Eating Dallas: HopDoddy, Empire Baking Company, Piada, Dallas Chocolate Festival and more

I live two minutes from HopDoddy Burger Bar and have eaten many times there, so its strange that its taken me so long to post about it on the blog. I have tried different burgers there but the el Diablo is my favorite burger there and with habaneros and serranos its one helluva spicy burger.  V always gets the vegetarian patty in his burger, while I go for the classic. Make sure to get their parmesan truffle fries with your order. Their beer selection is good too and its one place we love to go to and hang out.

The El Diablo from HopDoddy Burger Bar

I am not sharing the next Dallas eat destination just because I shoot for them, but even D Magazine voted Empire Baking Company as the best bakery for bread and it is well deserved. They have been making European style  artisanal bread for more than 20 years using the best quality ingredients. At the moment they have a Back To School Sandwich Contest going on and they are accepting recipes until 11.59pm CT August 19. You can check more details on the link here and try your luck at $100 gift card and your sandwich being featured in their bakery.

They have an extensive menu of breads. I love their Hippie Health and Jalapeno Cheddar, but they make a pretty good banana bread and the almond croissants that they only sell on Fridays are absolutely delicious. A must if you are in the neighborhood.

The Pimento cheese and red pepper jelly sandwich at Empire Baking Company

Piada Italian Street Food opened this Wednesday in Richardson. I had an opportunity to go for their pre-opening event on Monday and sample their menu. I also finally got to meet my long time blogger friend Dixya of Food, Pleasure and Health. While Piada doesn’t have a huge selection on their menu, and are kind of like the Chipotle of Italian food, whatever they serve is absolutely delicious.Their signature dish is a piada which is a thin italian flatbread filled with calamari, steak or chicken and other toppings. They also serve salads, pasta bowls and other Italian dishes. I tried their chef special piada with calamari and well as I am typing this I wish I could have more of it. Their roasted corn salad is amazing, and so was their carbonara. Actually everything we had was good and if I lived closer to their Richardson location, I would definitely be eating here pretty often. They should open one closer to Uptown. Anyone listening?

Saturday September 10th is the seventh annual Dallas Chocolate Festival  in Addison presented by DallasChocolate.org.  As part of their media night for the event we got to sample tons of chocolate from different Dallas based vendors along with a demonstration by Chef Gianni from haute Sweets Patisserie, which if you follow me on instagram might have seen on my IG stories. You can buy tickets to the Dallas Chocolate Festival here.

We got to sample so many innovative creations- like the Texas Mediants by Dr. Sue’s Chocolates which is a dark chocolate disc with candied jalapeño peppers, pecans, applewood smoked sea salt, and coriander. Yum! I also got the opportunity to interact with some lovely people who are selling some pretty creative chocolate flavors and products. If you ever have chocolate needs or need some unique edible gifting options check them out-  Wackym’s kitchen, Isabellys.com,  yelibelly chocolates.

One of my favorites  from Wednesday’s event was Eileens mocha praline. Eileen Scheib has been baking her delicious praline bars for 30 years that are a special mix of honey graham crackers topped with brown sugar, butter and Texas frown pecans. You can check more information on her website here. She ships nationwide, so you don’t have to be in Dallas to try them out!

Mocha Praline from Eileen’s pralines