Category: <span>American</span>

People who are over 50 years old may remember a highly popular TV western miniseries called Lonesome Dove. The tales of two Texas Rangers and their adventures. The series was a great success, and won multiple Golden Globes and Emmys. My guess is Chef Tim Love is a huge fan, probably the reason why he named his flagship restaurant after the award winning series.
Chef Tim Love is best known for his “urban” western cuisine. He has several restaurants in Texas, mostly in Fort Worth area. Chef Love’s flagship restaurant Lonesome Dove opened in Fort Worth in 2000. 5 years after his success, he spin-off a sister bistro (Lonesome Dove Western Bistro) in Chelsea. It was not able to please the crowd in New York, it’s door shuttered after a brief 6 months. This Lonesome Dove in Austin is a new baby in the family, only one year old.
“Game meat” was the term when my friend used to introduced Chef Tim Love’s cuisine to me, as I am not with the term “urban” western cuisine. But the menu at Lonesome Dove is an interesting read. Terms like rattlesnake sausage, elk foie gras, wild boar, pork spinalis, certainly raised my eyebrows. Now I had to know, and there we were, sitting at Lonesome Dove’s barn-like dinning room.

upland What exactly is California inspired cuisine?? We have no idea. California is so big; there are different cuisines in each city, different produce, and different local flavors. So which California is Upland referring to?
Upland is a city in San Bernardino county in Southern California where Chef Justin Smille grew up. His 88 seats mid-town restaurant is backed by the famed restaurant mogul from Philly- Stephen Starr. Starr now has 6 restaurants in the city, all are highly popular, including the almost 2 years old child with Chef Justin Smille – Upland.

These are probably old news now, but I have been busy (eating), and finally get around to organize what we did in Miami……
Most people go to Miami for the sunny beach paradise, or the hot night scenes, some for the infinite pool side parties with frozen beverages, but I come to Miami for one thing, food… well, mostly. The sweet fried chicken at Yard Bird itself is enough reason for me to hop on the plane, plus the stone crab, and all the Cuban food… Honestly, I really don’t know how folks who live in Miami keep up with their beach body. Though our visit to various eateries, everything had been amazing, and we were very satisfied and keep going back for more. But, there’s always a but. During our most recent visit to Miami, we have encountered our first disappointment.

pubbellyThe Pubbelly boys, a trio of rising stars in the culinary world base out of Miami. Since the opening of Pubbelly in 2010, this empire now has 6 restaurants under the brand. All are critically acclaimed. Pubbelly and Pubbelly Sushi in Miami are both on the Eater Miami heat map for a long time, and still are. In fact, the year that Pubbelly opened, Chef Mendin was nominated for the James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef South award. He made it to the semi-final, then again and again, four years in a row. The other Pubbelly boy is Chef Navarro. The brothers met while working together at Nobu Miami and Sushisamba. Between this dynamic pair, Mendin takes cares of food, while Navarro gets in touch with his designer talent, and whatever they are doing, they seem to be getting it right. But….. we feel very differently.

Mission CantinaDanny Bowien- A Korean guy cooking (Americanized) Chinese food; a 2013 James Beard rising star Award winner. How does a long hair Asian dude take over down all the Italian chefs and won the pesto world champion (2008)? We are very curious.
We wanted to go to Danny Bowein’s place for quite sometime now. He made his fame in the west coast. After his move to this side of the continent, we now have Mission Chinese and Mission Cantina, both in Lower East Side.
So on a Thursday, we went for tacos. I should have done more reading before I went, apparently Mission Cantina had changed their menu to mostly burrito…. The only taco available on the day was fish taco. All those great cumin lamb taco, pork shoulder taco and mushroom tacos I’ve read so much about were “retired”, so was the chicken wings… Our server told us their menu frequently changes, and the items I mentioned were “winter season”. Disappointed but we still have high expectations about the sole taco on the menu. To be honest, there weren’t a lot of choices.