Suspect Mondays : It's all the RAGE!!

While on normal Mondays most of Dallas's nightlife scene has taken it's break from a weekend of partying, but not at Elm St Bar. Suspect Mondays is a weekly event with local and international DJ's playing dubstep. Not privy to what dubstep is? Let me explain briefly, if you can imagine a slower hip hop beat with a heavy wobbling bassline that can destroy most home speakers, you may just start to understand. It has began in London and has made it's way stateside and rising in popularity in the last few years with several nightclubs dedicating a night to just this genre. Artists and producers like Bassnectar, Skream, Benga, Chase & Status and Nero launching it into overdrive as the popularity has grown. In Dallas there are several clubs that focus a night on dubstep but nothing has come close to the scene on Mondays. Attending is a bit like going to an underground fashion show that has it's own unique dancing style called shuffling and the regulars throwing up a hand of rage in approval of songs that looks like the bear claw the Texas Rangers used this year. Over 200 recently showed up for their Valentine's Day party that had guests Irresponsible Voltron from Austin as the DJ's. It was night filled with massive bass, confetti and silly string that kept the crowd in a frenzy all night.

Suspect Mondays is at Elm St Bar at 2810 Elm St every Monday in Deep Ellum with Resident DJ's Mike Townsend, Jimmy B, Genova and Royal Highnuss. Feb 28th will be guests Space Thugs. Join the rage movement as soon as you can.

Thanks to Jason Acton for the photos.

Learning to love Lockhart

The biggest buzz besides the Super Bowl lately was that some real hill country BBQ was coming to Dallas. Many mouths began to water when they heard it was associated with the Kruez Market from Lockhart, Tx. Today I got to try the newly opened Lockhart Smokehouse in the Bishop Arts District.

First thing that the folks of Dallas are going to have to learn here is that there are no forks, no plates and no bbq sauce. Get ready to eat with your fingers! The menu here is very simple with only 14 items on the whole menu compiled of Brisket, Chicken, Pork , Sausage and a few standard sides of beans , slaw and potato salad.

With this being new you will expect some delays in the line mainly because people are asking where the plates and silverware are. Once people learn how to order, things should go quickly. The pork ribs sold out while we were in line so we went with the regular brisket and shoulder clod and the jalapeno sausage and a side of beans. Your meal is served on wax paper and you are given two slices of bread and you can grab your sides from a refrigerator or ask for the hot bbq baked beans at the counter.

Both the brisket and shoulder clod were tender and delicious and there was no need for sauce. There is shaker of seasoned salt at the table if you would like to spice it up a bit. The sausage which is from Kruez Market was a little dry but was still packed with flavor. The beans were really good they are sweet and spicy with a few jalapenos and onions cooked in them. I could have easily ate a whole pound here it was that good compared to other local BBQ.

Do your stomach a favor and make the trip to Oak Cliff and see how you think this compares to any other que you have had locally. I know I will be making many return trips and might see you there.

Lockhart Smokehouse

400 West Davis
Dallas, TX 75208
214-944-5521

Open Every Day, 11:00 am till they are done or sell out

www.lockhartsmokehouse.com

Square Burger in McKinney, Tx

Ok a few months back I dropped into Square Burger after hearing much hype. The day I went it just did not live up to that hype. I had the Bacon & Smoked Cheddar BBQ burger that day. My biggest issue was that the aged cheddar had so much flavor that it just overpowered my taste buds. I did not taste bacon, bbq sauce or the meat, just cheddar. The fries that day were also lackluster, kinda cold and tasted like ones from Dairy Queen. I had mentioned to my friends that suggested that I check it out that I wasn't impressed with them. the said they had not tried that burger either and held to their belief that it's a great burger place and I should give it another try.

Yesterday I went back and ordered the High Society Burger, a meat patty with a thin slice of prosciutto di parma, fontina cheese, aged balsamic, baby arugula a roasted red pepper spread on a toasted bun.



It was awesome. Great flavor and you could taste everything on here the meat was perfect and a bonus it is local from Genesis Farms. The fries were hot and tasty this time as were the onion rings and sweet potato fries. So now I can suggest this place to others and go back and try some other burgers on the menu. 2 thumbs up on the second trip.



Square Burger 115 N. Kentucky St. McKinney, TX 75069 972-542-0185

Super Bust 45

Debacle, Confusion, Misinformed, Uncoordinated, Unprepared, Chaotic and Disappointment.

Those are the words the national media is going to be sharing with the nation about this Super Bowl hosted in DFW, yes I said DFW even though almost every media outlet keeps referring to the big game in Dallas not even giving Arlington it's due. I guess somewhere Laura Miller is chuckling at that.

Let's face it Texas has a stereotype that has been drilled in the heads of people that we refer to as Yankees. We all have cowboy hats, ride horses, drink Dr. Pepper and we all have trucks. So what do we do? We feed that stereotype with all these themed events and parties. Don't believe me? , take a trip to New York City and see what people will ask when they find out your from Texas. Now they get to add that we don't know how to act in snow and ice.....which is true. But this is the biggest spotlight the metroplex will have shine on it for what now I believe will be a long long time. You would think we would have the sand trucks here just in case we had bad weather instead of days after it hits. But we didn't. You would think there would be a Plan B or even C for events that were scheduled outdoors or in tents. Nope. You think there would have been a major media push to use public or alternative transportation to get to these events safely. But no we didn't have that either. You would think someone would use some honesty. But no we didn't have that at all.

