EATS

Thanks so much for sharing your memories of the Greenville Ave. restaurants that were lost in the fire yesterday. In case you'd like to read more, here's a page that pulls together everything about the fire as cleanup begins and people reflect on the history of the place.

It includes all our latest news, blog posts from crime, Eats and others, plus Twitter and news sources from around the area, both TV and pubs like the Observer and D magazine.

I just got an e-mail signed by Sasso. I haven't been able to vet that it is the real Sasso (you know we news hounds do that), the artist who painted the murals at Pazzi's which, believe it or not, was before MY time on this stretch of Lower Greenville, where fire took down the building housing Terilli's, Greenville Avenue Bar and Grill, Mick's and the Hurricane Grill this morning.

However, look what he sent.

Based on the fire photos and video, I'd say that those Hurricane Grill walls and their beloved murals are lost. This is called "The Last Cat Supper." Savor the memories. Thanks, Sasso.

CORRECTION: A matchbook cover is just a matchbook cover (above). "The Last Cat Supper" is an artwork on Sasso's Web site: www.arttogo.com.

As you probably have read, four restaurants on lower Greenville were destroyed by a fire this morning. One of them was Hurricane Grill, the oyster bar and Cajun spot. I learned from comments on Kim Pierce's blog post about it this morning that the space used to be home to Flying Burro, a New Mexican restaurant. That restaurant closed in 2000, and Hurricane Grill opened the following year.

I spoke with reader Paul Barnes, who had posted a comment about the space once housing Three Vikings, a Swedish restaurant, in the early 1980s. "The son was the chef and the parents ran the restaurant," he said. "I think their name was Swanson. They were Swedish, and it was kind of veal Oscar and salmon dishes and shrimp chowder, lingon berries -- and they loved to serve aquavit between courses. It was a real family [spot with] white tablecloths. We loved to take out-of-towners there."

According to the Morning News archives, there was a Three Vikings on lower Greenville, which eventually moved to the space on Cole Ave. that's now Adelmo's, but I couldn't verify that it was the same address as Hurricane Grill. Does anyone else remember the place, post-Cole Ave.? Or in the Cole Ave. location?

Barnes, an M streets resident since 1981, put the loss of the four restaurants in perspective. "These are irreplaceable treasures," he said.

1996 photo of Flying Burro owner Scott Cain by Richard Michael Pruitt

Buy your Savor Dallas tickets online at http://www.savordallas.com/tickets.htm, punch in the promo code DFM10 after you select the ticket(s), and 15 percent of the purchase price will be donated to the Dallas Farmers Market Friends.

Also, if you're coming to the International Grand Tasting only on Saturday from places like Allen, Grapevine, Arlington or Far North Dallas, take advantage of shuttles from your area.

Savor Dallas takes place Friday and Saturday, starting with the Arts District Wine Stroll 5 to 7 p.m. Friday and concluding with the huge walk-around tasting 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday.

Eatzi's opens store No. 2 Friday with a big ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10 a.m. (See Phil Romano up close and personal.) This is the space at The Pavilion on Lovers Lane where Dallas City Market tried a similar concept. I'll be interested to see how the new owners parse the space. Get a few more details in Karen Robinson-Jacobs' story on the business pages here.

Now that the smoke has cleared (sort of), I just learned that Daniele Osteria's Daniele Puleo was the surprise chef last night at 48 Nights last night, which means he'll be there again tonight. The menu included smoked salmon with goat cheese, gnocchi gorgonzola, pan-seared scallops with shrimp couscous and panna cotta with raspberries.

A couple of Dallas Morning News editors who were there report that a terrific time was had by all. And one of them, Garden Editor Mariana Greene, managed to ferret out some intriguing news about next week. Chris Zielke, one of the principals, announced that there will be two chefs -- one on Monday and a different one on Tuesday. "It's a chef known for New American," he said, "but instead he's going to prepare a Thai menu. Scorpions will be part of the menu as a garnish."

Really, Chris? Are you pulling our leg?

He also said that "Rathbun, Lola and other high-profile chefs have signed on." Presumably he was referring to David Uygur, chef at the erstwhile Lola.

So, New American chef channeling Thai. Who could that be? Scott Gottlich? Graham Dodds?

2005 photo of Daniele Puleo by Darnell Renee/Special to DMN

A fire that started at 5:45 a.m. in Terilli's quickly spread to the attic of the building and to the other businesses located on the block. They include the Greenville Avenue Bar and Grill, Mick's Bar and the Hurricane Grill. Built in the 1920s, the building was gutted. One witness said it was worse than losing the Arcadia Theater in a 2006 fire that destroyed that building. Check out Aida Ahmed's full account here.

Photo: Jim Mahoney/DMN

Nancy Nichols reports on SideDish that Cuba Libre on Henderson has closed so that the owners can update the 10-year-old concept. A call to the restaurant confirms: The recording tells you they're on hiatus. Look for a reopening by summer, NN says.

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?