Kevin Gray

From a quick-service burger joint to full-service restaurants, the company is eyeing new locations in and outside of Texas
Imran Sheikh was working for a fashion retailer when he moved from London to Dallas in 2013. That job didn’t work out, but the entrepreneurial Sheikh quickly charted a new course for his career path, founding Milkshake Concepts in 2015. He opened a nightlife spot called Citizen that same year, which kicked off a series of successful ventures, including lively restaurants ...

Consult any Austin dining and drinking resource, and you’re bound to come across a Tatsu Aikawa-owned joint. The Tokyo-born, Texas-bred chef makes food that’s rooted in Japanese traditions while evoking his state’s spirit and penchant for smoke. His restaurants, Ramen Tatsu-ya and Kemuri Tatsu-Ya, helped to establish ramen culture and izakaya-style dining in Austin, brought national recognition from The James Beard Foundation, and landed him on several national best-of lists.
Since then, Tats...

Chef Steve McHugh moved from New Orleans to San Antonio in 2010, when he balanced opening a new restaurant with treating his newly diagnosed lymphoma. It’s a success story on both fronts, as he beat cancer and quickly made a name for himself in San Antonio’s growing culinary scene.
Two years later, he opened his own restaurant, Cured, named as a nod to cured meats and to food’s curative properties. This celebrated restaurant netted McHugh a couple of James Beard nominations and cemented his p...

There’s nothing in-the-know diners love more than discovering new restaurants and under-the-radar dishes. Except maybe telling other people about those new restaurants and under-the-radar dishes.
Off the Menu Club launched in Los Angeles in 2015 as a service that gives local eaters access to complimentary secret menu items at restaurants across the city. Now, it’s betting that Dallas diners want in on the action. The service goes live in Texas Sept. 26, marking the company’s first expansion o...

Unless you live in the woods or make your living from the land, wild hogs probably aren’t on your radar. But they should be. First introduced to North America by European explorers in the 1500s, these scrappy omnivores proliferated, their population boosted by high reproductive rates, impressive adaptability and an unfussy diet that includes nearly everything in their path.
Texas Parks & Wildlife estimates that nearly half of the country’s six million wild pigs live in Texas, with high concen...

One of the positive takeaways over the past two years — and there haven’t been many — is that your favorite drinks are becoming easier to acquire. Simple cocktails are increasingly finding their way into cans, so you can tip them back sans bartender or any personal knowhow.
Leading the charge is the humble ranch water, a combination of tequila, sparkling water (usually Topo Chico) and lime that’s proliferated in recent years, securing placements on restaurant menus and within the hearts of Te...

New Mexico chefs share their favorite methods for preparing this seasonal treat.

Most drinkers were unfamiliar with the Ranch Water cocktail until recently. Sure, you can’t walk into Texas bars without tripping over one, but now the tequila-spiked drink has spread to other states across the country.
The cocktail is even appearing in cans, sold on retail shelves from the likes of Texas companies like Ranch Rider Spirits, Lone River, and RancH2O. Las Vegas is in the game, too, with Texas Ranch Water, which no...

Drop into the middle of Downtown Austin or your average Dallas nightlife strip, and you feel like you could be anywhere. The cities both cater to international business and tourism, and half the residents you meet are California expats.
Show up to the Stockyards neighborhood in Fort Worth, though, and there’s no question you’re in Texas. The Stockyards are what most people from outside Texas imagine when they think of the Lone Star state: western shops and steakhouses, cowboy hats and boots i...

The food style mashup has deep roots in Mexican-American cooking.
Texas barbecue and Tex-Mex are beloved cuisines that, like many things in Texas, have a larger-than-life reputation. Visitors come from the corners of the world to sample Central Texas brisket, and Tex-Mex is imitated—sometimes even successfully—all over the country.
It’s apples and oranges (or more like burnt ends and tomatillos) to compare the two food styles, as they’re both diverse and nuanced, deserving their own spots in ...

Break up your drive with 72-ounce steaks, a picturesque canyon, and graffitied Cadillacs.
Route 66, which stretches more than 2,400 miles from Chicago to Santa Monica, has been calling to American travelers ever since it opened in 1926. In its early years, it connected middle America to the West Coast and expedited Westward Expansion. Today, it serves as hallowed ground for road warriors from all over the world looking to experience our big country’s small town culture alongside an endless st...

The sun: shining. The birds: chirping. The al fresco drinking situation: robust. You don’t need a calendar to tell you that summer is nigh—that’s evident all around you, as patios and rooftop bars welcome people in with the promise of fresh air, icy cocktails, and scenic views. And after spending most of the past year inside our own homes, nothing feels more liberating than cracking open a cold one while soaking up some killer skyline views.
Here are 12 of the best rooftop bars in Dallas to e...

Every guy needs a good pair of boots. Whether you're trudging through snow, walking the city streets, or heading into the office, there's a boot for every occasion. We're currently right in the middle of boot season, so there's never been a better time to stock up on popular brands like Ugg, Timberland, and L.L.Bean.

You might think that using banana peels to make a syrup or infused liquor sounds like a dicey proposition. Ash Miyasaki can confirm it. She jumped on the banana bread bandwagon during the novel coronavirus shutdown, and she was left with an abundance of banana peels...

Totaling 9,000 bottles and 2,000-plus miniatures, Pat’s Whiskey Collection is the single largest private collection of whiskeys ever brought to auction.
Hosted by Whisky Auctioneer, the auction is live now, but it ends October 5, so you’ll want to peruse those bottles soon. If you’re unable to snag something you want, don’t fret—additional bottles will periodically go up for bid between now and June 2021 to spotlight special bottles in the collection.
Pat’s Whiskey Collection is the result of...