EATS

Thursday, to be exact. I've updated our earlier post with all of the details.

Whole Foods Market's share of the local grocery market may be miniscule at 1.24 percent (see Maria Halkias' story here). But that's probably because it's the spear-point of the leading edge. No, I'm not shilling for WFM. It's just that Dallas is ground zero for the Texas grocery store wars, and no one competes harder than WFM and H.E.B. Central Market.

The new Whole Foods at North Central Expressway and Park evokes the kind of excitement that Central Market did when it first opened.

I just got through with a tour, and it's a like a foodie amusement park with a health-conscious, socially conscious veneer. Here are some highlights:

• The Art-o-Mat, a refurbished cigarette machine that dispenses little cigarette-pack-size artworks by mostly local artists


• Wine and cheese bar (with chocolates and gummy pandas shelf facing it)


• Super-sized olive and antipasto bar


• Swedish Hill Bakery (Austin) cookies, including Texas Snaps, ginger snaps in the shape of boots


• Bulk olive and balsamic bar (including balsamic fig and olive oil with basil)


• Salt bar (outrageously good Fine Salish Sea Salt smoked over alderwood)


• ANDI scores on many foods (Aggregate Nutritional Density Index)


• Taco bar (changes offerings over the course of the day)


• Emphasis on everyday wines (1,200 bottles, with a target of 1,000 wines under $20)


• Kombucha tea on tap


• Flavored sugars in bulk (habanero will kick your 'buds)


• In-house bakery with custom-cake program


• Custom cupcakes counter ("Choose it, fill it, ice it, top it" on the spot)


• Expanded soup bar, to 12 kinds


• Self-serve soft-serve frozen yogurt station


• Kale chips (trust me, they're amazingly good - think garnish on a soup)


• And a whole lot more.

Off the wall factoid: You'll never guess the source of the recycled wood used to make the produce display bins: the original Gilley's in Pasadena.

You can enter the shopping center and go directly to the WF lot using the entrance on the North Central service road at the NorthPark Center light. Or, there's easy entry off Greenville Avenue from Blackwell. If you park downstairs there's an escalator to the store with a separate track for your shopping cart.

It's going to be fun getting to know this store. Hours are 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, except the wi-fi-wired coffee bar opens at 7 a.m.

Trinity Hall Irish Pub & Restaurant owner Marius Donnelly reports in an e-mail that on Tuesday Guinness brewmaster Fergal Murray (see a related post here) and his fellow judges named two finalists, Riley Paz of the Old Monk and Olivia Riesner of Black Friar, "sister pubs with the common starter root of The Dubliner."

But the contest wasn't over. Here's how it went: "Finalists were asked to pour three pints in a single flight, with the intention that a single flaw would eliminate the weaker pour.... Upon submission, and much back and forth with his co-judges, Murray stood up and declared the six pints equally 'less than perfect,' and offered the only solution: a pour-off until the perfect pint was poured."

The crowd groaned, he writes. The raffle-ticket-buyers cheered (more pints to buy), and the two tired pint-pourers took uo their positions before the taps. "Minutes later, the perfect pint landed on the judges' table, poured by Paz." The difference between his and Riesner's was "whisker thin."

More than $ 900 was raised for St. Baldrick's Foundation, which funds childhood cancer research. I'll raise a glass to that.

That's the news: Al Biernet says he's going to expand the bar at his namesake Oak Lawn restaurant at the end of June.

You know Mockingbird Station's hip, small taqueria called Urban Taco? Well, founder Markus Pineyro is building an expanded version on McKinney Avenue next door to Lumi Empanada and Dumpling Kitchen. Construction began about a month ago.

"We expect to be open the first week of July," he emails. And there's more: "We also signed a lease in San Antonio, that should be up and running around June."

He describes the new eatery as "retaining much of the same authenticity and flavors from the original restaurant, while also introducing specialty items inspired by traditional fare from the two cities I lived in while growing up in Mexico. A combination of Mexico City street flair and the coastal flair of Acapulco . In addition, there will also be a greater emphasis on the aesthetic, thus making the overall experience more like that of a nice, modern Mexican restaurant."

Meanwhile, Pineyro's team is gearing up for their annual St. Patrick's Day margarita fest all-day Saturday at the Mockingbird Station location. Cheers!

