You won't Get In-N-Out Quickly for a While, But It's Worth Checking Out

Until today, I had never been to opening day of a restaurant, never mind the debut of an entire chain in the area. As much as I've always joked about camping out for free Chick-Fil-A when one of their stores opens, it has yet to happen. In fact, I'm usually one of those "I'll wait for the crowd to die down" type of people. So the fact that I ended up at the new In-N-Out Burger in Allen within an hour and a half of its opening may have meant that I was in totally new territory, but I'm totally glad that it happened.

So the obvious first question would be, "How bad were the lines?" Well, the walk-up line for the dining room really wasn't too bad, considering the crowds; it was "only" an hour and ten minutes from the time we entered the line until we hit the registers. The drive-thru line, however, was a much different story; one of the police officers directing traffic told me on the way out that the line had peaked about two miles back. And I heard somebody in line behind us asking a driver who was about six cars in back of the menu board how long he had been in line up to that point, and he said, "two hours." Yikes--I can't imagine using that much gas!

As for the food itself? I really liked it! Here in the DFW area, there are really two types of burger joints: The typical cheap, greasy McDonald's/Burger King/Wendy's-type places, and the much better (but usually pricey) options such as Scotty P's, Five Guys and Mooyah. In-N-Out slides quite neatly into its own niche in between those two types of places.

If you've never been to an In-N-Out, the menu is quite minimal: Hamburger, cheeseburger, and Double Double (two meat patties, two slices of cheese), and you can get a combo of same with fries and a drink. Sure, there are some things on the "not-so-secret menu" that can add variation (the most notable being "animal style," which involves grilled onions, double the secret sauce, mustard-fried patties and pickles, though I dispensed with the latter as I always do), but it's still pretty easy to memorize everything.

Texans will have to get used to the fact that the burger is built up, not out (much like urban architecture vs. suburban); it's skinnier than the burgers sold by the high-end places, but the famous Double-Double does go up a little higher, so while it takes a smaller grasp to pick it up (and includes less bread, which might please the carb-conscious folks), it was still quite filling and satisfying.


The fries were quite good; they could have maybe been a little warmer (although I'm somewhat forgiving in that regard because of the insane opening-day crowds), and--this surprised me--I almost felt the need to lightly salt them. (Understand that I'm a minimal-to-no salt guy who's been known to take salt off my fries at other places, so the fact that I thought something might need a pinch of it is telling; still, I prefer that to the other end of the spectrum.)


The thing that was most impressive was the prices: A #1 combo (Double double, medium fries, medium drink) comes in at only $6.15, whereas a Mooyah or Five Guys will usually set you back nine or ten bucks. (But as I noted on the Facebook picture I took of the receipt, they should probably tweak their price on the #1 by a penny or two, so that it doesn't come out to the purely evil amount of $6.66 with sales tax!)

I'm sure a lot of native Texans will want to know how it compares to our beloved Whataburger. And you know what? I'm going to punt that one--elude the question like the best of politicians. Each of them is unique, and in dine-out-crazy Dallas, there's room for both of those places.

And in case you're curious, I got a #1 combo: Double double, animal style (save for no tomatoes or pickles), fries and a Dr Pepper.

So when the initial hoopla settles down, what will be left is a pretty unique take on the all-American burger and fries, reasonably priced for what you get, and open till 1:00 in the morning (1:30 on weekends). If you're not a fan of big crowds, wait a week or so, but if you're a serious burger fan, check the place out so that you'll know what everyone has been talking about all this time.

(And let's open that proposed Garland location pretty soon, OK? We were originally supposed to be first!)

I'll have pictures added to this post once I can sync my new iPhone to the computer.

Well, It Looks LIke Katz's Does Klose After All

I received some unfortunate news on Facebook from a friend who's a UT-Austin alumnus: Katz's Deli, the iconic Sixth Street restaurant known for being open all night (its slogan, "Katz's Never Kloses," is even reflected in its website), will be shuttered just after New Year's:

Katz's Deli, the longstanding popular restaurant on West Sixth Street, will shut its doors for good after more than three decades of being a 24-hour Austin icon.

The restaurant filed for bankruptcy in July after some difficulties with the property owners. Owner Marc Katz, considered relocating but has since changed his mind.

"I saw Brett Favre on your station this morning getting beat up," said Katz. "I think I'm going to quit while I'm ahead."

