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Jeroboam, The Green Room, Chez Gerard, Dotty Griffith, Barzini -- it's like the heads of the Five Families are all gone.
For those of you who didn't know, some of the best restaurants in Dallas closed their doors in the past few weeks, and one of its longest standing food critics has hung up her proverbial pen.
Jeroboam was one of the first restaurants to actually dare to open up in the middle of downtown, back when no one was living there and everyone who worked there left as soon as it got dark (except the lawyers, of course). It had pretty decent French food and its happy hours were one of the better kept secrets around town.
The Green Room is yet another unfortunate Deep Ellum casualty. It had a great bar scene with an ample roof top that was always a fun place to hang out at back in law school, but the food was the real standout -- the dishes were always imaginative and well prepared, and they took the guesswork out of ordering with the "Feed Me, Wine Me" specials where they would bring you several courses of the chef's specialties with wine pairings for a pretty darn reasonable price.
Chez Gerard was my first and oldest favorite restaurant. A traditional, classic French restaurant to its very core, it's sad to see that, after more than twenty years, time and the ever changing tastes of Big D's diners have finally caught up with it. No place could cook a better steak frites or saut?ed veal medallions. But what I'll really miss is the demise of my all time favorite dessert: the praline souffl?, a heavenly yet decadent mixture of egg whites, cream and sugar that will never be replaced (although the quattro leches cake at La Duni is doing its best to fill the void).
Dotty Griffith, our erstwhile and completely one-sided nemesis, just because you never knew we existed and didn't reply to our unsolicited emails doesn't mean we don't appreciate all that you've done for the state of dining in our fair city. Without you as our Moriarty, it won't be half as much fun to try to scoop Guidelive to the next hot new places, but we'll try our best to give Kim Harwell a run for her money as well. Enjoy your well deserved time off, and as for you, Kim, I hope you brought your "A" game 'cause we're gonna be bringing it every month! It's on!!
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