Road Blogging: Bolsa in Dallas, TX

Coming to you from a traffic jam on I-35 leaving Waco.  *1950s news radio beepy sound playing in background*

Travel in general is challenging, traveling by car for 7+ hours with two dogs is probably madness, unless I guess you add 16 kids.

OB and I are headed down to Austin, TX for a little get away and probably to eat ourselves into oblivion.   Since we needed to find sustenance before arriving in Austin we decided to do a little stop over in Dallas for some grub.

Of course like I mentioned we are traveling with two dogs, so wherever we stopped for lunch also needed to have outdoor dining that was pet friendly.  While on the road I hopped onto Bringfido.com and found some restaurants in the Dallas area that would let us dine with our hounds.

We decided to tryout Bolsa – Market, Cafe & Wine Bar.  The name immediately caught my attention because it means “bag” in Spanish, which I thought was funny.

It was also perfect because it wasn’t but a mile off the highway. Bolsa is located in the Bishops Art District of Dallas, TX.  The area looked to be full of interesting places to eat, several with outdoor dining.

OB waited outside while I went in to ask the hostess to be seated.  I informed her that we had two pups with us and asked if we could get outdoor seating.  With a very happy and cheery disposition she said, “Absolutely!’  She doted on furry friends and took us to our table on the patio.

It was quite the snazzy setup for outdoor dining.  The patio is set up with fans, misters and a huge inverted fan that circulated the air.  It was warm but considering it was 99 degrees outside it was comfortable.   The server quickly greeted us at our table and not only did he bring us water but he brought some water for the doggies too.

Superman and I were seated at a little table for two along the side, which was great because I could see the whole patio.  The only down side was our table.  It was super wobbly, so much so I had to keep my foot on one of the legs so Superman…..I mean Clark wouldn’t end up with his drink on his lap.

With a little coaxing the pups settled themselves down at our feet under the table.

Not only did I think the name was funny but look at their logo, it’s a little paper bag, it just makes me think bag lunch.

I was excited when I saw the menu and saw things like bruschetta tasting, braised Berkshire pork shoulder and duck fat biscuits!  DUCK FAT BISCUITS PEOPLE!!!!

Of course when I saw duck fat biscuits on the menu I pulled my Olympic dance ribbon out of my purse and did a celebratory dance in the patio.  I may have said something along the lines of “Duck Fat is Phat!”, who knows.  Needless to say I ordered duck fat biscuits & gravy with sunny side up eggs.

Were they everything I thought they would be?  Yes and a little more!  The sausage gravy dropped kick my taste buds to the point of knockout. What I loved was that the sausage wasn’t little miely pieces that got lost in the gravy, there were pieces of sausage that you could bite.  The biscuits are not your traditional huge fluffy biscuit, they are flatter but they are still very flaky.   I would compare them to a cross between crust and a biscuit, which was perfect because they held up to the weight and flavor of the gravy.  Then to top this all off with sunny side up eggs that had the perfect runny yolk! Slap my mama in the face with a mallard! Well not really but you know what I mean.  I enjoyed every flaky creamy bite.

Clark ordered the french toast, he is a French toast connoisseur.  The French toast was breaded with corn flakes and fried, served with fresh berries and warm maple syrup.  YUM!  I had a little bite and loved that the crust was crispy but the inside was soft and almost gooey.  *purrrrrr*

Once our bellies were full we headed back to our car.  However when I walked out I noticed these blue outlines of Bolsa’s logo.

We followed the trail down the street, like bread crumbs or duck fat biscuit crumbs in this case.

The little blue bags lead us to another brick building, Bolsa Mercado.

It was a little shop, sandwich & coffee shop.  How clever of them to leave me those breadcrumbs and find this place.

Clark loaded the pups into the car and I ran inside real quick to check it out.  They had homemade pastries, sandwiches, deli meats, wines and local brews.  It was a perfect place to chill out, relax with coffee and a laptop.

I ordered us two ice teas and grabbed one of these babies.  A cheesecake with cajeta caramel, which is basically dulce de leche made with goat’s milk.   Yeah my eyes rolled into the back of my head when I took a bite.

In summation, if you ever find yourself on the road, driving through Dallas with two dogs and need a place to eat duck fat biscuits I highly recommend Bolsa.

*all photos taken with iPhone