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
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