Pizza Verde
Calisience’s brick-and-mortar may have closed earlier this year, but owner Jacqueline Anaya’s excellent Mex-Mex food lives on. Throughout the month of December, Anaya will be serving her terrific birria dishes every Sunday during brunch at Paco’s Mexican Cuisine, 1508 W. Magnolia Ave. Of course, she’ll have her well-loved/much-missed tacos dorados, along with a half-dozen other dishes, such as birria chilaquiles, papas con huevo, birria grilled cheese, migas, and her fantastic birria ramen. Every time I run into Anaya, she tells me she hasn’t completely shut the door on finding a new home for Calisience. That’s why she’s been hosting occasional pop-ups, to keep her culinary chops sharp. Her events at Paco’s happen every Sunday in December from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. instagram.com/calisience
Lend a hand, if you can, to our good friends at local vegan pizza shop Pizza Verde. Over the past few weeks, the west side pizzeria, located at 5716 Locke Ave., has been broken into not once but twice. The break-ins were barely a month apart, happening Sept. 25 and again on Oct. 30. Doors and glass were broken and smashed, according to posts on the restaurant’s Facebook page. Those wanting to help with expenses can Venmo them at pizzaverdetx or Paypal at [email protected].
Always Cooking NOLA, a Cajun restaurant that started out in a River Oaks gas station, can now be found, in food truck form, on the city's east side. To sate your appetite for crawfish mac and cheese, jambalaya, boudin balls and other Cajun and soul food staples, head to 6301 Randol Mill Road, where owner/chef Damian Crockem has set up his food truck; he says he's hoping to build a brick-and-mortar on the property. Keep an eye on his progress and ever-changing menu at facebook.com/alwayscooking.nola
A new location of the Cheba Hut sandwich shop has opened in Arlington at 504 E. Abram St. It’s a chain, but a good one with imaginative sandwiches, lots of veggie options, and Kool-Aid on tap. The Fort Worth location on the Near Southside has been booming since it opened a few years back. chebahut.com
A new coffee shop has opened just west of downtown, and grizzled news veterans like me will recognize the guy who’s running the show: Scott Keenan, a longtime journalist, VP, and news director at CBS News. Keenan partnered with longtime coffee pal Kristian Willems to open Match Point Coffee on West 7th. According to CultureMap, Keenan enrolled in the Texas Coffee School to learn the tricks of the trade, including how and where to source coffee beans. Currently, Match Point’s beans are coming from Cuvée Coffee roasters in Austin, CultureMap says. In addition to coffee, the shop serves a wide range of hot and cold teas, pastries, and breakfast tacos from Fort Worth’s Tacos y Rocky.
3618 W. 7th St., matchpointcoffee.com