The 63-year-old was upbeat about his 31 years on Sixth Street. "It's a great time to leave," he said. "Reminds me of a gambler who leaves while he's winning."

I haven't been to Katz's in quite a few years, but I was turned onto it a long time ago by some UT friends, and it became a regular stop for a while when I was taking sax quartets to State Solo & Ensemble on an annual basis. Not only was it always open, but the food was really good and quite plentiful; I usually enjoyed a Reuben sandwich that was bursting at the seams with meat. It was probably as close to a New York deli as you could find in Texas.

They'll stay open until January 2. I don't know if I'll be out that way before then, but I'll definitely remember some good times.

"Welcome to Chipotle. Please select your meat, beans, salsa...and energy."

I saw this on MySpace today (yes, some of us still use it!), and I thought it was cool: The Collin Creek location of Chipotle (a legendary haunt in the early days of this blog) is about to have solar panels installed as part of the company's new energy initiative:

The solar panels would reduce the restaurants’ traditional energy consumption during peak hours of energy use – 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. The amount of power produced will eliminate more than 41 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, according to a Chipotle news release.

Chipotle has purchased enough solar panels to install in about 75 restaurants, Arnold said, but identifying which Chipotle locations receive them is an ongoing process.

The company is looking at the restaurants’ access to sunlight, the lease terms, as well as neighboring buildings. Considering multiple criteria and parties involved, including municipalities, can make the process tedious, but it’s what the corporation deems right, Arnold said.

The solar power initiative stems from the restaurant chain’s core principle of “food with integrity,” Arnold said. It has been known to serve naturally raised meat from antibiotics- and hormone-free environments and is looking to expand in its use of local produce.

As I said, there was a time when I was at this Chipotle pretty much every week; the personnel knew me and my cohorts so well that they would tell us our orders before we even said anything. (This location, usually referred to as "15th Street" because of the exit off Central Expressway used to access it, was also the site of one of my craziest gastronomic accomplishments: the successful completion of the Two-Burrito Challenge, or 2BC for short.)

With the exception of special visits with the jazz combo (especially during exam week), I don't get to this location quite as often these days (especially since one opened up in my own neighborhood back in '05), but it's great to see the location doing well, and, as a freestanding building, it makes sense that this location is one to receive the solar panels.

And while I may not be a "greenie" or anything (even if I do own a pair of Birkenstocks), it's still nice to see a building become self-sustaining in this manner. So it's cool to think that, while any trip to Chipotle offers the choice of "black or pinto beans?", going to 15th Street will also give the option of "regular or solar power?". My proverbial hat (which is made of foil on Halloween) is off to them.

Zuzu's Peddles Great Mexican Food, and It Was Here All Along

I'm in the midst of my two-gig day, but I had to pop on during my break and rave about a restaurant that was a common haunt of mine during the '90s, until I thought it went away. Little did I know...

I should digress for a moment and point out that the northern leg of Interstate 635, known as the LBJ Freeway, seems to be a fairly solid dividing line for people who consider themselves either hardcore "urbanists" or "suburbanists." I know people in Dallas who rarely venture north of LBJ ("Why would I want to visit those cookie-cutter suburbs?"), and people in Plano or Frisco that never venture south of it ("Too much traffic! Too much crime!"). I go south of LBJ for church and gigs, but I do tend to be a "norther" most of the time, especially with all the cool New Urbanist developments popping up around here. And while some will even say that the suburbs have all the cool stuff these days, Old Urbanism scored some points with me this afternoon.

Back in the '90s, an up-and-coming chain started emerging in the DFW area. Its name is Zuzu Handmade Mexican Food, and it was like nothing I'd ever had before--a great middle ground between mass-produced Taco Bell/Bueno fare and pricier sit-down restaurants, and it predated the rise of "Fresh-Mex" places like Chipotle in the area by a number of years. I was particularly enamored with the chicken quesadillas, and the peach mango iced tea was to die for.

Zuzu exploded all over my neck of the woods in the next several years (well, OK, not exactly in Garland itself; we didn't get much actual retail here until Firewheel opened in '05). A west Richardson location served me on shopping errand days, while one in Plano was a favorite haunt on lunch breaks from my then-job on Saturdays (and they eventually opened a location within walking distance of said job; I was in quesadillla heaven!). I would sometimes eat at one in Carrollton on my way back from Denton. I was certainly a "regular" for a while.

