Review: Windmills Is a Brewery, Indian Restaurant, Jazz Lounge, Art Library and Almost Everything Else
I’m in the chaat cafe. I’m in the brewery. I am in the combination of a chaat café and a brewery.
And that’s not even half the story at Windmills, the most eclectic new venue in the Dallas area for eating, drinking, and, well, everything else. Windmills is a craft brewery, jazz club, Indian restaurant, art book library, cocktail bar, steak house and picnic area, all in what describes itself as a “Total Environment” building.
This restaurant tries to be a million things at once and it works most of the time. Lots of good food and beer is served in a fascinating room.
The main dining room is a concert hall with a balcony, bar and a wide stage with a Steinway and shelves full of real and decorative books on the sides. On one side of the balcony, a row of windows looks into the brewery’s production rooms.
I support
Local
Community
journalism
Support the independent voice of Dallas and help keep the future of the Dallas Observer free.
Keep the Dallas Observer Free.
The lower dining area has more bookshelves, this time with all the real books, many of them coffee table art books and expensive cookbooks from the fanciest restaurants in the world.
One day I passed the bar for a snack and a pint and immersed myself in the library, picked up volumes still sealed on Nordic baking and Mexican haute cuisine, and wondered if I could open them. (I asked; the answer is yes.)
click to enlarge
If you have some spare time at Windmills, help yourself in the library.
Alison McLean
On the ground floor, the tables are arranged in diamond-shaped booths so that when a show is on, everyone can crowd around to one side to watch. If there aren’t any live performances, prepare to be played by one of the most eccentric playlists in Texas. The Windmills stereo brings out hit after hit from the last few decades, from a collection that might be called “Mostly Latin Retro Bops” or perhaps “Songs My Hippie Elementary School Teacher Played While Reading Time”.
Stop by for lunch and hear the bossa nova organ stylings by Walter Wanderley and Eumir Deodato, classic tunes from the Buena Vista Social Club, Parisian accordion serenades, the Dave Brubeck Quartet, extravagant harmonica solos, and around the Mixing things up, classic American country.
Here, too, there are other details to marvel at, such as the slatted ceiling, sound-absorbing tile walls, the wide-angle view of an artificial lake and stylish drink coasters. The whole building is putting on a show.
“I feel like I am in a cruise ship dining room,” a friend told me and recorded everything. Then we looked at the menu, presented on an iPad, and he changed his answer: “No, that’s more like … Epcot.”
When a bizarre flute instrumental cover of “Raindrops Keep Fallin ‘On My Head” came over the sound system, it was time to order.
Windmills beer is pretty darn good across the board. Most of all, I’ve enjoyed a mild, medium-dark, slightly sweet Mexican lager – compare it to Victoria or Bohemia – and a light ale that is gently bitter, hoppy, but easy to drink. The season is pretty good too, and friends said they enjoyed the Coffee Porter, which manages to taste strongly like coffee without sacrificing the fact that it is supposed to taste like beer.
click to enlarge
The Wagyu burger with a chili pepper sauce
Alison McLean
A beer helps to look at the menu, which is long and full of surprises. There are South Asian classics – chaat, grilled kebabs, kulfi – and Texan classics – large steaks, queso, brisket-filled jalapeños – alike. There’s a burger with a chili pepper sauce and a chicken kebab with guava glaze.
As with so many restaurants in Dallas, the funnest dishes are appetizers and snacks. Everyone who orders a beer should combine it with kulcha, the super-thin, filled flatbreads. Windmills has several varieties, including parmesan and green chilli kulcha for the spice lover; So far, our favorite folds ground beef and spices into the bread ($ 13). Topped with an outrageous amount of black sesame seeds, it’s the perfect partner for a pint.
Lamb seekh kebabs marinate with cashmere peppers before going on the grill ($ 17). The ground lamb is cooked through, but still tender, served with light green raita and a lightly pickled salad of red onions and carrots. There’s nothing like a refreshing red onion on a flavorful bite of meat.
click to enlarge
The towering potato tikki chaat is a creative implementation of the classic street snack.
Alison McLean
Even better is potato tikki chaat, a popular street snack full of flavor ($ 11). I am describing it from top to bottom. First, and most visibly, there’s a party of crispy fried potato strands, then beneath those swirls of tamarind and mint chutney and around the sides is a chilling yogurt moat. Dig in to discover diced red onions and tomatoes, pomegranate seeds, fried chickpeas, and deep down on the plate, a spiced potato pancake. It is perfectly executed pandemonium.
We were more divided on the Kerala Beef Fry, a pan of beef tenderloin, coconut slices, shallots, and curry leaves served on a rolled up flatbread ($ 17). I have consistently smuggled pieces of meat that were flavored almost red while avoiding the dry, chalky pieces of coconut.
Main courses range from fried chicken steak with duck fat sauce to moilee, a Portuguese-Indian seafood stew. We tried the veggie kofta, a giant donut made from carrots, potatoes, other vegetables, and spices that is cut in half and plated over a $ 21 sauce pool like twin tips. This sauce is creamy and buttery, but also loaded with smoked and pureed tomatoes, a spicy, unusual combination.
Our waiter loved the lamb chops. In fact, he really and rightly loved everything, but as advertised, the chops were full-bodied, perfectly cooked, and tasty ($ 36). The other two elements of the plate, however, were acquired tastes: a sweet tamarind glaze on the lamb and a “khichdi risotto” made from rice and lentils that had become dry and starchy.
But the successes on the Windmills menu clearly outweigh the failures, and there is much more to try. I only noticed now that there is a Hill Country potato salad with kebabs to order. All dishes show the selection and quality of the Windmills beer.
While we were sitting at a booth at lunchtime on a Saturday, our server told us that the live music started at 9:30 that evening and then suggested that we stay and watch. (In fact, many customers pre-book tables for live shows and reserve specific seats just like in a concert hall.)
But the moment before we realized that nine more hours at our table would be ridiculous, I looked around the tanks full of beer, shelves full of books, plush niches and armchairs, lake outside and snack menu and thought, yes, we could stay.
Windmills, 5755 Grandscape Blvd., The Colony. 972-777-6770, windmills-usa.com. Open Sunday to Thursday 11 am-10pm, Friday and Saturday 11 am-11pm
[ad_1]
