16 May 16 - 22, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents You Had Us at ‘Lasagna’ From garlic studded foccacia to lasagna blanca, dishes at Radici are built to woo. BY HANK VAUGHN T iffany Derry opened up Roots Southern Table in Farmers Branch in 2021, and accolades followed, including two James Beard nominations the follow- ing year for both Best Chef in Texas and Best New Restaurant. Not content to sit on their laurels, co-owners Derry and Tom Foley de- cided to branch out a bit (albeit in the same shopping center in Farmers Branch) with Radici Wood Fired Grill, an Italian restau- rant that offers traditional dishes with a modern twist using locally sourced and sea- sonal ingredients, all enhanced by open wood-fired cooking. While Roots Southern Table pays hom- age to Derry’s upbringing and culinary influ- ences in the South, Radici draws inspiration from Foley’s familial heritage and Derry’s early work in Italian restaurants as well as their travels through- out the many regions of Italy. Radici, in a display of clever and consistent nomenclature, means roots in Italian, so it’s a fitting name for their newest effort to bring comfortable fine dining with a twist to North Texas. The space, just a few doors down from Roots, enjoys the same warm and inviting light and décor as the first restaurant, with neutral colors and high ceil- ings in a not-too-crowded dining area with a clear view of the kitchen and pass. On this night, Derry was front and cen- ter there, seemingly overseeing each dish before it made its way to the tables. We started with a couple of cocktails, de- ciding upon a negroni (when in Rome… ) and a classic martini. The negroni was $16 and didn’t quite half fill an old-fashioned glass, prepared with Campari and Engine gin along with a splash of Dolin Rouge ver- mouth and garnished with a lemon peel and large ice cube. The martini was correctly prepared with gin (Malfi) and Cocci extra dry vermouth. It was perfectly chilled and mixed with a lemon peel, but the best part: it came with a sidecar of extra gin with which to replenish the drink, which helped a bit to take the sting out of the $20 price. The waitstaff were helpful and efficient, never letting our water glasses remain empty or used plates accumulate. They suggested we go with two starters (antipasti), a couple of pasta dishes (primi), a side or two, and one shared main (secondi), and so we did. Our starters were a rosemary and garlic confit focaccia and suppli al telefono. The fo- caccia showed off the wood-fired grill, full of both crunchy and chewy texture with a smoky flavor enhanced by the rosemary. It was topped with what seemed like a full head of creamy garlic cloves and served with a lit- tle side of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. It was just enough for two. The suppli were five risotto croquettes on a pesto and olive oil bed, topped with smoked mozzarella. Fried just right with sausage, chicken liver and pomodoro min- gled with the risotto, they were good, but the liver and sausage mélange was definitely front and center. Our pasta selections were the lasagna blanca and the coniglio alla gricia. The lasagna was pre- pared with sage, spinach pasta, Parmesan and nutmeg with a white Bolognese sauce; defi- nitely not of the style prepared by nonna on special occasions for family dinners, but an inter- esting and successful twist on this classic nonetheless. The second pasta dish had braised rabbit and casarecce pasta prepared in the gricia manner with guanciale, pecorino Romano, greens and black pepper. It was extremely good and full of complex flavor, in a good way. During the service, Derry would occa- sionally leave the kitchen and stop by vari- ous tables, talking to diners in a friendly manner, smiling and laughing and answer- ing questions while taking well-deserved kudos before eventually making her way back. Foley could be seen checking on this and that also. It was a relaxed atmosphere that was surprising considering they’d been open for less than a week. We ordered a bowl of Tuscan white beans as our side dish, and it was more of a soup, a wonderful soup of flavors that was basically Tuscany in a bowl and almost per- fectly matched the great northern bean soup I had often as a child. Our shared main was the braciole di maiale alla brace. I had imagined braciole as served by my Italian grandmother and pop- ularized by The Bear television show on FX, but actually it was a pork