Sara Kerens

​Best restaurants...so many come to mind that we had to put the brakes on, set up criteria that would, for better or worse, help us whittle the list.

Looking back on the past twelve months, it's not such a chore--not really. Stand-outs include Samar, Park, Lumi, Cadot, Bella and some others. Of course, Bella lost their chef and will probably reposition as more of a fashionable drinking establishment. And one of the inspirations behind Cadot also split, although it's unlikely to dampen the quality of that North Dallas kitchen.

For the decade, we decided to focus on those restaurants that said something about the Dallas dining crowd.

So perhaps "representative" restaurants is a more appropriate theme...

Best restaurants of 2009:

1. Neighborhood Services
Sure, we think Samar shows more depth. But the kitchen here doesn't slack, it remains very popular and--more importantly--Nick Badovinus' spot has stood up to the entire twelve months without a flutter. In fact, the chef is looking to open two spinoffs in 2010--not a bad run at all.
 
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Photos by Patrick Michels

After 10 years, this is where we ended up: four deep-fried butter balls topped with garlic and grape sauce. How did we get to the point where we'd actually eat this?

​In the early 2000s, we came to the State Fair of Texas with a doe-eyed, innocent kind of hunger. We'd get a corn dog, maybe a funnel cake or a fried candy bar. Ten years later, we emerged with bellies full of grease, and eyes opened to amazing new possibilities from the deep fryer.

Today, Texas. Tomorrow, the world. That's how it went in the '00s.

​Over the last decade, the state fair has been on the cutting edge of the extreme grease movement. Every Major League Eater, every chef featured on This Is Why You're Fat owes a debt to culinary chemists like Abel Gonzales, Jr., -- the man behind fair favorites like fried Coke -- who urged us onward in the '00s to the point we should've seen coming a mile away, the fried food singularity that captivated a hungry nation earlier this year.More >>

​Some people are famous for being famous. No need to elaborate--you know their names, and you probably still shake you head over the source of their popularity.

Well, it's the same in food and nightlife: some places are popular for being popular.

There's no other way to explain it, really. A spot with mediocre food will catch on and become a major drawing card. Bars serving sweet and sour mix with a dash of tequila will be said to have "the best margaritas" by those who should know better.

People attract people. And as long as the place serving wimp-ass drinks or standard fare can keep things going, more power to them. They opened to make a profit, after all--not to satisfy some deep personal desire to achieve culinary perfection.

So, the popular scenes we really can explain, yet somehow can't...

Scenes we can't explain from 2009:

1. Waiting one or two hours for a table
Restaurants with 'no reservations' policies were the rage this year. When Neighborhood Services opened, wait times could extend to two hours. Yet even at Fireside Pies, hour-long waits can be the norm. That's a lot of standing around--which means either local diners don't value their free time or they think Fireside Pies is worth it, for some reason.

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​You know how it is--nothing to do in Dallas but eat, drink and shop. If only we had a signature bridge...

We've always had Neiman Marcus for those who want to spend the credit and places like TJ Maxx for us who don't. In the last ten years, however, food shopping in this city has become much more interesting.

Credit Central Market if you wish, but Dallas is now flush with little farmers market events during the growing season. And you can hit stores for everything from burrata to kimchi. It is, in other words, a great time to be a gourmand in North Texas.

Probably can't be helped, but we left some great shops off this list, places on the level of TJ's Seafood Market, Flavors from Afar and Molto Formaggio--that's how good we've got it these days.

Our list of the best...

Markets of 2009:

1. Scardello
Great selection of cheeses, both the globally renown and wheels produced by small American farms. Don't really need to say more.

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​A person's selection of "favorite bar" may be even more personal than that of their favorite restaurant. Where someone chooses to drink, after all, says more about their appreciation of scene and the sort of people they wish to associate with--the Stella or Goose tastes about the same anywhere, for the most part.

To compound the problem of naming a 'best' in this category, some of us--namely me--just don't frequent bars. Not anymore, at least.

Making matters worse, the city is populated with the memory--and sometimes the carcasses--of 'of the moment' venues, such as Samba Room (Villa-O), Buddha Bar (Neighborhood Services), Martini Ranch (Nick & Sam's Grill) and so on.

There are so many drinking spots that come to mind that may or may not fit into 'best' lists for the year or the past ten. Sambuca? The Libertine? Obar? Grapevine? And there are those locations that transcend periods of time without defining them...although that last point might be hotly debated by regulars. I speak, in this case, of bars like The Loon.

So, with considerable trepidation, we present the best bars....

Best bars of 2009...

