When we moved into our 1950s ranch house here in SoWilMa I thought the galley kitchen was cute, but after a few months, I realized that the 5’ by 8’ space with about five square feet of counter space wasn’t going to cut it. As soon as we moved in, I began to save to expand the kitchen into what had been the screened-in porch that the previous owner had made into a family room adjacent to the kitchen. We started our renovation a few months ago.

It wasn’t quite as dramatic as the best of dines and the worst of dines, but recent visits to two newish Italian restaurants certainly produced different reactions.

So much has been in the news about R House and its battle with Ron DeSatan, excuse me, DeSantis, that it would be easy to forget that it is primarily a restaurant.

Fogo de Chão means "ground fire", and at the first Fogo de Chão, a wooden structure, nestled in the countryside of Porto Alegre, they literally cooked over fire pits. Fogo opened its second restaurant in São Paulo, utilizing modern restaurant equipment. After being urged to enter the American market, Fogo opened in Dallas in 1997.

Looking to impress your Valentine? Look no further than The Katherine, which will be offering heart-pumping Valentine’s Day specials. Options will include a chef’s selection of libido oysters with bleeding pomegranate mignonette; truffle-dusted tuna crispy rice with spicy mayo and eel sauce; and spiced wild mushroom and duck lasagna.

There’s something about the new year. As much as we are looking forward, we also reflect on the past year. In doing so, I’ve looked back on my dining reviews and selected the best places I visited in the past 12 months.