Cake Bar

After having lunch at LUCK, my family decided to have some dessert while we were visiting Trinity Groves.  Cake Bar came highly recommended by several people, so we went around the corner and popped into this quaint little bakery.  Fourteen different varieties of cake were available on the day we visited and they also had several varieties of cookies.

Old Fashion Chocolate

Since we couldn't sample them all on this visit, we settled for trying the Old Fashion Chocolate and the Wedding Cake.  The chocolate was my favorite of the two.  It had a dark chocolate icing between each layer of the yellow cake and was flavorful.  The wedding cake was a pretty basic white cake with buttercream frosting.  Both cakes were very moist and had a good texture to them.  

Wedding Cake

My daughters also had two of the large chocolate chip cookies and I can only assume that the cookies were good because they ate both of them and refused to share.  The Cake Bar was worth the visit while we were at Trinity Groves, but I certainly wouldn't make a special visit just to eat dessert here.  The cakes were good, but they were not earth-shattering special as I had been led to believe.

Cake Bar
http://cakebardallas.com
Livin the Good Life Rating=3

LUCK-Local Urban Craft Kitchen

Trinity Groves seems to be one of the hottest dining areas in Dallas these days.  There are no shortages of highly recommended restaurants at this relatively new development and I have been wanting to visit for some time.  As "luck" would have it, my family and I finally ventured into this area of Dallas and dined at LUCK, which is the acronym for Local Urban Craft Kitchen.

Patio at LUCK

After a morning field trip to the Perot, we arrived hungry and started with the Hand Twisted Soft Pretzels.  They arrived quickly and were served with beer cheese fondue and stone ground mustard.  This appetizer was very good and even the kids loved them.  My wife preferred dipping hers in the mustard, while I preferred the beer cheese fondue.

Hand Twisted Soft Pretzels

For my main meal, I ordered the North Texas Hot Brown.  This open face sandwich was served with thick turkey, bacon, grilled tomatoes, and topped with white cheddar beer cheese sauce.  Impressive does not begin to describe the greatness of this sandwich.  The turkey was great, the thick cut bacon was crispy, and the beer cheese sauce was tasty as well.  The house-made chips were also much better than average.

North Texas Hot Brown

My wife had the Signature Pastrami Sandwich on sourdough and she graciously gave me half.  The brisket pastrami had been cured for three days and smoked for fifteen hours.  It was served with caramelized onions, stone ground mustard, and Swiss cheese.  As good as my sandwich was, this sandwich blew mine away in the flavor department.  It had the taste of pastrami, but the texture and bark of brisket.  This was the first time I have had pastrami like this and I am not sure I can ever go back to eating regular pastrami again.  

Signature Pastrami Sandwich

The kids enjoyed their grilled cheese and chips as well.  LUCK was busy on this Friday afternoon and we had to sit outside on the patio, but the fans and breeze made it a pleasant dining experience.  The servers aim to please and do a commendable job, but the food is the real hero here.  I was impressed with my first dining experience at Trinity Groves.  LUCK was as good as advertised and I need to plan a return trip in the near future!

LUCK-Local Urban Craft Kitchen
http://www.luckdallas.com
Livin the Good Life=4