Paul's

Doughnuts, Subs and Gyros... breakfast tacos, baklava, eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns. Seriously, Paul (I didn't meet any Paul while there) would make you a lasagna if you asked.

Paul's is on Hemphill, just south of Magnolia and is a medium sized, any meal of the day, diner. I haven't made it for any of the other meals of the day, but I have been for breakfast. In my time in the southside of Fort Worth, I was not propositioned by a homeless man for change, nor was I shot at. See, its coming around. Paul's is helping the area change, one gyro baklava sub at a time.

I ordered a breakfast plate and a cinnamon sugar cake doughnut. The breakfast plate comes with two eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns and toast. The doughnut comes with that nagging sensation that maybe the plate was enough food.

You know how some places do one thing really well (Babe's Chicken House)? And you know how some places do lots of things sort of mediocre/poorly (dallas)? Paul falls in the middle. The doughnut was delicious (although I'm partial to cinnamon sugar cake doughnuts so it had an advantage going in).

The breakfast plate was sort of a mixed bag. It came with two eggs and they were prepared just like I like them (covered in queso). The bacon was crispy, which isn't how I like it, but it wasn't burned, so that's ok. The sausage was dry and the hash browns were not dry enough. The toast was perfect. If Texas Monthly ever gets some serious journalists, they'll do a Toast edition and Paul's will show.

I think one of the biggest downsides is the plate. It's styrofoam. I have no problems using styrofoam. I usually load my groceries into styrofoam containers instead of plastic bags, then throw them away when I get home - or burn them. I wish toilet paper came in styrofoam. I love the stuff. But not as a plate. In law school, a friend and I went to a breakfast place that we had heard so much about. We ordered our pancakes and sat down. When the pancakes came, they were on styrofoam plates. You ever try to eat something that needs to be cut on styrofoam? There's always a mess on the table afterwards. I quickly dropped that restaurant. However, that also had to do with the coffee.

Paul's coffee is fine. And the plate thing wasn't a huge deal since I don't generally cut my bacon with a knife. I'm just pointing that out.

All in all, Paul, you pass. I will definitely go again. the atmosphere is great with the open kitchen, the noisy police officers, the somewhat stoned looking hippie eating his eighth bear claw, the yuppie couple in the corner reading the newspaper (wait, that was me). Also, the building is really nice. It's got a lot of windows, there's an open kitchen so you can keep an eye on Paul and you're gyro breakfast doughnut plate.

This seems like a great place to go grab some coffee, some type of food and read a paper. Plus, you know its safe - there are always police there.

Lack of Posting

I apologize for the lack of posting. Things have been pretty hectic for the past few weeks.

But don't hate, yo. I'll be coming to you with brand new and improved, limited time only priced reviews in no time.

Until then, if anybody can recommend another good breakfast place, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,
FWHITW

High End Holes - V Edition

Disclaimer: Neither of these places are dirty or hidden away. But both are downtown and popular with me. So I need y'all to support these places until I can get there again.

Vidalia's

This is one of my favorite places downtown and I keep reminding my downtown friends about it. If this place goes out of business and I can't get gingerbread pancakes, I will probably boycott the Ol' South German Pancake as a statement for at least three days.

Vidalia's is a southern style restaurant on the east end of the cruise ship Worthington. It's an open restaurant with an open kitchen and generally friendly people serving your food. I've only been for lunch and breakfast so I'll tell you about both.

Breakfast - get the gingerbread pancakes. They have other things but its like going to France and taking a picture of that thing behind the Eiffel tower. Except the Eiffel tower doesn't taste like gingerbread, so Vidalia's wins. Keeping track? Vidalia's -2 (you get two pancakes), France - 0. Another great plus here is that there are copies of the Startlegram at the front table so you can save fifty cents. I've also heard the sweet potato biscuits and gravy are good but I refuse to expand my horizon.

Lunch - Rib-eye steak sandwich. That's all you need to know. Just get it. Its a sandwich with sliced rib-eye. So its healthy. Plus you get a side of sweet potato fries. Studies show that sweet potato fries have the opposite affect of bitter potato fries. With a water and a tip, you can have this sandwich for under $14. Another good lunch is the pulled pork sandwich - but this is messy so don't eat it on interviews, first dates or if you are dining with a rabid pit bull. I haven't had the CFS but the guy next to me seemed to enjoy his. So much so he wouldn't share. Must be from dallas.

Vault

This is the Fort's foray into fine dining. Mrs. FortWorthHoleInTheWall and I went before the grand opening and got to enjoy the restaurant by ourselves. We had the amuse buche, a salad with mixed greens, entrees, dessert and wine. We loved it. I'll go over as much as I can remember. The amuse buche was a piece of honeydew (for me) and cantaloupe (Screech, you can't elope! Who are you calling a canteloupe, melon head!), wrapped in prosciutto with a sprig of rosemary and an olive oil drizzle. It was delicious and really amused my buche. Satisfaction achieved.

The next course was our salad. We got the typical fine dining salad with mixed weeds, fancy goat cheese (fried on the side), nuts of some sort, fruit, light dressing and fancy croutons. We loved it. We're pretty high class peeps and we only eat fancy salads on the backs of gilded diamonds. This was our favorite fancy salad ever - despite being on a, "gasp", plate.

For entree, the Mrs. had a fish dish that was wonderful. It didn't taste bland or like fish. I had the duck. I definitely out-ordered her. The duck had an orange sauce and was tender, juicy and not at all obnoxious like daffy. I think I found the solution to calming daffy down - show him the menu at the Vault. Sorry kids.

For dessert, we ordered the creme brulee trio which consisted of a vanilla creme brulee, a gran manier brulee, and a chocolate brulee. The Mrs. preferred the chocolate, but I really enjoyed the hint of orange in the gran manier brulee. Like I said, we're fancy peeps, so we ate this like true snobs and commented after each bite: "oh the scent of orange provides a nice nose to the gentle creaminess lingering on my palate." I hate us.

But, even as good as all of this was, the main reason I liked this place, is that we got free wine. They said if you ask for it, the wine is free every night (or something opposite of that - I can't remember). Either way, it was free for me.

The waiter told us that they were hoping to be the first five star restaurant in Fort Worth. I asked if he had been to El Asadero. He needs to bone up on the competition.

Great date place. Better "Let Somebody Else Pay" place.

Whoohoo - 25,000 hits

Thats right, FortWorthHoleInTheWall has hit 25,000 hits in less than one year. The birthday is coming up and I'm thinking something special must be done...maybe a sarcastic and useless review? Perhaps.

Thanks to everybody for reading. I'll be coming to you with more reviews soon but please keep sending me places to go. If you know of a place that I haven't mentioned please let me know. The only rules are that is needs to be in Fort Worth and locally owned is preferred.

Thanks,
FortWorthHoleInTheWall