Not Quite "Love" Shack: Dude Where's My Fries?

If you know me well, you know I have an odd obsession with Top Chef, considering I believe boiling pasta is a successful dinner creation.  Having watched the show and seeing Chef Tim Love hailing from Ft. Worth appear as both a judge and a competitor on Top Chef Masters and Iron Chef, I was very excited to find out one of his restaurants was coming somewhere more accessible to me.  Tim Love is known for using for wild game meats and making urban southwestern food. It is not uncommon to see ostrich or rabbit rattlesnake sausage on his menu in his upscale Steakhouse in Ft. Worth. I was informed by some co-workers that Chef Love decided to make a fast casual chain known as “Love Shack” that recently opened in Denton. I was more than excited to get to try some wild take on a normal burger.

Love Shack is tucked away in downtown Denton, where I appreciate its quaint and welcoming charm. We walked into the Love Shack that donned the catch phrase, “Live, Drink and Eat Well.” I quickly abided, as this is pretty much my personal motto.  The setup is fast casual, but does provide a waiter/waitress. The crowd was filled with a good mix of college students and others on their work lunch. The motif is rustic, casual and complete with a large patio and open seating. This is where the first problem began. Having the main indoor dining and the patio connecting, means you may have some unexpected company to your meal. By that, I mean flies. We had pesky flies coming in and out of our space throughout our lunch. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good picnic, but when you are actually trying to eat inside this is just not a pleasant experience. I ordered a “freshly made root beer” that tasted as though it had been poured directly from a barrel behind the bar. However, be warned that there are no free refills with this tasty drink.

The menu is definitely a different take on Burgers than your average burger joint. Think more along the lines of Twisted Root. There were options ranging from hot dogs with sauerkraut, fried Portobello mushroom veggie burgers, burgers complete with boar bacon and the list goes on and on.  One of my co-workers had the “Gobbler” turkey burger and stated that it was really tasty. I ordered the specialty “Dirty Love Burger” that comes complete with lettuce, tomato, pickles, “love sauce”, American cheese, bacon and a fried quail egg. Yes, I said quail egg. All burgers are cooked medium, just the way I like it. The burger came out and was just as I had presumed, delicious. It was cooked just the way I like a good burger, the bacon was thick and juicy and whatever the love sauce is, it tastes darn good. I also loved the touch of the quail egg, it wasn’t overpowering and for you less adventurous taste buds, no it does not taste any different than a regular egg. I was expecting to be stuffed after this burger, but I was happily satisfied and not overly full. Note: you can order a double if you are really looking for a full tummy.

However, just like love usually goes, the shack has its downfalls. We ordered a large basket of fries, and never saw them. I snuck a few off my co-workers plate, however his came out cold and a little limp. They tasted as if they had potential to be pretty good if they were hot. However, after not receiving our order and tasting the cold ones served to him, I opted not to hound the waitress for them to come out. There are also “crazy good onion rings” and “chile parmesean chips” that maybe would be a good option for the next visit. The service however, was awful. She did not bring the fries, and when asked to remove them from our ticket, it took about 20 minutes and 2 trips to the cash register for her to figure things out. That combined with the flies buzzing all over, made the ambience a bit less than ideal.

Here’s the bottom line, the food can get me to a place, but the experience makes me want to put it into my regular rotation. The burger was good, really good. The root beer tasted like what I imagine people drink in Heaven. However, I am yet to reserve the “best burger” title to a burger that replaces my dreams of bacon.  I would go back, because the food was good and I am willing to give the “experience” another shot. Maybe this time I will get my fries…

Torchy's: A less fussy (and more delicious) Fuzzy's.

With Fuzzy’s Taco Shops becoming as available as a Starbucks in the metroplex, we took a few friends’ advice to try something different and headed to Torchy’s Tacos. Originally an Austin staple, it has finally opened a location in North Dallas at Preston and Forest. We headed over to try the tacos and see how they measured up on the recent craze for gourmet tacos.