But as often happens to restaurants that expand too quickly, contraction was to follow. The one by my job didn't last long at all, and was replaced by the still-going-strong Big Easy restaurant, forcing me back to west Plano for my Zuzu fix until that one also closed and became a Rockfish. The Carrollton location closed not too long before the opening of the Bush Turnpike rerouted me away from Trinity Mills Road. And the Richardson location, site of my first visit, also succumbed and was replaced with a Chinese place. As far as I knew, Zuzu was no more, and I could have sworn I'd read rumors of such in the restaurant columns of the Observer or the DMN Guide.

I was very happy to discover a location on MOPAC in Austin on my way to my sister's house, and I always made a mental note to stop there at some point, though it has yet to happen; on the way down there, I'm usually eating once I arrive at her house, and on my way back, I've usually just eaten. Still, I made a promise to myself to visit there eventually.

Fast forward to just a few hours ago. I was coming back from a gig in the Lakewood area of Dallas. Having driven to the gig down Garland Road (which, save for Casa Linda Plaza, is butt-ugly until you get to the Arboretum area), I decided to take a different route home and go straight up Abrams. The scenery was much better, and when I got to Mockingbird, I couldn't believe it--there, on the southeast corner, was a Zuzu! They hadn't left after all!

Needless to say, I stopped; I was looking for a place to eat anyway, and that certainly filled the bill. And after all those years, they didn't disappoint. Everything was just as I'd remembered it: The crispy chips with the delicious green salsa (they also have red), the rice with just a little bit of corn in it; the generous portion of chicken and cheese in the quesadillas. And I gulped down the peach-mango iced tea like there was no tomorrow; I'm surprised that I didn't have to stop at every gas station between there and home.

I told the guy behind the counter that it was my first visit since the suburban locations closed, and that everything was as good as it had been before. It's kind of funny that I never bothered Googling the chain to see that there were in fact a few locations left in the area (there's one in Addison as well), but I'm sure I'll make up for lost time in the weeks ahead.

It appears that the Zuzu "empire" has fractured into various franchises, so there's no common owner anymore, but the concept appears to be the same no matter where the restaurants are located. There's no website for the local edition, but the Austin stores have one, and the St. Louis ones have a good site as well.

So yes, this "norther" has a new reason to venture south of LBJ on occasion, or maybe even a new lunch spot after church.

(Bonus points if you can name the cultural reference in the title of this post; you may hear it a lot around a month from now.)

UPDATE: A week later, I was in the area of the Addison (Belt Line and Landmark) location and decided to give it a try as well. While it misses some of the funkiness of the Abrams location (the brick floor in the drink area with various people's names on the bricks, etc.), the food is just as good. It's owned by a different person than the Abrams one, and the setup is a bit different; chips aren't free, but the total bill is cheaper by about...the cost of an order of chips, so it all works out. While neither of these locations are exactly in my backyard, it's great to have them around.

This New Drink Fits Me to a "Tea"

Longtime readers of this blog know that I'm a big coffee guy (you wouldn't want to see me before I have my cup at breakfast) and a fan of Starbucks--not only for the beverages, but also the various purposes of the place (hanging with friends, reading, grading papers, etc.). In the summer, I tend to stop at one on the way to the college, both as a buffer between one type of teaching and the other, and as a chance to get a little reading done.

In the summer in Texas, a hot drink isn't very practical in the afternoon, so I skew towards Frappuccinos, but I'm aware of the caloric content of those things, so sometimes I'll get the shaken iced tea or the iced tea lemonade. That's cheaper, but there's not as much drink in there either, so there's a tradeoff involved.

But this afternoon, while on my usual stop, I was presented with another alternative as I prepared to order the tea lemonade. "Would you like it blended?" What's that; come again? "Yes, you can have it just over ice, or we can make it like a Frappuccino." Ooh, that sounds good; let's try that.

And I think I've found the answer to my summertime drink dilemma now. The blended tea has the substance of a Frap (and no wasted space filled with just ice) without the calories, and it's still a buck cheaper. I wondered if this was brand new, and, if not, why nobody had ever suggested this before. (A little research showed that some sort of blended tea had been offered since at least 2002, when the company pulled a controversial ad that some people accused of having 9/11 imagery.)