Jimmy's Food Store is taking orders for Easter hams and lamb from Niman Ranch. This is a network, similar to the dairy co-op Organic Valley, that requires humane and sustainable animal-raising practices. While not as "free-range" as some local producers (such as Rehoboth Ranch or Dominion Farms), it is nevertheless a giant step away from factory farming.

Jimmy's is taking orders for boneless hams, spiral-cut hams, boneless leg of lamb and bone-in leg of lamb. The order deadline is Monday.

Jimmy's is also taking orders for its imported Italian burrata, "fresh mozzarella from Puglia that is filled with cream and small pieces of mozzarella," as co-owner Paul DiCarlo writes in his e-mail. He'll be taking orders for other short-shelf-life, fresh cheeses, including crecenza stracchio, stracciatella, robiola and caprino. Order deadline is Thursday (March 18) for March 22 delivery.

Send an e-mail to paul@jimmysfoodstore.com, and ask Paul to send you his e-mail with the details.

For this week's review, we hit the big jackpot: The Mansion Restaurant at the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek. In a nutshell: Chef Bruno Davaillon's cooking has dazzle and serious depth. Kim Pierce takes us to Cedars Mediterranean Mezza.

The Mansion Restaurant
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• Leave your own review of The Mansion Restaurant

Cedars Mediterranean Mezza
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• Leave your own review of Cedars Mediterranean Mezza

Photo of The Mansion's crisp pork belly with savoy cabbage, daikon and black truffles by Courtney Perry/DMN

Building on Leslie's post about a possible Good 2 Go taco truck, there's one set of foodie wheels already making test runs in Dallas: Green House.

Founder Michael Siegel hatched his idea for a healthy-gourmet food rig in taco- truck-mad LA, where he was a nonpracticing attorney ("the best kind," he quips) and confirmed foodie. He, thankfully, chose to roll it out in Dallas where his in-laws live.

What's on the menu? "Healthy, hearty basics," according to chef-partner Ben Hutchison, whose past includes Routh Street Cafe and years with Food Company catering. They will offer organic salads, soups (house chili and gluten-free vegetarian are standards), ciabatta sandwiches, Asian-marinated beef, sweet potato oven fries and a tasty selection of made-from-scratch sides. Breakfast items will include homemade oatmeal, hotcakes, hand-mixed granola and yogurt parfaits.

I did a print story on Green House for FD Luxe and they were expecting to be operating daily by now (especially along Dragon Street), but have run into delays. The good news is that you can help them finalize their eventual route (steering them your direction) by sending suggestions via Twitter @greenhousetruck or email at www.greenhousetruck.com

UPDATE: Just got word from Green House's Michael Siegel that they will get rolling next Thursday, Mar. 18 in the Park Cities area. Exactly where? You can find out each day via Twitter, Facebook and on their website, but expect SMU to be on their list of stops. Coming soon is Dragon Street. Siegel says "the support we have received from that area has been unbelievable."

Photo by Carter Rose: Ben Hutchison (foreground) and Michael Siegel

Did you see John T. Edge's story in today's New York Times about breakfast tacos in Austin? If not, here it is. Have you tasted any he mentions in the story?

And what are your faves here? I've only tasted a few, but I loved the "Hangover Helper" at Good 2 Go Tacos.

Also, call this burying the lede, but it looks from Good 2 Go's Facebook page like they're launching a taco truck! I have a call in to the Good 2 Go girls to see what's up -- will keep you posted.

Have you tasted these chocolates? They're spectacular, from an organic, free-trade artisan chocolatier in San Francisco, Tcho. The chocolate flavor, in four variations ("Chocolately," "Fruity," "Citrus," and "Nutty 2.0") is superb, the mouthfeel exceedingly creamy and silky; they all have long, lingering finishes, like great wines. I'd like to do nothing for the next hour besides sit with them, taking little bites, letting them melt in my mouth. Communing with them.

"Chocolatey" is deep and complex, rich and yes, chocolately. It has an unexpected prune flavor, but great prunes, like pruneaux d'Agen (the prune in France with its own AOC). That one's 70% cacao. The finish is hazelnut. "Fruity" has bright fruit notes, plums maybe; that's 68% cacao. "Nutty 2.0" is second-richest, a little sweeter, with 65% cacao. "Citrus" is the most unusual, very bright-flavored, with a zing in the middle, and high notes.

