The Blind Butcher of lower Greenville.

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With an endless amount of steakhouses in and around Dallas, one genre that hasn’t been tapped is a bar with a meat centered menu. In short, a watering hole where a guest can enjoy a Notary (similar to an Old Fashion) while hanging out at a meat counter. This constitutes for personal jubilation.

At The Blind Butcher, Goodfriend owners Matt Tobin and Josh Yingling, kept the interior simple, yet classic.  It has the welcomed appearance of a prohibition era saloon, but also offers neighborhood warmth fitting for Greenville Avenue.

Upon entering, you'll notice all furnishings are painted black, and there isn’t much light beside the soft glow from wall lamps and flatscreen TVs. Taking a seat on a barstool will guarantee a bartender's introduction with a handshake and you may catch yourself people watching via the bar’s giant mirror. I imagine a small room full of cigar smoking, fedora wearing gamblers tucked in the rear but in reality, a spacious patio with another bar.

Big Meat board (photo by Greg Cella)

After several visits since February, I’ve been impressed each time with both new items and the consistency of previous items ordered. The front of the menu is divided by snacks (appetizers rather), boards for sharing, and hand cranked sausages. Aside from the cocktail and beer menu, I find this to be all one needs to enjoy their inaugural experience here. Actually the only two items we ordered from the back of the menu was Pork Belly Poutine and Duck Fat Fries.

The Pig Ears, served with a side of orange aioli, are fried with an unassuming chewiness due to a thin piece of cartilage within. During our last visit, an agreement among the table was an improvement on the already great tasting snack. The house-cured Pastrami eggrolls were also still a favorite.

Ordered on the second visit was the Big Meat Board. This is your man’s man dish. Having enough meat to feed four, the protein is a selection of daily specials. What stood out on this evening were the bison short rib and stuffed chicken.

When it came time to sample the sausage, you cannot simply deny an opportunity to devour Duck Foie Gras sausage with chutney. For a less pretentious sounding choice, the bacon bratwurst with sauerkraut was also carefully selected.

The Duck Foie Gras stood out between the two, having a deeply rich and satisfying flavor. The bacon brat, though  composed of a completely different animal, made it tough to be comparable. However, the brat refused to settle for anything less than approval in taste.

Tangent: Bacon is the cornerstone of the American way of life by celebration of gluttony. The only way to disrespect bacon is to fry it. Sure, throw rocks at me. Then go make your own bacon and ovenize it. After this, you will never ever purchase Kroger bacon again or fry it. If you do, be prepared for my rock hurling.

Poutine's popularity in Canada is equivalent to Hawaii's obsession with Spam. Because of it's recent arrival on local dining tables, the Blind Butcher has three styles to choose from. While sparse of meat and not quite as tender, the Pork Belly Poutine was unique in the flavor delivery. In addition to the belly, layered on a pile of fries was a smoky gravy and cheese curds.

Blind Butcher wall menu (photo by Greg Cella)

I found this to be a choice go-to dish after a few late night beers from their sexy  menu of libations. The Chips and Beer cheese were also lightly decorated with duck pastrami and beer goat cheese, on what seemed to be generic potato chips.

Chef Oliver Sitrin has quietly carved a spot in the upper echelon of local meat purveyors with his unique menu and specialty sausages. The Blind Butcher is a must for meat aficionados to engage their digestive system. But most important is that you can shop for hand cranked sausage –  while sipping a Notary.

BBQ Events for the spring.

Things we like about March – Fat Tuesday, St. Patty’s Day, March Madness, and the beginning of spring. Items we dislike about March – sub-freezing weather.

With the constant threat of an Icepocalypse lurking and ready to expose its ice cubes at any given moment, it may be difficult to envision being outside, frolicking in 70-something degree weather. Do not fear, because like weathermen whose job is stating the obvious of hot or cold, I say it’s a safe bet you will be romping around in a field of blue bonnets.

You know what is better than illegally picking our state’s designated flower? Barbecue.  So, before you find yourself in the county jail with a pocket full of blue bonnets, how about getting grease on your shirt at one, or all, of these upcoming barbecue events.

