Fearing's

My wife and I have a handful of restaurants that we like to visit on special occasions.  Fearing's is one of those places.  We have been going there for years and have never had a bad experience.  Some friends of ours were in town last weekend and that wanted to meet us for dinner, so we made plans to meet them at Fearing's.

Fearing's is a very elegant restaurant located inside the Ritz-Carlton in Dallas.  We arrived on time for our 8:30 reservation, but  still had a short wait before we were seated.  After we were seated in the sendero section of the restaurant, the wait staff immediately began to fawn over us and the great service continued throughout the meal.  Dean Fearing himself even made a visit to our table to make sure we were enjoying our experience.  They also brought over a bread basket that included some fantastic jalapeno corn bread muffins and dinner rolls; both of which were good, but I could have eaten two dozen of the corn bread muffins.

Mini Cornbread Muffins and Rolls

The dinner menu is a cornucopia of delicious items with individual touches you don't see at most other restaurants. Two of us decided to start with the Lobster Bisque and the other two decided to start with the Apricot Barbecue Glazed Lockhart Texas Quail.  It was my first time to try their lobster bisque and it was fantastic.  Honestly, it was the best lobster bisque that I have ever had.  It was served over ginger sizzling rice with a lobster pot sticker.  My wife enjoyed the quail which was served with a wedge salad and cider braised bacon.

Lobster Bisque with Lobster Pot Sticker

Apricot Barbecue Glazed Quail with Wedge Salad and Cider Braised Bacon

For the main course, I chose the bone-in ribeye because I have tried most of the other items on the dinner menu.  The ribeye had a sauce on it called West Texas "Mop" sauce and was served with corn bread pudding and fried asparagus.  I am usually not a fan of sauces on a steak, but this sauce was delicious on the very tender ribeye that was well marbled and melted in my mouth.  It was one of the most tender ribeyes I have ever had.  The fried asparagus was good as well, but the corn bread pudding was the better of the two sides.  

Bone-in Ribeye with Fried Asparagus and Cornbread Pudding

My wife and my buddy both had the Maple Black Peppercorn Soaked Buffalo Tenderloin, which I have had on a previous visit and loved.  The tenderloin was served with Brazos Valley Jalapeno Grits, Tangle of Greens, and a Butternut Squash Taquito with Smoky Chili Aioli.  Both had high praise for this entree, although my buddy did not care for the taste of the greens.  My buddy's fiancee chose to get the Pan Roasted ‘BBQ Spiced’ Filet and Chicken Fried Maine Lobster, which I have also enjoyed on a previous visit.  This entree is served with Loaded Whipped Potatoes and a Soft Spinach Taco with Smoked Tomato Gravy.  Although I never specifically asked her, I assume she enjoyed her meal since she ate almost everything.

Maple Black Peppercorn Soaked Buffalo Tenderloin with Jalapeno Grits

I couldn't leave Fearing's without having one of the fantastic cappuccinos and at least sharing sharing something with my wife off the dessert menu.  We decided to split the pumpkin ice cream sandwiched between gingerbread cookies.  There were three ice cream sandwiches and unfortunately, my wife got the better of the deal and ate two of them.  I rarely get ice cream for a dessert, but these pumpkin ice cream sandwiches at Fearing's were simply delectable.  My buddy decided to drink a port for dessert and his fiancee got the apple trio, which included an apple oatmeal crisp, an apple fried pie, and an apple spice cake.  Both were very content with their choices as well.

Pumpkin Ice Cream Sandwiched between Gingerbread Cookies

Once again, my dining experience at Fearing's was amazing.  The food is great, the setting is luxurious, and the service was spectacular.  Whether you are looking for a romantic date with your significant other or a fun place to meet friends for dinner, I highly recommend Fearing's.

Fearing's
http://www.fearingsrestaurant.com/
Livin the Good Life Rating = 5

Taverna Rossa

There is a new pizza joint in Collin Country that I have been dying to try.  In fact, I have been wanting to try Taverna Rossa since I first heard about it earlier in the spring (months before it opened).  This restaurant was getting a lot of press prior to it's opening due to the fact that the owners had a track record of producing quality pizza at Cadillac Pizza Pub in McKinney.  They also hired on Brian Luscher, owner/chef at The Grape, to help design the menu. Last weekend, my family and I finally got to try Taverna Rossa.

My youngest daughter enjoying her dinner

The restaurant had several choices available for appetizers, including cheese bread, roasted artichoke, meatballs, warm pretzel, etc.  All these sounded delicious, but the one that stood out the most was the Killer Texas Sausage Queso.  Chips and queso are something you do not see at most pizza places, but we couldn't say no when we read farther and found out you could also add brisket to it.  Suprisingly, it was served with corn chips rather than tortilla chips.  From the first scoop of queso, I knew that it would be a race between my wife and myself to see who could eat it the fastest.  It was phenomenal and made the trip to Plano worthwhile even if we had not decided to order pizza.

Killer Sausage Queso with Brisket

The pizza menu had several craft pizzas that looked appetizing, but the one that we agreed to get was The All American.  This pizza had red sauce, pepperoni, Luscher's sausage, turkey Canadian bacon, bacon, fontina, and house-blend mozzarella.  The pepperoni was superb and the sausage was good as well, but my wife claimed there was too much bacon on the pizza.  I say that is blasphemy.  There is no such thing as too much bacon!  Besides, the abundance of bacon was offset by the heart-healthy turkey Canadian bacon, which had a fantastic flavor that really stole the show.

