On March 8, 2020, a crowd converged on Four Corners Brewing Co. for a festival dedicated to Filipino food. Popular, rising-star pop-up businesses run by Filipino-American chefs with day jobs served more than a thousand customers that day. At 2 p.m., the wait for a bowl of noodles was 50 minutes, and another line was keeping people standing for an hour.
It felt like every food lover in Dallas was there. In one line, I chatted with
Texas Monthly taco editor José Ralat, and at the ice cream booth,
D Magazine dining critic Eve Hill-Agnus worked serving scoops.
None of us knew this would be the last time the Dallas food community partied together. Two days later, Dallas County reported its first known case of COVID-19. On March 17, the county’s dining rooms and bars closed by public order.