My family could use your prayers.
My husband’s grandmother, age 91, tested positive for COVID. Then she lost power for about a day during this terrible Texas snowstorm. She is being treated in the hospital for pneumonia and COVID.
Please send an army of positivity her way.
✨Some personal news✨
I’m 4 months pregnant. Hayley and Suzie are going to be big sisters! Baby girl coming March 2020. 🎀
Best photo ever taken by
@bentorres
Today, the news of our damages reached Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex! Through their nonprofit, they are supporting us by replacing the roof at our transitional housing facility & helping us meet our immediate needs. THANK YOU, ARCHEWELL FOUNDATION!
Name the last restaurant where you ate your meal *inside* the restaurant? What was the date? What did you eat?
I’m dreaming of dining in restaurants again someday.
If you're a Texas native (or if you got here as fast as you could), you should know that at least 9 ride-or-die brands separate the true Texans from the tourists.
In early 2019, I left a mgmt job & took a full-time food reporter job. Last wk, I was honored for my work.
I spoke up for myself. My bosses listened. The change gave me the headspace to want to be a mom again. Thanks for supporting
#workingmoms
,
@dallasnews
.
📸
@TomFoxPhoto
Many of my friends lost their jobs at
@dallasnews
and
@guidelive
today. It took me all day to say it out loud.
My team is fractured. My heart hurts. Please help my colleagues in any way you can.
I'm still here, and I believe in what we do.
As of this week, I’ve been at
@dallasnews
for 10 years.
I’ve wanted to work for my hometown newspaper since I was a 17-year-old intern in the Collin County bureau. It’s still an honor.
My 3yr old walked into my room at 7:15 a.m. and said “Where do you want to go to dinner? I have ideas” :
- Manny’s for enchiladas
- “Wait here until a pizza is delivered.”
- Sushi at Bluefish
I mean ... they’re all good ideas
I'm back, baby!
Maternity leave is over & I'm back full-time covering restaurants for
@dallasnews
. I'm joined at my home office by
@dmnfood
's youngest colleague (pictured).
Let me know how I can help you: Send questions, tips & gossip to sblaskovich
@dallasnews
.com.
Here lies Idle Rich, the Dallas bar where my husband and I had our first date.
We spent big and small nights there — New Years Eves, birthdays and just random weekend nights.
Sniff!
Actual conversation in my house:
4 year old: Can we have salmon sashimi for dinner tonight?
Me: Can you please get a job to support your expensive eating habits?
Restaurateurs have mixed opinions on reopening.
TJ’s Seafood owner says, “A couple days ago we were told to cover our mouths going to Target. Today you’re telling me on Friday I can take somebody’s dirty fork that was in their mouth?”
via
@claireballor
:
I woke up today, on my birthday, thinking I was an entire year older than I really am. My husband delivered the news: I’m younger than I thought. And pretty bad at math.
I’ll take it.
Please join me in sending a virtual hug to
@davidswinney
, a
@dallasnews
and
@GuideLive
reader who sent us cookies the day after layoffs. “There ARE people out here who care about the work you ALL do every day,” he writes. 💓
David, we are grateful for you!
Last night, we saw
@mcuban
and he was so kind to take a photo with my husband. I was quick. I didn’t want to waste too much of his time.
THIS IS THE ONE PHOTO I TOOK. Big time oop. The universe is telling me “next time don’t bother the nice famous man”
The sun’s not up yet but I am! There’s a fried-food rager (OK, a press conference) at 6:10 a.m. at
@StateFairOfTX
.
Keep it here — I’ll have the list of finalists for the fair’s food & drink contest, the Big Tex Choice Awards.
COVID-19, a food diary:
March: Cheetos
April: Foccacia! Banana bread! All the cookies!
May: [memories hazy, when was May again?]
June: Broccoli, cuz of March, April, May
July: Fried chicken, who cares anymore
August: ????
“Hi, Sarah, this is Reba McEntire.”
That’s what she said. No publicist or assistant. Just
@reba
, calling me on my cell.
The only other celebrity I can think of who called me directly like that was
@altonbrown
. (Who, similarly, is a pleasure to talk to.)
Today I got a hand-written hate letter from a reader who addressed me as "Madam Sarah Blaskovich" and this is how I shall be referred to from this day forward
Since Dec, my dog Suzie has suffered the effects of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, a possibly deadly disease from a tick bite. After dozens of appointments, she was cleared today!
I’m unsure how to celebrate a dog who already has everything, but I’m open to suggestions!
It's my last day of maternity leave. Here's a precious photo of the gal I've been spending so much time with over the past 12 weeks.
📸 Cyndi Comeaux Williams, the baby whisperer
I just placed a lunch order with New York Sub in Dallas and got this email response (in photo below).
Just a reminder that ordering from local restaurants is good — but that ordering *directly* from them helps them significantly more. Here's why:
Please wish my business partner a happy half birthday.
