I was mentioning this to someone, who, like me, is a fan of Dallas, it being the town which is the bigger, more attractive, more dynamic, more sophisticated, more modern sibling in the Dallas/Fort Worth family.
It did not take long in Texas to make note of the fact that Fort Worth has a bit of an inferiority complex regarding its more successful, world known, sibling, with that civic inferiority complex often reflected in Fort Worth's rather bad excuse for a town's newspaper of record, the Star-Telegram.
Hence that fellow fan of Dallas, wondered, when I made mention of this Bon Appetit accolade, if this latest good news about Dallas made Fort Worth Green With Envy.
Making that Green With Envy remark was a reference to something I soon noted upon arrival in Texas, and eventually made into a Green With Envy webpage, due to myself being appalled and amused by the number of times I would read an article in the Star-Telegram about some perfectly ordinary thing, with the Star-Telegram claiming this perfectly ordinary thing would made towns far and wide Green With Envy, or give Fort Worth Bragging Rights, or other similar nonsense.
I remember years ago a lifelong Fort Worth native explaining to me about the Fort Worth jealous relationship with Dallas, and it being a long one-sided rivalry, where Fort Worth civic leaders, like Amon Carter, fanned the flames of what basically is an imaginary rivalry, in the sense that it is one-sided.
Dallas, as reflected in that town's media, and when talking to the town's people, has never thought itself to be in any sort of rivalry with Fort Worth.
In metaphoric terms, it's like how Brad Pitt has never felt any sort of rivalry with his younger brother, Peach Pitt, whilst Peach Pitt has always seethed with jealousy that big brother Brad got the good looks, talent, wealth, women and world wide fame.
And can get any corporation in the world to take an interest in him, whilst no corporation will pay any attention to poor Peach Pitt. And whilst Brad offers to help his unfortunate brother, Peach Pitt instead opts to try and support himself with federal welfare, while indulging in bizarre schemes, like trying to build bridges over dry land to connect to an imaginary island. The Pitt family worries it may have to commit Peach Pitt to an insane asylum.
Back to the Bon Appetit Top Ten America's Best New Restaurants 2019 article.
In addition to Dallas having a restaurant in the Top Ten, Bon Appetit tossed another accolade at Dallas which likely will make Fort Worth even Greener with Envy. The Top Ten Best New Restaurants Bon Appetit issue also details that Dallas, Texas, Is the 2019 Restaurant City of the Year.
A couple paragraphs about Dallas in that Restaurant City of the Year article which should also fuel even more Green with Envy in those Fort Worthians prone to this sad ridiculous syndrome...
There are two things in this package that are going to upset a lot of people in Texas. One: naming Dallas our restaurant city of the year, which I have a feeling a lot of people in Houston and Austin are, uh, not gonna like. Two: what I’m about to say about a breakfast-taco joint…that’s also a barbecue joint…that’s in the most un-Texas location imaginable—Portland, Oregon. Please don’t hate me.
“We’ve always been looking over our shoulders at Houston,” says the first guy I meet in Dallas, his tone dramatic. “But not anymore!” And it’s true. Though Dallas and its food scene have long been overlooked in favor of other Texas towns, today, the city's in the midst of a renaissance, with excellent new restaurants and bars opening so fast and so furious that it's hard to keep up. (Seriously—I was last there in mid-June and already feel like I'm behind.)
______________
Oh my, no mention of Dallas looking over its shoulders to the west, at Fort Worth. No mention of Fort Worth at all.
Imagine if it had been Fort Worth Bon Appetit had named as the Restaurant City of the Year? The Star-Telegram would likely feel the need to resurrect its long dormant Green With Envy verbiage. At least I think it has been long dormant. It's been many years since I've seen an instance, while that Green With Envy embarrassment was chronic when I was first exposed to the Star-Telegram.
There was a slight flareup of Green With Envy type verbiage in the Star-Telegram last month when the Star-Telegram claimed "The Eyes Of The World Are On Fort Worth" due to ESPN broadcasting in downtown Fort Worth something to do with the start of college football. A big deal was made of this in Fort Worth, like it was some sort of noteworthy event.
I recollect wondering why no one seemed to wonder why it might be ESPN might opt to broadcast from downtown Fort Worth, when there are more, uh, logical venues in Arlington, near the stadium where the football game took place. I opined that likely the Fort Worth staple of offering incentives and bribes were involved. With neither Arlington or Dallas much caring where ESPN did its broadcast from. Sorta like how Dallas did not seem to care where the new Dallas Cowboy stadium was built, so it ended up in the same county Fort Worth is in, instead of in Dallas County, with the citizens of Arlington and Tarrant County paying for much of the stadium.
Yes, that Dallas is one city of slickers, always seeming to come out on top, in one way after another, over its city siblings in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex...
No comments:
Post a Comment