uber Eats, DoorDash (beginning Dec. 7) or for game day pick-up at Pecan Lodge on Sunday, December 13. (Check back on Dec. 7 for an order link.)
Give Us 5 Minutes Alone With Texas Ale Project’s Forthcoming Pantera Beer
You can’t crush the kingdom but you can crush a cascade and citra hop-forward brew from the Dallas craft brewery. Texas Ale Project announced a new beer collaboration with the iconic metal group, which it’s calling the Pantera Golden Ale. It won’t be available until March, with a broader release throughout Texas and beyond after that, but when it does I’m sure beer lovers in the Dallas area will be flocking to Texas Ale Project like cowboys from hell.
The Harwood Arms Brings a British Isle–Style Pub to Uptown
Another December 7 opening comes bearing reubens and Guiness-braised short ribs. Harwood Arms in the “Harwood District,” aka it’s in Uptown, looks to be an upscale approach to pubs you’d find in Ireland, England—or, rather, all of the British Isles, broadly. That’s why you’ll see both Irish whiskeys and hearty English dishes, like fish and chips. You can grab a pint as well as a craft cocktail, which is a crowd-pleasing approach to the menu. Speaking of crowds—at 4,000 square feet, the roomy pub promises physically distanced tables and an expanded patio in the pursuit of reducing crowding.
Watch: Food-Centered Art Amid a Pandemic With Nasher Prize Laureate
Because the world still goes on, even if virtually, as part of the Nasher Sculpture Prize Dialogues, 2020 Nasher Prize Laureate Michael Rakowitz will be in conversation with Bread Bread, Break Borders founder Jin-Ya Huang next week about how social-practice art centered on food has been affected by the pandemic. In February, just over a month before the shutdown, the duo held a public-art experience as part of Rakowitz’s Nasher show in South Dallas. Visitors were welcomed with a massive, outdoor barbecue with Iraqi and Syrian dishes—kebabs, hummus, pita, tabbouleh—that reflected the intersection of the backgrounds of the female refugee cooks of BBBB with stories and narratives that can be shared. “It was a conversation about how cooking and food as an art form surrounds all that we do,” Huang said of the international community barbecue. This is, if you will, installment two. Food is community and community food-sharing has a message. How has the pandemic shaped and shifted that reality?
The conversation, moderated by the Nasher’s Catherine Craft, will be held Wednesday, Dec. 9 at 7 p.m. Watch the Livestream here. (Rakowitz himself published a gorgeous cookbook of Iraqi-inspired dishes in which date syrup—and culture, politics, and history—figures. We recommend it as companion reading—and pandemic cooking.)
Coming in February: La Madeleine’s New Petite Market and Bakery
Just on the outskirts of Addison, at 15125 Montfort Drive in Dallas, La Madeleine French Bakery & Café will open its Petite Market and Bakery. It’s a new kind of space for the French-style bakery with several locations throughout North Texas and beyond. Same patisserie classics, but with more grab-and-go items (charcutuerie, snacks, salads, wine). The coffee and espresso program will be larger—actually, most everything here is larger. The shop has 4,000 square feet of space to fill, so expect airy indoor seating plus a covered patio. If you prefer the go aspect best, there’s curbside pickup and a drive-thru at this spot. It makes a food editor wonder how many more places, in the era of COVID, will be offering drive-thrus where possible (see above).
