The Spread: Cookie Society Grabs Oprah’s Attention.

A Black-Owned Boutique Bakery In Frisco Catches Oprah’s Attention, A Bunch Of New Restaurants Open Their Doors This Week And More.

Welcome to The Spread, our weekly feature that aims to share all the area restaurant, food and beverage industry news that’s fit to print. Except, this is the Internet, so space isn’t a concern. Also: Good thing, because this is Dallas and this town always has breaking restaurant news going down like whoa.

There’s a lot of good news this week, y’all!

Oprah officially has a new favorite cookie, and its Cookie Society — a Black-owned cookie company based in Frisco. In fact, this year, Oprah’s annual list of favorites focused mainly on Black-owned or Black-led businesses, but the North Texas bakery is owned by Marissa Allen and former NFL player Jeff Allen and offers over 20 cookie flavor options from chocolate chunk to snickerdoodle to maple pecan — truly perfect for the holidays.

Over at the Dallas Zoo, the animals are getting a sweet treat if their own. The Dallas Arboretum is sending all of its leftover pumpkins to the Dallas Zoo so that animals like elephants and hippos can smash them. If they’re going to be caged, the least they can do is be treated to an orange delicacy. Besides, have you ever watched a hippo eat pumpkin whole? It’s the small joys!

For us humans, however, our food options have expanded far past pumpkins here in the DFW. Amidst the permanent closures that have impacted small businesses, there were a lot of new businesses that opened up this week.

Over at NorthPark, the highly anticipated Italian market Eataly is getting ready to open up. While the exact opening date is unknown, we’re looking forward to loads of imported Italian goods and groceries. Siamo pronti!

Down in Bishop Arts, Jesus Carmona, who you may recognize as the owner of the now-closed Tacos Mariachi, opened a new Argentinian bistro with Ramiro Fernandez Paxos called Chimichurri over on West Seventh Street in the old Tillman’s building. It’s not just empanadas, steak and wine to look forward to but the “vermoutheria” — a special bar that focuses on vermouth based aperitifs. “Aperitifs” are just a fancy name for cocktails designed to stimulate your appetite before dinner. Should you find yourself curious for more, just direct your questions to James Slater, the veteran bartender at the helm of these stimulating cocktails.

Speaking of low-proof drinks, a new wine bar is coming to Deep Ellum. Postino Wine Cafe is opening on 2647 Main Street, sharing its space with Merit Coffee. This wine bar made its way to Texas by way of Arizona joining the other outsiders like Kristin Cavallari who are erecting their flags in the historic neighborhood. Welcome home, we guess.

In slightly more Texan news, Oak’d BBQ opened up on Greenville Avenue near Central Market this past week with some surprisingly healthy options like salads, roasted cauliflower and quinoa dishes. It doesn’t end there — Escape Hatch Dallas says the new BBQ eatery plans on expanding the menu to include oysters, fish and porkchops.

And lastly, we end with some exciting craft beer news! Denton County Brewing Company, Celestial Beerworks and Turning Point Beer will be releasing their own limited-edition craft beers at NTX Beermuda Triangle Fest in early December.  You can check out more details on the festival’s website. As for us, we’ll be making some room for some of these exciting new hops in our mini-fridge.

Photo courtesy of Cookie Society’s Facebook.