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The grand opening of the Fort Worth Trader Joe's recieved an enthusiastic response.

Yesterday The Dallas Morning News' Biz Beat Blog broke the news that Trader Joe's had finally announced the anticipated opening date for the Greenville Avenue location. Starting Friday, August 9, you'll be able to buy all the Two Two-Fifty Buck Chuck you desire, right in East Dallas.

See also:
- Dispatch from the Trader Joe's Opening in Fort Worth
- Survival Tips for Today's Trader Joe's Grand Opening

Of course, you may want to skip opening day. Accounts of the melee captured on City of Ate describe absolute madness at the grand opening of the Fort Worth location.

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The brisket is out of the butcher paper. Texas Monthly posted their latest top 50 barbecue restaurants list and both Pecan Lodge and Lockhart Smokehouse made this year's cut. A look at previous years show just how far Dallas has come in the world of barbecued brisket.

A long, long way ...

Sonny Bryan's and Baker's Ribs were mentioned in the 2003 list. I didn't live in Dallas then, but I've eaten at both restaurants since I got here. Their inclusions sounds more like a consolation prize than a real award. Actually, they feel more like an error or the mark of a bad list. Maybe things have changed and these restaurants used to turn out amazing brisket, or maybe the rest of Texas sucked back then too. Nowadays they don't come across as top 50 anything.

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Catherine Downes

If you're a careful diner, you might have noticed the term "compression" attached to a fruit that's featured in your dish or dessert. John Tesar added compressed heirloom tomato slices to a "burger" he fashioned for Eater a few weeks ago, and at Belly and Trumpet, compressed mango is featured in their popular yellowfin tuna dish.

See also:
This Week's Review: Belly and Trumpet

"Compressed" fruits may evoke images of pressure plates, sledgehammers and other more violent treatments, but the technique is actually quite gentle. It involves nothing more than a plastic bag, a vacuum sealer and a little bit of time.

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Previously we told you about the Grapevine Craft Brewery. Gary Humble fell in love with Grapevine about the same time he fell in love with craft beer, so he decided to open up a (rather swank) craft brewery, which they've recently broken ground on. It'll be the craft beer stop on the wine circuit.

GCB recruited Caton Orrel to be the head brewer, who earned his marks at Boulevard Brewing Co. They already have four beers lined up for the launch: Lakefire, a rye pale ale; Monarch, "nothing fancy, just good"; Sir Williams, an English brown ale; and Night Watch, a dry oatmeal stout.

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Private|Social, or P|S, or whatever it's called now has been a shifty restaurant as of late. After Tiffany Derry left the kitchen at the start of the year, Najat Kaanache was announced as the follow-on chef. Kaanache brought global flavors and a whimsical approach to the menu that didn't impress Leslie Brenner at The Dallas Morning News. Her first review of the restaurant awarded four stars. A subsequent take downgraded the restaurant to one.

Kaanache's cooking was odd. A foggy pot filled with dry ice and herbs was set on the table to "open up the senses," and guests were given pastry canvases, which they could paint with sauce-laden brushes. Now, according to their Facebook page, the restaurant is simplifying things a touch. According to the post they'll be serving "Awesome Texas Food."

Throughout all this change, Rocco Milano has been the bar manager at the Uptown restaurant. I've met him a few times and know he's a solid bartender. So I asked him what he thought of all this change.

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Cuban Dulceria in Carrollton is having their 4th Annual Cuban Nostalgia event this weekend.

In addition to the weekly line up of culinary and drink-ary events, it's American Craft Beer Week. There are so many things to do, you're head will spin. Let's get to spinning.

Thursday, May 16
Cuban Dulceria International Bakery is hosting their 4th Annual Cuban Nostalgia event Thursday through Saturday. The three day event is for those "who remember the island's glamorous times and those who never experienced them" and will highlight the bakery's family recipes and some hard to find products. The party is from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.

Friday, May 17
Patriot PAWS is a group that provides service dogs to disabled veterans. This Friday they are hosting the 2nd Annual Grand Hall Summer Grill Out, which pits military veterans (who are now enrolled in the culinary school at the Art Institute of Dallas) in a Top Chef-style cook-off. All you'll need to do is show up from noon to 2 p.m. at 3838 West Miller Road in Garland and try the fare. Then, maybe buy a new grill from Barbecues Galore and all of the proceeds will go Patriot PAWS.

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Flickr

USA Today just reported that there's a great rib sandwich smackdown in the making. Burger King, which has been hustling to capture new customers recently with inventive menu items like bacon sundaes and Cinnabons, will roll out a rib sandwich this summer.

Like the McD's original, the BK rib creation will have a slab of boneless pork, a tangy sauce and butter pickles on sweet bread.

Is this a line in the sand? Will McDonald's unveil a flame-broiled-flavored burger? Even better question: Will either McDonald's or Burger King ever add anything to their menu that actually tastes good? Well, there are those Cinnabons.

Now, please just to return to whatever you were doing for the day while we wait for Burger King to roll out these new sandwiches. Then the real bickering shall commence. Because as part of a progressive society, we are required to settle these kind of burning issues.

If you've dined on the front porch at Belly and Trumpet recently, you've likely noticed some construction in progress on the lot just to the south. Nothing complements perfectly seared branzino and a white Burgundy like whirring saws and the staccato rapport of a pneumatic framing nailer.

The patio of the failed Patio Grill space is getting a facelift, and the inside of the restaurant is undergoing significant renovation too. Based on the tile work outside, I'd wager the facelift is going to be a significant one -- someone's putting some money into this little house on McKinney Avenue.

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LDD

Recently we wanted to learn about the best places in Dallas to drink tequila. Not in the sense of slamming shots, but in terms of a robust or select collection. Honestly, at first the idea was to create a quick list of the best five or 10 spots. Then after some research, we realized that simply wouldn't suffice. Just a few interviews in, it was apparent that tequila occupies a special place in many a heart. So, we'll take this journey a little slower as we begin a series of profiles on the best spots in Dallas for not only sipping tequila, but also embracing the culture around it.

Tequila has a bad rap. No, it shouldn't taste like gasoline. And, no, the only way to ingest it isn't by slamming a shot while the crowd cheers. Tequila is to be savored, if not for layers of earthen flavors tinged with the century-old process of making it, then for the heritage and culture that is poured into every bottle.

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WOATS

Justin Anderson, founder of WOATS, is one of those granola kind of guys. Here's a fact about granola: It can be like eating tiny bricks sometimes. And if you have braces, the snack can be a downright menacing.

Anderson knows all about that. When he was 16 he bit into some homemade granola and it broke a bracket on his braces, so, he came up with his own recipe for soft granola. Ten years later, Anderson, who went to TCU and now lives in Fort Worth, has not only taken his product to market, but also to a high-flying place few others have ever been.

What does all this have to do with the president of the United States? Last week, when President Obama tied up the byways and flyways in the most congested little city in our fine state (Austin), Anderson was there too as one of the entrepreneurs who got to meet the president.

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