The Bacon Backlash

The season promises to be a pretty exciting one, with new restaurants on the way from David Uygur (formerly of Lola), Abraham Salum (Salum) and Tristan Simon (a healthy share of the restaurants on still-red-hot Henderson Avenue), among others. No, Big D's not quite ready to give up its wedge salads and rib-eyes, but there is a frisson of "let's do something different" in the air.

Here are the Top 10 trends we can look forward to, heading into full-blown autumn:

1: Great produce center stage. More and more Dallas chefs are sourcing fabulous produce from farms or from their own gardens, and not just Lemley's tomatoes. Tim Byres (Smoke), André Natera (Pyramid) and Katie Natale (Cafe on the Green) have all made room for gardens where they grow their own vegetables and herbs. Fort Worth chefs Molly McCook (Ellerbe Fine Foods) and Casey Thompson (Brownstone) cultivated relationships with superlative farms such as Cold Springs Farm in Weatherford or Scott Arbor in Seguin. Thompson even taps one of her server's family's orchards for fruit. The farm-to-table movement is finally gathering steam in North Texas.

Even better, all these chefs and more besides are emphasizing that wonderful produce on the plate. Colorful succotash spills out from under halibut at the Green Room. A splendid array of crudités shares the plate with a dip of smoked beets and chickpeas at Brownstone. Hallelujah: Dinner isn't all about protein anymore.

2: Grown-up cocktails. Bartenders are toning down the sweetness and mixing sophisticated drinks, sometimes returning to the classics or giving them modern twists. Taste the difference at the Rattlesnake Bar at Fearing's (go for the Algonquin, with rye, dry vermouth, bitters and a splash of pineapple juice) or Neighborhood Services Bar and Grill (which also mixes an excellent rye-based drink, the New Fang). At the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek, a new cocktail menu features bartender Rocco Milano's spins on a few forgotten classics now enjoying a renaissance. To wit: the Martinez, which Milano concocts with Hayman's Old Tom gin, sweet red vermouth, Luxardo Maraschino liqueur and orange bitters. I love the garnish: a soaked-in-rum "drunken" cherry.

3: Interesting charcuterie. The chefs' love affair with salumi that was ignited here a few years ago rages on with new vigor. At Victor Tango's, chef Greg Bussey is curing his own duck speck and lardo (cured pork fat). Craft chef Jeff Harris puts up rabbit rillettes, and Charlie Palmer at the Joule's Scott Romano has a whole room devoted to curing meats; his prosciutto-like duck ham is outlandishly good. David Uygur, who is poised to open his Italian place, Lucia, in Oak Cliff this year, will put his house-made salumi front and center: He has been fiddling with a coppa (cured pork shoulder), spicing it with dried red jalape?os from Lemley's Farm and a finocchiona with fennel seeds, fennel pollen and orange zest.

4: Serious Mexican cooking. With the imminent openings of Komali, Abraham Salum's contemporary Mexican place, and Alma, the multiregional Mexican restaurant Tristan Simon has planned for the former Cuba Libre space on Henderson, Dallas should be in for some serious comida Mexicana. "I hope people react well to it," says Salum, who was born in Mexico City. He's excited about offering house-made tortillas (Komali is Nahuatl, the Aztec language, for comal, the griddle used for cooking tortillas), and a seasonally changing menu that will include regional dishes. "We have a killer recipe for a really good mole," he says, "and a good pipián."

5: Fish that can go the distance. Chilean sea bass? Not this season. We're seeing halibut, halibut everywhere, and more and more chefs who wouldn't be caught dead serving Patagonian toothfish, bluefin tuna and other unsustainable species. There's even a new sustainable-seafood theme restaurant – Wyland's Ocean Blue – complete with art gallery displaying paintings by marine-life artist Wyland. He opened his Fairview restaurant in June, with plans to open in Plano in November and Austin in January. Maybe if I close my eyes and wish really hard, we'll see fresh sardines (the ocean's full of 'em!) grilled over Texas grapevines by the time next summer rolls around.

6: Enough mussels; bring on the clams. Have we finally had our fill of the black-shelled, green-lipped bivalves? Jon Stevens, chef at Avner Samuel's new Euro bistro, Nosh, is betting on it. His menu proposes littleneck clams instead, served chowder-style. It's like a New England-style chowder, he says, but "done àla minute" with bacon, leeks, Yukon potatoes, white wine and a touch of cream. It's not a soup, however; "more like a bowl of steamers." A "Texas clambake" beckons from the menu of Bolsa in Oak Cliff, and Horne and Dekker is pairing littlenecks with Italian sausage. Keep your eyes open for those littlenecks.

7: Put a lid on it. Is the French canning jar the new miniature cast-iron skillet? Canning jars are showing up, delicious things within, at Brownstone ("potted pig" that's like French pork rillettes), Victor Tango's (in the form of baby pickled vegetables) and Neighborhood Services Bar and Grill (filled with velvety, Scotch whiskey-spiked butterscotch pudding). Quick – pry that baby open!

8: Beef with a purity pedigree. In McKinney, Square Burger features a custom grind from Genesis Beef for its patties – grass-fed, locally raised, free of hormones and antibiotics; it's even dry-aged. The Meddlesome Moth uses grass-fed Burgundy Pasture Beef. The trend is likely to be amped even more when Chop House Burger opens this year. Even steakhouses, including Al Biernat's and The Place at Perry's, have started featuring pedigreed Niman Ranch cuts.

9: Shhhh – quiet! Restaurateurs are finally catching on that loud and raucous isn't necessarily appetizing. With the pleasures of conversation in mind, Nick Badovinus went to great lengths to give his newest restaurant, Neighborhood Services Bar and Grill, good acoustics, covering several walls with cork tiles and hiding windows behind a fabric wall. At Komali, chef Salum will be covering his walls with sound-absorbing sea grass. Uygur is thinking quiet thoughts for Lucia, even though it's in young, hip Oak Cliff. "Is it going to be muffled and churchlike? Hardly," he says. "But hopefully people won't have to shout to talk to their dining companions. We'll be employing everything we can to mitigate that noisy feel."

10: Trailer envy. Yes, these are all appetizing, forward-looking trends, and they augur a fall with lots to discover. But we all know what's at the top of many Dallas food lovers' wish lists: fabulous food trailers or trucks. Austin's got 'em, Portland has them; so does LA. Our envy will no doubt continue to grow until it's satisfied – or until the trailers are dreadfully out of fashion.