There are many days when I contemplate picking up and relocating to another state but sometimes I’m just to in love with Texas to even fathom leaving the Lonestar. Admittedly, I’m obsessed with the food, weather and history…really it’s about the food. I live in Dallas which I consider to be extremely dangerous to any foodie. Not only is the city packed with fine dining options it’s also filled to the brim with amazing Tex-Mex and other really affordable delights representing cuisines from around the world.
This past weekend kept us super busy with above all else: eating. Between the gastronomic adventures there was a lot of Texas beers and tequilas, good times with old friends and the making of new friends too.
*Please excuse the weak photos. I’ve been shooting strictly analog with the exception of these iphone captures. I promise the film stuff is better but patiently awaiting darkroom processing or scanning 
On Friday night we visited the new Pop Up 310 gallery, a project curated by James Cope (of the Goss-Michael Foundation) and Brian Gibb (of the Public Trust). Serving as a platform for writers, visuals artists and musicians, Friday’s show featured works by Shepard Fairey, Ryan McGinness, Tony Bones, and others.
The DJ was cool, the party was hoppin’ and the work was solid with tons of books, prints and (really) fantastic t-shirts for purchase. And this part of the post is really boring because I don’t have any photos to post (all at the lab) so enjoy one of my favorite Shepard Fairey works instead.
We finished out the night at our friend Paulo’s house where we consumed a silly amount of Sailor Jerry and some of the best cheeses I’ve had all year…mmmm cheese and artisan breads…and rum.
If you were hanging around downtown on Friday night you probably spotted hundreds of little lights sailing along our historic streets. Those were the headlights from some of the coolest european motorcycles and scooters I’ve ever seen and they marked the beginning of the Rockers vs. Mods rally that took place in various Dallas locales throughout the weekend.
We headed over to one of my favorite warm-weather hangouts, Lee Harvey’s, to view all these beauties on Saturday afternoon. Known for their hearty burgers and yummy onion rings with a side of spicy aioli this place always demolishes Saturday afternoon hunger. We threw back many a Lonestar and Shiner Bock beer while daydreaming about owning at least 20 of the 150+ bikes we spotted.
And because my nose leads my brain, I couldn’t resist heading around the corner to Off the Bone Barbeque for mounds of smoked ribs and beef sausage. All the meat is pecan smoked all night long and utilizing all the secrets of great Texas bbq masters…which means it’s damn good and I have consumed A LOT of bbq in my 28 years. Even the honey-spiced bbq beans and potato salad make you weep with delight.
After wiping all the sauce off our faces we headed to the Windmill Lounge which is probably my favorite bar in town. I spent at least $15 in the jukebox and I don’t even know how much on Hornito’s tequila shots and Ms. Pac-Man.
Not many hours passed before I was craving tacos. While many people may head to Taco Bell when they get a taco craving, that would be absolute blasphemy in our hood. Every block in our neighborhood (Oak Cliff…the best neighborhood in Dallas has a taco stand or Mexican restaurant and 99.9% of them are cheap cheap cheap.
SIDE NOTE: Many people claim that Austin, Texas has the best tacos…I would like to call bullshit. I’ve had your tacos ATX and a majority of the time they are as bland as the day is long. Dallas taco joints aren’t afraid of flavor and heat. I’ve never even had a good jalepeno in ATX…seriously, blah. If anyone would like me to judge a taco stand-off, BRING IT.
So, we stopped at not 1 but 2 of my favorite taco spots, Fuel City and El Padrino #2. At Fuel City, we loaded up on barbacoa, el pastor and steak tacos accompanied by raw and sauteed onions, whole, fat, hot hot hot jalepenos and big wedges of lime to squeeze over the meats…delish. The salsa verde is AMAZING too. El Padrino provided me with a chicken fajita torta topped with advocado, tomato and jalepenos, a couple of breakfast tacos (what’s wrong with me???) and the most delicious glass bottled coca-cola from Mexico (they’re better than regular cokes). I ate all of it!
Just when I thought our night was over (because I was in my underwear, eating tacos at 11pm) it started up again. We headed down to Quinn’s, one of our neighborhood bars to chat with friends. And you probably know how the rest goes: I drank my weight in Firefly Sweet Tea vodka, talked about the Texas Board of Education with three people I’ve never met (but now adore 
and wondered home to my bed at last call.
I won’t even tell you what I ate on Sunday but it was good and indulgent like the rest of my weekend. Good times.
-lo
