Sundown at the Granada: Winter Menu

Last week I had the privilege to attend the Winter Menu Preview, with many of  my fellow Dallas food bloggers, at Sundown at Granada. For those of you that don't know Sundown at Granada is a beer garden and restaurant located right next door to the famous Granada Theater in Lower Greenville.

I had a name card and everything!

With 60+ beers to pick from and food taken very seriously Sundown offers the largest patio on Greenville. And I will add that it's a heated patio so don't worry about those cold Texas winters. They have you covered, literally. Food wise they believe in farm-to-table, non GMO, organic fare. Most of which they try to grow in their 600 square foot garden. What they can't grow, like chickens, they make sure it's top quality and free-range. They want to make sure what you put into your body is the best for your body. Very holistic in their approach and many of their dishes from the Winter Menu are inherently vegan (or can have the meat removed to become vegan), gluten free, or both.

Course 1: Loaded Avocados

Southwest (left) Italian (back right) Waldorf (front center)

This is a trio dish of avocados served on endive with cucumbers as chips.

Southwest: Tomato | Feta | Black Bean | Sweet Corn | Hemp Seeds
Italian: Sundried Tomato | Almond | Parmesan | Balsamic Glaze | Basil
Waldorf: Chicken | Candied Walnuts | Cranberry | Sundried Tomato Vinaigrette 

Of the three my favorite was the Southwest. It had just a little bit of bite and the Tex-Mex flavors were extremely prevalent. My least favorite was the Waldorf. I found it to be too mild in flavor and everything was just too creamy. There wasn't enough texture although there were walnuts in the dish.

Course 2: Chicken and Andouille Sausage Gumbo with Wild Rice

Gumbo! 

When I saw this on the menu I knew it would be my favorite and I was right. I love gumbo though. This gumbo is actually gluten free because the roux is made from rice flour. You would never be able to tell the difference though. The gumbo itself was rich and deep with flavor while being spicy without being overwhelming. I would order a bucket of this.

Course 3: New Orleans BBQ Shrimp
Gulf Shrimp | Organic Blue Corn | Cheddar Grits | Bacon Braised Kale

First time trying grits. 

So this dish has a lot of things I normally wouldn't eat. I'm not the biggest fan of shrimp and I've never had grits in my life. Something about the name just doesn't appeal to me. But I wasn't going to let that stop me from trying the dish. With that said, this dish was mediocre to me. The blue corn cheddar grits were a very unappetizing color. Instead of being more of a blue they looked more of a gray which just isn't a color you want to eat unless you're in a Disney movie and a singing candlestick holder is telling you to try it.

The shrimp was fine, the grits were fine, the bacon kale was fine. Get it all in one bite and it's good. I won't go as far as great but yes everything is edible.

Course 4: Texas Ranch
Akaushi Brisket | Elote Corn | Black Beans | Roasted Onions | TexMex Rice

The brisket is the best!

This dish was the biggest disappointment. The dish overall was not that good, but it had the best tasting component of all the dishes on it, the Akaushi Brisket. The brisket beef is a Texas Wagu Steak that is roasted for 12 hours in Shiner Bock. Honestly, if the dish was just a giant slab of the brisket I would be thrilled. There were clear Mexican influences across the dish and if you removed the meat (which you shouldn't) the dish became vegan. I can't pinpoint what exactly went wrong with this dish, There was either too much salt or too much garlic but the corn, black beans, and rice just didn't come together the way they should. Now, the Chef did say there was a burger on the menu that had the brisket on it and I would probably recommend eating that.

Dessert:
Vegan Cake Brownie: Walnuts | Dolce De Leche Ice Cream

Delicious brownie 

Vegan Gluten-Free Apple Crumble: Texas Apples | Toasted Granola Topping | Vegan Coconut Ice Cream

Nothing better than apples

What is better than one dessert? Two! Of the two the Vegan Cake Brownie was my favorite but I am a sucker for apple-based desserts as well. You really can't go wrong with either one so it's just a matter of personal preference here.

Some of my fellow bloggers.

All-in-all the evening was phenomenal as well as the food. To be able to bond with my fellow foodies over these artfully prepared dishes was a treat in itself. The best thing about Sundown at Granada is the care that is obviously put into the food. The ingredients are noticeably fresh and the dishes are tailored to the seasons. Without a doubt I would go back. I would recommend you make this a date night place and swing by the Granada to see a show either before or after.

Tacolandia VS Taco Libre

In a previous post I talked about my glorious adventure at Taco Libre. The first, all taco all the time, festival held in downtown Dallas. Tacolandia is the Dallas Observer answer to Taco Libre. I realize the easiest way to go about this is to compare and contrast the two, because essentially they're the same event with a slightly different name.

Tacolandia took place at the Dallas City Hall Plaza, which is a nice, basically concrete, area of land with a small green patch and some random sculptures. My team (my brother, his girlfriend and my boyfriend) and I arrived about 10 minutes before the gates opened. I learned from Taco Libre to get there a little early unless you want to wait for an hour. Gates opened, we were given some boxes to hold our tacos and a voting chip and were free to eat. And when I say free to eat, I mean that in every sense of the term. It was free to eat. The cost of food was in the cost of your ticket.

So close to the entrance. I want to eat TACOS!

