EATS

Roots Coffeehouse is celebrating its one-year anniversary with a "thank you:" free coffee every day for the month of March.

All you have to do is go to the independent coffeehouse and get your "Free Coffee" card, which is good for one 12-ounce drip coffee every day through March. That's it; no buy-one-get-one-free, no two-fers.

Roots serves all fair trade and organic coffees and teas. The address is 9101 State Highway 26 in North Richland Hills (in the Venue at Hometown across the street from Tarrant County College NE). Check out the Web site for more info.

In case you missed it in yesterday's A section (you are all subscribers to the paper, right?) here's my story about my experience at 48 Nights, the Oak Cliff pop-up restaurant with proceeds going to the Mass Care Task Force charity.

I just checked the 48 Nights website, and it looks like the events are rapidly selling out. There are still seats for the second (8:30) seating tomorrow and other scattered second seatings for the next few weeks.

If you go tonight or tomorrow night, please let us know how it was in a comment here. Better yet, sent me a tweet at lesbren and tell us who the surprise chef is tonight!

Photo of Marc Cassel's Baja scallops with citrus, candied bacon and grits at 48 Nights by Courtney Perry/DMN

Henderson Avenue may be mourning the loss of Urbino and now, in its current form, Cuba Libre, but the gentrifying strip still has a hit with Park.

On Sunday, The New York Times Style Magazine included Park in its "Tex Mix" roundup of Dallas hot-spots written by Sandra Ballentine. The other local eatery to make the cut was One Arts Plaza's Tei An.

What do you think of Ballentine's choices? Are there "hot" picks you think she left out?

UPDATE: As reader "Maybe" points out: The Dallas story is on page 98 of the magazine. Sadly, there's not a direct link yet (hey web team, missed opportunity) so you'll have to scroll through the print version online.

Photo by Carter Rose: Park's dining room

Dr. Vino, one of the wine world's best known wine bloggers, got in touch with Lori Tieszen, executive director of Wines of Chile USA, by e-mail, and he reports that many wineries have been affected by the earthquake. The epicenter was close to several major wine-producing areas.

In Dr. Vino's narrative, Chilean winemaker Sven Bruchfeld told James Molesworth, wine critic for Chilean wine at Wine Spectator magazine, "One can smell wine along the roads in front of the wineries. Tanks laying, collapsed buildings, barrels and glass everywhere."

"Depending on the region and grape variety," writes Dr. Vino, "the harvest has already started or was scheduled to start soon in the country."

You can follow Molesworth's tweets here.

Michelle Andrie, Ricardo Avila's significant other, just called to say that Ricardo has signed the lease on a space for his new restaurant.

Ricardo Avila's Mextopia will take over the space occupied by Nero's Italian for years and years, followed more recently by Greenville Avenue Seafood and Jazz.

"We are excited, and we are toasting with champagne at the moment," says Andrie. Look for a mid-April opening.

Meanwhile, back over on Maple, Avila's Mexican Restaurant is a hive of activity, with a new construction permit pasted in the front window.

As promised, here we go with a series of posts about various aspects of French dining. If you'd like to jump in and request a discussion of a particular topic, please -- allez-y! This should be really fun.

In the comment on the Best in DFW: French Restaurants post, "Frank O. Phile" wrote: "Where are you drawing the line between 'French' and 'New American?" Well, Frank, I'm not. It's actually impossible to, as New American is based on French technique.

Nor do I think it's particular useful to. A restaurant can be French and New American at the same time; there's really no contradiction there. Take a look at how restaurateurs list themselves in Guide Live -- many are listed as something like "French, Italian, New American, Steaks." That's fine.

For those who don't know, the brothers at Jimmy's Food Store split the duties roughly thus: Paul does wine, Mike does food.

Mike recently added lean, free-range Texas Longhorn Beef, and he'll serve in-house samples from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.

On the shelves, you'll also find Gwickles Pickles, which I blogged about here, Fran's Fryers (local, pastured chicken), Texas honey (but he doesn't say whose), Lemley tomatoes from the famous Dallas Farmers Market farmer (hothouse, for now), Dread Head Chef sweet chips and fruit salsas and tamales from Dallas' Tamale Co. (not to be confused with the Texas Tamale Co. in Houston).

