OUT OF THE CLOSET!

This may be the week where reality set in for our real estate market. Yes, agents are still busy. But when word came that the Maple Terrace was not going condo, many were not only relieved but dared to spit out what so many of us have been saying behind closed doors for eons: the Dallas condo market may be overbuilt. (Do ya think?) Now a warning from the learned real estate minds at Texas A&M University that we are not immune from soft spots, and builders are having to woo buyers with perks for new homes. (Be sure to check out the story on the Dallas condo market.) Still I am told that investors like us ever so much more than California and Florida. These days.

BEASTS OF PREY, PROTECT YOUR PETS!

Yes, I am working feverishly on that restaurant piece but still find time to read the blogs. Frontburner recently blogged a message from a reader about furry beasts discovered by one of our staff members. Well, guess what? There are furry beasts right here in my Preston Hollow hood–which makes me wonder, just where do these restaurants get that free-range meat?
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GET FAT AND HAPPY

I blog about this only because in our upcoming special super-duper September extravaganza chocked full of home and garden goodness (whew!) you’ll find a pithy charticle (that’s a chart that acts as an article) from Candy Evans about new Dallas restaurants and their sumptuous digs. And you can check out some of those restaurants during KRLD’s upcoming Restaurant Week in August. Locals know about this tasty charity event: For $35, you can enjoy a three-course meal. $7 of that goes to the Lena Pope Home or the North Texas Food Bank. “Yes, yes, we know all of this, Todd,” you grumble. “So what’s the new news?” Glad you asked. Sponsor Central Market offers a delicious option: Make a purchase at CM between July 17-August 13 and receive a certificate good for an additional course at any participating Restaurant Week fourth course restaurant. Find more information about the event here. But hurry. Reservations are going fast, if they’re not already gone.

WOOD WORK FOR FOOD

Looking for the perfect gift for a kitchen connoisseur–or the aesthetically starved epicurean in you? Pete Yavner, a retiree from the computer field with a penchant for woodworking, makes beautiful rolling pins, peppermills and saltshakers, cutting boards, honey dippers, and coffee grinders–even spurtles (you know, those tapered sticks the Scots use to stir their porridge).

These unique pieces incorporate a variety of exotic woods, often South American and African exotics. Renowned chef Dean Fearing, James Wagner, executive pastry chef at the Mansion on Turtle Creek, Jill Butler, a Plano-based pastry chef, and Kent Rathbun of Abacus and Jasper’s fame have one of his rolling pins. (See the maple and zebrawood one Rathbun chose just this week.) Of course, Yavner won’t guarantee that your food will turn out as good as that of the previously listed, but it doesn’t hurt to look the part. Get yours at Flavors From Afar and Culinary Connection.

CERULEAN GALLERY

Caroline Crockett Pickton’s Wallpaper Series: Cherry Blossoms 4 is a very pretty piece of art, but I can’t dismiss it as simply decorative. There’s something compelling about it that makes me like to look at it — the color? The Japanese-like way space is used? Because I’m really into wallpaper these days, I like it even more. SMU grad Pickton, who recently opened the Cerulean Gallery in Snider Plaza, will soon open a show with three other artists that’s all about nature, depicted in vivid colors. I’ve seen a preview of some of the other art for the show, and I think you should go. It’ll cheer you up.