So thank you, anonymous female barista at Renner and North Star. You've guaranteed yourself some more sales now.

Jumpin' with java joy some more: The New York Times dispels some of the negative myths about coffee drinking.

Building an Empire from Scratch

Tonight's dinnertime brought me to the newest offering in Firewheel Market: Cooppie's. Billing itself as "American scratch cooking," it should make a serious dent in the "food like Mom used to make" market with its offerings, including fried chicken (and its cousins, chicken-fried steak and chicken-fried chicken), meat loaf, homemade cakes and pies, and so on.

Cooppie's is not your typical restaurant. Not only are all the sides served family-style at the table, but they rotate in threes from day to day, and the ones that are available have giant red checkmarks by their names on the giant menu on the wall (regular-sized menus are brought to each customer as well). Today's offerings of green beans, mashed potatoes, and seven-cheese macaroni and cheese were all quite good. If you run out, don't worry--they bring more. (With a table of two, this wasn't an issue.)

But even before the sides arrive, the meal starts out with a generous helping of green salad and a homemade three-cheese sheet bread; both were delicious, and refills on them were unlimited as well. (My friend who was with me tonight likened the constant arrival of food to "a buffet where you don't even have to get up." And while we both noted that perhaps a walk would do a body good after all that food, the restaurant is adjacent to the eminently walkable Firewheel Town Center, just in case that need should arise.)

The entrees were tasty and plentiful; I had the hickory baked chicken, which included a leg, wing, thigh and breast, while my friend had a huge piece of chicken-fried chicken. Service was friendly and fast, and, as I said, the table was never empty of food. We were too full to try the cake or pie, but that will happen on a future trip. The weekend breakfast also looks very good from the menu. Prices are reasonable--our entrees were $9.99 apiece--especially when the sheer amount of food is taken into consideration.

From first impressions, the new little restaurant with the funny name should do really well, as it presents diners with a choice not otherwise found in the Firewheel area. I was surprised to see that this is the first offering under its name; here's hoping that this concept will spread around the Metroplex.

An unusual sense of direction: I was amused by the directions on the map. They're different depending on what point on the (pie-shaped, in their case) compass one is coming from, and, while most of them are pretty accurate, the directions from the north are hilarious: Go 75 south to 635 east (nope, too far south--take the George Bush instead) and "exit Pigbelly Rd. and turn right." As you can imagine, there's no street by that name, and if there were, it would put you in Northeast Dallas, not Firewheel. My guess is either that they used this as a placeholder while they were developing the site and forgot to change it, or it's a little joke--nobody from due north would like Southern cooking anyway. (Also, the directions from the "northwest"--listed as Plano, Allen, and Frisco--are totally correct.)

Statement Cookies

I eat a lot of Chinese food during the week (although purists would sneer at my choices, since I usually end up either here or here , as opposed to the "authentic" Mom-and-Pop places that aren't really on my teaching route), so I've gotten more than my share of fortune cookies recently. Over the weekend, DMN writer Matt Wixon noted that one of the major producers of the cookies is about to give some of the fortunes an extreme makeover:

Wonton Food Inc. produces millions of fortune cookies each day. That makes it the fortune cookie king of America, and therefore, “soon to be showered with good luck” and “destined for many exciting adventures!”

[...](S)ome of the classic fortunes might soon get tossed like a Chinese to-go box from deep in the fridge. Wonton has decided to get more contemporary with its cookie messages, including one that says, “Time to get some professional help.”

Wonton’s marketing coordinator explained the new fortunes in a story in The New York Times.

“We wanted our fortune cookies to be a little more value-added,” he said.

Heh--you've gotta love when something as simple as a fortune cookie gets covered up in corporate gobbledygook.

But one thing that I've noticed recently is that what's inside the cookie rarely rises to the level of a fortune; they really should be called Statement Cookies most of the time. Using a random sampling method known as "cleaning out my wallet," I discovered that the statements far outnumbered the fortunes:

• Love is like war; easy to begin but hard to stop.


• Good food brings good health and longevity.


• Getting together with friends brings new adventures.


• A quiet evening with friends is the best tonic for a long day. (Hmm, I'm starting to sense a theme here.)


• Keep true to the dreams of your youth.


• Your example will inspire others.


• Next week, green will be a lucky color for you.

