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2 days ago

Edible Dallas Fort Worth
It’s time for this year's Meat Fight, coming up Sunday, November 12 at Community Beer Company. Tickets on sale tomorrow at 10AM! Get them here: www.prekindle.com/event/56297-meat-fight-2023-dallas Just check out the amazing chef "fighters" and be amazed!!!VIP entry: 6pm / GA entry: 7pm --- 21 AND UP ONLY Here's to meats, beers and finding a cure for MS!!#meatfight #meatfight2023 #funlanthropy #seriousfun #foodcompetition #charityevent #cureforMS #barbecueandbeer#nonprofitfundraising #dfwfoodies #edibledfw FestEvents Group ... See MoreSee Less
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The yummiest Sunday brunch board, wines, and mimosas are just a short drive and so very worth it!! You’ll love the food, ambiance, and hospitality at Deschain Cellars, Winery & Lounge in Gainesville…open Sundays from 11:30am-5pm. Tell them we made you go!!! 🥰😎😋 North Texas Wine Country #eatdrinkshoplocal #edibledfw #drinknorthtexas #brunchboard #forestwinery ... See MoreSee Less
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How did we miss #NationalCoffeeDay? We were certainly drinking plenty of it, lol!!You could continue celebrating like we are and check out this “Cultured Coffee” story from winter 2021 by Eric Swayne! Experience a coffee-crawl through 3 awesome local shops, and download a list of 17 coffee destinations and roasters with a local flair: www.edibledfw.com/winter-2021/cultured-coffee/🤠☕️💖#eatdrinklocal #dfwcoffee #edibledfw #supportlocal #localbuzz Pax & Beneficia Coffee Black Coffee Golden Boy Coffee Co. ... See MoreSee Less
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Get ready for a Meat Fight on November 12th!! This always fun, annual BBQ competition actually started in a backyard in Lake Highlands, and has evolved into a meaty chef-competition with a very worthy cause.This year's event features 20 local chefs who will make you eat as they compete for trophies for best brisket, best sausage, etc. -- and you'll also eat samples in the Sweet Fight competition! Oh and there's a casserole competition, and beer from Community Beer Co. Yes, just saying that you'll be very full of meaty, sweetie, and beery goodness. The festivities include more than simply gorging yourself. You'll enjoy a meat-themed midway with games, and the BEST PART: this fun-lanthropy event benefits people living with Multiple Sclerosis. Tickets go on sale October 3rd at 10am. See link below to snag yours!! 21 AND UP ONLY.Meat Fight is back! November 12th, we will smoke meats and happyscream together as we fight for a cure for MS.If you’ve never been to a Meat Fight, you can expect a ton of killer barbecue, all the beers, a midway with meat-themed games, an auction with barbecue-celebrity-packed items and the most fun you’ve ever had at a charity event.100% of ticket price goes directly to helping someone living with MS. We hope you’ll join us!Bookmark the link now, and don’t be late. Tickets go on sale Tuesday, October 3rd at 10 a.m. (and in the past, they’ve gone fast: www.prekindle.com/event/56297-meat-fight-2023-dallas ... See MoreSee Less
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6 days ago

Edible Dallas Fort Worth
Always appreciate being invited to the annual GO TEXAN Pavilion Preview Night at the State Fair of Texas! Lots of #localgoodness and saw plenty of friends, both old and new. When you’re at the State Fair, be sure you spend time at the GO TEXAN Pavilion and pick up lots of new local products!!!Texas Department of Agriculture #supportlocal #StateFairofTX #edibledfw #gotexan ... See MoreSee Less
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How We Drink

Photo: Matthew Rainwater
Photo: Robert Strickland

Nowhere has North Texas seen more dramatic change than in the way we drink. Craft beer alone has undergone nothing short of a revolution. A decade ago, Franconia Brewing Co. in McKinney and Rahr and Sons Brewing in Fort Worth were early, fledgling North Texas brewers. Today, they’re joined by dozens of breweries and brewpubs, and you can walk into almost any grocery store and grab a six-pack of Lakewood Lager or Deep Ellum Dallas Blonde. Likewise, Texas winemaking has hit its stride—with Mediterranean and Rhone grape varieties that thrive in Texas’ challenging terroir. And did someone say Texas spirits? Oh, yes. And cider? Last year alone, we got several new spots that are hot.

CRAFTING BEER

Loosening Texas’ brewing laws has unleashed Texans’ pent-up demand for craft beers. Now we carry our growlers to taprooms, grab a bite to eat at brewpubs and— yes, at last—lift a cold one where the ale or lager was made. Edible DFW’s “Texas Craft Beer Guide” in 2016 gave an insider snapshot of North Texas brew operations, from Peticolas to Braindead, but even since then the craft beer scene has grown dramatically (and many local brewers are being snapped up by major national companies).

Today, Brian Brown’s Beer in Big D website lists 72 breweries and brewpubs in the North Texas area plus 23 more “in development.” Meanwhile, pending bills before the state legislature are poised to correct a glaring disparity between breweries and wineries: consumers’ ability to purchase bottles to go. At a winery you can; at a brewery, you can’t. But we are heartened to find so many local brews at our local grocery stores—from more than a dozen producers, like Rahr’s exotic Paleta de Mango (mangochile beer with lime), Community Beer’s Mosaic IPA and others.

