In a since-deleted-for-unexplained-reasons post on the Dallas subreddit, someone asked: “What is the most spiritually ‘Dallas’ restaurant?”
The answers included Campisi’s, El Fenix, La La Land Kind Cafe, Javier’s, Chili’s, both Dunston’s, Al Biernat’s, and Dakota’s. Our own Brian Reinhart also weighed in: “Gotta be Nick & Sam’s. The sparklers, the birthday parties, the slabs of beef, the pageantry. Snobs look down on its lack of originality or culture, but it’s actually fine and most people there are having a good time. Plus, a lot of newer restaurants make reference to Nick & Sam’s or straight up copy stuff from it.” (By the way, Brian also had an AMA earlier this year that you should check out.)
So what’s your answer? I feel like I could probably make an argument for just about every restaurant on the above list, depending on what you think “spiritually Dallas” means…