It's some of the best chocolate I've tasted. Each one says "NO SLAVERY" on the wrapper. According to the company's web site, 37% of the world's supply of chocolate comes from Ivory Coast, harvested often by "young children sold by human traffickers." Instead, Tcho sources beans from Ghana. "We intend to raise consciousness about the reality of modern slavery in our industry and in the world, and set an example by refusing to use cacao produced by slaves," says the site.

Tcho chocolate is expensive. You can buy it at Tcho's online store, four 60-gram (about 2.12 ounce) bars, one in each flavor, for $21. The baking drops seem to be the best buy, 8 ounces for $7.99.

But if you can't wait, you can find a "30 day supply" -- 30 8-gram mini-bars like the ones pictured here -- for $22 at the Home Shop at Stanley Korshak. (That's a total of 8.5 ounces). If you think that's too much to spend on yourself, it would make a fantastic gift.

UPDATE: Thanks to Chocdrawings (a commenter), I just learned that Central Market carries the 60 gram bars in all four flavors, $4.99 each.

Tcho chocolates, "30-day supply," $22 for 8.5 ounces at the Home shop at Stanley Korshak, 500 Crescent Ct., 214-871-3600. 60-gram bars at Central Market, $4.99 each.

If you've grown tired of this crazy winter, fret not: spring is almost here. And with that come all the area's various spring festivals.

Guide's Joy Tipping, Bindu Varghese and Ann Pinson put together their own Best in DFW list of Best Spring Festivals, where you can find enormous turkey legs (like the man pictured above at Scarborough Renaissance Festival in Waxahachie), hear music from different cultures and enjoy great works of art. Plus they often feature local celebrities and personalities, and sometimes even a "big name." One of their picks, Savor Dallas, just ran over the weekend.

You can read over all of their selections here, but don't stop there. Let us know if we missed one you go to every year, what treats you have to eat, share memories or just tell us what you're looking forward to this season. E-mail us at guide@dallasnews.com. And whether or not you go out, follow some of our Guide staffers on Twitter as they nibble on grilled corn on the cob and meander through the crowds themselves.

PHOTO: Courtesy Scarborough Renaissance Festival

Our Kim Pierce has been reporting on the Avila saga for months and D's Nancy Nichols even dispatched one of her foodie minions to court for some live blogging and photo-snapping.

I'll just weigh in here at the end to say I received word early this morning that April is the official opening date for Ricardo Avila's new Greenville Avenue eatery, Mextopia.

Here is the official email:

"Ricardo Avila's Mextopia OPENING in April!! We are pleased to announce our new restaurant, Ricardo Avila's MEXTOPIA! We will be opening the first of April at 2104 Greenville Ave., Dallas, Tx 75206. We will be serving our incredible food on our GREAT patio or our beautiful, spacious inside seating. We have LOTS of parking behind our restaurant and in our huge parking lot off Richmond and Greenville. Free Valet on the weekends!"

But wait, there's more:

"A Dream Come TRUE!! Ricardo has held the Mextopia idea for many, many years waiting for the right moment to make his dream a reality. NOW is the time. Ricardo thanks Michelle (his fiance), his incredible staff that is coming with him from Avila's, his creative contractor's Keith and Jamie Turman, his many friends and supporters and his family. "

Based on the number of ALL CAPS in those messages I'm pretty excited to eat here next month.

A couple of weeks ago, Leslie Brenner used a question I posed her as the take-off for a discussion about weird foods. My question was about something called "stinky tofu." (Hat tip to Kristy Yang on City of Ate for mentioning the dish.) I'd never tasted it. And the descriptions I'd read online were, hm, challenging. I don't normally turn to Wikipedia, but it's hard to beat this:

The traditional method for producing stinky tofu is to prepare a brine made from fermented milk, vegetables, and meat; the brine can also include dried shrimp, amaranth greens, mustard greens, bamboo shoots, and Chinese herbs. The brine fermentation can take as long as several months. Depending on the ways of preparation, the process can be extremely unsanitary; the brine is covered with maggots and has extremely strong rotten odor.[3] Then after the brine is made, fresh firm tofu is marinated in it for a period time ranging from several days to a couple months. Sometimes quicklime is added to control the fermentation and maggots.

