Dear Readers,

I hope that each of you had a wonderful Easter/Passover holiday.  In honor of not having to work on Good Friday, I decided to use my time wisely and get out of town for the long weekend.  One of my New Year's resolutions was, instead of focusing my travels solely on new places, to revisit some of the towns where I used to live.  First city on the list?  Dallas, Texas.  I lived and worked in the Big D for my first two years post-college.  Aside from a very short trip I made in 2006, I hadn't really been back since I had originally left for New York in 2004.

From Thursday evening to Sunday morning, I stayed with my best friend from childhood, Lauren.  On Friday morning, I went to visit my former place of work; it was so incredible to see so many familiar faces and be so welcomed, as if I had never left.  The rest of my visit was spent eating my fair share of Mexican food, relaxing, and enjoying the warm Texas weather. 

After a long lunch at Mia's Tex Mex Restaurant on Friday, Lauren and I grabbed a cupcake at Sprinkles, then headed over to the new Ritz Carlton Hotel for a glass of rose.  After toasting to our friendship, we spotted Chef Dean Fearing at his restaurant within the hotel, "Fearing's."  Lauren and I introduced ourselves to the famous chef and were surprised by his aloof response and "I'm way too busy and cool" attitude.  What a let down; this situation mirrored the time when I met Thomas Keller at the Bocuse d'Or...only Mr. Keller is much more famous than Dean Fearing!  Unfortunately, this was not the only rude/aloof treatment we received.  I was unpleasantly surprised by the number of times that Lauren and I dealt with both unfriendly and lazy folks in the service industry (restaurants and bars). 

Thanks to Lauren, I was able to "get my fill" of comfort food from some of my favorite restaurants in the DFW area:

• Late-night at Taco Cabana

• Lunch at Mia's Tex-Mex

• Cupcake from Sprinkle's

• Lunch at Joe T. Garcia's

• Dinner at The Porch

A big "thank you" to everyone that I was fortunate enough to see during my visit to Dallas, especially Lauren, Theresa, and all of my amazing former coworkers at Aramark.  I love and miss you all.

Now, sit back and feast your eyes on some of my favorite snapshots of my trip to DFW:

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Until we eat again,

Lindsay, The Lunch Belle