11 April 9 - 15, 2026 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents The World Cup Tax Why Dallas diners might pay more this summer. BY JEFF SIEGEL A ll the experts say that the ab- solutely positively dumbest thing any restaurant in the Dallas area can do during this summer’s World Cup is raise prices to take advantage of the tens of thou- sands of visitors who are expected, the cap- tive audience to end all captive audiences. So why are so many so worried that this is exactly what will happen? Call it Texas- style World Cup price gouging. “That’s certainly not what we want anyone to do,” says Zane Harrington of Visit Dallas, the sales and marketing orga- nization that promotes Dallas tourism, ac- knowledging that there has been talk about just that subject. “We want visitors to experience true Texas hospitality, and that certainly doesn’t involve raising prices like that.” Not surprisingly, it was not easy getting people to talk about this. That’s because, say those who would go on record, we should expect higher restaurant prices. This could include surge pricing from food delivery services trying to work around traffic jams, driver shortages and unusually high demand. There’s proof that struggling restaurants are coping with inflation, higher rents and declining sales. Could we see price hikes as a way to turn around their businesses within a couple of weeks, regardless of the long-term damage they might cause? Which means that even if you’re not go- ing to the World Cup, don’t live anywhere near a game, or even care about what’s hap- pening, that Saturday date night or Tuesday takeout Chinese could — and probably will — cost more. If it doesn’t show up as a $30 sesame chicken, it could take the form of a one-time fee, such as a surcharge or even a cover charge. “You’re really opening a can of worms here,” says SMU Cox School of Business professor of marketing Venky Shankar, who prefers the term “price inflation” to that of “price gouging.” “It’s just not restaurants, either, but everyone in the hospitality indus- try who wants to profit from it. They see an opportunity to cash in. In the past, it’s reached unprecedented levels.” In fact, says Shankar, none of this is very new, whether at Super Bowls dating to the early 2000s or the hotel industry’s ability to jack up prices at a moment’s notice. ESPN says host city hotel rates for the World Cup are up more than 300% since December, and reports from the 2026 Super Bowl had head- lines like, “Hotels and Airbnbs Are Making Bank by Gouging Super Bowl Visitors This Week.” Even in Europe, where soccer is still a working-class tradition and counts for as much as the free market, there have been pricing issues. A Dutch report found that beer, wine and soft drink prices rose by at least one-third during the 2024 European Championships in Berlin. How about €6 (US$6.92) for half a liter of Coke? That’s the bad news. The good news is that, as of last week, spokespersons for DoorDash and Grubhub told the Observer they had no plans to boost prices or add fees for the World Cup, and both reiterated that pricing was up to each restaurant. In fact, the GrubHub publicist went out of his way to emphasize the service’s current initiative to eliminate fees for orders costing $50 or more. However, says Shankar, that may not be practical given the added aggravations of doing business during the World Cup, in which the services will face increased de- mand but will be using systems that aren’t designed for the extra tens of thousands of tourists expected for the World Cup, be it enough drivers or massive website use. Hence, they may have to add fees to cut de- mand during peak hours; in other words, surge pricing. Which means it may be time to hit that recipe website to find a couple of date night dinners, just in case. ▼ ACCOLADES BEARD GIVES DALLAS THE BIRD AN ITALIAN RESTAURANT IN DENTON AND A PASTRY LEGEND IN BISHOP ARTS ARE THE ONLY LOCAL FINALISTS IN THE JAMES BEARD FOUNDATION AWARDS. BY LAUREN DREWES DANIELS T he James Beard Foundation an- nounced the 2026 restaurant and chef nominees today. Back in Janu- ary, we learned that eight North Texas res- taurants and chefs were semifinalists. Here’s a quick rundown of who/what was in the running as semifinalists: • Best New Restaurant Far-Out • Outstanding Bakery Starship Bagel • Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker Maggie Huff, Lucia • Outstanding Bar Ayahuasca Cantina • Outstanding Professional in Cocktail Service Gabe Sanchez, Midnight Rambler • Best Chef: Texas Masayuki Otaka, MaboPatrick Hicks, Smoke’N Ash BBQ (Arlington) Scott Girling, Osteria II Muro (Denton) Best Pastry Chef A search for the term “Dallas” on the James Beard Foundation’s 12-page press re- lease for this year’s finalists yields only one hit. Maggie Huff of Lucia is a finalist for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker. We love this for the small Italian restaurant in Oak Cliff. Huff has done some amazing work in Dallas. This makes eight total nominations for Lucia in one way or another, starting with a 2014 semifinalist selection for owner and chef David Uygur for Best Chef Southwest. He’s been nominated five other times and was a finalist twice. Additionally, the restau- rant was a finalist for best restaurant in 2023. This is Huff’s third nomination; she was a semifinalist in 2017 for her work at FT33, then again in 2020 at Homewood. Let’s bring one home! It’s time. Best Chef Chef Scott Girling of Osteria Il Muro in Den- ton is a finalist for Best Chef Texas. Below is the full list with other finalists: • Ope Amosu, ChòpnBlok, Houston • Evelyn Garcia and Henry Lu, JUN, Houston • Scott Girling, Osteria Il Muro, Denton • Gabe Padilla and Melissa Padilla, Café Piro, Socorro • Finn Walter, The Nicolett, Lubbock Osteria Il Muro is a quaint Italian restau- rant with house-cured meats and hand-rolled pasta. Chef and owner Scott Girling moved to Italy after culinary school in Denton. He re- turned to North Texas and opened this res- taurant in a charming 80-year-old house in Denton. The menu is a four-course trip that starts with house-made breads and ends with inventive dishes like tajarin with duck speck. Reservations for Osteria Il Muro open at noon on the last Monday of the month for the following month. That was yesterday ... and April is all booked. Set an alarm for May. However, they open the Pasta Table, a bar- style pasta table, daily at noon. Good luck. Other Restaurant Awards Below is the full list of the best new res- taurant finalists: • 1033 Omakase, Milwaukee, WI • Agnes and Sherman, Houston • Anjin, Kansas City, MO • Emmett, Philadelphia, PA • Ki, Los Angeles, CA • Lei, New York, NY • Maison Bar à Vins, Washington, D.C. • Merci, Charleston, SC • Robin, St. Louis, MO • Tamba, Las Vegas, NV | CITY OF ATE | ▼ Dish Hillary Kladke/Getty Images You may want to stock up on your favorite booze before the World Cup arrives. >> p12 Sean Welch Chef Scott Girling at Osteria Il Muro is a James Beard Finalist.