1. Loft 610
This Plano outpost has a lot going for it. The bar itself is circular, allowing for a lot of cross-room scanning. It's associated with a good, upmarket restaurant. And the proximity of young professionals, cougars, recently divorced Frisco types and visiting executives means the atmosphere is highly charged, as well.

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​Probably should issue this caveat to start: Unless you're speaking of Paris Hilton or Tex Cobb, the label of embarrassment implies the person in question possesses some talent.

Nobody is perfect, of course. The Rolling Stones recorded Emotional Rescue, Babe Ruth lost half a season due to a "bellyache," Tony Romo muffed a snap and otherwise sentient people bought Sarah Clampett Palin's book.

The shame--or whatever you wish to call it--they bring may not fall on themselves. And it is usually temporary, a riffle in an otherwise remarkable career. There's no dishonor in the occasional bad decision. In every case (except one), those on this list are remarkably skilled.

That being said, the list we'd like to forget...

Embarrassments of 2009:

1. Blythe Beck
Instead of focusing on training kitchen staff and perfecting recipes when she moved from Hector's to Central 214, chef Beck threw herself (and the restaurant staff) into a pathetic soap opera. Television's The Naughty Kitchen showed us just how shallow and pointless life in the service industry can be sometimes. Mediocre reviews and bad TV--not a great moment in her career.

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​The other day Jesse "Hophead" Hughey said something about the role of those special edition $150 beers--something along the lines of "they generate publicity and motivate interest in beer."

True enough. Basketball needed Michael Jordan and golf Tiger Woods...well, until recently. Indeed, every market needs its characters who draw attention to the important trends, interesting places and such.

Maybe it was forgetfulness on our part or maybe it was a fault of the recession, but few current "personalities" came to mind. The decade, however, was fully stocked.

Anyway, the people who called attention to the dining scene...

Top personalities of 2009:
 
1. Blog commenters
Blogs are a forum and these are the people who give it life, the ones who stand in support or opposition, the ones who make their thoughts known. They create identities--Twinwillow, curmudgeon, The Big Guy, luniz--and stay in character. No other person or group created as much interest in dining this year.

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​We all--well, most of us, anyway--like to group certain traits or people into easy shorthand definitions.

For example, the French become "surrender monkeys," southerners are all "rednecks" and Eagles fans are...um, that's unprintable. As the guys from Monty Python once pointed out, the only group we don't slap a some prejudicial label on are the Belgians, which they rectified with "miserable fat Belgian bastards."

This tendency even applies on a smaller scale. When describing the types of people to go to certain restaurants or hang out in different parts of town, we generally end up with "the only people who go there are..."

So here are the most common stereotypes...

The people who filled Dallas bars and restaurants in 2009:

1. Douchebags
We're still not absolutely certain what douchebag really means in context, but the SOBs are everywhere. They congregate on Henderson, traipse around West Village, live in the suburbs and even wander Bishop Arts. Clearly, douchebags spent more in bars and restaurants than any other group of people.

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Merritt Martin

Baby Back Shak's pork is smokin'!

​After a year of pizza, Tex-Mex and deep-fried everything, it's time to take a look back at my year in Dude Food.

While they might not have all ranked a 10 on the Dude Factor scale, the following five Dude Food meals were my favorites of the year.

Look for Dude-bro Noah's 2009 wrap-up next week, same Dude-time, same Dude-channel.

5. Baby Back Shak
Dude Factor: 9, or "Bobby Patterson" on a scale of 1 (Cowboy Troy) to 10 (Freddie King)

My salivary glands (I'm told that's what they're called) still activate every time I look at the photo of those smoke-stained pork ribs. And the joint-puffing swine on the building cracks me up every time. Smoked pork--get it?!!

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Patrick Michels

Drinks at Lazare.

​No one relishes disaster.

Take that back. No one relishes disaster in their own community. While wary of competition, restaurant owners also know that a popular venue opening nearby helps drive traffic, and traffic means potential profit.

Yet sometimes man's reach exceeds his grasp--a line which we stole from a greeting card but the greeting card company stole from Browning. Partners spend more on design than they can recoup, chefs and owners bicker, the popular mood shifts or disposable income evaporates...

Not every failure is the fault of the entrepreneur.

There were some notable riches-to-rags stories (Deep Ellum comes to mind). But we settled on these...

 
Flops of 2009:

1. Mico Rodriguez
It was a momentous year for the man behind Mi Cocina. Divorce, ouster, self-ostracization, a D magazine cover story detailing his downfall, momentary resurrection at Screen Door--then another fall out. A tough, tough year indeed.
 
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