Blurker Gone Bad

Gathering up some thoughts about places we ate recently:

Hugo's is the hot new seafood place in Bishop Arts. It has 28 seats and for the most part doesn't take reservations, so it's exactly the sort of place I wouldn't have tried without Tasting Collective. We had five courses: three seafood, one braised short rib, and a mango key lime pie. The scallop starter was nice; the lobster bisque was fantastic, and the red fish fillet was lovely. The braised short rib was also really nice but was the kind of thing my foodie friends said they could make easily at home. I was a bit worried about the key lime pie because mangos and I don't always get along, but the mango was mostly on top and the pie itself was quite nice, with a good citrus tang. If we could get reservations or had a chance to drop in when we were already down there, I'd love to try Hugo's regular menu.

Liberty Burger is a local chain that serves really good burgers. My father-in-law introduced it to us a while back and it's become one of our favorite places, along with Rodeo Goat, when the burger cravings hit. In addition to a really nice beef mix in their regular patty, they also serve bison, lamb, turkey, tuna, and house-made veggie patties. This time I had their western bacon cheeseburger, with lovely bacon and a nice BBQ sauce. This month's specialty burger, which I noticed when I was reminding myself what was on the menu, has brisket on top of the patty. Clearly I'll have to check that out.

We went to Gemma for the first time last year with a visiting friend, who's a duck person, because they have duck frites on their regular menu. She ended up having another duck dish and I went with the duck frites. This time the duck was still delicious, crispy, capery, and fat, as were the duck fat tater tots, which are more like croquettes in my opinion. Spouse had the moules frites, which I didn't like quite as well: they were only very good. Bonus: Gemma makes mocktails of everything on their cocktail menu. The atmosphere on Tuesday night was perfect: quiet and not too crowded. We definitely need to put Gemma in our regular nice-restaurant rotation so we can try something besides the duck.

I've been off the wagon for writing these for a while so I'm jumping back on the wagon. I've missed a lot of things but have gone to others, none since the beginning of June. I don't think we have anything on the schedule for July either.

( Under the cut to protect your flist )

Tickets we have bought recently: I have a season ticket for Dallas Chamber Music again; we're seeing David Byrne at Fair Park in November; we have tickets to MARINA at Southside Ballroom, which is SRO and I will need to bring a stool or arrange to have a chair. Also we have memberships to Ambercon Northwest, so that's happening. Next month we should have more of an idea of what our fall looks like as we will probably go to one of the 80s reunion concerts.