The All American

My oldest daughter is not a pizza eater, so she chose to get the warm pretzel off the appetizer menu.  She didn't eat much of it because she was too busy eating the corn chips.  I thought it was very good and ended up eating most of it for her.  We got the grilled cheese sandwich off the kids menu for my one-year old and she seemed to love it.  I took a bite of it myself and was very impressed.

House Made Pretzel

Even though I was stuffed to the gills, I let my wife talk me into dessert.  We ordered the chocolate chip cookie and the Black Forest cheesecake.  The cookie was served in a pan and topped with vanilla ice cream.   All of us loved the cookie, which was very warm and tasted great with a bit of ice cream on each bite.  The cheesecake was very good and very rich, but it was a far cry from the greatness of the chocolate chip cookie!

Chocolate Chip Cookie with Vanilla Ice Cream 

Black Forest Cheesecake

Taverna Rossa has been one of the most hyped restaurants in DFW in recent months and was one of the few I have tried that lived up to the hype.  The food was outstanding and the service was great too.  The staff is friendly and eager to please.  Not to be outdone, the the decor was fitting for a high-end pizza pub as well.  If you are a fan of craft beer, they had several local options on tap.  Even though this pizza joint is very new, I would rate it among my top five places to get a pizza in DFW alongside Campisi's, Grimaldi's, Eno's, and Cane Rosso.

Taverna Rossa
http://tavernarossa.com/
Livin the Good Life Rating = 4

Coppell Deli

When I first moved to DFW in 2002, Coppell Deli was one of the first restaurants that I visited with friends.  Throughout the years, I have eaten here many times and the food quality is always well above average.  Although they are famous for their burgers, they also make a mighty fine breakfast.  They even had a breakfast sandwich, The Stubbs, that made the 1994All-Madden team.  I recently had to run some errands in the area, so I decided I would visit Coppell Deli since I have not eaten her in a couple of years.

Dining Area

When you walk into Coppell Deli, you will not see fancy decorations or a lot of fluff.  They have a couple of TVs that are always turned on sports and walls decorated with Dallas Cowboy memorabilia.  I respect restaurants that focus more on food than the decor.  After taking a short look at the menu, I decided on the bacon cheeseburger combo.  It was a tough decision, because I am also a fan of their chili cheeseburger.

Bacon Cheeseburger

I sat down to watch football and after a quick ten minute wait, my order came up.  I sat down and dug in.  The burger was flavorful and had crispy vegetables.  The bacon, which was crispy but not overcooked, was the highlight of the burger.  The fries were piping hot and were cooked to perfection.  I don't believe they are fresh cut fries, but they are still better than fries you get at 90% of other burger joints.  

Crispy Fries

Although Coppell Deli has many items on their menu, they are best known for their burgers.  It has been over a decade since I first had a burger at Coppell Deli and they still serve up some mighty fine burgers.  I wouldn't put this joint in my current top five list of best burgers in DFW, but it certainly deserves an honorable mention.  When I am in the Coppell area and craving a burger, this is the place I will go.

Coppell Deli
http://cdeli.delimansgrill.com/welcome/index.htm
Livin the Good Life Rating = 3

Cane Rosso

Cane Rosso has been on my "wish list" of restaurants to try for quite some time.  Unfortunately, I have not been able dine in Dallas recently; primarily due to a busy work schedule.  I also realize that only fat kids like myself have restaurant "wish lists."  The Dallas Observer included Cane Rosso on it's list of the Eight Best Pizza Places in Dallas.  D Magazine rated the restaurant as best pizza place in Dallas and included it in it's 2013 edition of the 100 Best Restaurants in Dallas.  

The Cane Rosso Pizza Oven

Cane Rosso has two locations in Dallas.  The original is in Deep Ellum, but we were closer to the one that recently opened in White Rock.  We arrived for an early dinner and beat the usual Saturday night crowds that plague most of the restaurants in Dallas.  They had a patio area that looked like fun, but we elected to eat inside because it was a little chilly when we arrived.  We were warmly greeted by the wait staff upon entering the restaurant.  Since it was our first visit, they explained the basics of Neapolitan style pizza and how it differed from New York style pizza.  Having had Neapolitan pizza before, I knew that they center was usually very doughy.  What I didn't know, is that their pizzas are only fired in the oven for 70 seconds.

We ordered our drinks and decided to start with an order of Angioletta.  This appetizer is fried pizza dough that is coated with grated Parmesan cheese and served with marinara.  This dish was very simple, but very good.  It was such a large portion that I feared I had not saved enough room for pizza.

Angioletta

The Livin The Good Life wife and I debated which pizza we wanted, but finally agreed on ordering the Prosciutto e Rucola.  This pizzas ingredients included prosciutto crudo (thinly sliced dry-cured ham), arugula, house-made mozzarella, shaved Parmigiano, garlic, and extra virgin olive oil.  The pizza arrived and it was larger than I had anticipated (approximately 14-15 inches).  The wife and I both enjoyed this pizza.  The prosciutto was great and all the ingredients blended together perfectly.  If I had to choose one negative thing about his pizza, it would be the garlic.  I would have preferred smaller garlic pieces instead of sliced cloves that were overpowering at times. 

Prosciutto e Rucola

I left Cane Rosso feeling fat and happy.  The wait staff was great and we did not have to wait very long for our appetizer or our pizza.  Cane Rosso definitely lived up to the hype, because we had a great experience.  The menu has several pizzas that I want to try, so we will be making a return trip to Cane Rosso.

Cane Rosso
http://ilcanerosso.com/
Livin the Good Life Rating = 5