Her office contributions include giggling during phone interviews, midday naps and looking cute on Zoom calls.
S&D Oyster Co. in Dallas is celebrating its 45th birthday today. It's a great spot.
🎂 My birthday wish for S&D is that people stop driving their cars into the restaurant.
Today should be
#HugADallasJournalist
day.
Hug your friends who don't work in newsrooms anymore. Hug the ones who do: the TV anchors, the newspaper reporters, the radio folks, the magazine writers.
We all chose
#journalism
, but dang: We could use a hug.
I heard lots of fascinating food stories at lunch today. This is Larry Lavine, founder of Chili’s, on the right; and Phil Cobb, co-founder of Black-Eyed Pea, on the left.
WE HAVE
@StateFairOfTX
Big Tex Choice Awards WINNERS!
1. 85-yr-old Ruth Hauntz won for her barbacoa.
2. The Garza family won w/ fried mango.
3. And the
@SmokeyJohnsBBQ
family — mourning the death of their father yesterday — won for Big Red Chicken Bread.
I just got in line at
@portilloshotdog
in The Colony.
I’ve set my stopwatch to see how long it takes to get lunch on a Friday. The line is wrapped around the porch.
I’ve got bottled water, a book and a good attitude. Ask me anything!
#ama
Now … what to order?
HUGE news in
#BBQ
:
@bbqsnob
at
@TexasMonthly
put out his list of top 50 joints in Texas.
@goldeesbbq
— a place I said was North Texas' best new restaurant in February 2021 — was given the coveted No. 1 spot.
WOW.
I grocery shopped before work today.
As a full-time reporter and (all-the-time) mom, I can’t overstate how exciting it is to shop in an empty store and have that crossed off my to-do list before I eat breakfast.
This is your 30s, folks. Exciting stuff. 🛒
Did we survive Day One of working from home with toddler in tow?
Well, we are alive.
I wrote news stories. I talked to restaurateurs. One of us watched cartoons. We took two walks. We kissed the dog 1,000 times. We cooked. We wore green. ☘️
Is it bedtime yet?
A lot of restaurant owners are taking a stand in Texas by continuing to require masks.
Why this matters: 🗣
They're choosing to make business harder on themselves — by requiring masks when they don't have to — bc they say it's the right thing to do.
Last week, I drove to Atoka, Oklahoma, to meet
@reba
. She opened a restaurant in this sweet, small town — and it has the potential to change Atoka forever.
Here’s a look inside
@RebasPlace
, with delightful photos from
@TomFoxPhoto
.
I bought another
@PopeyesChicken
sandwich in Dallas — this one on Continental Avenue. I’d already eaten one today (secured after a LONG wait on Ross Ave), so I gave it to a guy headed back to his car after seeing the long line.
Enjoy your spicy chicken sandwich, James Lemons!
Can confirm: It’s been about a month since a car barreled into the Czech Stop convenience store; the wall is still boarded up.
Bakery still unharmed.
Kolaches still great.
A
@dallasnews
reader just emailed me about a food story and ended the note with
"I hope you get a raise,
Larry."
It reminds me that we can all do better than signing off our emails with "Best" or "Sincerely." I wanna be like Larry.
1/ Masks are required inside Dallas Co. businesses — & restaurants are businesses — starting at 11:59 tonight.
So: Grab your mask. Wear it when you enter a restaurant, when you get up to use the restroom, and when you leave. (Mask off while eating, obvi.)
In this
@TexasMonthly
story by
@seanoneal
,
@Whataburger
says it has more than 1 million table tents stolen or damaged every year. “Annually, Whataburger spends upward of $200,000 just on replacing them.” Whoa.
Fun story
I just hit 10,000 followers on Twitter!
Stay with me and I’ll guarantee: Food news. Fun stuff to do in D-FW. Mild freakouts over cute animals. News stories about cool local people. Pictures of my dog.
And videos of Hayley — who does not think 10,000 is a lot of people.
I’m tryna live my best life as a cool mom, driving in 68-degree weather in Dallas with the T tops off the Jeep. But it’s hard, cuz we’re jamming Frosty the Snowman on repeat, on the preschooler’s request
Is there anything better? Both my girls were shoveling
#bbq
. One was too busy to stop, the other paused and asked for a kiss. Barbecuties, indeed.
Happy Saturday!
Got up at 4 a.m. today to be at the
@StateFairOfTX
for the announcement of the 10 Big Tex Choice Awards finalists. Keep it here; announcement comes very soon.
I always feel like I’m getting away with something, driving through Fair Park in the dark.
Husband going under general anesthesia for a routine procedure: not fun
Husband coming out of general anesthesia, giggling and wearing those funny surgery socks and telling dad jokes: FUN
(He’s at home now, doing great.)
We're taking new headshots in the office next week, but how could it be more flattering than this photo that
@littlelatinboy
took of me today chowing at the
@rangers
taste test? 😬