When I went to work writing the review of Totoya Sushi and Tempura Bistro, this little volume -- A Dictionary of Japanese Food, by Richard Hosking -- was most helpful. I mentioned in the review that I looked up one of the ingredients on Totoya's tempura menu (sungiku, which turned out to be shungiku, chrysanthemum leaves). Hosking's book makes the distinction that shungiku means spring chrysanthemum leaves. "The autumn crop," Hosking writes, "should correctly be called kikuna (vegetable chyrsanthemum)."

The book also helped me parse chef Onuki's "lamb moromiso." When I found an entry for "moromi miso," made by adding chopped, salt-pickled vegs and miso starter to unfiltered soy sauce, I was able to guess that's what Onuki used to sauce the lamb. So when I called him to check my facts, I was able to ask him if that's what it was. (It was.)

I was unaware of this book until recently, when Teiichi Sakurai, chef-owner of Tei An, very kindly sent a copy to the Morning News to donate to our food library. Published in 1996, the paperback edition is still in print. It's such a fantastic, interesting and thorough reference, I could spend hours reading it! I'm going to buy my own copy for home.

A Dictionary of Japanese Food, Richard Hosking, Tuttle Publishing, $16.95

For this week's review, I visited Totoya, a sushi and tempura bar in North Dallas. We look forward to hearing what you think.

Totoya Sushi and Tempura Bistro
• Read and comment on the review
• Leave your own review of Totoya Sushi and Tempura Bistro

Photo of chef-owner Shoichi Onuki by Ben Torres/Special to DMN

I said I wouldn't get back in this, but this comes from attorney Bill DeLoney's iPhone. He represents Anita Avila in the dispute over Avila's Mexican Restaurant:

"We just finished mediation and the case has settled and Ms Avila will be reopening her resturant soon. She will be looking forward to seeing all her past and future customers in the very near future. She would like to thank everyone who has supported her during this time."

This, of course, does not tell us what son Ricardo's future plans are. To be continued, I guess.

UPDATE: Here's Ricardo's statement about the outcome of yesterday's mediation: "We reached a confidential settlement. Everyone is happy with it. I'm looking forward to my spot and serving my food again. All parties are happy."

Stay tuned for updates on both restaurants.

For the better part of a year, I've been slurping oysters and spearing escargots, assessing frites and diving into Dover sole. And now, we're happy to present Best in DFW: French Restaurants.

Have I snubbed one of your favorites? (I probably haven't simply missed it, as I'm pretty sure I dined at each and every French restaurant in Dallas.) Of course we want to hear about it. Please tell us your favorite in a comment here. We'll be putting together your selections (focusing on restaurants not included in my list) in a story that will appear in the March 12 edition of Guide. We'd also love to hear what you think of our list.

If you'd like your comment considered for publication, please copy it and send it to me at lbrenner@dallasnews.com in an email message that includes your real name and the city in which you reside. We'll do our best to include it in the print story.

Also, I'll be following up with a series of blog posts on various aspects of French dining. We hope you'll jump in and join the conversation!

Photo of The Mansion Restaurant's lobster salad by Courtney Perry/DMN

Cheesemongers at Whole Foods Markets across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom at 3 p.m. Saturday will simultaneously demonstrate the traditional method of breaking into a 24-month-aged wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano, using official tools (knives) from Italy's Consorzio del Fromaggio Parmigiano Reggiano.

These are 85-pound wheels, and the skilled carvers usually take about 30 minutes to complete the task, according to WFM's press release. If you're a cheesehead, this is fun to watch. Kids are entertained by it, too. So stop by any area WFM.

The release goes on to say that, in 2008, Guinness World Records confirmed that WFM set a record for "Most Parmigiano Reggiano Wheels Cracked Simultaneously," with nearly 300 wheels in 176 stores. They'll be trying to break that record Saturday. Isn't that kind of a cheesy accomplishment?

I just ate it: a cheeseburger-flavored Dorito. It was freaky: the good people at Frito Lay have managed to chemically capture the flavor of a cheeseburger in a chip. The thing really tasted like a cheeseburger. I swear. Christopher Wynn ate one, without seeing what it was, and he said, "cheeseburger."

Way down on the list of the ingredients is "natural beef flavor," then lower down, cheddar cheese.

Frito Lay is based in Plano, so this really qualifies as a weird Dallas food item. I ate three of them. Heaven help us.

The bar at Abacus will be pouring Texas-born-and-bred spirits in the bar 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, including Dripping Springs Vodka, Paula's Flavored Liqueur (this is not Paula Lambert, BTW), and Republic of Texas Tequila among them. No word, though, on whether they have any of the newly minted Garrison Brothers Bourbon that Leslie Brenner wrote about here.

