The Cedars Social

The joy of yesterday's market success and the Ranger's win in walk-off fashion was flattened by the three exams I had this morning. Luckily, along with summer school classes, they are now over and I can look forward to the rest of the summer, however brief it may be. Tonight I shall celebrate with a fat porterhouse, baked potato, squash casserole (more to come on all that later) and a night out at the bars with the few friends that I have in town, but I digress.

The purpose of this post, and one of the inspirations for my personal justification of blogging, is The Cedars Social restaurant and bar. My experience at this restaurant was so enjoyable that it left me pondering the gastro-adventure for days. I have been wanting to tell people about this place for awhile and it is one of the topics I had in mind when I decided to start doing this.

I became aware of this 6-month-old establishment while reading the July issue of Texas Monthly. The segment was about different variations of the Texas staple, the margarita. While I am a Bourbon above all else type of individual, I was still somewhat intrigued by the article. Anyways, I bought the damn magazine why not read it. I was kind of skimming through the article when something stuck in my head, "...where the drink list is longer than the menu." It's rare to see a place that takes true pride in the way they make their drinks. So often you order a drink in a place and they throw together some well liquor with some mix from a plastic bottle, toss in a lemon wedge and call it a cocktail; basically the drink equivalent of canned vegetables. But not at this place.

My fascination with drinks made proper really began while I was living in New York. A few of us went to a bar one night in Queens called Dutch Kills. This was a little speakeasyesque bar down the street from my apartment that we walked passed about 3 times before we actually found the front door. The light was dim, the bartenders dressed in 20's garb, and the ice for your drinks was chiseled off a large block. If you're ever in NY check it out, but for now I'm getting off topic.

My trip to the Cedars Social was one accompanied by my lovely girlfriend Jessica, my recently turned 21-year-old sister, and my parents who are always up for a new place and love to have fun. We pulled up to a very nondescript, little renovated diner looking place on the outskirts of downtown Dallas and parked on the street. We could see it was busy from outside, but when we walked in and I was told the wait for a table was 2 and a half hours, I started laughing. As I began to look around the restaurant I realized the hostess wasn't kidding. To my fathers dismay we agreed to sit on the back porch. This was around the beginning of July, so the temperatures weren't the dry hell that they are now and it wasn't so bad. But once again, I digress.

MY MINT JULEP CAME IN A JULEP GLASS! This was a revelation. I've never had that happen before, but then again I've yet to visit Churchill Downs. I was immediately impressed with this place and would return based solely on that. I wrapped my hands around the icy metal glass and sipped to my delight. The perfect amount of slightly muddled mint (bartenders please stop crushing the mint, it doesn't need to be pulverized), simple syrup, and Maker's Mark poured over actually crushed ice was the best julep I've had. A Woodford Reserve old fashion with giant orange peels was just as tantalizing.  Everyone else at the table enjoyed their drinks as well and for good reason. The bar is run by two Mansion (on Turtle Creek, maybe you've heard of it) alum Craig Reeves and Michael Martensen. I didn't have the chance to thank them personally, but I made sure to instruct our dry humored and very friendly waitress to do so for me.

The food was good, relative to the drinks. Growing up in fine dining establishments, one can get rather picky about food. The menu was an upscale spin on classic southern dishes that people in the area grew up on. We started with deviled eggs, pulled short rib tacos with a fire roasted salsa and chipotle creme, short rib sliders with delicious braised collard greens, and the chicken wings. All great choices. For our entrees everyone at the table got something different and we all shared. A merry-go-round of seared duck with blueberry reduction, meatloaf and lobster pot pie brought a smile to my face. The side dishes are served family style and we were sure to order more collard greens and two orders of the mac and cheese (one of many items I am constantly ordering and cooking, trying to find the best one, but each is as delicious as the next). We then finished with one of my favorite desserts, a large slice of buttermilk pie. The food was all pretty good, not amazing (I'm sure they are still settling in), and I would usually be inclined to explain the flavors and presentation as well as post pictures, but I don't want to get out of hand with my first food post.

Being the obsessed foodie that I am, future food inspired posts will be much more illustrious. But unfortunately, my visit to this restaurant was about a month ago and I had no intention of documenting the experience for later publication, so I have forgotten a few of the details. The atmosphere was cool, the staff conversant, yada yada... One thing that stuck out among all others was that our check was brought to us in a book. I'll leave you with that and an abrupt end because this is probably already too long to be attractive to the casual reader.