Back Talk Preston Hollow

Celebration Restaurant's new local produce menu

For someone with brown thumbs like me, the Dallas Farmers Market is the closest I'm going to get to right-off-the vine fresh tomatoes and strawberries.
This time of year, I especially love shopping (and sampling) the summer selection at the Dallas Farmers Market, and apparently, so does chef John Stout over at Celebration Restaurant.
He's just introduced a new seasonal menu featuring lots of fresh local produce. For example, there are Saxon Farm tomatoes that are served with pesto and mozzarella--or you can order a side of summer yellow squash from Lemley Produce in Canton.
And just an FYI, you can also order all these dishes to-go from Celebration's market. You know, in case you want to order a bucket of fresh fruit salad for your Fourth of July barbecue, and then tell all your guests you made it yourself.

Toll roads: Texans say no -- loudly

Or, on a scale of 10, 45 percent of us give toll roads a grade of 4 or less and nearly a quarter of us give it a zero. That's the result of a survey taken by the Texas Lyceum think tank, which looked at Texans' attitudes toward building and paying for new highways. And what do we like even less? Tolling existing roads, where opposition increased to 69 percent, including 53 percent who "strongly" oppose tolls on existing highways. Think tolls on LBJ to pay for its upkeep and maintenance, and you'll get the idea.

ATT moves to Dallas and other blogginess

Catching up after spending a week on the road (and yes, the airports were a zoo):

• AT&T. Yes, it's big news that AT&T is bringing its corporate headquarters to downtown Dallas. But let's not lose perspective. The company is only moving 700 of its 6,000 San Antonio-based employees, and it already has offices downtown and almost 13,000 employees in the area. This is not quite the same thing as American moving to the area, lock and stock and runway, in 1979.

• Restaurant coupons. Got another one over the weekend, this time for the Chic-fil-a on Central Expressway. There are three offers, all for free food with almost no restrictions.

• Sales tax revenue update. And who says Dallas' Only Daily Newspaper can't learn from others? Last week, it posted Dallas' sales tax revenue for the first six months of 2008. Just like we did here six weeks ago, when we discovered that the city projected a 5.9 percent increase. The actual increase is 2.4 percent. And its parent company's stock hit a yet another record low last week, closing at $5.70 after going as low as $5.51.

Technorati Tags: AT&T,Dallas City Council,Dallas Morning News,Chick-fil-a,restaurant coupons,Lake Highlands

No smoking in Dallas bars: It could happen, and soon

A press conference at city hall Monday is the first salvo in a huge campaign to outlaw smoking just about everywhere in Dallas where it isn't already outlawed, including bars and taverns — almost the only places left where a smoker can smoke within the city limits, according to the DMN. Monday's press conference is being hosted by a group of heavy-hitters against smoking, including the American Cancer Society, UT Southwestern and the American Heart Association. Mayor Tom Leppert and councilman Ron Natinsky already are on-record as supporting the full-fledged ban, which will probably be acted on in August when the council returns from its summer break.

DISD incompetence: Par for the course or a breath of fresh air?

The News did a follow-up story on the recently released DISD audit, and the story raises an interesting question: Is finding "incompetence" at DISD good news or bad? The story looks at both sides of that question. Those who think it's good news believe that Supt. Michael Hinojosa now has the ammunition he needs, as well as the funding, to solve this problem for the most part in the next couple of years. Those who think the audit means bad news for DISD seem to believe that uncovering incompetence at DISD isn't that difficult, has been done plenty of times in the past, and just shows that the goofs running the asylum now are no different from the many sets of goofs we've had during the past 20 years. As I said before here, DISD's biggest problem has been too many leaders lasting only a year or two or three, giving the incompetent staff there a chance to keep hiding in plain sight while each new leader figures his/her way around the district, only to be gone before being able to take action and be responsible for who works there. If Hinosjosa sticks around another five or 10 years, we won't be able to use that excuse anymore, but right now, it works.

Coupons, restaurants and the slowing economy

How does 25 percent off any check of $20 or more at any Black-eyed Pea sound? Or 20 percent off a food order at any of Picasso's three neighborhood locations?

