| CITY OF ATE | t Dish One for the Road A trip to the Ugly Heifer Grill in Waxahachie is worth the gas. BY LAUREN DREWES DANIELS W ith the weather cooling off, we had an itch to take a drive for a meal and a change of scenery this weekend. We landed on the bustling town of Waxahachie, about 30 minutes south of downtown Dallas, in large part because of the name of a restau- rant: Ugly Heifer Grill. A photo of a chicken- fried steak on a review sealed the deal. As you drive south of Dallas County, urban sprawl is like a slow-burning grass fire. Per- haps a result of soaring home prices, new apartments and residential developments are popping up in fields far and wide, sticking out like sore thumbs in some cases, isolated and seemingly hasty. Don’t worry though, the Starbucks and McDonald’s will soon follow. Downtown Waxahachie appears to be en- joying some of the benefits. As you drive into town, you’re greeted by tree-lined streets with beautiful, large old houses leading to the town center. Here, you’ll find busy cafés, candy shops, bakeries, art galleries and ample thrift stores and flea markets. There was a ghost tour at the courthouse the evening we went. We spent a couple of hours walking around looking at old cookware, ashtrays and ceramic owl salt and pepper shakers. There’s also a candy shop, a cafe and a few restaurants in town. An old theater on the square is being renovated by a local clas- sic Texas country radio station, KBEC, 99.1. We didn’t hang around town for dinner, however, because as mentioned we had an Ugly Heifer to see about. It’s just three miles southwest of Waxahachie’s downtown area. The Ugly Heifer is in a new, small strip mall Lauren Drewes Daniels just across from the entrance of Scarborough Faire. There’s a piano at the front of the restau- rant, and if you’re inclined to play a few tunes, you can get a free burger plus whatever tips patrons leave you. Our server told us the two co-owners both play, so it’s just a fun amenity. We started with an order of fried pimento cheese balls ($6), which were served with a sweet chile sauce. These larger-than-golf- ball gooey orbs come five to an order and are encased with a thick cornmeal crust. They use the Pawley Island brand of pimento cheese for these, which is a small specialty food purveyor out of South Carolina. These were amazing and gave us great hope for the remainder of the meal. A lot of burgers were passing out of the kitchen, all served on boards with a steak knife stabbed in the middle and a mound of fries on the side. And as much as we wanted to try the Fat Heifer Burger, two-half-pound patties were a bit much. Besides, we were initially lured there by the chicken-fried steak. Here the quintes- sential Texas dish is called A Lil Bit of Chicken Fry ($18), and it’s an 8-ounce black Angus steak from 44 Farms served with mashed potatoes and covered in a black- pepper gravy accompanied by a huge butter- milk biscuit and fried okra. The meat had a tinge of pink in the middle, which was great by us, and the crispy and thick crust was a perfect canvas for the well-seasoned gravy. The fried okra was a touch al dente inside A true Texan wouldn’t hestitate to take a drive for chicken-fried steak like the Ugly Heifeirs’. with a thin, crispy crust. Our second entrée was the Slow Burn Chicken ($20), a half “slow-smoked” chicken with an almost blackened skin and lollipop trimmed leg. This was an amazing half-bird, and for the price, is two meals easy. It’s well seasoned with a kiss of smoke from the extra-crispy skin and meat. The mashed potatoes, broccoli and enormous buttermilk biscuit rounded out this rather comforting meal. (Actually, we wrapped up the biscuit and warmed it up for breakfast the next morning.) Ugly Heifer serves Henry’s Homemade Ice Cream from Plano, and a lot of people were ordering chocolate and strawberry shakes. The guy next to us had one as an ap- petizer. Also on offer are homemade peach cobbler and bread pudding, and as much as we wanted to try one of those, the shakes looked too good. An excuse to go back. And the strawberry shake ($5), like everything else, did not disappoint. The $12 lunch spe- cials, by the way, include Cajun meat pies. A few reviews mentioned how this spot does not serve beer or alcohol; no, it does not. A few other things to note before loading up the wagon: it closes for dinner at 8 p.m. and is closed all day Sunday and Monday. Leaving the restaurant we noticed that Scarborough Faire is doing Screams Hallow- een Theme Park through Oct. 29. You could do a combo scream fest followed by chicken- fried steak. Ugly Heifer also has a few tables outside, if you like to travel with your dog or just want to eat closer to a field. We took the long way home, winding up to Venus, just because of the celestial name, then Rendon, then home. A lot of new hous- ing developments dot the backroads, mixed with older houses that have been there for likely 50 years or more. It was a fulfilling road trip and felt like perhaps we made it be- fore traffic started to get heavy. The Ugly Heifer Grill, 2498 FM 66, Waxa- hachie. Tuesday – Saturday, 11 a.m. – 8 p.m. t FIRST LOOK PRAISE PASTA E ATASTE OF CATHEDRAL ITALIAN BISTRO IN PLANO. BY HANK VAUGHN xecutive chef Luke Rogers has re- bounded from the closing of Savor, the late restaurant at Klyde Warren Park that was a casualty of the pandemic, with his newest venture, Cathedral Italian Bistro in Plano. As reported in the Observer earlier this year prior to the opening, Rogers’ vision was of a combined steakhouse and Italian restaurant: “We’re going to have a steakhouse vibe, mixed with Italian food, wagyu steaks and handmade pastas.” Eager to try out new Italian restaurants and always on the lookout for another steak- house to add to our rotation, we stopped in the other night for a first look at this relatively new entry on the North Texas food scene. The cocktail menu has traditional favor- ites, such as a negroni or Manhattan, as well as some originals. We ordered a black cherry sour made with gin, lemon juice, black cherry syrup and cider, garnished with, of course, black cherries. Refreshing, crisp and photogenic. We also got a glass of pinot noir at a very reasonable $9 for a decent pour. Our research had steered us to try the Italian egg roll appetizer, and our server rec- ommended this as well, so like the lemmings we are we ordered it, along with some garlic knots. The quartet of egg rolls had a much larger circumference than we’d expected. The sausage was perhaps a bit blandly sea- soned, but the little cup of tomato sauce was surprisingly good and boded well for the pasta entries. The garlic knots came four to an >> p18 1 17 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 OCTOBER 20-26, 2022
