| CITY OF ATE | ▼ Dish Carbone’s with an S We couldn’t get a table at Carbone so we went to Carbone’s. BY CHRIS WOLFGANG T he local food media has found themselves aflutter now that Carbone has opened its doors in Dallas. Eater described the opening as “highly anticipated,” and Culture Map suggested that Carbone, along with sister restaurant Sadelle, have taken Dallas by storm. The Dallas Morning News called Carbone “the biggest new res- taurant of 2022.” Naturally, we spilled some ink in honor of the opening as well, because not partaking in the madness throws the food journalism universe out of balance, and we can’t have that level of guilt weighing on our muffin-top. With all that press, Carbone must be the end-all-be-all of red-sauce Italian restau- rants, right? Truth is, we don’t yet know, be- cause getting a reservation is the hardest ask in town. Carbone takes reservations through Resy, but a table for two is booked solid for the next month, which is as far out as Car- bone makes them available. If you have a party of three or four, your odds improve somewhat, assuming you’re willing to head to dinner at 10 p.m. on a Tuesday and have two to three friends ready to drop $25 on a Caesar salad or $69 for the veal Parmesan. So we did the next best thing on a Satur- day night — we walked into Carbone’s and asked for a table for two and were seated right away. Not Carbone. Carbone’s. With an apostrophe s. Local restauranteur and chef Julian Bar- sotti has already proven his chops in the Dallas dining scene. Barsotti’s first Italian venture, Nonna, opened more than 15 years Chris Wolfgang ago and is consistently lauded as one of Dal- las’ best Italian joints. A decade ago, Barsotti launched Carbone’s, a more traditional Ital- ian-American spot named after Carbone’s in New Jersey where his grandmother was a co-owner. Barsotti also ran the now-shut- tered Sprezza and still operates Fachini in Highland Park Village, should you desire a plate of 100-layer lasagna. Carbone’s feels the most casual and ac- cessible of Barsotti’s establishments. It’s a small space nestled at the end spot of a shop- ping center, with solid wood tables, polished concrete floors and double-sided paper menus. This isn’t a formal review of Carbone’s, but it’s safe to say that we’re fans; they’ve been a fixture on our Top 100 restaurants list (along with Nonna) since we put our first list together in 2018. My dining companion for this visit is newish to Dallas and had never been to Carbone’s, so they had to try the fantastic lasagna Bolognese ($20), in which you can almost taste the hours it sim- mered in the kitchen. We also got the vodka tortellini, the folds of pasta a perfect al dente morsel to deliver the creamy vodka sauce. It’s also a bargain at $22, while the unobtainable vodka rigatoni at Carbone runs $33 (or a 50% premium for you number junkies). Naturally, we saved room for the cannoli, which is a $9 plate of lightly sweet heaven whose equal you would You can taste the hours spent on Carbone’s tremendous lasagna Bolognese. be hard-pressed to find outside of the five boroughs of NYC. Our waiter confirmed some of our suspi- cions, saying that Carbone’s has been getting a healthy serving of phone calls from people looking for the newcomer spot over in the Design District. Despite being the original Carbone’s in town, they’ve taken to answer- ing the phone as “Carbone’s Fine Food And Wine” to cut down on the misinformed call- ers. We’re no lawyers and have no idea how a naming dispute might play out in court. If Barsotti needs a lawyer, we’d suggest he reach out to Andrea Meyer, who recently scored a win of her own in Bisou Bisou’s naming dispute, for a recommendation. Our waiter had also heard the rumors of how expensive Carbone can be assuming you can get a table, even name-dropping the Caesar salad by price. We laughed and men- tioned that we would still angle for a reser- vation at Carbone as soon one becomes available, which encouraged this gem of truth in response. “I hope you can get in,” he said with a wry smile. “But I know you’ll be back.” Carbone’s Fine Food & Wine, 4208 Oak Lawn Avenue. Dinner 5:30 p.m. - 9 p.m. Sun- day - Thursday, and 5:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. Fri- day - Saturday. Lunch 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. daily. ▼ OPENING AND CLOSINGS A GEM SHUTTERS BUT SHINES ON T TEN BELLS TAVERN TO CLOSE APRIL 24. NO DATE SET FOR NEW SPOT YET. BY LAUREN DREWES DANIELS he froth of Bishop Arts is dissolving. Ten Bells Tavern, a local favorite bar with a great patio and chill vibe is set to close shop soon to make way for more apartments. Owner Meri Dahlke opened this spot a decade ago when the neighborhood was just a metaphorical burgeoning indie rock band. It was a highly unassuming pub from the get-go: a small-ish tin building with the logo in black spray paint on the side. But then the kitchen pushed out bar food that put high-end restaurants to shame. The dim in- terior has a sheen of grunge. It was a dark bar to drink a darker beer, as well as an open-air patio for an easy brunch or basket of fish and chips. Dahlke knew her days were numbered. Alamo Manhattan Corp. bought the land and in 2021 announced plans for mixed- used developments with apartments. Neigh- bor Local Oak closed at the end of last year. But, Dahlke thought her bar had until July. A few weeks ago they found out they had to be out by the end of April. Not to fret too much: the bar is relocating to a new space nearby at 238 W. 8th St. When it’s open we’ll be sure to let you know. For now, what you need to know is that you should get to Ten Bells Tavern between now and April 24 to help them get through this move. They have kitties to feed, after all, and bills to pay. ▼ BARBECUE SAY IT LOA’DER T WEEKLY EMAIL D SIGN UP FOR OUR WEEKLY EMAIL LIST www.dallasobserver.com/signup for feature stories, movie reviews, calendar picks and more! go to 15 15 GOLDEE’S BARBECUE CELEBRATES THE LAO NEW YEAR WITH A NEW SAUSAGE. BY SEAN WELCH he Lao New Year is in April, which is traditionally called Pi Mai. Techni- cally it’s from April 14 to 16, but the fellas at Goldee’s Barbecue will be celebrat- ing every Saturday in April by offering Lao sausage, sai oua. The sausage is a specialty from pitmaster, Nupohn Inthanousay. There are only about 250,000 Laotians in America with the third-largest >> p16 $1 OFF PER POUND MONDAY & TUESDAY CRAWFISH dallasobserver.comdallasobserver.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 APRIL 14–20, 2022
