Paul Qui's interview in Texas Monthly

[Ron Brand]

Pretty good stuff there.

JS: You’ve lived in both Houston and Austin. What’s the best food city in Texas?

PQ: Best food city in Texas. That’s a tough one man. But just because of the diversity, Houston. A couple of the most forward restaurants in Texas right now are in Houston. The Pass & Provisions, Oxheart, and Underbelly. It’s great what they’re doing with the food scene. And Houston has the best ethnic food. Indian, Middle Eastern, Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, you name it. There are some okay Chinese restaurants in Austin, but there’s nothing great. When it comes down to it, Austin’s still a growing city and we don’t have that kind of food here yet. But as far as the restaurant scene goes, I like the vibe in Austin better.

[BizidyDizidy]

And Dallas is unworthy of mention. Well done Paul.

[Ron Brand]

Fuck Dallas.

[BizidyDizidy]

Fuck Dallas.

Ditto.

[Fredia]

etc ditto

[Uncle Charlie]

Fuck Dallas.

I used to feel that way, but realized I didn't know much about it.  Moved here due to a job and absolutely love it.  Although I hate the Cowboys, and fans, the inevitable train wreck is fun to watch every fall.  Bandwagon Rangers fans are highly annoying, but that's true of any bandwagoner.

[NeilT]

I used to feel that way, but realized I didn't know much about it.  Moved here due to a job and absolutely love it.  Although I hate the Cowboys, and fans, the inevitable train wreck is fun to watch every fall.  Bandwagon Rangers fans are highly annoying, but that's true of any bandwagoner.

I don't know, it might be nice to have a team that brings out sunny day fans.

[homer]

I used to feel that way, but realized I didn't know much about it.  Moved here due to a job and absolutely love it.  Although I hate the Cowboys, and fans, the inevitable train wreck is fun to watch every fall.  Bandwagon Rangers fans are highly annoying, but that's true of any bandwagoner.

What part of town do you live in? (so that we can properly judge your opinion)

[MikeyBoy]

I used to feel that way, but realized I didn't know much about it.  Moved here due to a job and absolutely love it.  Although I hate the Cowboys, and fans, the inevitable train wreck is fun to watch every fall.  Bandwagon Rangers fans are highly annoying, but that's true of any bandwagoner.

So, you like everything about Dallas except the people, which is kind of the point wit "fuck Dallas."

[Bench]

I used to feel that way, but realized I didn't know much about it.  Moved here due to a job and absolutely love it.  Although I hate the Cowboys, and fans, the inevitable train wreck is fun to watch every fall.  Bandwagon Rangers fans are highly annoying, but that's true of any bandwagoner.

I've certainly never lived there, but I've always found it to be a pretty bland and boring place. 

[Duke]

We go to Dallas once a year on the 2nd weekend in October.  Enjoy a Fletcher's corndog, catch a ballgame, check out the new trucks.  That's plenty for the year.

[juliogotay]

I live north of Dallas in McKinney. I try to stay out of Dallas as much as possible. I try not to talk it down because it has been good to me and family professionally. When I retire I will be heading south on the first bus. But I have no issue with the people. The bandwagon effect is probably because nobody is from here. So, sometimes the Rangers are the "it" team, sometimes the Stars or Mavericks. But they are always on-board with the Cowboys despite two decades of mediocrity and an owner only his mother could love. 

[Ty in Tampa]

...an owner only his mother could love. 

I'll bet she had a hard time, too.

[Limey]

I've certainly never lived there, but I've always found it to be a pretty bland and boring place.  

I lived / worked there for a month before, a few years later, moving to Houston.  My month in Dallas almost soured me on the idea of moving here.  Bland and boring is about as good as it gets.

Recently, I ended a long drought of not having been to Dallas, by going to Dallas.  The guy I was meeting picked me up from the airport, and he spent the whole ride into town talking about where he lived and how much it cost and how he was going to be moving into a better neighborhood and how much that cost and how his buddy already lives there and how his father is worth billions and how he is going to use him to get introduced to other billionaires so that he can hang out and live near to billionaires (the lack of punctuation is deliberate, to give you a sense of the stream of douchiness that I was subjected to).  He took me to lunch at a local "business hotspot", which turned out to be a glorified Panda Express where some of his wannabe buddies hang out.  He introduced me to a bunch of them, and, after they left, told me how much their houses are worth and how many billions their Dads have.

Even more recently, I went to Dallas for a wedding.  I stayed at a Sheraton, and it was almost certainly the worst hotel stay I've ever had.  We went through three rooms before finding one that wasn't crucially fucked in some manner.  Each transfer took about 30 minutes to execute, including up and downs to reception.  The last room, we made the manager come there with us to make sure that it was in good working order.  It seemed like it was and, by this time, we were running late to make the ceremony.  What we didn't see at the time, though, was that someone - don't know if it was the maids or a prior guest, but the maids should've caught it anyway - had cleverly folded the towels on the racks to hide the tea/coffee/dirt/shit stains all over them.  Only one bath towel out of 4 was unsoiled.  We had no time to do anything about it at that point, but we had a right-roiling discussion with reception the next morning.

Dallas is one of my least favourite places on the face of this good, green Earth.

I have a meeting there next Thursday.  I'm thinking of gnawing off a leg.

[BizidyDizidy]

I would describe that as a better than average Dallas experience.

