TruFire Kitchen & Bar’s meatless aim is true
For vegetarians, vegans and anyone who is trying to follow the Blue Zones “plant slant” prescription: Southlake’s TruFire Kitchen & Bar needs to be on your radar.
Tucked away in Southlake Town Square, TruFire is in a space that used to be the X’s and O’s sports bar.
In both incarnations, I’ve always had trouble remembering this place’s name — even its existence. Now TruFire is on my radar in a big way.
It’s a sister restaurant to Mash’d, the West 7th bar and restaurant with the moonshine theme. There’s no moonshine at TruFire, but just like at Mash’d, the owners tweaked the food menu a few months ago to highlight meatless versions of many of its signature items.
A separate, printed vegetarian menu has five appetizers, five substantial salads, four pizzas and two pastas at lunch and dinner. TruFire has four vegetarian brunch plates, too.
I haven’t tried either pasta entree, but one is spicy garlic noodles, with three roasted mushroom varieties, arugula, romano and a sweet vermouth butter sauce. The other is a fancy take on mac and cheese, the ‘Trumac,” with roasted garlic butternut-squash cream sauce, three cheeses, campanelle pasta and truffle oil.
The Latin Fire pizza, which comes with steak for carnivores, gets lots of flavor in its meatless version from caramelized onions and a roasted jalapeño cream. Toppings include three cheeses, cilantro and fresh avocado slices.
Among the salads, the naked avocado (diced avocado, heirloom tomatoes, feta, red onion, lemon, olive oil and flatbread, $9/$15), the Mediterranean (orzo, feta, tomato, cucumber, spinach and a mustard dill vinaigrette, $8/$14) and the spinach and quinoa (with cranberries, feta and more, $9/$15) may make the best entrees.
I like the Texas pecan and fig (with blue cheese and pears, $9/$15) and the heirloom tomato salad as starters ($13). Dressings can be quite sweet and applied with a heavy hand, so ask for it on the side.
The most unusual appetizer is the “Flatbread 2.0,” where the 2.0 must be a reference to the way it’s served: deconstructed, toppings on the side. I’m not sold on that, but you do get nicely seasoned pita pieces and big mounds of tomato spread, yogurt dill sauce, fresh diced cucumbers, feta and warm caramelized onions ($12).
Vegetarian brunch dishes, which I have not tried, are a pizza with eggs and spinach, the flatbread with scrambled eggs, and tacos and an omelet that include a sweet-potato hash.
Desserts are worth trying, especially the “Blue Lemon” ($9), an olive oil cake with lemon jam, cream and blueberry caramel sauce.
TruFire Kitchen & Bar: 1239 Main St., Southlake, 817-488-6280; and 6959 Lebanon Road, Frisco, 214-872-3830; www.trufire.us.
Café Modern goes African
Café Modern is having another of its occasional vegetarian wine dinners, this one devoted to South African wines paired with five courses. These things are pricy, thanks to the wines: $95 for Modern members, $110 for nonmembers.
But the food menu is especially intriguing this time, with African touches inspired by the wines. Here it is, with a few explanatory notes (thanks, Google!).
The first course is saffron couscous with apricots, almonds, baby beets, goat cheese mousse and baby greens.
The second course is butternut-lentil bobotie with orange, fennel and cabbage salad (bobotie, the national dish of South Africa, seems to be a sort of meat casserole in its traditional version).
The third course is injera (the spongy Ethiopian bread) stuffed with berbere spiced lentils, green chili sauce and satay-style okra with peanut sauce
Fourth course is vegetable sosaties (kebabs) with tamarind sauce, spiced carrot puree and piri piri black beans (piri piri is a small red chile).
Dessert is yogurt panna cotta with bruleed figs, chocolate balsamic and walnut lace.
Each course is paired with a different wine from South Africa’s famed Stellenbosch wine-making region, with styles including chenin blanc and pinotage, South Africa’s signature red grape.
The dinner begins 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 25. Make reservations at 817-840-2157 or www.themodern.org/cafe (click on the “Cafe Modern” square, then the special events link).
Have a suggestion, a veggie news tip or a question? Send it to Marilyn at veggie@dfw.com, or follow her on Twitter, @LonesomeVeg. For more Lonesome Vegetarian columns, visit dfw.com/vegetarian.
This story was originally published August 17, 2016 at 2:39 PM with the headline "TruFire Kitchen & Bar’s meatless aim is true."