7 dishes and drinks I’m loving from Dallas-Fort Worth restaurants: April 2022

As we arise from 2 hard years for dining establishments throughout the coronavirus pandemic, I’m enjoyed see that, lastly, it seems like we’ve made it. The food at Dallas-Fort Worth restaurants is at an all-time high in spring 2022.

Just take a look at our daily record of new restaurant openings in North Texas, and you’ll see there are tons of exciting spots to visit every day. I’ve been out there, eating my way through the best of them. Here are seven dishes and drinks I’ve loved lately in Dallas-Fort Worth.

Croque Monsieur ‘hot pocket’ from KEESH

Dallas chef Keith Cedotal has started a new delivery-only pastry business called KEESH, a play on the breakfast-n-lunch dish quiche and also an acronym for Keith’s Epic East Side House. Order in advance — and only in certain Dallas zip codes — and Cedotal will deliver a truly lovely box of goodies, excellent for weekend breakfast or brunch. Two of my favorites were the cheesy, mustardy Croque Monsieur “hot pocket” and the jalapeño sausage and brie served inside a poppy seed Parker House roll. Cedotal sells them by the half dozen for $18, or inside a rotating pastry box for $25.

• No brick-and-mortar restaurant. Order at keeshbakery.com Sunday through Wednesday and the chef will deliver to these zip codes: 75206, 75214, 75218, 75223 and 75228. Delivery costs $4.

Bleu & Gold martini at Hudson House

Hudson House’s bartenders established years ago that they can make a good martini. I can’t resist the Bleu & Gold, a dirty martini with blue cheese-stuffed olives and a rim of blue cheese salt. It’s strong, salty and crazy cold, the kind of drink that makes you pucker on the first sip. Go at happy hour — 3 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday — and that $14 martini is half price.

• Hudson House has restaurants near the Park Cities; in Lakewood Dallas; in Addison; and at a brand-new location in Las Colinas.

Nopalitos Fritos at Don Artemio

This dish of fried cactus is served with flair, a green fluff placed in the middle of the table that should transport you to the chef’s home city of Saltillo, Mexico. As I said when this Fort Worth restaurant opened, “Nopalitos fritos are fun to build and better to eat — the crunch of the nopales, the zing of the salsa, the soft pull of the tortillas.” When dinner starts with this dish, it’s bound to be a delicious journey to Northeastern Mexico.

• Don Artemio is at 3268 W. 7th St., Fort Worth.

The bread at Carbone!

Of all the dishes I sampled during a quite expensive birthday dinner at Carbone, the best bites were the least expensive of them all: the free bread that comes at the beginning of dinner. I was wowed by the Grandma bread, a thick and squishy focaccia smeared with San Marzano tomatoes and oregano. So it’s a bite of bread. Sip of wine. Snack of pickled cauliflower. Floret of salami. That could have been the beginning, middle and end of my Italian experience and I would have left happy, but then I found more bread in the basket, a thinner garlic bread lacquered with butter and Parmesan.

Look, it wouldn’t make sense to go to the most anticipated restaurant in Dallas and dine on just bread and wine. But don’t think I haven’t considered it.

• Carbone is at 1617 Hi Line Drive, Dallas. Reservations can be made via Resy, but it’s tough to get a seat. Its sister restaurant next door, Vino, has more availability.

Brisket tacos at Odelay

Dallas has plenty of good brisket tacos, but Tex-Mex newcomer Odelay will give them some (un)healthy competition. Salty and moist, these pan-fried tacos filled with Wagyu brisket, queso blanco, caramelized onion and avo feel like a delicious splurge. Get them with rice and beans for $19, or order a combo plate if you’re ready for a fiesta: a brisket taco, a sour cream chicken enchilada, and a chile relleno stuffed with cheese; $16 at lunch and $18 at dinner.

• Odelay is at 5600 W. Lovers Lane (near Inwood Road), Dallas. Dinner only for now, but lunch arrives in a week or two.

Hot chicken sandwich at Hattie B’s

It’s true that Hattie B’s is serving some of the best Nashville hot chicken in Dallas in a nothing-fancy Deep Ellum restaurant. The best dish on that menu, if you ask me, is the hot chicken sandwich, fried, with a “hot” heat level. It’s fiery, y’all, but the coleslaw and comeback sauce bring it down. Skip over the crinkle-cut fries as a side and go with the red-skin potato salad or pimento mac and cheese, to get more of the flavor of the South from this Tennessee transplant.

• Hattie B’s Hot Chicken is at 3000 Main St., Dallas.

Kessaku Carajillo (espresso martini) at Kessaku

Let me be the first to say it: Espresso martinis are overdone — they’re the basic-est of after-dinner drinks. But I love them, and you should, too. The best espresso martinis aren’t overly creamy, they’re booze-forward, with a hit of caffeine. You can’t find one better than at Kessaku, the 50th floor restaurant in downtown Dallas, above the much talked-about wood-fired Italian restaurant Monarch. Kessaku and Monarch’s new beverage director Eric Simmons has redone the cocktails at both dining establishments, with impressive results.

Here’s the date-night move: Dine at Monarch or Kessaku — wherever you can find a table and a menu that fits your budget. (Neither task is easy, so a third option, also great, is to arrive at Kessaku for just one sexy nightcap.) Order the Kessaku Carajillo, a cold brew based cocktail with coffee-flavored Licor 43 and nigori sake. Drink your dessert as you walk around the sky-high catwalk.

• Kessaku goes to 1401 Elm St., on the 50th floor, Dallas.

For extra food information, comply with Sarah Blaskovich on Twitter at @sblaskovich.