chop. Full of mis- placed righteous indignation, we searched Google and learned something new: braciole di maiala is really and truly a pork chop, not the rolled stuffed beef dish we had expected. This is the real deal as opposed to our (and The Bear’s) rolled and stuffed beef or veal Americanized version. We calmed down and dug in. This was a Kurobuta pork chop, a large one at that, grilled to perfection on that wood grill with a wonderful outer bark and tender and deeply flavorful interior, sliced into several servings, along with grilled ra- dicchio and whole borettane onions liberally seasoned with rich balsamic vinegar. It was one of the highlights of the year, so much so that we gnawed at the succulently moist meat that clung tantalizingly to the one bone that remained for garnish. We’re not proud. Our arms were twisted to order dessert, and we went with the pistachio olive oil cake, moist and not overly olive-oily and topped with crème fraiche, roasted pista- chio pieces and several slices of blood or- ange marmalade. It was a fitting end to a pretty good birthday meal, but you shouldn’t wait for a special occasion like that to try this place out. 12990 Bee St., Farmers Branch. Wednes- day – Thursday, 5:30–9:30 p.m.; Friday – Sat- urday, 5–10 p.m.; Sunday, 5–9:30 p.m.; closed Monday and Tuesday. ▼ EAT THIS PRETTY GOOD, EH? FROM POUTINE FRIES OVER CHICKEN-FRIED STEAK TO CANADIAN EGGS BENEDICT, THERE ARE MANY WINNERS AT THE MAPLE LEAF DINER IN DALLAS. BY NICK REYNOLDS I f you ask anybody where to find Cana- dian comfort fare in this city, trust us, it won’t be long before a certain Dallas diner pops up. Odds are it’ll get the first mention. Maple Leaf Diner has been the consum- mate Canadian fare destination in town for almost a decade. Since owners Michael De- laurier and his aunt Debra Delaurier founded Maple Leaf Diner in 2015 (Michael bought out Debra in 2018) it’s been featured on TV numerous times both locally and na- tionally. Paula Deen Magazine cited this Ca- nuck eatery as having one of the top 10 chicken and waffle dishes nationally. Located in Preston Valley Shopping Center (Preston Road and LBJ Freeway), Maple Leaf Diner is a brunch-focused haven that cranks out a smörgåsbord of classic Canadian-Ameri- can breakfast and lunch dishes with machine- like efficiency. And the generous portion sizes are one of the key reasons this diner has gener- ated so much acclaim over the years. All the hype it has received brings the crowds. Big crowds. This spot stays bustling. Arrive at peak hours, and it’s not a matter of whether there’s going to be a wait, but how long. We arrived on a recent Sunday well af- ter peak brunch and still had to wait outside 20 minutes for a table. The menu here is vast, but we’re going to go out on a limb and guess the reason most first-timers are drawn through the doors of Maple Leaf Diner is for the poutine, Cana- da’s iconic brown gravy-drenched French fries and cheese curds dish. We were going to go with a half-order of poutine until we realized we could get it over chicken-fried steak ($17.99). Sure, it probably upped our odds of a coronary by 5%, but YOLO. When it arrived, you could barely see that there was indeed a chicken fried steak some- where shrouded in all that glorious poutine. There are a lot of great hangover dishes out there, but this whopper of a dish has to be somewhere in the top five of all-time bests. Next, we went with another popular Ma- ple Leaf menu item, the pizza burger ($13.49), which was once showcased on the Travel Channel’s Food Paradise. This cre- ation comes topped with a Bolognese sauce, pepperoni, bacon, banana and bell peppers and breaded mushrooms, and it’s served with a side of marinara. Did we forget to mention the mini-brick of fried mozzarella? Yeah, it has one of those, too. And it is a burger, so somewhere among all that, you’ll find a fat, juicy beef patty cooked to order. Like we alluded to earlier, this place isn’t shy about excess. Even though we’d already ingested sev- eral thousand calories, we couldn’t leave without getting at least one item from | CITY OF ATE | ▼ Dish Hank Vaughn Coniglio alla gricia with braised rabbit, cassarecce, guanciale, pecorino romano, bitter greens and black pepper. THE SPACE, JUST A FEW DOORS DOWN FROM ROOTS, ENJOYS THE SAME WARM AND INVITING LIGHT AND DÉCOR AS THE FIRST RESTAURANT. Nick Reynolds The poutine over chicken-fried steak (yes, there’s a chicken-fried steak somewhere in there). >> p17