Head to the jump for more. (Hint: I ate some. And I kinda liked it.)

The owners of Mangez Catering have just opened a grass-fed hamburger and hot dog joint at Spring Creek and Avenue K in Plano.

The Grazing Cow not only serves local, grass-finished beef, but Burgundy Pasture Beef from Grandview, from one of the regional pioneers in pastured beef.

"We searched high and low for the best-tasting grass-fed beef around and found theirs to be the best," writes Grazing Cow co-owner Stephen Martin in an e-mail. "They dry-age their beef for us for two weeks and do an 80/20 fat ratio for us. We liked them for these reasons as well as they butcher their own meat and don't send out to a slaughter house.... We also get their hot dogs as well.

"We are trying to add more local vendors to our menu," he adds, "including our neighbors Lucky Layla Farms." For now, they're keeping it simple, with burgers, dogs, drinks and a cookie. This is just what locavores love to see.

6100 Avenue K, Plano; 972-422-6297. www.thegrazingcowburgers.com

From his restaurant atop Dallas' Reunion Tower to last night's 82nd Academy Awards at the Hollywood Kodak Theater (above), celeb chef Wolfgang Puck certainly knows how to dish it out.

His vast team cooked up a storm last night for the annual Governors Ball, an AIDS fund-raiser for singer Elton John and a fete at Puck's famed Spago restaurant.

What was on the menu? At the Governors Ball, dishes included crispy potato pancakes with smoked salmon and caviar, and black truffle chicken pot pies. (Good luck eating that while wrapped like a sausage inside your Spanx shapewear.) We also hear that parting gifts included little chocolate Oscar statuettes dusted in 24-carat gold. Now, that's my kind of dessert.

Photo by Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

Savor Dallas -- Big D's yearly high-end food and wine show - wrapped up its 6th annual outing Saturday night at the Sheraton's conference center downtown.
Amid the skin tight, spaghetti-strapped dresses (thank goodness it warmed up) there were some real treats and a side of news nuggets.
In no particular order:

-- A baby-faced Aaron Valimont, the newish executive chef at The Oceanaire at the Galleria, says the mothership's bankruptcy filing has not put a damper on business here. Sales are up in the mid single digits since last year, he said. Vailmont, 31,was transported to Dallas about five months ago when his Seattle shop was shuttered after Minneapolis-based Oceanaire Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection. To entice Saturday's crowd, Vailmont, 31, dished out spicy Ahi tuna on a Nori crisp. His fedora-like hat? Beats a hair net any day.
-- With the opening of Cowboy's stadium, the ship has come in for Olenjack's Grille. About three years old, the namesake restaurant of Chef Brian Olenjack, sees business jump as much as 50 percent on event days, said general manager Adam Jones. The Arlington restaurant is about 10 minutes from the Stadium and offers free parking and a shuttle service.
-- Sara Johannes, executive chef at Wolfgang Puck's Five Sixty restaurant, was trying to spread the word about the wallet-friendly happy hour options at the otherwise pricey celestial diner atop Reunion Tower. Tapas-sized offerings, including Kobe beef sliders and Tempura spicy tuna sandwiches, can be had for $5.60 weeknights until 7 p.m. On Saturday the crowd lined up for lamp chops with cilantro vinaigrette.
-- Mark your calendars for early June. That's when Chef/Owner Nobu Matshuisa is expected to hit town to help his namesake restaurant, Nobu Dallas, celebrate its fifth anniversary. Tucked in the Rosewood Crescent Hotel, the restaurant is hoping to get more signage placed outside to alert passersby.
-- Dallas-based Blue Mesa Grill launched a new brand three weeks ago-- TnT Tacos and Tequila - but don't look for it here. The maiden voyage for the "street food" concept is in Austin. "We wanted to test it there," said Brenda Johnson, catering sales manager. "The Dallas market is so saturated, it's important to be careful about location."
-- Longest line by far: the thirsty souls queued up for Belgium's Stella Artois beer.
-- My favorite dish: beef braised short ribs and Lucky Layla buttery mashed potatoes from Dish, the Cedar Springs creation of Doug Brown (think Beyond the Box). The butter comes all the way from Plano.

