Rusty's Notes - Rusty lunched here one or two times a week for three years. La Spiga is an artisan bakery for Old World style bread and pastries. Offerings are delectable and arguably the best bread in the Metroplex edging out Empire Bakery, and newcomer Corner Bakery. The base of the business is wholesale baking for fine restaurants in the area. Several high quality Italian eateries rely on La Spiga for the real deal in bread. When in stock, scarf up a loaf of the Walnut Scallion. Really nice with a cheese plate, breakfast or with an antipasto. It isn't always available, because there isn't always an over-run on the order for the Hilton Hotel that gets it a couple of time per week. The Milano and Ciabatta are excellent. Mini Panini are a more tender style dinner roll yeasty and toasty like bread is supposed to be. It takes Rusty close to 35 minutes in non-rush hour traffic to drive to La Spiga,s Addison neighborhood, but he goes just for the bread. For lunch try the Roasted Garlic Potato Soup and sample the breads with it.

Adelmo's Ristorante

4537 Cole Ave. at Knox Street
214-559-0325
Dallas Morning News Guide Comments

Rusty's Notes - The owner of Adelmo's as a close friend Paul DiCarlo at Jimmy's Food Store confers in making terrific selections of Italian wines for the store. His restaurant, Adelmo's has earned an enviable reputation for fine Italian fare over the years. Rusty says you can't go wrong. Reservations are advised any night, but especially Thursday through Saturday. Rusty says go for it.

Breadwinners Cafe & Bakery

3301 McKinney Ave. at Hall Street
214-754-4940
Dallas Morning News Guide Comments

Rusty's Notes - Nice style combined with good fancy baking, great food, and a well chosen and reasonably priced wine list. Rusty has liked Breadwinners a long time, he doesn't intend to stop now.

Marty's Wine Bar and Cafe TuGogh

3316 Oak Lawn Ave. at Lemmon Avenue
214-526-7796
Home Web Site
Dallas Morning News Guide Comments

Rusty's Notes - Marty's has been in business for many years at the same Oak Lawn address. The business has transformed itself from a leading wine merchant/liquor store to a wine merchant/deli/bistro. An unfortunate consequence of dropping the liquor license was losing Marty's offering of vintage Ports and Sherries. The gains have been most worthwhile. The deli (Cafe TuGogh) is Mrs. Buttplate's favorite. Special nights out at Marty's are always a treat, the staff is attentive and pleasant. No wine list, instead you peruse the aisles to select your wine. The wine prices seem to hover somewhere between restaurant prices and liquor store prices, and for dining present a nice value. The only wine list per se is what Marty's is serving in a well chosen selection of wines offered by the glass or in flights. Making choices from the dinner menu is difficult because everything sounds so good, and Marty's will meet your expectations. The knowledgeable wine sales staff is very helpful without being condescending. The wines offered run from the popular to the sublime. Marty's is a great choice for dinner or a fabulous take out lunch.

Parigi's

3311 Oak Lawn Ave.Suite 102
214-521-0295
Home Web Site
Dallas Morning News Guide Comments

Rusty's Notes - Across the street from Marty's, Parigi's is a popular bistro in Oak Lawn that has earned its reputation with imaginative and prepared food, and an easy going casual style.

The Grape

2808 Greenville Ave. at Vickery Boulevard
214-828-1981
Dallas Morning News Guide Comments

Rusty's Notes - The Grape is a pioneer in Dallas as a wine bar/restaurant with fine food establishment. The owners are still on premises and still maintain a high quality standard. Reservations are always a good idea at The Grape.

York St.

6047 Lewis St. at Skillman
214-826-0968
Dallas Morning News Guide Comments

Rusty's Notes - York Street offers fine French food in a restaurant with limited seating. Reservations are a good idea. The wine list is very nice and complements the menu. The owners are on premises sincerely seeing to it that you enjoy the product of their labor.

El Fenix Mexican Restaurant

255 Casa Linda Plaza at Garland Road
214-327-6173
Dallas Morning News Guide Comments

Rusty's Notes - El Fenix at Casa Linda (store No. 3) remains an East Dallas mainstay in Tex-Mex for over 50 years.
A sidenote:
Older East Dallas residents pronounce Casa Linda - cassa linda, as opposed to newcomers that have been there less than 25 years correctly pronouncing it as cahsa leenda. Old East Dallas folks can spot a newcomer that way everytime.
   El Fenix has originated two great Dallas Tex-Mex traditions. The founder, a former dish washer tired of the parade of ala-carte plates then the style for Mexican restaurants, created the now stalwart combination plate to save dishwashing once he started his own restaurant. The second great Mexican restaurant tradition is the Wednesday Night Enchilada Special that gets folks lining up on the sidewalk waiting for a tables. For Rusty, who has eaten at El Fenix since he was boy, El Fenix is the benchmark for Mexican food. All others are compared in memory to the fine food served by this establishment. The El Fenix chain isn't popular because it's 100 years old or so, the chain has gotten to be 100 in Dallas, with hundreds of decent competitors, because the food is good.
p.s. Good Margaritas.too.

Machu Picchu

11255 Garland Road , Suite 800 at Jupiter Road
214-327-8833
Dallas Morning News Guide Comments

Rusty's Notes - Peruvian ceviche, tart and fresh, and reasonably priced.