These are not your typical restaurant coupon offers, which tend to run toward a free drink or buy one entree, get a second lower-priced entree free. These are substantial, almost no strings attached deals, and you don't see those very often. The Black-eyed Pea came in the mail; the Picasso's came in my email.

But the Picasso's coupon (which expires Monday) is up front: "Picasso's would like to keep your wallet filled while your gas tank is emptying it."

This ties in to a couple of recent posts here about Advocate-area restaurants weathering $4 gas and the slowing economy. And it's apparently not as bad here as elsewhere in the country. The National Restaurant Association reports that its business index has declined five of the past six months, "and their outlook for sales growth in the months ahead remains uncertain."

Technorati Tags: Picasso's,Black-eyed Pea,restaurants,coupons,economy

Live from New York ... it's George Carlin one last time

Saturday Night Live will give good ol' George Carlin a proper sendoff by airing an episode he hosted — an extra special episode — the first SNL ever. I've never seen it, and after watching the clips here, I'm looking forward to it. When Carlin died last week of apparent heart complications, there were a lot of articles, news packages and blogs remembering him as an edgy, foul-mouthed trouble-making comedic genius with drug problems, an arrest or two, and some hilarious routines that have gone down in history.

With that sort of reputation, it's interesting that my children know him only as the conductor from "Shining Time Station" — the miniature magic man (video) who introduced them to Thomas the Tank, who regularly offered up nuggets of wisdom, and appeared and disappeared in a poof of pixie dust.

I think it was this paradoxical personality that appealed to so many of us.

North Haven Gardens' Salsa Sunday this weekend

This month Advocate brought you a peak into this year's First Men's Garden Club Show at North Haven Gardens. Now, the garden center is getting ready to host another event, only this one will likely appeal more to your inner chef.
Salsa Sunday is a chance for you to whip up your meanest batch of homemade salsa, and see how it stacks up to other varieties in the neighborhood.
Aside from bragging rights, you could win $100 North Haven gift card for first place, $75 for second place, and $50 for third place.
Oh, and creativity is strongly encouraged, so it you want to do something fancy like a mango-jicama mix, go for it. If want to enter, get all the rules and details online.

DART chairman says no more jewelry and clothing funding advances

Good news on the DART front: The agency's new chairman has made it pretty clear that he's not interested in being in "the jewelry and clothing business." (Recall our recent post about the issue — employees started a separate bank account to facilitate employees' purchase of jewelry and clothing from a couple of vendors, then earned a commission from the transaction that was used to fund employee parties. But then the employees overspent the account, the vendors were mad about being stiffed, and the paperwork hit the media fan.)  Randall Chrisman told the DMN the obvious: There was no "nefarious" reason that the program, started 10 years or so ago, came around in the first place, but it's not the type of thing that a public entity needs to be doing. So after DART auditors rectify the mess (wasting resources that DART is supposed to be directing toward its core programs), the program will be over. Let's hope that's one lesson that stays fresh in everyone's minds at DART.

DISD audit released: Time and steady leadership needed now

The long-awaited DISD audit is finally out, and — surprise, surprise — the auditors found out that DISD's finance/accounting department is a mess, according to the DMN story. It's too bad it cost a couple of million dollars to find that out, again (same song, second verse, from the 1999 audit), but there you have it: A school district (or any business, for that matter) that changes leaders every couple of years is bound to have problems keeping track of its money, along with just about everything else.

Which is why the audit conclusions are no big surprise. And which is why it's time for DISD to solve this problem, once and for all (or at least until the next couple of superintendents take over...). Anyway, Supt. Michael Hinojosa looks to be staying around for awhile, and he's pledging to do what it takes to clean things up. All that needs to happen now is that the board needs to give him the money and rope necessary to hire quality people to run the department, reorganize the ways things operate and get started on the right path — a path the auditors and other finance people seem to think will take 3-5 years. And that's only going to be possible if Hinojosa stays around even longer than that — long enough to see the job through, minimizing the inevitable turnover that happens when the guy in charge keeps being turned over. Let's hope the board sees things that way, too.