Photo: Courtesy of Kiepersol

NATIVE SPIRITS

Craft distilleries are rapidly taking root in North Texas. These days, area bartenders proudly fill cocktail glasses with native spirits—vodka, gin, rye, bourbon and blended whiskeys. In 2009, there were only six distilleries operating in Texas, according to the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. Today there are 149—an increase of over 2000 percent.

A dozen of these are in North Texas, with more on the way. Many spirit makers tout their Texas roots. At Western Sons Distilling in Pilot Point, vodkas come in the fruity Texas flavors—like Ruby Red grapefruit, Hill Country peaches, South Texas prickly pear, and Piney Woods blueberries. Calamity Gin from Dallas’ Southwest Spirits is infused with a bit of Texas bluebonnets. Tarrant County’s oldest bourbon maker, Firestone and Robertson Distilling Co., uses a proprietary yeast strain derived from Texas pecans. Local sourcing is important, too. In Fort Worth, BLK EYE Vodka is crafted from Texas-grown blackeyed peas and corn. Ironroot Republic in Denison creates their signature bourbon from non-GMO corn, grown and milled within 20 miles of the distillery. Likewise, Witherspoon Distillery in Lewisville. They rely on MBS Seed Co. in Denton to source their Texas grains.

Troy Robertson (left) and Leonard Firestone use yeast from Texas pecans.
Photo: Danny Fulgencio

A TOAST TO TEXAS WINES

In the past ten years, Texas wines passed two milestones: For the first time ever, in 2012, a Texas wine scored a double-gold at one of the world’s most prestigious wine competitions. The wine was Lost Oak Winery’s 2010 Viognier (from Burleson, no less), and the contest was the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. Then in January of this year, 4R Ranch Vineyards and Winery took Texas’ first-ever Sweepstakes award in the Chronicle contest for its 2017 Texas Nectar Nero. Other awards that have flowed to Texas wines show these are no flukes.

But you don’t need awards to tell you Texans are making good wine with Texasgrown grapes. Take a day trip and see (and taste) for yourself on one of the wine trails featured in the Edible DFW’s 2017 “Exploring North Texas Wine.” Or make a single vineyard your destination—like close-in Eden Hill Winery and Vineyard in Celina. Or the amazing complex of wineand- spirits-making as well as restaurant and overnight hospitality at Kiepersol Estates in East Texas.

And Texas wines’ other milestone? In 2015, grape growers harvested the state’s first-ever surplus followed by an even bigger surplus in 2017. Why is this a big deal? It means there were enough grapes to go around for all the Texas winemakers who wanted them—and less reason for vintners to purchase out-of-state grapes or juice. That, and now you can find good, vineyard-sourcedesignated Texas wines in a can—right up there with the big boys.

Kevin and Marta Sprague of Noble Coyote Coffee were named best artisan roasters in Texas last year by Food & Wine magazine.
Photo: Danny Fulgencio

JAVA, CIDER AND MORE

For the first time ever in 2014, Dallas became home to a cidery, Bishop Arts Cider Co., a space that was immediately too small to contain the city’s thirst for hard cider. An expansion in 2015 led to its sister Cidercade, an arcade-and-cidery complex in Dallas’ Design District, where Crackberry remains a popular Bishop Arts favorite.

Grapevine threw its figurative hat in the ring in 2017 with Outlaw Cider Co., specializing primarily in fruit-flavored ciders, like VooDoo Blackberry. And then came Trinity Cider in Deep Ellum last year, where the ciders reflect their maker’s Napa Valley winemaking roots, with flavors like Deep Ellum Dry and the Final Rosé.

Meanwhile, drinking good coffee from local, small-batch roasters has become easier than ever over the past decade, after crafters like Oak Cliff Coffee Roasters pioneered the craft. At one point, OCCR actually brought its coffee growers to Dallas for consumers to meet, and its coffee wakes up Deep Ellum Brewing Co.’s Oak Cliff Coffee Ale. Noble Coyote is another notable small-batch roaster that got a nod last year from Food & Wine magazine as the best artisan coffee roaster in Texas. You can find it at White Rock Farmers Market. In 2011, the Texas Cottage Food Law brought a raft of in-home coffee roasters to farmers markets, including Rowlett Coffee Roastery, which pours its brew and sells its beans at the Rockwall Farmers Market.

 

Texas Rye Punch

Recipe: Meredith Steele 
meredithbondsteele.com

Serve in a pitcher or punch bowl garnished with organic edible flowers—like pansies, violets, nasturtiums or marigold petals.

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KIM PIERCE is a Dallas freelance writer and editor who’s covered farmers markets and the locavore scene for some 30 years, including continuing coverage at The Dallas Morning News. She came by this passion writing about food, health, nutrition and wine. She and her partner nurture a backyard garden (no chickens – yet) and support local producers and those who grow foods sustainably. Back in the day, she co-authored The Phytopia Cookbook and more recently helped a team of writers win a 2014 International Association of Culinary Professionals Cookbook Award for The Oxford Encyclopedia for Food and Drink in America.

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