I have a lot more sympathy for the woman who was mugged and robbed at Whole Foods Market now. No, I haven't had an encounter of the violent kind. But I witnessed an incident while leaving the Preston-Forest La Madeleine Friday. Only, I didn't really connect the dots till it was too late to do anything.

Here's the scene: A black, beat-up older model Toyota sedan with paper plates (I got that much) starts backing out of a parking place in front of me. I slow down and, while his car is still moving, a man races around in back of it (yes, while it's moving) and jumps in on the passenger side. The car swiftly pulls out , speeds toward Preston, and turns and travels north.

First, I thought it was really weird for the driver to keep moving while the guy was going around the back end of the car. But here's the other clue that took a moment to register: The running guy was carrying a shopping basket, the kind you use when you are picking up only a few items, and it was full of groceries. When my circuits finally connected, I realized that no one brings such a basket out of the store - unless they're stealing it.

As far as I could tell, no one from the store came out after the thief. So maybe he wasn't even noticed.

But here's the lesson: When this sort of thing rarely happens in your personal orbit, you may well be slow to figure out what's going on. We'd like to think we all have lightening fast responses, but in real time, it may be another story.

Amy Severson, wife of restaurateur Jim "Sevy" Severson, has an idea over on her Dallas Cookbook blog for Jeannie Terilli. Why, she wonders, doesn't the landlord who owns the former Popolos space make Jeannie an offer on that property?

Amy's suggestion isn't entirely altruistic, as she explains in a disclosure at the bottom of the post: "Terrilli's happens to be one of my favorite Dallas spots. I have every intent to get them closer to my neighborhood while I can. Please don't hate me East Dallas."

Meanwhile, Diane Jennings corrects an early assessment that put the fire's start in Terilli's: "The restaurateur said she was gratified by a recent clarification by fire inspectors, who noted that the blaze started in a common hallway adjacent to Terilli's and not in the restaurant itself." Check out the whole story here.

I cruised by yesterday to check out the prototype for the new La Madeleine at the Preston-Forest location, and it's interesting. (Don't you hate that word?)

I say that because it's difficult to divorce the past La Mad from the decidedly updated serving concept. I think that if I were walking in cold, without the quaint history that I know, I would like the set-up. The abbreviated bakery counter/to-go line feeds into a central cash register from one side. The dining line feeds in from the other. The brightly lit, contemporary overhead menus are easy to read and navigate (and yes, the croque monsieur remains).

But conspicuously absent are the spits with rosemary-roasted chicken, replaced by commercial ovens (OK, you can see through the doors). I miss the rustic bread oven. The coffee-bread station has been reduced to a shadow of its former self. Does it really matter? I don't know. Every time you streamline (like replacing much of the dark wood with light tile), you slice away a little of La Mad's charm. And there's a disconnected feeling between the sleek serving areas and the more rustic, old La Mad seating.

A most auspicious move has been to bring founder Patrick Esquerre back as ambassador and consultant (see Karen Jacobs-Robinson's story here). He sold the company in 1998, and his role will be akin to Chuck Williams' when he first sold Williams-Sonoma. (LOL at the auto-link on Williams' name.)

Now, the question is: How's the food? I confess I stopped eating at La Mad long ago after a series of disappointments, although I still use the Ceasar dressing at home. What about it? Anyone eaten at the prototype yet?

The second location of Eatzi's is exactly what you might expect (and hope for): a miniature version of the Oak Lawn original, tucked neatly into the space that used to house City Market.

But wait: There's one huge difference from the Oak Lawn location and the former tenant: wine, wine, wine everywhere you look.

It seems like every nook and cranny is stuffed with wines, from the boxes around the central chef's case to chilling whites in the beer fridge, from everyday wines like Dr. Loosen and Ravenswood by the bakery to premium bottles like Duckhorn and Caymus by the cheese case.

And get this: Besides lots of splits, there are also several single-serve, 187-milliliter bottles, the kind you'd see on an airplane. Well, what's lunch without a sip or two of Woodbridge Chard?

Besides all that, Eatzi's has "reconcepted" the space, dare I say it, brilliantly?