Matt's Rancho Martinez

6332 La Vista Drive at Gaston Avenue
214-823-5517
Dallas Morning News Guide Comments

Rusty's Notes - Matt Martinez brought elements of his father's long lived eponymous (say that three times fast) Austin eatery to Dallas, and then went on to establish his own respected piece of turf in the rough and tumble world of Dallas dining. All the usual Tex-Mex suspects can be rounded up at Matt's with his special style to each. Rusty believes Matt should be enshrined in the Tex-Mex Hall of Fame, if for no other reason, for Chicken Fried Steak Tampequena. A big plate full of pan fried (not deep fried) chicken fried steak smothered in tomatillo sauce and cheese with rice and frijoles refrito is pure D Texican culinary heaven, sweetened even more by a price of less than $10. Go ahead and get that side of guacamole and have a couple of refreshing Margaritas too. Matt also offers the standard CFS in cream gravy (also pan-fried) that Rusty thinks may be fabulous too, but never can overcome the appeal of the Tampequena variation. The third variant on CFS is smothered in chili con carne and yeller cheese that should include a discount coupon redeemable after visiting a gastroenterologist for clearance for eat this dish (Matt should get a kick-back on the resulting gall bladder surgery). A Lakewood mainstay since it opened over 15 years ago. Also check out Matt's No Name next door for upscale Prairie Cuisine (Matt's term). The esteemed Julia Child visited a few years back and raved over Matt's chile con queso, not believing something so delectable could be made from Velveeta. Julia, it's not made from Velveeta it's made from American cheese that's a lot less salty.

Nuevo Leon

2013 Greenville Ave. at Belmont Avenue
214-887-8148
Dallas Morning News Guide Comments

Rusty's Notes - Nuevo Leon says, "it's not Tex-Mex, it's Mex-Mex." Rusty says, "it ain't Mexican Food, it's Mexican Cuisine; know what I mean?"

Basha

2217 Greenville Ave. at Richmond Avenue
214-824-7794
Dallas Morning News Guide Comments

Rusty's Notes - "Midnight at the oasis. Send your camel to bed." The Syrian/Lebanese entrees are to die for. Call for reservations in the Tent Room. Testimony to quality are the Mercedes and the occasional Rolls Royce parked out side on a busy evening, despite the relatively reasonable prices. The Taboulleh wakes you with fresh parsley and a succulent dressing and less that usual emphasis on bulgher. Try the Mezza plate with humus, babagonoush, tabboulleh, and homemade lebni. The entrees are treated with great skill, and are complemented with a nice wine list. A mural depicting the vista a caravan at the edge of town would see is central to the rug-lined opulence suitable to a prosperous sheik. Middle Eastern food at its best at fairly reasonable prices.

Cafe Izmir

3711 Greenville Ave. at Martel
214-826-7788
Dallas Morning News Guide Comments

Rusty's Notes - Rumor has it Cafe Izmir is excellent, but Rusty hates valet parking, an activity that should be limited to Republicans.

Sahara

5441 Alpha Road at Montford Road
972-788-1898
Dallas Morning News Guide Comments

Rusty's Notes - Sahara describes its menu as "Persian Home Cooking." It must be like home, because lots of people who once called Tehran home eat there. Rusty came to learn the joys of Arab cuisine as a regular for the lunch buffet. Everyday 11-2 and 12-4 weekends a sumptuous buffet of kabobs, jeweled rice, rice palau, a Persian style meat, a traditional koresdt (stew), ash (soup), mast kashir (yogurt and cuucumbers with mint), salad and more await eager diners. At night Sahara offers a traditional ala carte menu of favorites. One of the gems on this simple menu is Braised Lamb Shanks at $8.99, at a fancy joint they would call this dish Ossu Buco and charge about $18. At Sahara they just call it Lamb Shanks, and you get two (instead of one at the fancy place) as ell as a plate of jeweled Persian Basmati rice that the fancy place can't touch. The braising broth is a heady broth with roasted peppers and the flavors of slow cooking. The shanks fall apart with just a touch with your fork. Don't tell too many folks about Sahara, it might get ruined. The other bad news for folks who just like to pay more is that you can't buy wine at Sahara. If you want wine you'll have to bring your own. They have three wineglasses for the customers who bring wine, the fourth broke awhile back, and usually have a cork screw. For insurance sake Rusty recommends bring your own pressed glass goblets and a screw. I used to stop in on nights that I worked late and was facing a "bach" dinner. I would stop at one of the liquor stores on Inwood, select a nice bottle of red wine, and head for Sahara for a relaxing dinner. You might say I was their biggest nking customer. I told the staff there that it was packed with vitamins and was good for your health. The answer was that they had heard of this before, and then would nod in the understanding that a man had to take his medicine. Rusty loves his medicine, especially a nice full bodied Zin with beef kabobs. I always give a thumbs up for value, quality, and the friendly staff. Plus the Sahara Food Store is next door.

Big Fish Little Fish

2810 N. Henderson Ave. at Central
214-821-4552
Dallas Morning News Guide Comments

Rusty's Notes - need

Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen

725 S Central Expressway at Spring Valley Rd.
972-235-1181

3520 Oak Lawn Ave. at Lemmon Ave.
214-521-4700
Dallas Morning News Guide Comments

Rusty's Notes -Take a trip to the Third ward in Houston (the westernmost outpost to Acadia) via Pappadeaux. Monstrous seafood dinners in a rich cajun style. Dinner for two can add up, but use this strategy dveloped by Rusty's brother Bobby Buttplate, Order one of the wonderful "Specials" split for two and also order some of the lower priced Cajun specialties (like red beans and boudin) at a lower price for two. For dessert split an order of bread pudding with vanilla ice cream.