What the hell is this?
Friday’s hours of darkness can lead to mind-blowing debauchery, which tends to leave the partakers rather unsettled Saturday mornings.
When trying to fix this catastrophic feeling within, the usual suspects come to mind. Other so-called culinary experts go into raptures over venues that seem to leave me disgruntled like an old man trying to return soup at a deli. Usually, Bread Winners would be the answer, but that joint has gone downhill faster than the USA Winter Olympic team. This leaves only greasy breakfast spots like Metro or Kuby’s, but you can’t expect to continue one’s modeling career when you eat at those kind of places.
This is crunch time, ladies and gentlemen, so don’t make a rookie mistake, treat your body right. La Duni on Oaklawn (not on McKinney) pimps the Dallas culinary brunch scene. Their Huevos Finos, a Latin take on eggs benedict, eternally dismisses conservative eggs benedict. A flawlessly poached egg is positioned atop an ideal popover and then lightly drizzled with a Latin fusion hollandaise sauce. Order a side of Argentinean sausage with a guava bellini and you’re money, even if you don’t know it.
La Duni is not just a Latin kitchen, it is also a baking studio, which logically clarifies the ideal popover (they bake cakes that embarrass Celebrity). The atmosphere is sexy, which makes it perfect after a sleepover.
If I awake in the later hours of the 24 hours that I have in a day to work with, I post-up at the bar, have a liquored espresso drink and a Cuban sandwich with Yucca fries. Tabs can get expensive: space age cuisine is not cheap. If you want to go affordable then I suggest the Pancake House, but like I said, this place is sexy.
La Duni is expanding to a downtown location next to Obar and plans to expand to other major cities. So, claim La Duni as a Dallas original before it ruins itself through overexpansion and becomes another branch of the Brinker chain gangs.
Sleep through breakfast and brunch? Not a problem. Well kids, every once in a while one has to lower one’s tone a bit, especially after losing everything in Sin City. . . .
Lets talk Wild About Harry’s on Knox. This hotdog institution has been a Dallas favorite for ages, and anybody will tell you that if you are looking for a mean frank, these people serve ’em up dank! I’m talking about the New Yorker, one hell of a treat for us Euro-trashophiles. This ‘dog is served up thick and juicy, overflowing with sauerkraut, onions, cheese and mustard. Pure ecstasy for the hung-over and those of us who are trying to find some sense of tranquility with our munchies.
Wild Harry also has numerous other hotdog combinations for those of you who just don’t do the dew, not to mention an even seemingly larger ice cream selection than Oprah had back in ’94.
Regarding the ambience of this little eyesore, which is tucked away a couple of locations down from the Apple Store, be prepared to encounter numerous soccer moms shootin’ the shoot while waiting in line to purchase these luscious treats for the team of little hellions and heathens kicking and screaming while running around you in their cleats.
Sure, the character of this place is as callow as a “Laguna Beach” episode, but one has to remember it’s a hotdog joint! H&A, fair, balanced, telling you how it is.
Harrison Polsky and Alexander Schmidt can be reached at [email protected]