[Uncle Charlie]

What part of town do you live in? (so that we can properly judge your opinion)

Dallas...M streets.  I know nothing about folks outside of the actual city of Dallas.

[BizidyDizidy]

Dallas...M streets.  I know nothing about folks outside of the actual city of Dallas.

I lived all over the M streets - I did like that area (although it's basically just a worse version of the Heights).

[Uncle Charlie]

I actually like it better than The Heights, but to each his own.

Limey - you must have been talking to someone who lives in Park Cities (which is not technically part of Dallas).  It's like Villages.  Where I live it's much more down to earth.  Yes, there are expensive houses, but there are ones that aren't that great as well.  A nice mix of conservatives and liberals, but we all get together at the local and drink.  It really is the best "community" I've ever lived in.

Things I like about Dallas (with the M Streets being the frame of reference) more than Houston...where I lived for ~80% of my life:  Weather, sense of community, a lake in the middle of the city, restaurants, 10 minutes to Love Field without living in a tough neighborhood, museums, the SMU "sceenary", numerous parks, can walk to my church, can walk to multple restaurants, can walk to a movie theatre and a music venue, the lack of traffic relative to Houston, State Fair, Texas-OU weekend, St. Patricks Day celebration.

Things I still like about Houston more: Most of my family lives there, the Astros, the Texans, the Rodeo, seafood, the ballet, seeing my childhood friends

[Col. Sphinx Drummond]

I'm no fan of Dallas, lived there a couple of years in the 70s, fresh out of dropping out of college. Had some good friends there in the same boat. We made our own scene and had great times. It wasn't as bad there in the 70s it has gotten much worse since then. It was always very plastic, but in a shallow superficial way. Hell, I lived in OKC for seven years right after Dallas. OKC in the 70s was pretty fucked but again I had a good group of friends and we managed to have fun. I think OKC has become a much better place to live over the last 20 years, Dallas not so much. But there are still worse places to live and Dallas has some nice pockets. I fucking love Fort Worth... Lot of pockets.

[Col. Sphinx Drummond]

We lived on Merrimac off of McMillan.

[Fredia]

now that cedar park will be getting an in and out burger, i can see no reason to go to dallas

[chuck]

We lived on Merrimac off of McMillan.

Is that in the M streets area by any chance?

[Col. Sphinx Drummond]

Is that in the M streets area by any chance?

I think it mist be. I don't recall ever using "M" Streets back then. Maybe Lower Greenville or Greenland Hills.

[Uncle Charlie]

I think it mist be. I don't recall ever using "M" Streets back then. Maybe Lower Greenville or Greenland Hills.

It is.  I have a friend that loves a few houses from that corner.  I understand from people who were here in the 70s that the feel of the neighborhood has changed since then.

[juliogotay]

It is.  I have a friend that loves a few houses from that corner.  I understand from people who were here in the 70s that the feel of the neighborhood has changed since then.

The neighborhood was hot in the early '80s. We almost bought a house on Monticello while renting a duplex on Morningside.  Loved the 'hood then and we both worked downtown but it needed work and I'm not handy. 

[94CougarGrad]

Since living in NoTx, I have come to the conclusion that I like Dallas well enough, but am glad I don't live there. Visiting there isn't bad. Some decent places to eat, some good museums, some interesting things to explore. The overall attitude of the majority of folks I've run into, though, seems to be either: (1) I live in Dallas and I'm a rich badass and you're a slug, or (2) I wish I could get out of Dallas because all these snobby people drive me nuts. You can see the vicious cycle. I agree that watching the Cowboys' train wreck every fall can be really darned entertaining. Unlike other non-natives who've moved up here, I don't actually hate the Rangers, but they're not *my* baseball team. I've felt very discombobulated this season because, no matter how awful the Astros do, I can't turn on my tv and see them live. Unless they're playing the Rangers.

I worked in Fort Worth for the first 6 months that we lived up here. Fort Worth people generally seem to be friendlier and more down-to-earth than Dallas people. Everyone I've run into in Fort Worth who's learned I'm originally from the Houston area was pleasant and had nice things to say about Houston, or they were very welcoming. Almost every native Dallas person who's found out where I'm from has wrinkled their nose or said something to the effect of, "Well, I can see why you'd come up here!" (You can? Interesting.) I liked working in Fort Worth, but the drive (among other things) finally got to me.

Denton has a good feel. It's part college town, part bigger-town-than-a-college-town, has a good music and food scene, and there's always something to do. Tons of lakes nearby, football, roller derby, hiking, camping, state parks, lots of outdoor stuff, but it's still cultured enough to have ballroom dance lessons and wine tastings if you're into that. Denton reminds me somewhat of Austin from the few times I visited there in the late 80's and early 90's. It's laid-back when you need it to be, but close enough to the cities that you can go there easily.

But don't let anyone who's lived in both places tell you the traffic in Houston is worse than the traffic in Dallas. My entire life until 2008, I lived within 2.5 or 3 miles from the Gulf Freeway, and that entire time, some portion of the freeway was being worked on. The traffic in Dallas is much worse than the traffic in Houston. Dallas doesn't grow its freeways.

[Noe]

A friend of mine said this to me and a bunch of others who were hanging out together playing denial volleyball "I knew I would hate living in Dallas when I got on the expressway and..." I yelled "STOP! You don't have to end that sentence, you've captured why Dallas is so bad."

Everyone nodded in agreement.