Freda's. Coffee. Breakfast. Lunch.

In a recent post,  Eat This Fort Worth annouced that a new coffee shop had opened at the old Art Gallery, so I stopped by this morning. The newly opened Freda's Place is serving coffee as well as breakfast and lunch. The menu includes breakfast plates and sandwiches, as well as soups, salads, sandwiches and daily hot plate specials for lunch. Freda's also serves a grilled-after-you-order hamburger. I thought I saw an Aduro Bean coffee bag on the counter, either way, I had the dark roast coffee this morning and it was excellent.

We now have three, count 'em, three, independent coffee shops in the downtown area.

Freda's Place is on Jennings, just south of downtown. Good luck to all involved.

Freda’s
609 S. Jennings
Fort Worth, Texas

Neil Young in Dallas

On June 7, Neil Young is coming to Dallas' Morton Myerson Symphony Center. Almost everyone is familiar with his falsetto-like vocals, but Young is as much a lyricist as he is a vocal performer, and belongs to that elite group of still-active '60's-era musicians (the decade not the age), that includes Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Eric Clapton, and Paul McCartney. He keeps writing new music, and performing it. Young has some 400+ songs to his name, including Down By the River, Southern Man, Old Man, & Cinnamon Girl.

The lightning that he caught in the '60's and '70's will probably never be captured in the same way. Not that I get the impression from his interviews that he wants that. He is doing what artists do.

I am sure it will be a great performance, but it is all a little too tame, too smokeless, and too comfortable, when viewed from the lens of my memory. Besides, I think I'm too old to try to sneak into concerts anymore.  But I still love the music. If any music reminds me of the summers of my youth it is 1970 album, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Deja Vu, with songs like Helpless, Country Girl, and Woodstock. It is the background music of many memories. For that alone I wish Neil Young well.

Out of town visitors: visit Fort Worth. Take the Trinity Railway Express from Dallas to Fort Worth.  $7.50 for an all day pass. Fort Worth has a beautiful downtown with good food, great music, and great places to walk and shop.

Torta Wars: Melis vs Salsa Fuego.

I am a huge fan of the torta. I've said that before.

In the last week, I have visited both Melis and Salsa Fuego restaurants looking for a good one. I prefer Salsa Fuego.

But I am still searching for the smaller, steak-roll version of the torta sandwich. If you see one please let me know. Until then, the torta war champion is: Salsa Fuego's pork carnitas torta.

Opinions welcome . . .

Antonio's. Is it the Best?

Regular Joe's Guide, a good and detailed, local restaurant-review weblog, recently posted its favorite Mexican restaurants in the area. The number one favorite, of both the author and his wife was Antonio's near the NorthEast Mall. Last Saturday night my wife and I went to try it out.

I agree with RJG that Antonio's is not your average Tex-Mex restaurant, it is a quality and more traditional Mexican fare, freshly prepared. And it is very good. The chips are made fresh and served hot. My entree, camarones wrapped in bacon and topped with an avocado sauce, was perfection. The mixed vegetables served with the shrimp were freshly cooked and slightly crispy, just the way I like them. The avocado sauce for the shrimp was very nicely done. My wife had an enchilada plate and it, too, was very good.

Would I give it the same high praise as RJG?

The salsa for my taste was a little weak. I prefer an almost pico de gallo hot sauce with a little more bite. But salsas are very much a personal thing. Also, I was disappointed that they weren't busier. I think they had four two-top tables filled. I can't blame them for this, and we were eating early for a Saturday night, but the buzz was low.

In order for me to call them "numero uno" I would need two things. First, a location with a better atmosphere on the outside. The restaurant is tastefully decorated in the modern minimalist kind of way, on the inside, but I think the food quality demands a little nicer location for diners. It is a casual but dining atmosphere and the restaurant being crowded into a strip shopping center nearly underneath the 820/121 cloverleaf doesn't draw me back. We like to walk, or window shop, and grab some coffee or ice cream after dinner. Secondly, I think the salsa is weak. It's mild, tomato saucy, and without much vegetable texture.

Maybe I'm being picky. The service is excellent.  It is priced as you would expect. We were at $29.00 for two, no alcohol, without tip. Comparable to Mi Cocino, Cantina Laredo and Pappasito's. Are they good enough to draw us away from downtown Fort Worth dining? I don't think so. I do know that I could eat at Antonios everyday -- if they moved downtown.

My thanks to Regular Joe's Guide for the suggestion.

The Subway Breakfast Sandwich.

This morning, I stopped by Subway for their newly offered breakfast sandwich and coffee. I like a couple of their lunch sandwiches, and I like how Subway moves people through the line. Not that one needs to worry about long lines for breakfast because there aren't any, at least not at the Subway I visited. As a matter of fact, the one employee at the store this morning was having her morning smoke at the entrance as I arrived. Not being in a hurry, and out of respect for the simple pleasure of a morning smoke and coffee, I encouraged her to continue and enjoy her break. She respectfully ignored my advice, and came in to take my order.

First the coffee: Seattle's Best. Served from a canister. Hot, fresh, a little weak, but not bad at all. Actually, quite good.

The sandwich: I should say that the cost for a coffee and sandwich is $2.50. That's important because expectations are not high for two bucks. I chose the egg, ham, and cheese on an English muffin. It didn't taste bad, I think I may have even detected a hint of egg taste, but the smell of the sandwich was off-putting. I'm not sure if it is the reaction of the egg to the heating apparatus they use or what, but it did have an unusual non-food odor.

The second problem is the appearance of the egg. The eggs are precooked and scrambled, of course, and one has the choice of yellow or white. I assume the yellow has some yolk in it, and the white, no yolk. But the egg is cooked into a thin, crepe-like shape and has the appearance of that plastic vomit kids use to scare other kids. Sorry, that's just the best way to describe it. I would guess the egg, in volume, is about one-half of a small Waffle House type egg, if you know what I mean.

Is it worth $2.50? Well, not really. But if they could figure out the egg part, the muffin, cheese and ham were pretty tasty. And the coffee is good.

My suggestion: call it a breakfast ham and cheese and lose the egg, or whatever that yellow thing was.