Good morning! Here are some FYIs to start your week. 

👉 Tuesday is the first day of fall, y’all. 🍁

👉 Another Atmos gas leak has displaced hundreds from a Dallas apartment this week. If your house or apartment uses natural gas, here are signs it could be leaking.

👉 Here’s why your water bill may look higher than usual.

👉 Cool front, is that you? Here’s your weather forecast for the week. 

A new 50-mile trail loop around Dallas is set to open at the end of September. (anandpreshob/Shutterstock)

by Sam Cohen

At the end of September, The Loop Plaza in Dallas will officially open. It’s a project that links the Trinity Strand Trail, the Katy Trail, and the H Line Connector in a 50-mile loop that has taken several phases of construction to arrive at this final completion.

Most recently, the Trinity Forest Spine Trail posed issues for developers back in May. That portion of the Loop required the creation of 11 new trails which then had to be connected to 39 ones that already existed.

To get over the finish line, a 12-foot bridge made of concrete was erected over Union Pacific to provide a safe route across the active railroad to nearby Parkdale Lake.

It’s hard work that will likely pay off in droves as it creates new pathways throughout Dallas to help more effectively link the Design District to Uptown and back again. 

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It was the norm before Sept. 11—walking your loved ones to their boarding gate and waiting with them till their plane took off. After the terrorist attacks, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was formed, and goodbyes had to happen at security check, particularly complicating things for parents sending a child to fly alone.

Now, DFW is one of 13 airports across the nation that’ll begin to let unticketed folks through security, but only if they have PreCheck. 

Cris & John has a colorful dining room with first-come first-served seating. (Joi Louviere/ Courier Texas)

After years on my list of restaurants to try, I can finally cross the very popular Cris & John off. The gems at this Vietnamese and Mexican fusion restaurant aren’t hidden, but rather a sparkling reminder of the beautiful and bold flavors that can be birthed when two cultures come together. Social media videos show patrons slurping up their Cris & John birria ramen or down their pho-rittos.

I somehow lucked out and avoided the long line that seems to be the norm here, but when it came time to order from the vast menu, I quickly realized I should have done my homework. With so many options, deciding what to order might be the hardest part about eating here—though the restaurant being closed Saturdays and Mondays is a close second.

Luckily, the restaurant offers different sampler platters to take the pressure off. Here’s what was on mine.

This platter is $35. And then curiosity got the best of me, so I also ordered ginger chicken and an ube latte, as well. I value thorough research. 😉

I was in heaven. The flavors I already loved came together so naturally that it felt like these ingredients had always belonged on the same plate—a fitting reflection of the couple behind the concept.

Owners Cristina Mendez and John Pham have been married for more than 30 years and opened the restaurant in 2018. They built the menu around street foods from their respective cultures, a smart and approachable way to introduce Vietnamese cuisine and other Asian flavors to diners who may be less familiar with them.

What Dallas can always get behind are tacos, wings, and burgers, and the Cris & John version of these are gateway drugs to more international fare that represent the region’s melting pot culture. 

Here’s the menu. What are we ordering next?

Don’t Sleep On is a weekly series where I shout out DFW events and businesses I think you should try. Have a suggestion? Reply to this email.

Thanks for reading. This newsletter was written by Joi Louviere with reporting by Sam Cohen. It was edited by Kimberly Lawson.

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