Modern Lifestyles WINTER 2016 | Page 57

catfish always ring home with me, and coincidentally, it shines through on my menu. We take simple dishes and try to elevate them with classical technique and look at them from a new angle. I feel that your surroundings and what you were raised on has a direct effect on what you’ll consider comfort food, whether you realize it or not. Q: What do YOU consider comfort food.? What do you make at home for yourself and/ or family? A: If my grandmother cooked it, I consider it comfort food. There is such a generational gap in terms of cooking nowadays. More than likely your grandparents cooked heartier dishes because that’s what they had to eat to survive. They didn’t have all of the modern convenience that is so common today. When I actually get to cook something for myself at home I always go simple with roasted vegetables, meatloaf, braised oxtail, or a roasted chicken. No frills, but delicious just the same. Q: A question for Bandon Smoot, wine director and Trevor Landry, beverage director: Wine Sales - more reds? What types? Any specialty cocktails for this time of year? A. Bandon: Wine people certainly have comfort wines. It “drills” deeper than Cabernets; Our sense of smell is intertwined with our memories. So when we especially enjoy a wine it’s often from evoking the memory of previous great wine experiences, and possibly more than just wine. I suppose comfort wine wouldn’t necessarily be our best experiences, just those to which we effortlessly attach ourselves. So wines of clarity, wines with precise, distinct flavors, structural and textural attributes, wines whose virtues are plain, and plainly our own style. Trevor: One of our best-known cocktails is the Tiki Blvd. - a homagemage to the famous SMU Blvd across the street. It’s a private label mount gray- black barrel rum, house spiced syrup, St. Elizabeth allspice dram, byrrh grand quinquina, and stella cidre. In our mind, an appropriate fall cocktail is defined by flavors that are more likely to come out of the oven than come out of a glass! This cocktail includes flavors of molasses, caramel, cinnamon, allspice, clovers, orange, apple, and apple cider. The private label black barrel rum is a blend of aged rums from different barrels hand selected by us and bottled exclusively for NL Group. The house spiced syrup includes cooked down oranges combined with cinnamon, allspice and cloves. Byrrh is a fortified wine, much like sweet vermouth with flavors of violet and spicy dark chocolate. The drink is served in a tall pilsner glass garnished with a thinly sliced apple chain. Located in Hotel Lumen right across the street from the SMU campus, Front Room Tavern features upscale, modern Americana dishes in a laid-back setting. We focus on familiar foods you love and give them our own special twist. Our menu consists of foods that are full of heart, soul and flavor to give you the chance to experience these classic dishes like never before. Front Room Tavern 6101 Hillcrest Avenue Dallas, Texas 75205 214-219-8282 www.frontroomdallas.com ModernLifestyles.tv 55