All Meddlesome Moth owner Shannon Wynne wants for Father's Day is an ice cold beer -- and he's betting a few dads out there feel the same way.

The Oak Lawn gastropub is buying a beer for every father who visits the restaurant this Sunday. In a YouTube pitch explaining the promo, a bespectacled Wynne explains: "As a dad, I know I'd really like to go out for a beer with my kid. Just once."

Meddlesome Moth is open on Sunday from 11 a.m.-midnight.

Merritt Martin

New Dallas Observer food critic Noah W. Bailey, whose face is partially obscured to protect his anonymity.

​After an extensive search, the Dallas Observer is proud to announce the promotion of Night & Day editor and frequent City of Ate contributor Noah W. Bailey to the position of food critic.

City of Ate readers are probably most familiar with Bailey from his biweekly contributions to Dude Food. Bailey's love of meat and potatoes and disdain for all things green, leafy and healthy helped set the tone for the column, and will inevitably mark a change in direction for the paper's food criticism.

Likewise, his folksy dismissal of the elegant cuisine and expensive restaurants he deems "rich-people shit" will give the paper an opportunity to focus on the kinds of restaurants and home-cooked meals more commonly enjoyed by our middle-class readers in these trying economic times. In his most recent Dude Food column, Bailey admitted that he has "never even been inside Bob's Steak & Chophouse [sic]" because of its prohibitively high prices -- yet did not allow that lack of firsthand experience to stop him from making fun of a restaurant consistently ranked as one of the top steakhouses in the country. We're proud to have a critic willing to go against the prevailing elitism that makes contemporary food criticism so inaccessible to the average reader.

After the jump, a few changes you can expect in the paper's food coverage.

Update: As many commenters correctly guessed, this was an April Fools' Day gag. 
 
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Flickr user Metro Centric

​Yeah, I love Groucho, the source of this week's headline. I've borrowed many of my standard lines from him (such as "if I were a man, you'd resent that"). But we have other things to discuss. Like the fact that I have decided to leave City of Ate and the Dallas Observer.

You know something, COA readers? We've covered a lot in a year plus.

My typical week involves two or three restaurant visits related to a review, a couple more for Short Orders, and whatever needs to be done for other blog posts. That's five or six nights dining out--which is why I rarely cook at home (lack of pots and pans is another reason). And it's a lot of fun.

I was used to the review part. Blogging, though, is a new thing. In dozens of brief posts over the course of a week, we get to inform, laugh, rant and--most of all--connect with each other.

It's a great feeling. That's why I'm sorry to be leaving it.

Before leaving Prague I had promised to spend a year in a top 10 market, re-learning the joys of top level cuisine (something the Czechs were short of) and learning the art of blogging. I've exceeded that, loitering here for many months more. It's just hard to shake.

But, I have opportunities to pursue in the Old World--the life of a shabby expat, you know.

Thank you all for reading. Thanks for all the communication and the comments.Thanks to the COA writers, who turned a blank space into a must read for many area residents. I've enjoyed it all and will miss it and you.

asianoffbeat.com

Enough already.

​I was in Naan for lunch one day last week.

Really I just wanted to reacquaint myself with the place--it had been about five years. Instead I was reintroduced to an issue that seems to plagued Dallas area sushi joints: carrying the "everything's bigger in Texas" notion too far.

Japanese chefs roll maki sushi into manageable sizes. Classic maki presentations combine visual appeal, fresh complementary flavors and simplicity. The guest should be able to pop each piece in one bite--and this is generally the case even when the roll includes two or three ingredients.

Here, on the other hand...

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​
An odd question came to mind the other morning as I sliced into eggs benedict dressed in a not-from-scratch Hollandaise: if the only two options were a commercial (and partially artificial) dish with really good flavor or the same from fresh ingredients but decidedly less impressive in flavor, which would you choose?

You see, thanks to flaws in their freshly prepared Hollandaise, I'm often disappointed by what some Dallas restaurants pass off as eggs benedict. Hell, some places using stuff from a jar through the sauce off balance by adding more lemon juice than it can handle in an effort to make it taste house made. But here I had a sauce closer to the classic taste and texture.

Now, Hollandaise is notoriously timid. Too much heat and it falls apart. Too little and the blend of butter, egg yolk and lemon refuses to bind. So I understand why I run into so many problems...although, come to think of it, too much salt can just as easily ruin a burger.

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​What is it that makes a chef great? If we allow that anyone (almost) can buy a fresh ahi tuna steak, sear it and toss on a few grains of sea salt, is it really a matter of a kitchen preparing good ingredients with requisite skill? Or is it something more?

The topic came to mind during a weekend dinner at The Mansion, where Bruno Davaillon's new menu is edging ever so slowly into place.

As you probably recall, Davaillon's appointment as executive chef at Dallas' fine dining icon made him either an instant celebrity or a threat to the restaurant's for-some-reason-famous tortilla soup.

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​We understand City of Ate is an, um, unusual blog.

The Dallas market was already well-served, when we started up, by outlets breaking news tidbits, speculating on rumors, providing forums on topics of the day and such. So we conceived of a 'magazine-style' blog--a venue for recurring articles, some of which would be pure entertainment, others more provocative, with plenty in between.

So we enter our second calendar year with much the same lineup, plus a few additions. Here's what we have planned:

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​To me, Dallas was a very different place ten years ago.

Yes, there are names and places that seem to outlast the march of time. Gilbert Garza runs things at Suze, just as he did when the decade was young. Fearing and Pyles still top the city's list of true celebrity chefs. In 2000 people flocked to Mi Cocina for inexplicably popular margaritas. And, of course, we were coming through the devastation of Y2K then. Today we're fast approaching 2012 doom.

So much has changed over the span, however, that the city would seem unfamiliar if our past selves suddenly made an appearance. For instance, ten years ago good pizza meant Louie's or Campisi's.
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Out is the new safe.

​I began to worry a long time ago--1985, more precisely.

Not only was it the year an anti-christ appeared in the form of Don Denkinger (google 'worst call in World Series history' if you don't recognize his name), but it was also the first time I heard college students refer to both autobiographies and works of historical research as "novels."

Just as 'out' became 'safe,' the post-Denkinger world has turned upside down. Fact is now a matter of opinion, a black American is the new Hitler, people tune to Fox and the Daily Show for news--although the latter is rather more reliable than most outlets--and any blurb posted by any pen name about a restaurant is called a "review."

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​'Tis the season when restaurants host those big office holiday shindigs...although, come to think of it, they probably involve fewer guests this year. I only glanced at the invite to our party, but I think it mentioned something about "pay for your own."

There are benefits to these events, of course. Companies often pay a set fee to the restaurant, guaranteeing both a crowd and (hopefully) a profit.

Who knows how much they have to write off in broken stemware, though.

Yet it can be rather frustrating for those hoping to grab an impromptu evening meal when a restaurant or bar shuts down to accommodate an office party. They show up, walk to the door and get the wave off.

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