Swirll, a coming-soon winery/retail store with a thing for Ls, has an irresistible story: 1. it’s in the davis bldg downtown which is a hot spot for small-biz entrepreneurs 2. it’s a WINE place. Two trends in 1! Not to mention its owners, Louis & Peggy — an actual mom and pop. They don’t claim to be wine experts, but they came across this awesome franchise called Water to Wine, and wanted to bring it to dallas. They shopped for a site in plano but the landlords weren’t NEARLY as “friendly” ($$$) as the incentive-offering downtown folks. Swirll won’t open ’til june but they’ve already been quoted in newsweek and had profiles in modern luxury and something called red magazine. And now NYCE too. don’t want to be the last one, right

1311 Main St, 214-559-6020

Bay Street Deli & Grill is not exactly a Dining Destination; at heart it’s just another office bldg breakfast/lunch canteen. What makes it a little different: It comes from Henry Blitshtein, who owns Jaxx Cafe on Midway Road in Addison which is no Mansion on Turtle Creek, but is still a dependable restaurant with a healthy lunch business. At Bay St. he’s doing some Jaxx items that can be served fast, like hot wings, and also lunch specials like taco salad, crispy chicken, and pot roast, with two sides and bread. The employees at AIM Solutions and Just Brakes, who office in the bldg, are pinching themselves, and there’s some spillover from the nearby Doubletree Hotel.

8150 N Central Exway # M1020, 214-696-6464

Grilling chicken seems like, duh, a no-brainer. But it turns out there is bad grilled chicken and good grilled chicken. Ranch 1, a NY-based chain with more than 40 branches including a new outlet at the Galleria, even trademarked this phrase: “the best grilled chicken on earth”. Its “classic” sandwich has “gourmet greens”, toasted almonds, and roasted red-pepper sauce on a semolina roll. The Philly has cheese, peppers, and onions. There’s also a chick fajita wrap and a teriyaki bowl.

13350 Dallas Pkwy #3660, 972-934-3229

how about a kiss (see item below)

hershey’s, which is a seriously weird company (paranoid, secretive about products, etc), has, after decades of stubbornly clinging to the one the only kiss, gone nuts with spinoffs in the past few years… caramel, fudge, strawberry, TOO MANY to list here. anyway, some people (named marc) are intrigued by the latest, Double Vision, whose Defining Element is that they’re LAYERED. as opposed to swirled or filled or mulched. sinking further into the land of tool-dom: the layers consist of either dark + creamy choc or white + creamy choc. but i see this primarily as an opportunity to post some dumb/”zany” hershey’s kiss art.

a branch of the (connecticut-based) soft-serve ice cream company is going in at the corner of preston & royal. since the first texas carvel opened in flower mound in 12/03, half a dozen have sprouted in southlake, plano, mckinney, hurst, coppell, denton, and carrollton. eventually there’ll be 25 stores in texas, with dallas, frisco, and allen on the map. in 2004, carvel became part of a conglomerate called Focus Brands that includes Cinnabon and Seattle’s Best Coffee. it’s better than cold stone which is not saying much

it APPEARS to be a friendly mom-and-popper over at NW Highway and Ferndale Rd., serving espresso drinks, sandwiches, muffins, cookies, and so forth. and yet its aspirations are so lofty. cut to the website:

… our locally owned and operated business is here to serve you the best-tasting coffee, tea, and smoothies in the state.

goodness gracious. is there no limit to Divine’s ambitions? i mean, i can see “best-tasting coffee, tea, and smoothies in our lake highlands ‘hood”. or ok, maybe “in the city.” perhaps even “in the metroplex.” but texas is a very large state. after all that, they keep daytime hours only, 6 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Divine Coffee Shop, 10233 E Northwest Hwy, 214-221-4659

what a quaint name, huh. it’s a lunch-only diner just opened by Miriam Alonzo-Theissen (no relation to Tiffany Amber-Thiessen), a native of Guatemala who’s worked at restaurants in New York, California, Seattle (which is like its own state, man). This is a labor of love: Miriam makes her own soups (lentil, broccoli-cheese, potato, German cabbage), desserts (apple pie, lemon meringue, carrot-pineapple cake), and her own bread. Monday is lasagna day. She does box lunches, too, for $5.50.

The Cafe, 10505 Shady Trail Dr. #300, 214-351-9200

are these already way old news? i feel like i’ve seen them and even had them (or maybe that was just a reese’s cup), but marc - who i am forced to admit could easily make a living as a new-products scout, his powers of observation and propensity for buying snack foods are THAT GOOD - insists there was a commercial for them on TV last night and that he had never seen them before. i called the publicist i know/knew at Nabisco but her number’s disconnected; maybe she was downsized, too! ha. morbid humor. in the interest of sharing any and all food news, and as a tip of the hat to marc: peanut-butter oreos, rah rah.

it’s back! but first, a rumination on ice cream. whose fans fall into two camps: chocolate ice cream vs. not. the first camp, stop reading now. narrowing further, only those who dare admit to a love for candied fruit need proceed. that leaves maybe 15 people who’d probably like Blue Bell Fruit Special. (time for a description. lower the lights, if you will, and put on some soft music.) it’s pale pink (possibly “tutti-frutti” flavor?) pocked with candied fruit, mini-marshmallows, and an occasional chopped nut. it only remotely resembles real food but there’s something satisfying to the random maraschino cherry or green-tinted citrus peel in the fabulously-fake pink ice cream. Fruit Special appears to be a “seasonal flavor” (can anyone divine Blue Bell’s nutso release schedule?). it was available last summer and now it magically reappears (though not in every store, cuz that would be just too predictable for blue bell).