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eating OUT LOUD

We asked and they told us. A dozen of Dallas’ best chefs speak up on their favorite meals from other people’s restaurants.
By Mary Brown Malouf |

A lot of great dining dialogue goes on between restaurant critics and customers, but we often forget to ask the opinion of the people who actually put the food on the plates. So we turned the tables on a dozen of Dallas’ hardest-working chefs and asked them where they go to eat when they get out of the kitchen and into the diner’s seat. From baked potatoes to duck cannelloni, here it is, a cooks tour of eating out in Dallas.

Chaplin’s was a forerunner of the ’90s restaurant style-a return to the basics of excellent food, service and value. Chef/ owner Jack Chaplin looks for the same things when he leaves his kitchen. “One of my favorite restaurants is York St. They make a fantastic frisée salad with apple, bacon and nuts tossed with Roquefort dressing. I also go to Nate’s Seafood in Addison-their gumbo is made with very black roux so it’s thin and they serve it with rice on the side. We eat the “poor boy’s poor-boy” sandwich-he brings out the peel-your-own shrimp and we take saltines, butter them and put the shrimp on the cracker with cocktail sauce, and it’s a great one-bite deal.” Chaplin’s love of Italian food sends him to Sali’s on Garland Road. “It’s owned by a couple of guys from New Jersey. I like the baked ziti and I always get them to put some extra meatballs in it for me. They also have a terrific salad dressing-it’s a vinaigrette that they use Heinz chili sauce in and I get it to go and use at home. For desserts-I think Mardi Schma [City Cafe] does a great peanut butter chocolate pie.” Chaplin’s, 1928 Greenville Ave., 823-3300. York St., 6047 Lewis, 826-0968. Mate’s Seafood and Steakhouse, 14951 Midway, Addison, 701-9622. Sali’s, 10021 Garland Road, 321-2700. City Cafe, 5757 W. Lovers Lane, 351-2233.

Nancy Backham seldom gets to leave her popular Southwest cafe, Brazos. “What I look for when I do go out is complete anonymity. I go to places that don’t feel like I’m in Dallas.” A favorite hideaway : 650 North at The Plaza of the Americas for the signature salad with portobello mushrooms (invented by executive sous-chef Randall Wiley). “I like to eat it with a martini, even though that’s a weird combination. I don’t even drink martinis usually but they serve a perfect one at the Plaza in the most beautiful glass.” Beckham also fevors the falafel plate at Ali Baba, “but I bring it back to Brazos and dump habanera sauce all over it.” Another favorite dish is the salad of arugula and artichoke with shaved Parmesan at Piccola Cucina in Barneys. “It’s a little strange to eat at NorthPark, but if it’s dark and you’re outside you can really hide out.” Brazos, 2100 Greenville Ave., 821-6501. 650 North, 650 N. Pearl, 855-1708. Ali Baba, 1905 Greenville Ave., 823-8235. Piccola Cucina, 1030 North-Park Center, Suite 330, 691-0488.



Mardi Schma’s City Cafe is a family business-daughter Jennifer is assistant manager of the restaurant, son Doug is the pastry chef, daughter Katie is chef and manager at City Cafe To Go and daughter Sarah is a part-time cook and everyone’s assistant. It’s not often the whole gang is off on the same day, but when they are, Slider and Blues is a favorite family place. “It’s inexpensive and relaxed-the kids and grandkids can have a good time and I like the curlicue french fries,” says Mardi. For quieter evenings, “I love the mussels at Caffe Paparazzi-they are consistently perfect-and I love flautas anywhere, but I especially like the ones at La Calle Doce, in an old house in Oak Cliff-though maybe they taste so good because of the atmosphere.” Slider and Blues, 8517 Hillcrest, 696-8623. Caffe Paparazzi, 8989 Forest Lane, Suite 136, 644-1323. La Calle Doce, 415 W. 12th, 941-4304.



Kevin Rathbun of Baby Routh is a New American chef with classic tastes. “My mother worked in a traditional French restaurant so I like that untrendy, even rather heavy, food sometimes-Jack Chaplin’s steak with blue cheese butter is right up my alley. If I could eat anywhere, I would eat at The Riviera because their food reminds me of the traditional French food I was used to growing up-especially the mixed grill and the creamed potatoes. But I also eat a lot of sushi at Kazy’s Gourmet Shop-it’s half-price after 6:00 p.m. Everything’s to go: the chopsticks, soy sauce and the sushi. For $5 you get $25 worth of sushi.” Baby Routh, 2708 Routh St., 871-2345. The Riviera, 7709 Inwood, 351-0094. Kazy’s Gourmet Shop, 8989 Forest Lane, Suite 106, 235-4831.



