| CITY OF ATE | ▼ Dish Rainbowcat Chef Misti Norris Blends comic books, the ‘80s and food in new con- cept. BY LAUREN DREWES DANIELS M isti Norris, the James Beard- nominated chef at Petra and the Beast, is dabbling in a new project. Rainbowcat is a combination of two of her fa- vorite loves: food, naturally, and an artsy subculture that involves comic books, graphic novels and collectible vinyl toys. Norris debuted the concept the Tuesday before Christmas with a pop-up at Midnight Rambler downtown where she and a small crew took over the back bar and turned it into a makeshift kitchen. Mixologist Gabe Sanchez was the always-gracious host while Norris served diners an eclectic menu of childhood memories. “This is something I’ve wanted to do for more than five years,” Norris says. “Ideally, it will end up becoming a brick-and-mortar that is a comic book store where we sell graphic novels and vinyl toys and also have designers come in.” Norris envisions that when Rainbowcat comes to full fruition it will have a “sparkly bar” serving great noodles and eclectic bar food — things like the unicorn dog, which is a sticky rice bun seasoned with shiitake powder and sesame, smoked pepper sau- sage, hot mustard, mushroom mayo, pickled peppers. There’s also a porchetta McMuffin made to resemble the McDonald’s classic, only Misti Norris-style (photo at top). “Very almost game-centric,” Norris says of this concept, which will lean on ‘80s pop culture. “Things that bring you back to when you were a kid playing Mario and eating Cosmic Brownies.” The vibe and theme of Rainbowcat also delves into a world of subculture art, books ICYMI IN CASE YOU MISSED IT $1 OFF PER POUND MONDAY & TUESDAY CRAWFISH DAILY NEWSLETTER DALLASOBSERVER.COM/SIGNUP SUBSCRIBE TO OUR 113 Lauren Drewes Daniels Porchetta McMuffin and unicorn dog at Rainbowcat and music. “I collect graphic novels, and I’m a collec- tor of vinyl designer toys. I don’t even know how many I have at this point,” she says, al- though she estimates more than 1,000 when pushed. “There’s a whole subculture of de- signers around the world that make resin toys essentially. It’s more of an art piece than a toy.” Norris says finding the right home for this concept will be essential. She’s would like a space with a backyard where she can host private shows and have different art- ists come in and create; an underground subculture of art, music, books and food. “It’s essentially an extension of another part of my personality. I love food, but I also have this whole other side where I collect things,” Norris says. In terms of the menu, they have the ba- sics worked out (including the unicorn dog and porchetta McMuffin) but will continue to develop other items at future pop-ups. “It also may depend on the venue. Like there were certain things we wanted to do at the Rambler, but we needed more cooking area. So if we go somewhere else and have a full kitchen we can go all out.” They’re working on the details for more pop-ups soon. Follow the Rainbow- cat Instagram page for details. ▼ BEER BIG SUDS O CHEERS TO A BIGGER, BETTER BREWERY FOR TUPPS. BY AMY MEYER n Friday, Jan. 7, after a year of delays, TUPPS Brewery broke ground on its new facility. The expansion and relocation of the brewery will be just a mile away from their current brewery at 402 E. Louisiana St. in McKinney. The relocation will house a new 25,000-square-foot pro- duction facility, which is scheduled to open in October. TUPPS, which is family-owned and oper- ated, operates just outside of downtown McKinney on the historic Cotton Mill prop- erty and has been open since 2015. They produce both beers and hard seltzers and distribute throughout the states of Texas and Oklahoma. “Our new facility gives us the ability to manufacture four times our current produc- tion, allowing TUPPS to expand distribution to Houston and go deeper in the markets we currently serve,” owner and founder of TUPPS Keith Lewis said. The entire site will consist of a 10,000-square-foot taproom and 8,000-square-foot covered patio. Addi- tionally, there will be two beer gardens with an outdoor stage, an on-site coffee bar and a game area for both kids and the young at heart. “Everyone knows the world has been turned upside down due to COVID, but through the support of the city and the per- severance of our general contractor, Spaw- Glass, we are in a great position to build a very unique site that will drive economic growth on the east side of McKinney,” Lewis said. The new taproom is scheduled to be completed by December. In the meantime, the current TUPPS location is open five days a week, serving fresh flagship beers like Juice Pack double dry-hopped pale ale and the newest variants of their Full-Grown Man series. They also serve non-alcoholic beverages and hard seltzers and always have a stacked calendar of activities from weekly trivia and live music to special events like yoga and lo- cal vendor markets. You can also grab a bite at Barley by Rye, an on-site “gastrovan” serv- ing elevated bar food with locally sourced ingredients. TUPPS Brewery, 4-9 p.m. Wednesday -Thursday, 4-10 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m. - 10 p.m. Saturday, 12 - 6 p.m. Sunday ▼ FIRST LOOK JUST SAY SO W B2J SUANCAI: A FANCY NAME FOR CHINESE SAUERKRAUT FISH SOUP. BY ANGIE QUEBEDEAUX hen we first read about B2J Su- ancai Fish, we asked some of our more adventurous foodie friends to join us, and they turned their noses up at the thought of eating “sour fish soup.” How- ever, as we read more about it, we learned that sauerkraut is gai choi or pickled mus- tard greens, which called ‘suan cai’ in Man- darin. It’s Chinese sauerkraut. Well, damn, why didn’t you say so? Cantonese often call it syun choi (sour vegetable) or ham choi (salty vegetable). The vegetables are fermented using only salt, washed rice water and gai choi for about 21 days. And while you may think it sounds weird at best, it’s delicious. Owners Peipei Cao, and her husband, Xiaoming Lui, started this restau- >> p14 dallasobserver.com dallasobserver.com | CONTENTS | UNFAIR PARK | SCHUTZE | FEATURE | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | MOVIES | DISH | MUSIC | CLASSIFIED | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS DALLAS OBSERVER DALLAS OBSERVER MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014 JANUARY 20–26, 2022
