Restaurant impresario Dale Wamstad got some more good folks to drink the Kool-Aid: A third branch of Main Street Bistro & Bakery has opened in his Shire center at the corner of the 190 (George Bush Freeway) & Jupiter Rd. This is the development w/ a branch of Wamstad’s Silver Fox steakhouse as well as Ye Shire Tavern. A Richardson chamber of commerce newsletter quotes Main St. co-owner Yasmine Bohsali as saying that she & her partner Fabien Goury “love the architecture, the look and touch of the materials“, calling it “very European“, before giving a nod to the “whole, larger vision that Dale has.” Whoa. But hey, anyone living on the east side of plano has to love the Dale not only for the development, but for bringing in some of the area’s best breads and baked goods. Like the original in grapevine and the 2nd branch at legacy in plano, this Main St has breads, pastries, sandwiches, light entrees, & coffee drinks. service, however, is N.S.G.

3600 Shire, Suite 100, Richardson. 972-578-0294

As a long-term Jamba Juice cheerleader, it’s been a bummer to see it get taken over in March by a consortium of $$ guys whose corporate-driven efforts to leanify & profitize have resulted in less choices for me-the-consumer. (boo-hoo, they discontinued my fave, Cranberry Craze … cran juice is a hot item amongst the ladeez, so I’m not being selfish here.) on the other hand, those corporate-driven efforts are also resulting in more jamba juice outlets, incl one in east plano an area that, alas, isn’t slated for gentrification until 2010. so cheers to that. in dallas, there’s now a jamba juice @ knox-central, in what used to be a Juice Zone. Juice Zone, HQed in Vancouver and an xlent chain in its own right, open a branch 6 wks ago in West Village w/ more on the way. One thing’s for sure: both are way better than smoothie king

Juice Zone: 3839 McKinney Ave. 214-522-9663
Jamba Juice @ Knox/75: 3001 Knox St. 214-559-6113
Jamba Juice in East Plano: 1201 E. Spring Creek Parkway, Suite 180. slated to open Feb. 1

apparently, starbucks has intro’d products that aren’t successful. i know i know: hard to comprehend (i can barely fathom it myself). but on a scale of great, greater, or greatest, this new holiday-edition Starbucks Grandma’s Turkey Sandwich merits a mere “great”. while nifty in concept - whole grain bread, “homestyle” turkey, stuffing, cran sauce - the um execution, not so much. there’s just a ton of stuffing. and said stuffing is very-very moist; you hardly notice the turkey at all. and it’s sloppy. it’s a sandwich whose filling basically = wet bread. a bread sandwich, if you will. but let’s put on a happy face (this IS starbucks we’re talking about, after all). overall, its sandwich program is xlnt, and don’t forget sbux’ proclivity for intro’ing new prods thus keeping blogs like this afloat

More idea-borrowing from JITB (altho this time the JITB idea isn’t worth borrowing): Steak n Shake’s Bits ‘n’ Pieces milk shakes, wherein PB cups, cookie dough, M&Ms, and cookies & cream are blended into the shake. Steak n Shake is a decent chain which sells steaky burgers and makes the ultimate customer-service sacrifice by staying open 24 hrs. Its shakes, made w/ real ice cream, are already perfect. So why gum things up w/ a buncha straw-clogging crap? And get this: a “regular” 20-oz shake has 964 cals, 34 g fat, & 149 carbs which is 50% of your daily allotment

March has been a regular orgy of new ice-creams-espresso-drinks-restaurants-in-dallas (so much so that getting items posted in a timely manner has been a challenge). By now, even Osama bin Laden has heard about quizno’s prime rib sub & arby’s chicken samwich. Rather than pretend these are news, this is a pointer to two xlent reports on said samwiches which address the following:
1. does the quizno’s prime rib sub really taste good
2. is arby’s chick any more like chick than its RB is like RB

*semi-deceptive photo shows double portion of meat

‘member when frozen yogurt used to be a thing, when there wuz a froz-yog stand on every corner? For various reasons, it’s sort of over, but there are still hangers-on. Gooey’s is a 2-store chain in Dallas that picked up where I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt left off. (In fact, they used to once be ICBY stores.) There’ll always be lactose-intolerant types out there who appreciate a place like Gooey’s, where the product’s 98% lactose free and where they also sell cakes, cookies, & other sweets. It’s all soft-serve, they have a total of about 18 flavors, and they change flavors every 3 wks.

NEW location: 19177 Preston Rd. 469-737-8986
11700 Preston Rd @ SE corner Forest Ln. 214-691-9319

Becuz it is Xmas week and who has the energy to track down a new place (but also becuz the restaurant in question has been in the news recently), today’s item comes almost straight from a publicist’s pen - namely that Il Mulino New York is doing a preset 4-course $45 menu, starting today & running thru ‘06. They’ll give you a choice of 1. caprese vs caesar, 2. porcini ravioli vs eggplant seafood rolatini, 3. sea bass, chick, or veal, and 4. dessert sampler. It’ll change monthly

2408 Cedar Springs. 214-855-5511

say, how bout some chicken-like extrusions

Here’s what you get when portability is your priority: BK Chicken Fries, which Burger King actually has the balls to call “innovative.” As if extruding chicken into a French fry shape is innovative. The chick sticks are coated in a “zesty, seasoned batter” and served in a cup that fits into your car cup-holder, w/ a well on the side for sauce (buffalo, BBQ, honey-must, sweet&sour, ranch). BK was already doing chick tenders, so this is just a mktg campaign to get young males on board (which is why the ads star a stupid fake band named Coq Roq – can you believe? on TV?) They’re $1.69 / 6 or $2.69 / 9, but keep in mind that all this ultra-cheap chicken ain’t cheap if you consider factory farms, the pathetic chicks themselves, the air/water pollution, etc. Somebody pays down the road.

coffee week, day 1

(note: this item is only loosely “coffee-related”) prologue: Krispy Kreme’s donuts blow. Now they have a crappy frozen drink too. (Actually, they’ve had it since July ‘04, but in limited release.) No surprise, it’s already tanking, which you can tell cuz they’re trying to drum up biz w/ 2-for-1 coupons. (if only the DMN would come to the rescue w/ a big story like they did when krispy kreme first came to town: “donut shop opens!”) Frozen blends (catchy!) consist of powder blended w/ ice — another gross-tasting sbux clone, except this doesn’t even have coffee mixed in. There’s choc, coffee, raspberry, and something called original kreme, described as a “drinkable version of the company’s signature donut” but which is really pretty much vanilla.

If you have a Pizza Patron nearby, I can clairvoyantly tell you about your ‘hood: It’s >40 percent Latin. That’s the strategy of this Garland-based chain, which will open 100 stores by end of ‘05 across SW: AZ, CO, CA, and of course TX, w/ 16 stores in dallas area. “Mexican pizza” is a buzzy fusion thing with no set definition; it usually boils to “replace Italian sausage w/ chorizo“. Pizza Patron is more about vibe: menus in Spanish, bilingual employees who say “buenos dias” when you enter. Bizness mags love Pizza Patron (”pizza boss”) cuz it was started by whizkid Antonio Swad, who founded (and then sold off) Wingstop. Bilingual or no, everyone understands this: Pizza Patron’s priciest pizza is $6.99.