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*The Dallas Morning News has selected this location as one of the Top 100 Restaurants in D-FW.*
In a laid-back Oak Cliff dining room with a warm and winning personality, chef Tim Byres offers up soulful, original dishes so seriously handcrafted they’d put your grandma to shame. House-smoked everything and fabulous produce are common threads. Cocktails are outstanding; Sunday brunch is extravagantly delicious. No smoking. Full bar. A one-page, vintageless wine list offers decently priced choices that work well with the food, but few discoveries.
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The drinks at Smoke have a flavor all their own — more earthy and assertive than pretty and feminine. You get that right away when you see the giant jars of spirits being infused with planks of wood on the bar. The No. 109 — maple-wood-infused bourbon with Paula’s Texas Orange liqueur, orange bitters and drunken cherries — is one of my favorite cocktails in Dallas. The Double Barrel Bloody Mary will never go out of style. It’s a Texas classic, based on chef Tim Byres’ roasted tomato-chile mix and garnished adorably with speared pickled vegetables. Recent additions to the menu, such as Smoke 75, with gin, grilled lemon, sparkling wine and ginger liqueur, sound very promising. (Full review)
It’s been fascinating to watch (and taste) the evolution of Smoke, the restaurant at Oak Cliff’s Belmont Hotel.
When chef Tim Byres and partners Christopher Jeffers and Chris Zielke opened the place in September 2009, I loved the feeling in the dining room, done up like your neighbors’ living room back in the 1970s, but with better paintings. The central v-shaped bar gave the room an energetic heart, and from the start, the restaurant had a warm, wacky, winning personality. (Full review)
When Tim Byres opened Smoke at the Belmont Hotel with two partners last year, it had a bit of an identity issue. Barbecue joint? Garden-to-table spot? But since then, Byres has found his footing, taking the ideas of "garden fresh" and "cooking from scratch" and blowing them sky-high. Of course, wood smoke is involved. The result of all this is that Byres is now turning out some of the most original, forward-looking dishes in town. What sets them apart is his attention to detail: His thin-sliced, lightly pickled slices of beet carpaccio seem almost luxurious; he tops them with beautiful watercress, ricotta he makes himself and a pitch-perfect horseradish vinaigrette. He pairs delicately smoked, silky-moist pork jowl with a salad of carefully pickled half-sour cucumbers. How good it all is may not surprise if you know Byres' résumé: He's held impressive positions in Miami (Pacific Time), New York (Tom) and the American embassy in Brussels (which gave him the opportunity to work a stint at Michelin three-star C (Full review)
Chef Tim Byres has really hit his stride with a terrific new menu at Smoke, the year-old dining room at Oak Cliff's Belmont Hotel. House-smoked everything and garden-fresh vegetables are the theme, and rosy slices of smoked pork jowl bacon draped over a salad of house-made half-sour pickles spiked with sweet chile and mustard is a stunner of a new dish. Ditto the tacos: handmade corn tortillas filled with fried soft-shell crab and zucchini blossoms. Byres turns pimento cheese into heavenly hot croquettes and cures his brisket in coffee to fine effect (the sliced meat is good; the nubbins are killer). House cocktails, which didn't wow me last year, have taken a turn for the better: I loved the Smoked Chelata made with Texas lager. (Full review)
No, it's not perfect, and yes, the smoke gets in your clothes. But I love the smokehouse-chic spot that Bolsa owners Christopher Jeffers and Chris Zielke opened at Oak Cliff's Belmont Hotel, with co-owner Tim Byres manning the smokers and stoves. (Full review)