They had 28 vendors serving their version of a taco. Wait, let me correct that statement. They scheduled to have 28 different vendors but I know some didn't show up like Torchy's Tacos. I'm disappointed in you Torchy's. I love you so much and to see you willingly ignore an obligation you agreed to made me feel like your mother. Shaking my head in shame and sadness.

Most were street tacos and like I've said before, there are only so many meat, onion, cilantro tacos you can eat before you get bored. But there were some variations.

Velvet Taco wins for most unique with a Chicken Tikka Taco. An Indian-inspired taco with basmati rice and Thai basil. My brother and his girlfriend voted them to be the best taco based on sheer creativity.

Val's Cheesecakes, whom I actively follow on Instagram, created a taco cheesecake. Yep, taco...cheesecake. I'll wait for that to sink in. It is exactly what it sounds like. Taco flavored cheesecake. Against my better judgement I tried it and my gut was right. Cheesecakes are meant to be sweet not savory. It was too weird for me and I can't say I was a fan. But I'll try a cheesecake one of these days.

I had more than one salmon taco, on accident. It was about 80 degrees that day and salmon was just not something I wanted to eat. That's like asking for food poisoning. Kozy Kitchen was one of those salmon tacos, which I had one bite of and threw out because I refused to waste precious stomach space on tacos I didn't want to eat. One or Done. One bite or I finish it. No middle ground. They also had a buffalo taco, which was fine but not great. Another one bite wonder.

Biggest disappointment

Taco Diner had a chicken and waffle taco. Freaking CHICKEN AND WAFFLE taco. When I first walked by they didn't have any ready and when they finally did the line was ridiculous so I missed out on it's wonder. But props for the idea. I was actually extremely disappointed that I missed out of that taco above all others. I was so curious of this taco that when I recently went to Taco Diner I ordered it and was not thrilled. In the below picture the chicken at Tacolandia was obviously fired to a crispy goodness. At Taco Diner the chicken was breaded in an egg batter like tempura and that was a mistake. The batter didn't hold up well enough to the sauce and the maple syrup. You lost the texture, which an egg batter already doesn't offer much of, rather quickly. Fried chicken Taco Diner, or none at all.

Photo credit to Taco Diner

Lazaranda had my favorite taco of the day. It was a pulled pork taco but the sauce was just this side of salsa and the pickled veggies were on point. Plus, they put the cheese on the bottom AND they threw that on the flat top so it melted and just started to crisp up. I ate one, loved it, waited in line for 10 minutes to both give them my vote, along with the boyfriend, and eat another.

Check out that glorious winner! Well my personal winner.

Besides the food, Tacolandia also took things a little further for its patrons. There was a DJ pumping out some tunes. They had the only grass area set up with bags, massive beer pong, horseshoes, just some fun lawn games. There were some photo-opt areas throughout plus an actual photo-booth area hidden among the taco vendors. They also had people doing Sugar Skull face paintings, which actually looked legit. Those people did a good job. The only thing you  needed to pay for inside the event was drinks. But all drinks. Alcoholic and non-alcoholic alike.

My personal take-away: 

If Tacolandia and Taco Libre got together and had a baby, that baby would be "The Best Damn Taco Festival in Texas" (I'm claiming that name).

Taco Libre did great with publicizing the event. It was packed. Again, had to wait an hour to get in and the event sold out. Tacolandia was not so packed (which isn't really a downside as a customer but as a coordinator not exactly what you want). It was out on social media but I don't feel like it was as much as it could be. Taco Libre paid for social media ads, either got local food bloggers to advertise on their social sites or were out there enough that bloggers just went ahead and promoted it themselves. Leading up to Taco Libre I couldn't escape it. Tacolandia was really only promoted in the Dallas Observer. I did see an occasional flyer here or there, but I didn't see anywhere near as much of it on Insta nor did I see much on Facebook. It was there, but not as predominate as it could be.

Taco Libre had bands. Granted they were more Mexican bands and that's not really my thing, but live music is nice. Tacolandia had a DJ. He did music. But no one really cared.

Tacolandia was 21+. No damn kids ALLOWED! That was the best. No kids running around, no strollers, no crying. I was so happy to not have to deal with children under my feet while navigating tacos. I'm focused. I'm in the zone. My taco zone does not include me making sure that I don't murder your children. 

Tacolandia was smart to include the cost of food in the ticket. And the ticket prices weren't outrageous either. I got my tickets on sale for National Taco Day, they were 40% off, so that knocked the cost down to $15/ticket. $15 for all you can eat tacos is a deal to me. Hell, $25 still isn't that bad for all you can eat tacos. Taco Libre had it that you had to buy tickets, then buy tacos, and buy beer. It was a mess of money. Here, I didn't have to pick and choose with tacos I ate because I didn't want to spend $100 on tacos alone.

Tacolandia was in the "fall", which in Texas still means summer. That was nice. The weather that weekend was in the 80s. It wasn't blistering hot like Taco Libre was. The outdoor space offered a variety of locations to sit when Taco Libre offered only the grass and, fingers crossed, you didn't get stepped on. Now, to be fair, Taco Libre's location was visually more appealing, taking place in a park, but Tacolandia was more...user friendly.

This is how "The Best Damn Taco Festival in Texas" needs to work. Cost of food included in the ticket, more advertising on social media, done on or around National Taco Day (puts your solidly in early fall, plus give it more of a "national" reason which could up the attendance rate), keep the outdoor activities and keep the music.

Put that taco in your box and eat it!