Of the above, only the last one really seems to qualify as a fortune; the third one, in fact, sounds more like a command. (And if you're wondering why I have so many fortunes in my wallet, it's because I sometimes play the lottery numbers that are on the bottom of the piece of paper. Winning something off that would make even the most statement-oriented cookie worthwhile.)

Your assignment for this week, should you choose to accept it: Bring in the most statement-oriented fortune you can find, and put it in the comments. Also, read the whole article and try to come up with some "value-added" fortunes of your own.

Better late than never: An Ohio couple got their wedding photos in the mail recently, just in time for their 27th anniversary.

A Taste of the Big Easy Returns to Texas

In the early days of this blog, I noted in the Fun Facts post that one of my favorite restaurants was Copeland's of New Orleans. For years, they had a Dallas outlet over by the late Prestonwood Mall, and I would have my birthday dinner there (if not on the "day of," then at least whenever my parents came to visit) for the better part of a decade.

But when the mall went under in 1999, Copeland's bravely hung on for a few more years (in a by-then-isolated corner next to a defunct Don Pablo's) before closing sometime in 2004. If only they could have managed to wait long enough for Prestonwood to reborn as a big-box "power center" last year with the likes of Barnes and Noble, Circuit City, etc.

So in recent years, a Copeland's trip would mean a visit to New Orleans; I had eaten at the one at St. Charles and Napoleon in the Garden District on a few occasions, though I missed it by mere minutes on the New Orleans Bowl trip in '04. Then Katrina came, and the Napoleon location closed (according to the website, it has yet to reopen). I did get to visit a West Bank location when I visited a friend in New Orleans on a spring break trip in '06, but that had been it so far.

So what I saw this evening came as a total surprise to me. While eating on a patio in Southlake Town Square with that same friend (the by now former New Orleanian), we were comparing Southlake to Firewheel. I noted that Southlake was a bit more upscale, and, while it didn't have any anchor stores, it did have a luxury hotel...and I pointed to the brand-new Hilton behind me. My friend took a look, froze, and pointed towards the hotel: "Oh my God, look!" I turned back and saw what he saw: The familiar Copeland's logo on the side of the hotel.

Yes indeed, there is a Copeland's at the Hilton. Believe me, if we hadn't already ordered drinks at the place we were eating, we would have changed our dinner plans right then and there. But since we'd already made the trek to Southlake pretty much on the strength of a gift card from one of their restaurants, a trip back for one of my favorite Big Easy imports is a no-brainer. And the birthday tradition can be revived as well.

I'll have a full report once we actually go there, but I'm sure that if they waited this long to return to the area, it'll be worth the wait.

I Bet the Colonel Isn't Lovin' This News

Surprising news item of the day: McDonald's now sells more chicken than KFC. They also evidently sell nearly as much chicken as they do burgers these days.

In the past several years, out of a desire to eat healthier, my visits to Mickey D's have dropped off precipitously. When i do go there, it's usually for breakfast on a roadtrip, and if it is at lunch or dinner, my meal of choice will pretty much always be a chicken sandwich instead of the beloved Quarter Pounder with Cheese of my youth.

And even though they've been offering salads for the past few years, I'll admit that I have yet to try one. I'm often leery of eating salads from a fast-food place; just how long has it been sitting in that little plastic box, anyway? But on the other hand, my hat goes off to Wendy's for offering that little Caesar salad as an alternative to fries; they've gotten my business quite a bit because of that. Those salads have never been anything but good and fresh, so I have no idea as to the source of my skepticism about the same salad in an entree-sized portion.

At any rate, I just thought this was somewhat interesting that a place known for its hamburgers would sell more chicken than a place which specializes in chicken; I was also surprised to find out that the most T-bone steaks in the world are sold at Waffle House. I guess you really do learn something new every day...

Animal stories: A staple of my old KNTU radio show resurfaces from time to time on this blog...

• A drunk man in Germany leaves his horse "parked" in line for the ATM as he sleeps off his condition on the bank floor.


• A woman in Wyoming has come under fire from her neighbors for keeping a goat in her minivan.


• A bull in rural New York state wanders into someone's garage and attacks their car.


• A pair of deer takes an impromptu tour of a retirement home after one of them wanders up and trips the automatic door.

I've been saving these up for a while, and I'm sure I'll have another set before long.

Blowing out the candles: Happy birthday to my old friend Danny in Indiana, a fine musician if there ever were one.