Back Talk Far North Dallas

Wine review: Koster-Wolf Riesling Trocken 2006

Dallas in August. Hot weather. Glaring sun. So why do so many people insist on drinking heavy red wines?

I don’t know. Instead, I drink wine like the Koster-Wolf (about $10 for a 1-liter bottle, available at Central Market) — light, low in alcohol, lemony, and cheap. Plus, it’s both food friendly and well-made enough to drink on its own. Think chilled, sitting on a shaded back porch in the evening just before the sun goes down. Or serve it with grilled or boiled seafood.

Trocken is the German  designation for a dry wine, but don’t be confused. It’s not nearly as dry as Americans are used to. But this doesn’t mean that it’s unduly sweet. Rather, it’s balanced by the acidity in the wine – as this one is, with the lemony flavor.

DART's $60,000 fiasco: No employees fired in accounting mess

Here's an update on the DART jewelry scandal discussed here on Back Talk awhile back, as the Morning News reports that DART's internal review has concluded and no DART employees will lose their jobs even though the mismanagement in this fiasco is breathtaking.

According to the DMN story, the problems — which involve a DART employee group that allowed employees to purchase jewelry from a vendor through payroll withholding — go well beyond simple mistakes. Instead, the review found that money wasn't withheld from paychecks, and it appears that hundreds of tickets sold by the committee to pay for a party were never paid for/invoiced.

Lawry's offering Oktoberfest and Rosh Hashanah dining events

This month Advocate gave you a peek into the minds and kitchens of some of the top chefs that live in our neighborhoods. Among those culinary heavyweights who call Far North Dallas home was Matt Melton, the youngest executive chef to ever head the kitchen at Lawry's The Prime Rib. 
The up-and-coming chef talked candidly about the struggles of balancing family life with his restaurant work shedule--and revealed a weakness for those little taco sauce packets from Taco Bell.
If you haven't been to Lawry's, you should. You might remember we featured the restaurant in our Far North Dallas Advocate a few months ago, and trust me: if you like red meat, this is your place.
If you want to see (or taste, I should say) firsthand what Melton is capable of, consider some of the upcoming dining events at Lawry's. You can now make reservations for the Sept. 19 Oktoberfest dinner there. The menu wasn't finalized when I checked last, but I'm willing to bet it involves sausage and beer...and a lot of each. There's also a Sept. 29 and 30 Rosh Hashanah four-course dinner happening there (that's the Jewish new year, in case you're scratching your head). If you're interested in either, make your reservations online or call 972.503.6688.

Annual J.J. Pearce cookout

Just a reminder, J.J. Pearce's annual neighborhood cookout is this Wednesday, Aug. 27, from 6-8 p.m. There will be plenty of chips and hot dogs for everyone, plus performances by this year's new Mighty Mustang Band and the Pacesetters. The WOLF 99.5 FM will also be out there doing a live broadcast and handing out freebies. Just look for the festivities at the same spot they are every year: out on the lawn off Senior Way. 

Trinity bridge delayed 10 months

Someone didn’t do a very good job of bidding the contract, apparently. Even the people at Dallas’ Only Daily Newspaper, who are about as supportive as humanly possible, are disappointed. Dare we even say surprised?

Which means you can watch your tax dollars at work, and not doing very much in the process.

Or, you can ask councilman Ron Natinsky, an ardent Trinity supporter, what happened at his town hall meeting tonight.

Technorati Tags: Trinity River bridge

Property tax holiday: Think the city will give you money back?

When I heard John Cappello on the stump during his run for mayor last time around, two things stood out in: 1) The guy sure makes a lot of sense, and therefore, 2) He has no chance whatsoever.

And so it was that Cappello was crushed in the multi-man mayoral race, only to show up as a member of the city commission on which I sit — the Commission on Innovation and Productivity. Jim Schutze wrote about this commission a couple of years ago when we looked into whether the frequency used by WRR-FM and owned by the city should be traded to a private station owner; even though there was lots of money in that deal for the city and not too much downside, that idea went down in political flames before ever reaching the council.

Burned-out city streetlights: A city program reduces the problem

One good thing going on at city hall these days has to do with our street lights — have you noticed that more of the lights are working these days? That's thanks to a simple program funded by the council last year to hire one guy to drive the city's main thoroughfares and report burned-out or broken streetlights to Oncor, which owns 72,000 streetlights in the city and maintains all of the city 85,000 streetlights under a contract paid for by the city. In other words, we pay a maintenance fee for each streetlight whether the light is lit up or not.

Until last year, Oncor responded to calls when the lights were out — but only if someone called; if no one reported the outage, the streetlight likely stayed dark for awhile. Apparently, the city had a full-time staffer monitoring the lights until 2002, when the position was cut from the budget. Without monitoring, the number of working lights fell to 83% of the total in February 2007 along major thoroughfares. The Public Works & Transportation Department started working on the issue, and after some support from a city commission that I'm a member of (Commission on Productivity and Innovation), initiated a test program with funding for a part-time streetlight monitor. The position worked so well that the position was funded full-time in the 2007-2008 budget year, and the department is hopeful the position will be funded again this year.

Go green: UTD art students create custom grocery totes

You've likely spotted them at the neighborhood Whole Foods, or at the new Sprouts off Coit and Campbell. Heck, you may have even seen them while shopping at the local Kroger. Those new eco-friendly totes are popping up at just about every grocery store.
A group of UTD art students are smart to the trend, so they decided to make it their latest project. They've created custom-printed grocery totes with all sorts of cool art and witty sayings on them. The bags go for $30 each, wich seems a bit steep, but keep in mind these are one-of-a-kind and you can use them for several years--plus, you'll be helping the envirionment while supoorting neighborhood arts. And just think about how hip you'll look with your go-green artsy tote thrown over your shoulder next time you're browsing the cereal asile at Whole Foods.
If you're interested in buying one of these bags, call UTD art professor Greg Metz at 972.883.2774.

Back-to-school musings

It's the first day of school and even if you don't have kids in school you know this and it is affecting your life (if you're not sure how, the folks at NBC 5 will tell you). My children started school last week so we were undergoing no more than the usual frenzy this morning but the broadcasters on the NBC 5 newscast were making me a little nervous. They repeatedly reported that it was the First Day of School; they talked about what the weather would be like during the First Week of School; what the traffic would be like during the First Week of School; what shopping at the grocery stores would feel like during the First Week of School; what the school bus drivers were thinking during the First Week of School, ad infinitum. The traffic reporter even listed all the school districts about the Metroplex enforcing the no-cell phone ordinance —which is all of them from what I heard. So yeah, we get it. Personally, I like this time of year. (I think I'm not alone, hence the intense reporting.) I enjoy the summer but I like the structure of the fall — the school year, football season, sports, full days that keep me on my toes and end in exhaustion. Call me crazy, but I find it invigorating.

Share your First Week of School experiences and thoughts (See, I'm on the back-to-school bandwagon too, despite my laments.)

Jessica Simpson to be new face of Stampede beer

Former J.J.Pearce Homecoming queen turned pop star Jessica Simpson just scored her newest gig. No, not a sequel to Dukes of Hazard (thank goodness). She'll now be the new face of Stampede Light Plus, a beer made by Dallas-based Stampede Brewing Co.
But this isn't your typical brew, supposedly. This Stampede beer has vitamins--or ummm, "functional additives." And Simpson has really bought into the good-for-you-brew concept, literally. She is taking a 15 percent stake in the brewer, according the the Dallas Morning News.