YOUR GUIDE TO DINING OUT

ASIAN MINT $$ODFBWB Our Highland Park location, The Mint, offers an array of Asianfused cuisine, specializing in Bangkok style dishes. We feature farm fresh ingredients, beautifully presented, coupled with a chic atmosphere and friendly service. Happy Hour is 5pm-6:30pm Mon.-Fri. – all beers and house wines are $3; $2 off appetizers, soups & salads. 4246 Oak Lawn Ave. 214.219.6469. The Asian Mint, along with its fused and sushi menus, also offers one of the best dessert bars in Dallas. 11617 N. Central Expwy. 214.363.6655. www.themintdallas.com

BACK COUNTRY BBQ $WB Over 30 years of Texas-style BBQ. Family dining – 8 different meats, variety of homemade vegetables. Complete catering & custom cooking. Beer, wine, margaritas. 6940 Greenville Ave. 214.696.6940.

PIZZA LOUNGE $$ODFB Voted Dallas best late night restaurant 2010 ! Pizza LOUNGE offers their own unique, made-from-scratch recipes featuring fresh made pizza dough and sauce. Appetizers, salads and deserts are also an option in their eclectic, funky atmosphere as you listen to off beat tunes. Open 11am. 7 days a week till late late night at 841 exposition ave, Dallas. 214.887.6900. Pizzaloungedallas.com and on facebook.

TILLMAN’S ROADHOUSE $$ODWB

Tillman’s is a place for really good food, drinks, and music in a fun, casual, come-as-you-are environment. An update on the classic Texas roadhouse with regional menu favorites, familiar tunes and no-one is a stranger hospitality — all energized with a modern take. A combination of both rustic and lush in everything from the menu to the décor make Tillman’s a good-time anytime destination. Bishop Arts District 324 W. 7th St. 214.942.0988. www.tillmansroadhouse.com

by giuseppe verdi

BECKER VINEYARDSVIOGNIER ($15) TEXAS>

Texas wine has never been more popular or of better quality.

So what’s the Legislature about to do? Eliminate the state’s funding for wine research and marketing as it attempts to solve $27 billion budget deficit.

The savings? About $3 a Texan a year for the next two years, which won’t make much of dent in the deficit.

It will, however, seriously damage the progress Texas wine has made over the past several decades. Texas wine is not some effete pastime enjoyed by a bunch of outsiders who don’t like to drink Lone Star and eat chicken fried. It’s Big Bidness.

Texas wine sales increased 6 percent in 2010, with consumers buying almost 240,000 cases of wine from grocery and liquor stores, according the Nielsen survey company. Texas wine outsold Argentine and Chilean wine — combined — in the state in 2010, reported Nielsen, and four Texas eries were among the top 100 brands in the state.

So buy a bottle of Texas wine, toast Legislature, and hope it does the right thing:

($15). This is the best-selling viognier in Texas, outselling viogniers from California and France. Which is exactly the point of the $3 a person tax, since it pays for the research necessary to find out if a grape like viognier will make quality wine here.

$10). Yes, I always recommend this wine. And why not? It’s cheap and well-made, and, though pink, manly enough for any member of the Legislature.

($13). Texas chardonnay has always confused me. But Texas is going to make chardonnay, this is a good start — unoaked, with lots of tropical fruit and balance.

—JEFF SIEGEL

220 — a 300 percent increase since 2000. Texas is the fourth biggest wine consuming state in the country, and the fifth biggest producer. —JEFF SIEGEL