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As we pause today to grill, drink and honor America, we recall those leaders who've helped shaped the country through skill, hard work and strength of personality -- appropriate enough for the end of a week of local food writing that embraced the power of the individual at the top.

The Week in Review(s):

• Your own Dallas Observer: With a couple of chefs behind the scenes, there's always someone there to take credit for great performances, and someone just out of sight to blame for the mishaps. Dave finds some of each at Cadot this week, but ultimately finds reason to be encouraged.
  
• Dallas Morning News: Texas native and Craft chef de cuisine Kevin Maxey is an all-star in Leslie Brenner's appreciation of the restaurant that's been a revolving door at the W Hotel. Contributor Lawson Taitte is utterly unimpressed by the sleek Euro dress-up, or the food itself at Vapiano, coming nowhere near the words "thank goodness," even if she does mention Chef Boyardee.
  

Highlights from City of Ate:

• Handle the Proof: The Spirit of '76
  To judge by the historical record, nation-building is a little like bowling, washers or horseshoes -- better, to a point, when you've got a buzz going.
  
• Hophead: When Pairing Beer, the Sommerlier is Helpful... Sometimes
  Trying to find the right beer to pair with an all-American corn dog gorging, we're met by a crisis of leadership on an online sommelier.
  
• Cliff Cafe Gets the Sack
  With a strong guiding hand from the folks at Bolsa, Cliff Cafe is on the way to reinvention as a barbecue joint.
  
• Top 10 Greatest Cooking Shows Ever
  Nobody in cooking depends on the power of their personality more than the cooking show host, who must sound intelligent, perform in the kitchen, and stay engaging in a one-on-one match with the camera.
  

Patrick Michels

A show of buttoned-down professionalism, typical of the restaurant business, at the Seat-B-Clean booth.

The Southwest Foodservice Expo, in the Dallas Convention Center last week, was a sprawling, fascinating deconstruction of the business, as if some omnipotent conventioneer had taken apart a restaurant piece by piece, and laid it all out, labeled, under a grid of fluorescent lights.

Strolling around the convention floor, you could sample wines and cheeses (separately), get a massage, sit on a toilet on a pedestal or (in the booth next door) try a muffin. There were immigration and pest control consultants, stress-reduction experts and political action meetings. Pizza-making, burger creation and espresso artistry champions were crowned, and the Borden dairy cows were the life of the party, even if they barely stood up in their display pens.

This was the 72nd running of the event, put on each year by the Texas Restaurant Association, and it's serious business for chains, individual restaurants, culinary schools and suppliers. Naturally, we visited Tuesday afternoon with an eye more for the awkward, the insane and the profound.

If you're so inclined, follow along on a slideshow tour through the foodservice expo.

The annual study detailing America's growing girth came out this week--and guess what? Once again, more buttons popped again this year.

Well, I only glanced at the piece. Really, the numbers seem hollow after repeated startling claims that 60 plus percent of this country's adult population really tipped the scales, issued in the past. But each time we go through this, I ponder the question.

Most such "studies" are based on body mass index (BMI), which fails to account for muscle mass. Hence most of those listed on NBA rosters are fat-ass pigs. NFL linebackers--the ones who clock 4.6 in the 40 yard dash--waddle about in Sansabelt slacks. And body builder types like the governor of California count as morbidly obese...at least according to the data. And even if you discount the athletic and toned set, studies rarely deal with the evolutionary growth of the human population.

So this week's question: are we really that fat? Maybe it is legit. Take a look around the office. Stare at the receptionist if you have to. Count the chubby, normal and svelte.

Oh, comments from Louisiana, Mississippi and those who work for trucking companies don't count. Could skew the results.

Results from last week...make that two weeks ago, thanks to some technical issues...in which we asked if rating restaurants by a star system was fair:

Ben Franklin and John Adams, possibly discussing where to go for booze, in 1776.

In the musical 1776, Stephen "Old Grape and Guts" Hopkins bursts into the Continental Congress' meeting room each morning demanding rum before getting down to the day's business. Of course, there may have been some license taken with his character, for John Adams claimed in later writings that the aged Rhode Island delegate never drank until 8 p.m.

His drink of choice? Well, the musical got it right: rum. "It gave him wit, humour, anecdotes, science and learning," Adams recorded--and thus Hopkins would keep the Congress talking until the late hours.

