A note of importance: If you take a peek at our monthly calendar in tomorrow’s edition of Oak Cliff People, please scratch The First Hundred Years at Eno’s, April 27 at 9 p.m. At press time, Eno’s had the band scheduled for that date.

It has since been changed to City Folk at 9 p.m. on April 27. Sorry if you’re a Hundred Years’ fan. At least City Folk and a few delish slices of Eno’s pizza will cheer you up.

From the files of the ever-wise, ever-diligent Teresa Gubbins.

Want to open a restaurant, pop-up restaurant, meat shop, soup shop, meaty soup shop? Trinity Groves wants you. The owners sent out an email yesterday to nearly 150 chefs (is that all the chefs in Dallas?), asking them to stop by and chat.

From the e-mail, via Gubbins:

“I have teamed up with West Dallas Investments with a specific role to coordinate and orchestrate the restaurant incubation development planned for this exciting new area called Trinity Groves. … We will be setting up some ‘open houses’ here at the Trinity Groves offices on Singleton Boulevard just west of the new Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. At that time, you will be able to tour the site and get a firmer grip on our short and long range plans for this area. As you may have noticed, the bridge has now opened for traffic and we continue to work to prepare this development for occupancy.”

So, go test out Old Marge, then open a restaurant. Give me something to cross the bridge for, k?

I often drive by Clarendon Drive restaurant Las Islitas — a no-frills, mom-and-pop-looking Mexican seafood place with a wraparound mural —  and keep meaning to try the food.

Well, it turns out the owners had quite a Monday; according to a police report summarized below, the place was ransacked around 3 a.m. yesterday morning. Like, bad.

The thief (or thieves) damaged a side door, wall, jukebox, beer sign, cash register, and TV stand, and stole 12 bottles of wine with a combined value of $400, a $150 TV, five cases of beer with a combined value of $125, an $85 DVD player, and $50 cash.

Ouch.

I was in the doghouse yesterday morning, so I suggested to my lady that we head to brunch. Booze and breakfast always seem to thaw even the hardest freeze, so I hoped it could pull me back to her good graces.

We went to Smoke, and it worked. On the way out, I checked our Oak Cliff People box outside, to make sure no one has tagged “4:20″ on it, or anything equally hilarious. I found two Shepard Fairey stickers, which I let slide.

I guess we can count ourselves as part of his mural brigade, right?

Portrait – Jeff Harris from HandPicked Nation on Vimeo.

I’m as excited about the upcoming Texas growing season as Bolsa chef Jeff Harris is. Mostly it’s to see what’s in my Urban Acres co-op box. But I’m pretty stoked to find out what cool seasonal dishes Harris will come up with.

We already celebrated Pie Day, but today we recognize Pi Day, as in 3.14, or the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter.

Right now, Norma’s is running a little contest:

Today is Pi (3.14) Day. EVALUATE your appreciation for pie and math at Norma’s Cafe with one of our yummy pies. Whether you like coconut, chocolate, lemon or chocolate-peanut butter, ADD on a SEGMENT of PI for the SUM of a great meal. Don’t just LIMIT yourself to one slice; get a WHOLE NUMBER to go! Share this status with your friends for a chance to enter to win one free Mile High Cream Pie! That’s our kind of math!

The tongs and apron behind Smoke is getting the buzz he deserves. Tim Byres, the barbecue innovator at perhaps the toniest ‘cue joint in Texas, was named Food & Wine magazine’s best new chef of 2012.

Of course, in the brief little article on their website, Byres offers this gem:

“Everybody wants to label barbecue styles and areas,” he says. “But wherever you go in the rural South, styles developed from availability and necessity. It’s just honest cooking.”

It reminded me of my dad’s own take on ribs, brisket, and sausage. It’s all about the right amout of seasoning and smoke to make a bad cut of meat taste better than it ever could on its own, he would say.

Congratulations, Tim!

I’ve followed up on the lead left by the kind reader in the comments section of this post, but I thought I’d give it one more shot. After calling more than two dozen restaurants in and around Oak Cliff, I was surprised to find only about 10 that offer free kids’ meals on a given night.

If you’ve snagged free food for your kid at a local eatery, name-drop the business in the comments so they can be featured in Friday’s issue of Oak Cliff People.

Tim Byres of Smoke is a regional finalist in Food & Wine magazine’s The People’s Best New Chef competition. If you’d like to help him win, the regional round of voting ends Sunday.

The Cafe Brazil over at Bishop Commons is offering a free daily special today with the purchase of any drink.

Today’s delicacy is the Coco Chanel:

A marinated chicken breast, coated in Sweet Coconut and fried to perfection. They then layer it over white rice, infused with coconut milk, and top them both with a very flavorful Coconut Gravy.  Served with our signature Black Beans.

Sounds delicious!