I really hate to be the one to admit it but were going to come out looking like idiots. Though there is nothing we can do about the economic blow this weather brought upon the festivities. There is no excuse for shelling out lies upon lies trying tobe a spin doctor and that all is well. From celebrities scheduled to be appearing here, and not being there and bands playing at this venue, and cancelling. Let's not get started on the Prince event. Or having one venue jump online claiming a celebrity is " in the house" trying to drum up business when in actuality that celebrity was at another venue. And to insult our intelligence by going on TV and trying to make people believe this weather was not going to have any bad effects on events. I feel bad for the honest ones that spent money trying too put on an event only to have it hampered by the weather or by the perception that the celebrity I want to see may not even be there. While on the bright side there were some events that did well. But sadly those were few and far between.

I guess it was fitting the way the Super Bowl game went down with the seating problems, ice falling, gates closed, a leaking stadium, a botched national anthem and one of the worst halftime shows that I can remember. I can say that Twitter has chocked full of comedy though on those subjects. So we did get some comic relief.

So now we are back to normal this week and the national media has posted feedback about the week of festivities and it's not good. The jokes are everywhere and will continue. I know of people that did get paid for working events as DJ's, AV Techs, bartenders, servers and the like and some that lost major money as vendors, promoters and renters of rooms and equipment.

So do I think a Super Bowl will return to North Texas? There is an old saying. You don't get a second chance to make a good first impression.

A meat eater on a vegan bus

So last Saturday I did something I didn't think I would ever do..spend a day eating vegan food. For those that know me they are shocked at reading that. My son also agreed as he called me while we were at the first stop. When he heard what I had planned for the day there were a few moments of silence then he replied " Dad, you don't belong on a vegan tour!" Thanks to an invite from Steven Doyle whom I have been on the very carnivorous Burger Tour in the past. We started the day boarding the official food tour bus that turns heads every place it goes. After sitting there wondering exactly what I was going to be putting in my body that day I was shocked to see that at our first stop at Anvil Pub in Deep Ellum that we could get chili and nachos. My stomach began to feel at ease so here we go. After a little discussion my table decided to go with the vegan nachos so that we all could share and quickly get to our next stop . Our food came and to be honest you could not tell any big difference between these and nachos you could get at any random bar or restaurant. These nachos used vegan chili and cheese and I would have no problems eating them again.

Our next stop was Sol's Nieto Mexican Grill on Mockingbird Lane...just by the name alone I was thinking a mexican grill is vegan? We were fed a buffet sampling of a few things from their vegan menu ( rice, beans, grilled peppers. etc) and once again I was thinking this isn't bad I could eat this on a regular basis. The quesadillas were my top choice here.

On we went to the next stop and this is where I was like uh oh this is gonna be the real vegan food that I had my doubts about. Bliss Raw Cafe lived up to those fears. When we arrived there was not enough seating for us so we waited outside and got curbside service. First we were brought drinks one orange one that tasted like a V8 juice and a hemp horchata drink that had a bold cinnamon taste. The food was given to us and my stomach put up the stop signs. Bliss is known for it's raw menu choices and these were just too bland for this meat eater to digest. The plates consisted of veggie sushi rolls, some type of raw pizza and pad thai....none of this appealed to me. As I talked to some other vegans with us I found out they were not big fans of the"raw"vegan lifestyle so I didn't feel too bad for not eating all of mine.

Our next stop took us near the Bishop Arts District as we hit up Spiral Cafe. My first thought was " Man there are a lot of hippies here" lol. This place seemed to be the mecca for vegans as it was very busy the entire time we were there. The offerings we had here were quite surprising when I saw we were getting BBQ sandwiches I began to get excited. That excitement was quickly bashed into the ground as it tasted nothing like BBQ, more like salamander , don't ask me how I know what they taste like. But the grilled Seitan used reminded me of the texture of one. The other offerings were the big WOW! factor for me. First was their variation on a meatball sub. This was amazing it tasted just like a regular meatball sub and then some. I will be back for another one of these and will bring other meat eaters to try it as well. Next was The Mitch Tofu Club...Tofu? I have never had tofu in my life before like this. Not that I've had a lot of tofu..maybe twice. This was a flavor explosion, sweet and spicy and also a big bonus for me was the natural drinks from the fountain. I really liked the watermelon cream. I wish we had more time to have finished all of the sandwiches but our next stop was waiting for us.

Zen Sushi in the trendy Bishop Arts District was our next stop. We were given a preview of the new vegan menu they were to start up. Now first I am not a sushi person at all, but these are veggies so I figured I'm game. The first offering was edemame which I love and these were spiced a little to give them a different taste. Also offered was an aged tofu dish with fried tofu, onions and a ginger sauce, this was really good, almost desert like. The vegetable gyoza was also a big hit these veggie dumplings seemed to put a smile on everyones face. I was really impressed by the presentation here you could tell they had the passion for food here and I will be sure to go back and try the sweet potato sushi roll that I saw on the new menu.Our last stop was one that was really the main reason I wanted to go on the tour, Cane Rosso in Deep Ellum the new venture by Jay Jerrier and by far the best pizza you never had. I was happy to be a part of the group that was able to get a sneak preview before Cane Rosso opens to the public. Jay loves making pizza and you can tell, even in these vegan offerings. We were given slices of a faux margherita with vegan cheese, a marinated kale, butternut squash , a vegan chorizo , a focaccia pizza that was out of this world with flavor and one " cheater " pizza for those that wanted some meat after a day of veggies..Now who would want that? hmmm. Jay was gracious enough to give us each a to go pizza of our choosing..and yes I chose a meat pizza.And with a sabering of a bottle ( a new tradition on these tours ) the vegan tour had come to an end. To sum up my day as a vegan...not too bad I was really shocked that I liked it. I went in this thinking it was going to be bland and tasteless and I was proven wrong. While there are some items I won't try again, I think I could actually be a vegan if I had to based on the foods I had tried and I'm sure there are plenty more that my newly acquired vegan friends can introduce me to. But right now it's time to plan the pizza tour.