The restaurant is setup in a fast casual atmosphere with a user friendly menu and a lot of appealing, $3-5, wallet friendly options. For starters we had a bowl of queso with chips, which was one of the most delicious bowls of queso I have ever had, especially for fast casual. It was complete with queso fresco, green chilies, guacamole and cilantro. When planning your meal, make sure you save enough room for the queso to start.

I ordered the “Green Chile Pork” taco with slow roasted carnitas with green chilies, queso fresco, cilantro and lime. The taco was flavorful but yet not overdone with sauces or anything to distract from the flavor of the pork and green chilies. Sara and Diana tried the “Trailer Park” complete with fried chicken, green chilies, lettuce, pico with poblano sauce.  Order it “trashy” and they will take off the lettuce and add queso (yum!). Sara also had the “Crossroads” that included smoked brisket, grilled onions, jalapenos, cilantro, jack cheese and avocado. Everyone enjoyed their food and raved that we would all become regulars.

There are other items on the menu that I am excited to go back and try; the “Mr. Pink” seared tuna taco that I have heard great things about as well as the “Fried Avocado” taco that sounds like heaven on Earth.  Overall, my experience at Torchy’s was very pleasant and would highly recommend checking it out. It is cheap, a taco and splitting queso filled me up perfectly, and it is fast. In my opinion, and Sara and Diana’s, it is much better than Fuzzy’s. My only complaint about Torchy’s is the fact that they do not serve alcohol. I couldn’t help but think how delicious my green chile pork would have been with an ice cold Negra Modela. I hope to see more Torchy’s coming to the Dallas area; however I will happily make the short drive over to Preston/Forest to have a delicious taco anytime.

Torchy's website

The Brunch Bamboozle

As avid “deal hunters” and subscribing to every possible groupon/voice/living social deal of the day, Sara and I are always on the hunt for some delicious food at a more reasonable price. Sara purchased a 60% coupon off of a meal at Kathleen’s Sky Diner, located on Lovers Lane just west of the Tollway. We perused the online menu and decided that the brunch looked like our best bet.

We headed to Kathleen’s early on Sunday morning and arrived around 9. The place was not too crowded, but appeared to have a steady crowd. We were seated in a back table and did not see anyone for about 10-15 minutes. Another waitress came up to us and asked if we had been helped; as we told her we had not she stated that she would go find our server. Our waitress came up a few minutes later and seemed very “uninterested” but confused as to how we could have possibly been waiting for so long. She apologized and took our drink order, and we saw her again about 5 or so minutes later. Sara ordered fresh squeezed orange juice, which just might be the highlight of this diner. We agreed that this was the best OJ we had ever had. However, note that the small order is about as big as a healthy mixed shot you would order at a bar.

They brought us a basket with two muffins in it, a little stingier than Breadwinners, I thought to myself. The muffins were decent, nothing to rave about. However, they came in handy for holding us over to our long awaited meal.  The manager then came over at this point and asked if she could move us to another table as there was being work done on the roof. We abruptly left the table and moved, as we were informed that our meal would be comped.  This put us at ease a bit after the unpleasant beginning to our experience. 

Then we waited for our entrees, and we waited. About an hour into our wait the manager came over again and stated that they had lost our ticket, that she was again very sorry and wanted to comp our next meal there as well. We looked to each other and slightly smiled in disbelief of our unfortunate and lucky experience. We both admired that the manager acknowledged her wrongdoing and was very persistent in making sure we knew that they were at fault and wanted us to have a better experience in the future.
Our food eventually came out. Sara had the “lighter than air” ricotta pancakes with walnuts and banana praline syrup. The pancakes were true to their name and were very fluffy and delicious. I had the Rigo’s Especial, which was a play on Egg’s Benedict using chorizo instead of ham and with a jalapeno hollandaise. I must say that the jalapeno hollandaise was actually just a jalapeno on top of the sauce, which I was disappointed with. Overall, it was a decent meal and had I paid the actual price for the entrée I probably would have cared for it less.

Although our experience was less than ideal, the staff did ensure that we will return shortly. We now have two trips to make, another free meal and using our coupon! There are some other items on the menu that look “blog worthy” including a breakfast pasta with bacon. If not, I suppose there is always  that heavenly orange juice.