| CITY OF ATE | t Dish The Essential Hidden Gems of Dallas BY HANK VAUGHN G uiqiao Chen will never forget the day in 2010 when she was working inside her small food truck in New York City and a tornado hit. Things didn’t go well. “In that moment, it’s very windy, the food truck rolls over, I’m stuck below, I can’t move,” Chen recalls. A lot of people, some of whom were customers, rushed over to help her. They got her out from under the truck. They saved her life. “I always remember that,” Chen says. Since then, Chen moved to North Texas and has opened two locations of Fat Ni BBQ – brick-and-mortar – where she serves street food from her native China, including house-made noodles and succulent skewers of grilled meats and vegetables. When she was starting her new life in Texas, “sweet customers,” as she calls them, came to her aid in different ways. They helped her acclimate to her new city, meet new friends and find a church. At Fat Ni BBQ, guests can watch sticks of meat cook over hot coals on an open grill just behind a window in the kitchen. Fat siz- zles over flames and whiffs of smoke float over the glass. This could be dangerous information, but Fat Ni is open until 2 a.m. every night of the week, except Tuesday. If you’re inclined to late-night munchies, you may find your- self dreaming of the $3 skewers. Do you re- ally need three sticks of grilled lamb at midnight? Of course you do. Chen is a self-taught cook who says she dreams of Fat Ni BBQ being famous one day. It might not be famous yet, but the restaurant certainly is a gem, a happy discovery almost as satisfying and fulfilling as the food itself. Who doesn’t like a little hidden-away restaurant, perhaps off the beaten path and often fulfilling an otherwise underrepre- sented food niche? A spot that shines a light on the owner’s unique personality, offering an experience infused with culture, and of course, amazing food. Dallas, like many modern cities, is replete 14 14 with sterile cookie-cutter strip malls, seem- ingly thousands of Starbucks and Subways. The sameness can be daunting and at times soul-crushing. Here we’ve pulled together a dozen or so hidden gems, like Fat Ni BBQ, Cindy Ju Vaughn, Hank Vaughn From top left to right, top row: Aso African Market jerk chicken, Montes burrito, Big Daddy’s fried pork chop basket; Second row, left to right: Crown Grocery & Deli burger and fries, Fat Ni BBQ’s skewers, E.B. Latin Bistro paella. Third row, left to right: Barbacoa tacos from El Tacaso, Hong Dumpling House dumplings, Nopales quesadilla at Huapango. that can restore one’s faith in a way that the latest offering from Arby’s simply cannot. Usually, hidden gems end up being family affairs, where the extended family pitches in and works the counter and grill, which is perhaps one of the reasons such places sur- vive years, if not decades. The Southammavong family is one such example. They own and operate Ly Food Market, a Lao restaurant and grocery store in southwest Dallas. Philip, one of the older sons, often works the counter. His mother, Ly, along with his father, Kam, started the location as a simple grocery store, but after customers repeatedly asked his mom how to prepare a given dish, she started hosting cooking demonstrations using a camping stove at the back of the store. Eventually, word of mouth created such a demand for her cooking demos that the family built a small kitchen, and then an even larger kitchen. Now, the restaurant is the main focus of what was once just a gro- cery store, and Philip’s younger brothers also pitch in, as does their grandmother on occasion. At one point Philip went to col- lege, but in the end he came back to the fam- ily business. He’s invested in its success. Similarly, Montes Burrito is set inside a Shell gas station in North Dallas. Originally, Armando Montes started this concept as a Mexican restaurant in Hillsboro and ex- panded to six locations. A couple of years ago, his son, Aaron, and daughter-in-law, Rachel, decided to open their own locations where they’d focus just on burritos. There aren’t enough family members to fill out all these locations, but some of Aaron and Rachel’s children will help out at the burrito spot, manning the counter or run- ning deliveries. And although the burrito spot is its own thing, sometimes Armando will stop by. “Yeah, he’ll come in and check on it. He was here last month. Like quality control. He makes sure the recipes are on track,” Aaron Montes says. A common trait at many of these small, under-the-radar restaurants is a sense of fam- ily that extends to customers. We were enjoy- ing a hamburger at one of these hidden gems, Crown Grocery and Deli in Oak Cliff, when a customer walked in and owner Ibrahim Dal- gamouni immediately lit up and called him by name. He asked where he’d been and men- tioned that he hadn’t seen him in a long time. They chatted for 15 minutes before the cus- tomer finally picked up his to-go order. Just be ready to occasionally wait for your food to be prepared at these gems. This isn’t a McDonald’s drive-thru, after all; good things take time. People seem content to wait patiently for their food, and the quick camaraderie that develops among the pa- trons only adds to the charm. Our most recent visit to Big Daddy Con- venience Store was no exception, as the aisles of the grocery store filled with people awaiting their baskets of fried chicken. “I’m at Big Daddy’s. Big Daddy’s! You’ve never heard of Big Daddy’s?” a customer asked incredulously into his mobile phone. Suddenly, we all were members of a secret fraternity of good eats, and woe to anyone who didn’t get that. Here’s a small sampling of places that one would be wise to try out while they re- main relatively hidden. After all, Jimmy’s Food Store was at one time considered a hidden gem, but have you tried to find parking there lately? >> p16 MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014 OCTOBER 13-19, 2022 DALLAS OBSERVER DALLAS OBSERVER | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | MOVIES | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | SCHUTZE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS dallasobserver.comdallasobserver.com
