16 September 4–10, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Meatball Sub Jimmy’s Food Store, 4901 Bryan St. The DiCarlo family has been slinging and selling Italian goods in East Dallas since 1966. Initially, the market was the go-to for the diverse immigrants that populated the neighborhood. Still, word got out, and now the small local market has become an anchor point for the developing area. Until 1997, you could only get its Italian sausage and meatballs during the holidays, but now these passed-down recipes are the focal point of the shops’ takeaway sandwich counter. Grandmother Rosa created the recipe for the meatballs that are stuffed inside a 6-inch toasted bun along with marinara, mozzarella, sweet peppers and onion. A touch of parsley and garlic powder allegedly separates these meatballs from everyone else’s. The parking spaces outside the store along Bryan Street rotate like a revolving door, so they might be right. No. 5 Special Burger Keller’s Drive-In, 6537 E. Northwest Highway The only thing that has changed between the time Keller’s opened in 1950 and today is a few dollars and cents added to the menu. But adding grilled onions to your burger is still free. This perfect old-school drive-in cooks everything to order, and it never uses a microwave or a freezer. The No. 5 special is a trademark burger with a signature poppyseed bun, double meat patty glued to- gether with American cheese, plus lettuce, tomato and special sauce. This classic burger takes the weekend troupe of bikers, classic car enthusiasts and generations of families back to an era when car ownership was be- coming near-ubiquitous. Let’s not forget that Keller’s is the only place in Dallas where you order a cold beer at your car, thanks to a grandfathered-in liquor law. And, great news, they take debit and credit cards now. Midnight Corn Dog Lakewood Landing, 5818 Live Oak St. There’s an unspoken late-night countdown at East Dallas’ resident dive bar every weekend. At midnight, the kitchen closes and everyone holding a beer suddenly has a paper boat cradling the Landing’s off-menu corn dog: a 100% beef hot dog from Rudolph’s dipped in fresh, house-made jala- peño cornmeal batter and fried until golden. This has been a nightly tradition since the late ‘90s. If you visit Sunday through Thursday, your Cinderella moment comes an hour early at 11 p.m. They serve up to 50 a night, and the most eaten in one sitting is 14. And don’t even think about trying to order one at 10:59:59 or 11:59:59. It’s 11 p.m. or midnight. On the dot. It’s served with a small cup of mustard (order ketchup at your own risk). Pulpo Al Pastor Revolver Taco Lounge, 2646 Elm St. Dallas is awash in tacos, but when Revolver Taco Lounge opened in Deep Ellum in 2017, it changed the culinary landscape for this most humble of foods. While spots like El Si Hay will always have long lines and repeat customers, Regino Rojas at Revolver introduced North Texas diners to a new style of upscale tacos reflective of his deep Mexican roots. His sis- ter-concept tasting room, Purepecha, is still the greatest em- bodiment of this re- fined appreciation of tacos. Still, the octopus tacos at the more casual Revolver Taco Lounge might be more popular. One of the pulpo options is served carnitas style with fried leek and a hot salsa verde. The other is served pas- tor style and comes with a whole tentacle lazing across a California- king-sized tortilla with grilled pineapple, scallion and cilantro. It’s so showy, it got its own spot on Netflix’s Taco Chronicles. Frozen Margarita Mariano’s Hacienda Ranch, 6300 Skillman St. Some people walk into 7-Eleven and leave with a 99-cent Big Gulp and a hot dog, but in 1971, Mariano Martinez left the convenience store with an idea — and soon, a legacy. When the quality and process of making margaritas were hindered by high demand and the time it took to prepare each drink, he saw the gas station Slurpee machine and thought it to be a genius new way to serve premixed mar- garitas that were perfect every time. After tinkering with an old soft-serve ice cream maker, the modified machine served the first-ever frozen margarita at Mariano’s Haci- enda Ranch at the start of the ‘70s. Firsts can often be left up to interpretation, but Mariano’s first-ever frozen mar- garita machine is on display at the Smithsonian in Wash- ington, D.C. How’s that for some street cred? Dumplings Jeng Chi, 400 N. Greenville Ave. You only need to know three words when you walk into Jeng Chi: juicy, steamed or boiled? Make that five if you prefer your dump- lings pan-fried. Jeng Chi has served its hand-shaped dumplings since 1990. More impressive, the Teng family has also sculpted and shaped its own space to maintain its mom-and-pop shop feel while catering to its growing clientele of Chi- nese and Taiwanese food lovers. When Mei “Mama” Teng came to America in 1985, she sold plastic bags of bao at the su- permarket where she worked in what would eventually become Richardson’s Chinatown. Years later, Yuan “Papa” Teng immigrated to Amer- ica, and they opened their first restaurant. They started with only four tables inside a 1,000-square-foot space, and now their 8,300-square-foot restaurant is recognized as one of Dallas’ oldest and longest-running Chinese restaurants. Papa Teng arrives at the restaurant as early as 1 a.m. to start working on the dough that forms the base of one of Dallas’ most cherished dumplings. Alison McLean The meatball sub from Jimmy’s Food store is a family recipe from the DiCarlo’s Grandma Rosa. City of Ate from p15 The pulpo al pastor taco from Revolver Taco Lounge. Alison McLean Kat hy Tra n Jeng Chi has been making dumplings since 1990.