Simply put, the Founding Fathers enjoyed a good buzz. Thomas Jefferson was a noted expert on wine. In fact, he referred to it as one of life's necessities...a point he took so seriously that well over 1,000 bottles were consumed at Monticello in one two year stretch. George Washington brewed beer and distilled whiskey at Mount Vernon. And Adams himself guzzled hard cider before breakfast.

To paraphrase Patrick Henry, "if this be intoxication, make the most of it."

If the thought of another 4th of July spent dodging toddlers brandishing sparklers like Jack Sparrow's sword leaves you craving something red, white and intoxicating, maybe a more grown-up celebration is in order this year.

You need $50, but it will buy your ticket to freedom at the Annual 4th of July Grapevine Wine Trail this weekend.

Yes, freedom comes at a hefty price. But it includes a hell of a lot of vino, at least. You get three tastings at each of eight wineries, to be exact, and an extra bottle of wine to boot. You'll also get fed at every stop on the self-guided tour, and there will be plenty of live music to keep you entertained...fifes, drums--that sort of thing, maybe.

Choose from Saturday or Sunday--or both, if you have multiple annoying gatherings to avoid. And if you go on the 4th, why not stick around and watch the fireworks over Lake Grapevine afterwards? Sure, there's gonna be kids there, but after all that wine, you might just find them amusing. For info and tickets visit www.suvinowinery.com.

Seems like any one of the nights we do a Girl Drink Drunk would be a "girls' night out" but this one was officially a "Girls' Night Out." Like, I got an invitation. People RSVPed. There were boys around once we arrived, but hey, we were at a public bar and it's not like they clicked "Will Attend" or anything. So it was still Girls' Night.

It was also hot in the yard at Lee Harvey's, with an occasional breeze. And there was a jazz band with logo'ed music stands -- which I feel instantly transforms a band into a "big band." As in, big band jazz. People were dancing. Girls in high wedge heels were dancing on gravel (amazing) with guys that ranged from mid-20s to Gary Cogill (we never got ID confirmation, but I feel that the khaki shorts were spot-on, and Marla claims the wispy locks and heat-seeking eye-contact were all Gary, so we'll go with that for the sake of the story, and because it made me laugh really, really hard).

And there were drinks. Marls and I arrived late so we joined Jayna, Kat, Michelle, Kim and others at the picnic table nearest the dog-fence (if you've been to Lee Harvey's you'll understand). There was much discussion on the use of chimineas in sweltering heat, a lady's excessively long hair and teen fantasy fiction. I'm not sure what the punctual were drinking but Marla and I started with some icey cherry vodka sodas to treat our state of schvitz.

Then some of our crew left for other bars, pools, parties and homes and we carried on with Kat and knocked back what might be the best shot ever, thanks to server Tiffany's suggestion. The Lust in the Dust (invented and oft prepared by bartender Roger, according to the staff) contains SoCo, Amaretto, Peach Schnapps, cran juice and pineapple juice but isn't as sweet as it sounds like it would be. It's just sorta fruit punchy and real cold...which we totally needed.

Sara Kerens

Mikal Beth Hughey

Great Brewers recently launched its "Beer Sommelier," an online program that purports to pair beers to a variety of meats, grains, vegetables, cheeses, breads and sweets. "Masterfully select the best beer styles to pair with any dish," the Web site boasts.

With the Libertine Bar's Brass Knuckle Corn Dog Beatdown set for Saturday, it seemed an ideal opportunity to find out what beers would best complement a battered and deep-fried frankfurter.

That's when the first problem arose: corny dogs aren't listed. Perhaps Great Brewers could tone down the "any dish" claim.

Oh, well. So the sommelier isn't perfect. Finding the right suds to wash down a corny dog would take a bit of thinking.

Mi Cocina it ain't...kind of.

Carolina's Mexican Cuisine
3950 Rosemeade
469-568-0988

The not-so-prosperous little shopping strip Carolina Galvan ex-Rodriguez chose for one of her promised slew of new restaurants doesn't scream "I'm gonna crush those Mi Cocina bastards."

You think it would, but it doesn't.

Inside Carolina's flashes some interest, appearing as either a hip industrial lounge or upscale cafeteria, depending upon which direction you happen to look--except for the back patio, which is just pretty damn cool. They stock a bar-length line of beers on tap, brag about their drinks and seem hell bent on achieving a very familiar vibe...only better, perhaps.

A lot of renovation going on at a vacant site on Trinity Mills and the Tollway. Seems a new Norma's Cafe is coming to the Maguire's-Sullivan's-Cape Buffalo cluster. Looks like the crew is working under some kind of deadline pressure...