Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Chef's Tables
146
Fearing's Restaurant
Kickin' Back in the Kitchen
Dallas, Texas
Who knows what the Ritz-Carlton did to
woo Dean Fearing away from the Mansion
on Turtle Creek, where for 20-plus years
he'd been the dean (excuse the pun) of
Dallas' fine-dining scene. Whatever it was,
Fearing seems in his element at his new
namesake restaurant in the swanky Ritz-
Carlton. Getting instantly named Restau-
rant of the Year by
Esquire
magazine
shortly after it opened in 2007 must have
helped, and that was just the first of a
flood of accolades.
Fearing pulls off a savvy blend of classi-
cal CIA training and southwestern regional
tastes; the guy may wear chef's whites, but
he wears them with jeans and custom-
made cowboy boots. Many of the signature
items on his menu—tortilla soup, jalapeño
cornbread, prime rib, barbecued shrimp
taco, and a mesquite-grilled rib-eye steak,
are common enough on Tex-Mex menus,
but Fearing's kitchen just plain does them
better than your average cantina. And then
he adds some of his own clever twists, as in
the buffalo tenderloin marinated in maple
and black peppercorn, served on a bed of
jalapeño grits;
nilgai
antelope with wild
boar sausage, toasted sage leaves, and
chili-spiced fries; or coriander-crusted
lamb chops with Texas smokehouse lamb
chili. (Any chef who can dream up a dish
like chicken-fried Maine lobster must be
thinking out of the box.) Sourcing is a key
element for Fearing, who's always on the
lookout for the best Texas peppers, dried
chilies, jicama, cilantro, tomatillos, Gulf
seafood, and Hill Country wild game.
While Fearing's has seven different din-
ing areas—including the gardenlike glass
rotunda of the Sendero, the stone-vaulted
Wine Cellar, the leather-and-onyx-accented
Rattlesnake Bar, the high-ceilinged white-
tablecloth dining salon the Gallery—the
choicest spot of all is the chef's table. Lim-
ited to eight diners, it's set right inside
Fearing's kitchen, where you can inhale
the rich smoky aroma of grilling meats and
watch the chefs at work. It's a fun way to
hang out with Fearing himself—this down-
to-earth Kentuckian may have trained with
Wolfgang Puck, but he also plays a pretty
mean Telecaster (he even recorded a CD
with his all-chef alt-country band The Barb-
wires). Just like his music, Fearing's cook-
ing is full of interesting riffs—and he hits
all the high notes just right.
2121 McKinney Ave. (
&
214/922-
4848;
www.fearingsrestaurant.com).
(
Dallas-Fort Worth International (85
miles/137km).
L
$$$
The Melrose Hotel Dallas,
3015 Oak Lawn Ave., Dallas (
&
800/MEL-
ROSE
or 214/521-5151; www.melrose
hoteldallas.com). $$
Etta's Place,
200 W.
3rd St., Fort Worth (
&
866/355-5760
or
817/255-5760; www.ettas-place.com).