What's the weirdest thing you've eaten in Dallas? Or the weirdest thing you've seen on a Dallas-area menu?

I'm thinking about this because of a note DMN reporter Jeffrey Weiss sent me yesterday. "Is chou dofu aka 'stinky tofu' worth the tasting?" he wrote.

"I pride myself on trying pretty much anything once. And I just found out there is a Taiwanese restaurant up here in Richardson (May's Ice Cream. no kidding.) that serves the stuff. But when I googled around for the recipe, I wondered whether it was even safe to eat. I like strong cheese, but some of the online descriptions of this stuff seemed pretty extreme."

First there was Texas vodka. Now Texas is producing bourbon. Garrison Brothers Distillery in Hye (out there in Hill Country) has just debuted 1,000 bottles of "the first and finest Texas bourbon ever made."

Proprietor Dan Garrison says he left the non-profit world (and before that a technology company) so he could start producing something he adores. "I've loved bourbon since I was 13 years old," he says. "I kept reading about all these folks making vodka. I couldn't understand why somebody didn't make something that actually had some taste to it." He spent time, he says, learning the secrets of bourbon from distillers in Kentucky, and now he has something to show for it: his pre-release bourbon, which is retailing -- in Hill Country liquor stores only for now -- for "less than $50" for 375 ml.

He hopes to have the bourbon in Dallas stores this fall. "We'll have well over 120 barrels at full maturity then," he says. That means at least two years old.

So...how does it taste? I have no idea. Garrison says that laws prevent him from sending me even a tiny sample.

Photo courtesy Garrison Brothers Distillery

"The court required us to return the property, and we did so." That's what Ricardo Avlia's lawyer, Bruce Colao, told me last night.

Colao was out of the country last week when the sparks flew in District Judge Ken Molberg's court and Ricardo was ordered to return the property he had removed from Avila's Mexican Restaurant.

Since that Friday fiasco, "we've had very detailed discussions with the judge," says Colao. "We are confident he understands our position." He says that Ricardo was "peaceably surrendering the premises" and taking only what he could demonstrate was rightfully his, through receipts for purchase.

"It's undisputed that Ricardo Avila is 100 percent owner of Ricardo Enterprises, Inc., (and) Ricardo Enterprises Inc. has operated the restaurant known as Avila's," Colao says. "I think the evidence will show that his parents sat down and said, 'you take over the restaurant.' That's what happened."

The other side is, of course, claiming otherwise and saying ownership was never conveyed to Ricardo.

For now, the way it stands: Both sides are ordered to mediation tomorrow. If an amicable agreement cannot be reached, they will meet in court on March 2. I'll let know if when something breaks.

Looks like D magazine's Nancy Nichols may be hurtling toward The Restaurant Critic's Diet. She reveals that she's been bingeing on pancakes and mediocre pizza.

AP Photo/M. Spencer Green

The first time I heard in a Dallas restaurant that we were in a "dry" area and if I wanted a glass of wine I'd have to join the restaurant's private club, I nearly fell off my chair. Of course Dallasites are used to it, but this Yankee was stunned.

But Rudolph Bush reports today that a group called Progress Dallas is pushing for a ballot initiative that would eliminate Dallas' dry areas. The Greater Dallas Restaurant Association is backing it, along with major grocery chains. Give it a read, and let us know what you think. Would you sign the petition?

Photo of ladies celebrating the end of Prohibition in New York City by Times Wide World Photo

If it looks unlikely so far, consider that Oak Cliff's Bolsa and Jack's Backyard are both in former automotive garages and that Kelly Hightower transformed an old Dairy Queen into Kavala (and coming next, Nova.)

Now add to the list Rusty Taco, slowly taking shape inside a former Just Brakes/Mobil gas station (above) at University and Greenville Avenue. The name is a partial play on owner Rusty Fenton, who helped found Uncle Julio's years ago and was a big dog with Realty America and the late Trader Vic's Dallas.

The small menu will consist of (surprise!) gourmet tacos made from scratch and include hangover-friendly breakfast versions. (More on the food here from hard-working Teresa Gubbins.)

What I find intriguing is the setting. Dallas architectural and design firm JonesBaker is transforming the space with industrial touches such as Kee-Klamp table bases, galvanized light fixtures and speckled marmoleum table tops that recall the space's original shop floor. I'm just waiting to see the drink station, which they are customizing from a mechanic's red tool chest.

Expect this to be a hit with the SMU crowd when it opens in early spring.

Photo: cwynn