Courtesy the restaurant

This guy looks ready for primetime, yeah?

If you needed any other reason to believe that the time for Dallas' varied and unique dining scene is finally starting to have the day in the sun it so deserves, turn on your television. Many of the city's best chefs, including Roe DiLeo, Patrick Stark, and (of course) John Tesar, are trying their hand at the celebrity chef life on various Food Network and Bravo properties, like Chopped and Cutthroat Kitchen. Now, Fort Worth chef Blaine Staniford, of acclaimed restaurant Grace, is throwing his hat into the reality TV ring.

There's no denying that the world of cooking shows can be entertaining at best, schlocky and gimmicky at worst. The show that Staniford will appear in, Kitchen Inferno , looks at first glance to be a mix of the two. According to a Food Network blog post about Kitchen Inferno, chefs will compete in a series of "fiery" challenges that progressively become more difficult. If the chef isn't up for the task, he'll have to forfeit his winnings and succumb to "blazing defeat."

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Kathy Tran

The ciders of Bishop Cider Co.

It was March 2013 when whispers of a cidery in Bishop Arts first slithered into the ears of thirsty Dallasites. Back then, in the middle of a Kickstarter blaze of glory, owner Joel Malone figured he'd be able to open his fledgling business a couple of months later and start rolling out as many barrels of homemade cider as the locals could drink. The city of Dallas, of course, had other ideas.

Like so many who try to start businesses that don't quite conform to one particular model, Bishop Cider Co. was buried deep, deep in permitting hell, because his business was technically a winery rather than brewery, due to the absence of grain. Over the next year, the bright breeziness of the new and interesting had been replaced by the slow drudgery of bureaucracy that strangles innovation in this city and others. In the end, Malone kept his promise to open in May. But it was May 2014, not 2013.

Recent restaurant reviews:
- Urban Acres Farm and Restaurant: This Is What Eating Local in Dallas Should Taste Like
- Cold Beer Company Found Out "Local" Is Harder Than It Looks, Especially in Dallas

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A pork sandwich made from a whole-roast pig at Urban Acres.

On Saturday afternoon, the smoke was a beacon, luring cars and trucks from nearby Beckley Avenue as they drove towards Urban Acres. One truck hit the brakes hard to pull into the lot before passing by as owner Steven Bailey tended the coals that were putting up the thick, white smoke.

See also: Urban Acres Farm and Restaurant: This Is What Eating Local in Dallas Should Taste Like

"We built it entirely from materials we had on hand," Bailey said, and sure enough the walls of his smoker were fashioned from old cement blocks stacked in a ring. An opening was left in the front so air could drift across the coals, taking the smoke and heat inside. That's where the pig sat, splayed in two halves on a metal table top with pans to collect the pork drippings. All of it was capped off by another piece of steel that held in the heat.

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Lauren Drewes Daniels

For most chefs, the flavors that dominate their cuisine come from a very personal place, like a decades of mom's home cooking or a few years of intensive training at a French culinary school.

For others, though, that passion for a cuisine develops in relatively unexpected places. Braden and Yasmin Wages of Malai Kitchen didn't grow up eating Vietnamese or Thai food, but their commitment to respectfully cooking the cuisine and attention to tradition is undeniable. I sat down with the Wages to talk about how they developed their unique cuisine, their commitment to making crazy ingredients in-house, and what the future looks like for these two talented (and wildly ambitious) young chefs.

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The Reuben at Knife boasts paper-thin slices of house-cured corned beef.

Last week, Knife announced a new lunch menu at the Hotel Palomar. In typical hotel-lunch fashion, the menu promises a number of classic sandwiches dressed up with luxurious, hand-crafted ingredients, presented with precision and care. How else could you persuade a patron to spend $18 on a sandwich you can get just up the Central Expressway at Henk's for $7.50?

I've seen grilled cheese sandwiches made with artisan fromage and a BLTs made with pedigreed bacon, but the burger is the most commonly elevated menu item at restaurants like this. John Tesar created an ode to food writer Josh Ozersky that is an overwhelming and decadent homage to the art form.

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Tofu cooked with peppers and spices yield an attractive alternative to meat.

Chipotle needed a better vegetarian option. Until recently, the only thing a meat-adverse diner could order in the restaurant was a set of tacos or a burrito stuffed with black beans and a mix of grilled onions and bell peppers. The results were filling (everything at Chipotle is filling) but obviously an afterthought.

Then, in October, the guacamole giant introduced a new product in a few test markets, including Dallas. Sofritas, a braised and well-seasoned tofu, was marketed as a crossover vegetarian product -- not just good enough to lure in strict vegetarians, but delicious enough to attract die-hard carnivores.

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Catherine Downes

Even John wonders if he's really all that controversial.

Today, John Tesar joins a small but growing contingent of people who are inking book deals and television contracts based on their ability to raise rabble on Twitter. Sure, Tesar has been working in kitchens for decades and is currently operating two wildly successful restaurants, but there's no doubt that his late-night "fuck you," the tweet heard 'round the world, has much to do with Tesar's undeniable rise in the national food media's consciousness.

The show, alliteratively titled Restaurant Revolution, is set to premiere on Esquire TV next month. Tesar, of course, is no stranger to reality TV shows, but this time he won't be fighting it out amongst a group of young chefs. Instead, Tesar will be profiled alongside some of the most respected chefs in the country, including Wolfgang Puck and Tom Colicchio. Unlike Puck and Colicchio, though, it sounds like Tesar's "most controversial chef in the country" status will be up for discussion, at least more prominently than his food.

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Lori Bandi

How diners get access to plates like this charcuterie board at Lucia could be changing in the future.

Since Lucia first opened, the Oak Cliff Italian restaurant has been honing its reputation as Dallas' toughest reservation. Diners who want the opportunity to twirl a forkful of David Uygur's cacio e pepe have to call the restaurant a month in advance to book a table. Prime slots are consistently gobbled up fast, and if you wait too long your hot Friday night date might become a tepid Tuesday reservation at 5:45 -- dating, grandparents-style.

But according to The New York Times, Lucia is actually being charitable with its monthly old-school telephone reservation system. Urged by apps like Uber, which raise and lower prices dynamically based on customer demand, restaurants in New York City and San Francisco have begun tapping ways to turn all of that pent up demand into cash money. Now, if you want a previously impossible reservation at Peter Luger Steakhouse, Killer Rezzy, an online booking service based in New York, is all too happy to charge you $25 to make your dining dreams a reality.

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Photos by Scott Mitchell

Though the finicky weather of North Texas denies it, winter is approaching. And whether that winter lasts a month or three, you're going to need to be prepared to make the seasonal food and drink switch. That means transitioning away from that iced coffee into something a little more hot and seeking out those foods which help you to gain that insulating layer of winter fat.

As far as filling, hearty foods go for those of the carnivorous inclination, a well made sausage is hard to beat. Something about a sheath of animal casing stuffed to bursting with a ground up amalgamation of meat cooked to perfection has a way of getting you to that food-coma breaking point so vital during the coming winter months.

Luckily, quite a few restaurants around Dallas have the sausage-making thing down. And even more luckily, we went out and ate these sausages to give you a list of best damned sausages in Dallas.

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The guys behind Nine Band Brewing Co. in Allen.

Every couple days this summer, people pulled into an unfinished parking lot near Prestige Circle in Allen and asked whoever would listen when construction would finally be finished.

"The city of Allen is behind us," says Keith Ashley, owner of the Nine Band Brewing, soon to be Allen's first craft brewer. "We want to be their local craft beer."

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