Eats
chow

Moby Empanada

CHOW, BABY
Call me Chow, Baby.  I felt like I was chasing a white whale, but all I wanted to do was try the pork empanadas ($8.95) at Paco & John’s (1116 8th Ave.). I had seen the dish listed a while back on the little chalkboard m...


Funky and chunky: DeVivo’s spaghetti and meatballs keep company with a stuffed artichoke. Lee Chastain

Mangia, ’Burbanites

The DeVivo brothers offer rustic comfort food with style.
LAURIE BARKER JAMES
Siblings John and Ralph DeVivo have combined skills they honed in previous careers to create the eatery that bears their name. John got his culinary degree and experience the hard way –– starting at El Centro College’s cu...



chow

F(r)oodian Analysis

CHOW, BABY
There I was on my therapist’s couch, wondering aloud how my unhealthy relationship with food got started. “Most of my fond foodie memories involve a safe place or a time in my life when I was carefree,” I said. “Like wh...


Steak, shrimp, and chicken fajitas are waiting at Flamingo’s. Lee Chastain

Flamingo’s Takes Flight

This newish Northside eatery transcends narrow labels to achieve unique culinary heights.
JIMMY FOWLER
The recently opened Flamingo’s, located on the North Side just south of the Stockyards, specializes in recipes from the area of Acapulco and the state of Guerrero on Mexico’s Pacific coast. The surprise isn’t that the men...



Chow

Foodies in the Movies

CHOW, BABY
Chow, Baby often sees its life as a movie. Imagine Mystic Pizza if it was told from the food critic’s perspective instead of that of the waitstaff and restaurant owner. I often find myself doing that on Chow, Baby outings: Th...


Elote co-owner Cynthia Loeb has a plate of fresh Tex-Mex and some ’ritas with your name on them. Adrien P. Maroney

Elote Is Elite

This little eatery specializes in semi-healthy Tex-Mex.
LAURIE BARKER JAMES
The words “gluten-free” and “Tex-Mex” combine in a way that makes your average cowboy grimace. In reality, Mexican cuisine, like most Western regional cuisines, is heavy on green veggies, beans, and corn, all of which l...



chow

Judging the Wild Side

Fort Worth Weekly
My Eastside friends always complain about how there are no restaurants in their neck of the woods. It’s true that neither Tim Love nor Jon Bonnell is likely scouting Eastside locales as a place to expand, but there’s got to...


The steaks are cut on-site — and then cooked to order, like this bone-in rib-eye. Lee Chastain

Chop House Delights

Despite its kitschiness, this steakhouse is decidedly au courant.
LAURIE BARKER JAMES
Chef Kenny Mills made himself at home in Arlington with Chop House Burgers, which started as a hole-in-the-wall near University of Texas at Arlington only a couple of years ago. Now Chop House has taken over half of the strip m...



chow

The Old (Grill) Is New Again

CHOW, BABY
The young are so helpful. Chow, Baby’s teenage nieces, for example, are always willing to point out how uncool and out of touch I am. Sadly, instead of sending me to the latest chic dive, their comments only drove me deeper i...


As this blackberry cobbler indicates, dessert at Copper Creek is a hit. Lee Chastain

Rustic Grace

Copper Creek gets decent marks overall but fails at labeling.
EDWARD BROWN
A lot of Tarrant County restaurants claim to be “Texas fine dining,” and a few of them, like Bonnell’s Fine Texas Cuisine, Lonesome Dove Bistro, and Reata Restaurant, actually make good on it. At other places, the bar isn...