·        You’re going to need to soak up all the alcohol from the prior weekend’s Dallas Observer Greenville Avenue St. Patty’s Day Parade (could the name be any longer?), so mosey on over to the Fort Worth Stockyards on March. 21-22. The International Barbecue Association Cook-off holds the 'Fort Worth Cops for Kids' competition with over 100 teams cooking meat in support of disadvantaged youth. Find your best handkerchief, head west, donate, and eat. Easy right!? www.fortworthstockyards.org

·        Houston has seldom been known for good barbecue. Once the Oilers left for Tennessee, there hasn’t been much to discuss. Not that either is actually related. Well, Houston no longer has a problem, and the barbecue has upped its game with CorkScrew BBQ and the recently opened Killen’s BBQ. Now the city will be hosting the 2^nd annual Houston BBQ Fest at Reliant Park on April 6^th. General admission tickets are $50 and $90 for VIP. A portion of proceeds also help Vita-Living, Inc. who supports people with disabilities. www.houbbq.com

·        Outdoors, live music, and beer. What if we combined those aforementioned items with 15 of the best barbecue joints in Texas? Well I’m no magician, and we've established I’m just as reliable as a weatherman – there is such an event. On May 3^rd, The Red Dirt BBQ Fest in Tyler will be providing music from the Randy Rogers Band, Whiskey Myers, and Green River Ordinance, while barbecue from local favorites such as Hutchin’s BBQ, Cousin’s BBQ, The Slow Bone, and Lockhart Smokehouse will be serving up their meat stuff. I’d said that’s worth the hour and half drive east. www.reddirtbbqfest.com

LUCK (Local Urban Craft Kitchen), Dallas, TX

If you have never seen a strip mall of restaurants before, behold Phil Romano’s Trinity Groves. His restaurant concept has singlehandedly baked, taken, and devoured the cake – even if it was slightly overdone.

From the kitschy outside appearance – likely due to a Christmas light sale at Costco – to the massive flaming rock columns beckoning you into the coliseum of window shopping for food, Romano went full-fledged Liberace with this.

Upon initial eye contact, it is overwhelming in a childlike sense of wonder kind of way. Once your burned retinas have adjusted to the electric light orchestra, the uniqueness will captivate you.

Entering this dining compound, one conspicuous detail sticks out – each patio was constructed with nothing more in mind than simplicity. A striped down approach was taken –purposefully or not – and unfortunately, this lack of architectural ambition does not match tenants such as Casa Rubia and Resto’s individuality when it comes to their interior design.

While this concrete uniformity may not translate well with the more upscale destinations, it works effortlessly with LUCK (Local Urban Craft Kitchen). Opened in late October of 2013, this gastropub relies on local craft beer while serving variations of regional dishes.

For starters, bierrocks, breaded shrimp, and the pretzels were ordered. The breaded shrimp was less memorable, while the pretzels were as appealing as I’d expect from a homemade pretzel.

Coming three to an order, the bierrocks were reminiscent of the Czech pastry, Klobasnek, which can be found on the way to Austin in West, TX.  With a fluffy texture from the marginally sweet bread, the ground beef and cheese contents meshed well together. Complementing this appetizer was beer cheese and au jus for your dipping pleasure.

For our main entrees, our table of eight ordered the pastrami sandwich, fish and chips, shrimp and grits, pozole, torta de lengua, and pork schnitzel. Sadly, the shrimp and grits were under seasoned with the grits more liquefied in the bowl. The pork schnitzel didn’t exactly set fire to my lenden (Google translate) either, as it was a tad bland. Their fish and chips were good, but you can locate better in one of Dallas’ Irish pub knockoffs, and there are plenty of those to kick your little green shamrocks in.

Having never tried pozole before, this is one dish of LUCK’s that threw a better right hook than those previously mentioned. Again, a pozole rookie here, but without an overabundance of spice, the pork and hominy stew were well seasoned and came across even tempered upon inhalation. A second bowl was ordered.

For LUCK not being a barbecue restaurant that only concentrates on smoked meat, I found the pastrami to have been cooked nicely. Thick slices of meat served between two slices of sourdough bread, along with caramelized onions, ground mustard and a slice of Swiss – this is a well above average bar sandwich. But also, your average bar doesn’t turn brisket into pastrami. And for that reason, try the meat as separate from the sandwich as it’ll allow the pre-smoking brine to be more palpable upon taste.

Recently, I was told not to eat anything that could lick me. Well I do, but I can’t recall much detail about the torta de lengua other than it was enjoyed very much. By this point, my third high ABV beer was about finished, and so was I.

LUCK does craft beer extraordinarily well; but they have some minor misses on the menu. Clearly taking more cues from south of the border and eastern Europe, and given they’ve been open three months and some change, the consistency isn’t there yet.

What the other restaurants in Trinity Grove lack from not having a bar, LUCK provides a closure to that gap. With better than average food, it is an enjoyable spot to relax and attempt to navigate through all 40 taps. Considering most of their inventory hovers around 8% ABV, that’s one challenge I’d like to see.