Our Best of Big D Event Will Serve Dallas’ Best Burgers, Tacos, Breakfasts, Dumplings, and More

Our annual celebration of Dallas’ very best stuff is the Best of Big D party on August 17. It ties in to our feature where we name the best of, well, everything in town, based on months of research and legwork. And—can I brag?—this year the party is going to be even bester than usual.

It’s in one of Dallas’ most storied venues, the Longhorn Ballroom. It features some of our favorite musical acts. General admission includes a subscription to D. Oh, and there will be loads of food and drink.

This is where I come in. My food desk colleagues and I went across Dallas, sampling our city’s barbecue, breakfasts, burgers, tacos, dumplings, ice creams, Thai noodles, cakes, and more, to determine the best of everything. We wrote up our findings based on that research, free of any outside influence. And a bunch of them have decided to come serve their Best of Big D fare at our Best of Big D party.

If you don’t trust us, come to the party and taste for yourself. We’ll have samples of the best dumplings in town, from Fortune House. We’ll get to try my colleague Nataly Keomoungkhoun’s favorite ice cream in the city, as determined by her epic journey through 31 different ice cream shops. Trompo will be slinging tacos and Cattleack Barbeque will unpack Wagyu pastrami burnt ends. Pop-up kitchen Burger Schmurger has won the hotly contested accolade of best burger in Dallas from D, the Dallas Observer, and the Dallas Morning News—an incredible trifecta in our most contested category.

But wait! There’s more! (Sorry. I’ve always wanted an excuse to say that.) My favorite sushi restaurant in the region, EBESU, is traveling down from Plano. Our favorite old-school Texas roadhouse, the Gar Hole, is bringing a pot of chili from its country perch outside the town of Anna. Newcomer Evan’s Meat Market, which won the butcher shop category, is serving its house-made andouille sausage in cups of gumbo.

Picolé is bringing mini paletas. Ruins and Revolver Taco Lounge, my two favorite Mexican restaurants in Dallas, are both coming, as is Tia Dora’s Bakery. If you are in the VIP area, you’ll be treated to cheese plates from Scardello, chocolates from CocoAndré, and cocktails from Rodeo Bar.

Every year, one dish served at BOBD dominates the office break room chat for days afterwards. My prediction for this year is the most talked about (and most amazing) dessert of 2023: the sauerkraut cake from Rye. It’s the surprise factor that gets people on this one. They come in expecting something truly weird, and instead they get a flawless, complex, surprising chocolate cake.

This is not even a full listing of the menu. We’ve got 25 food vendors confirmed, plus sponsors. I didn’t even mention Loro. But writing those last few paragraphs got me so hungry I stopped to pop open my lunch.

Look, I’m being facetious, and this is a fun event. But it’s also a sincere appreciation for some of the people who make Dallas an exciting, entertaining, diverse, and rewarding place to live. We’re better off for all the hard work that our brewers, taqueros, dumpling makers, and burger flippers do. Although I know the BOBD event is basically a great big party, I think of it as something a little more meaningful. I want you to come so you can find your new favorite Thai place, or reacquaint yourself with an old favorite. I want you to stop thinking about what’s hot and new and start thinking about what’s great. I want Dallas to stop fretting over what lacks and celebrate the bounty that it has. (At least for one night. We can go back to lobbying for a better food scene the next morning.)

If you attend our Best of Big D bash and sample some of the amazing food and drink makers’ work, you’ll get to see a fuller, richer portrait of our city’s great people and the work they do. Everything else is just icing on the sauerkraut cake.