Jeffrey Glick, chef at the new 650 North, has more memories of eating out than he does recent experiences; opening a hit restaurant has kept him close to his own stove. But the memories are fond ones: “Gloria’s sautéed plantains with sour cream and refried beans are always good, and I love Laurels’ lamb loin with potato-sage crust. Alfredo Trattoria on Lemmon is consistent; I especially like their center-cut 10-ounce veal chop with peppercorn sauce. I took a birthday cake there for my wife’s birthday once years ago and when I dropped the cake off at the kitchen, they let me pick out the veal chops for our dinner.” Gloria’s, 600 W. Davis, 948-3672. Laurels, Sharaton Park Central Hotel, 12720 Merit Drive, 851-2021. Alfredo Trattoria, 5404 Lemmon Ave., 526-3331.



Christian Gerber, chef at Juniper, knows exactly what he wants when he leaves his kitchen and ventures out into the Dallas dining landscape. “I want to get away from the stiffness of the restaurant and just relax. I try to forget about being a chef when I go out for dinner. I don’t want to notice when something’s not quite right. I just want to enjoy the company and the time, which is valuable. I go to Uncle Julio’s for good Tex-Mex-I love the tortilla soup and the nachos. If I want a pizza I go to Sfuzzi and get the one with roast chicken and garlic. I like Chip’s, too; they have a good hamburger and good service-they’ll make it over if they didn’t get it right the first time-and great onion rings.” Juniper, 2917 Fairmount, 855-0700. Uncle Julio’s, 4125 Lemmon Ave., 520-6620. Sfuzzi, 2504 McKinney Ave., 871-2606.



Mai Pham introduced Dallas to her native Vietnamese cuisine at the original Mai’s in East Dallas and her current address on Greenville is now one of the larger Vietnamese restaurants in town. “We are closed on Monday so that’s when I go out. I go to La Madeleine on Mockingbird for lunch-I like the Caesar salad. And the people-watching and the coffee are the best. Aw Shucks on Greenville is good for raw oysters and fried whole catfish. I get homesick for real Chinese food so we go to Tasty China at Walnut and Jupiter- they make us special things like crispy fish with sweet sauce, squid and pickled vegetables.” Mai’s Cuisine, 4814 Greenville Ave., 739-5424. La Madeleine, 3072 W. Mockingbird, 6960800. Aw Shucks, 3601 Greenville Ave., 821-9449. Tasty China, 3514-A W. Walnut, Garland, 276-1999.



One of the pleasures of dinner at Watel’s is lingering over coffee and dessert-the French cafe stays open till 10:00 most nights and that limits chef Damien Watel’s choices. “I don’t like to go in a restaurant just when they’re closing-you don’t do that to your peers. So I look for places that are open late, have a relaxed atmosphere, quick service and good food. I go to York St. especially for the sautéed rabbit salad and their hot apple pie with caramel sauce. Sometimes I go to Pomodoro-car-paccio pizzaiola is what I like best there. The beef is served cold and the sauce-big chunks of tomatoes, capers and olives-is hot and the contrast really rings my bell.” Another pleasure of Watel’s is breakfast, which he frequently eats out. One of his favorite places to go is La Madeleine for a chocolate or almond croissant. Watel’s, 1923 McKinney A\e., 720-0323. Pomodoro, 2520 Cedar Springs, 871-1924.

Brian Hennington has probably influenced more menus in Dallas during the last couple of years than any other chef in town-he was the original chef at Deep Ellum Cafe, the corporate chef for DeNada Restaurants and then a consultant to Swan Court, The Bronx and Blind Lemon. Now he’s king of the kitchen roost at Ruby’s on Greenville, which serves breakfast, lunch and dinner-leaving the chef with little time to eat elsewhere. So Hennington tends to stay in the neighborhood. “I like smaller, very casual places-that’s the kind of restaurant I like to build and the kind of place I like to go. Chaplin’s is close and sometimes I trade dinners with Jack Chaplin-he serves a wood-grilled, bone-in tenderloin with Roquefort butter that’s great. I go to Thai Soon quite often for the whole spicy fish and I eat every week at Ali Baba-mainly I get the maza platter with the hummus, baba ghannouj, tabouleh and pita bread.” Ruby’s, 1916 Greenville Ave., 826-4910. Thai Soon, 2018 Greenville Ave., 821-7666.



Andree Falls, chef/owner of perennially chic Parigi in Oak Lawn, is enthusiastic about her other favorite restaurant in Dallas. So much so that she hands out their business cards in her bistro. “I love La Supreme Tortilleria. I love the spinach en chiladas, I love all the different tortillas and goat cheese, I love everything they do. It’s really inexpensive; it’s really worth the drive. If I’m going to have something “nice” I go to The Riviera-their food is full of flavor, not just another pretty plate. All the elements are perfect in the appetizer duck cannelloni.” Like most working chefs, Falls’ eating-out time is limited and her tastes tend to be fairly simple. “I only go out on Sundays and Mondays so I like breakfast at The Dream Cafe; I have the Austin tacos with black beans and rice and cheese. It seems healthy but it’s full of flavor and I always have a craving for some thing Mexican on Sunday.” Parigi, 3311 Oak Lawn, 521-0295. La Suprema Tortilleria, 7630 Military Pkwy. (at Loop 12), 388-1244. The Dream Cafe, 2800 Routh St., Suite 170, in the Quadrangle, 954-0486.

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