For decades, Mama's Pizza kept a secret.
Now, for the first time, the iconic local pizza restaurants serve the managers' hush-hush thin-crust pizzas.
"When I started with Mama's in the 1990s, we'd always make our own pizzas with thin crust," said owner Jordan Scott, in his 10th year running the restaurants launched in 1970 and named for the late "Mama" Biggs.
The newest Mama's special has the same crust and brushed-garlic edge, just less of it. Order it with "easy" cheese to lighten up all the way around.
It already accounts for 20 to 30 percent of orders, Scott said.
"We just won 'Best Place to Carb Up' from a magazine, but that's not always a good thing," Scott said.
"People have changed the way they eat pizza. We're all paying more attention to calories. You can order a thin-crust pizza with easy cheese and not be so worried."
Mama's also now serves a third option: a gluten-free crust.
Grilled chicken is now a choice for salads or served with barbecue sauce on a new thin-crust specialty pizza.
The seventh location of Mama's opened days ago at 5811 Bryant Irvin Road, on the corner at Oakmont Boulevard.
The next Mama's will open by fall in Southlake at 445 W. Southlake Blvd., near Fuzzy's Taco Shop.
Scott said he hopes to expand back into college neighborhoods in Dallas and Austin, where Mama's thrived in the 1980s.
All locations are open for lunch and dinner daily and serve an all-you-can-eat buffet for $7 at lunch weekdays and Saturdays; mamaspizzas.net.
I have no idea how the name Chaucer landed on a sushi restaurant.
But the fifth Chaucer's Restaurant is open in Arlington, bringing happy-hour sushi prices and another late-night party scene to Lincoln Square.
By night, Chaucer's is mostly a nightclub. But until midevening, it's a flashy sushi bar and Asian grill.
The best deal: Rolls are 3-for-$10 daily until 6 p.m. That includes the basic rolls, plus specials such as a crunchy spicy tuna roll with tempura flakes or a deep-fried firecracker roll.
The original Chaucer's opened in Addison in 2002, said manager Alan Ho.
The Arlington location is open daily for lunch and dinner in the long-gone Portofino's and Habanero's space at 226 Lincoln Square, facing an Italian restaurant; 817-459-2399, chaucersrestaurant.com.
Bud Kennedy's Eats Beat appears Wednesdays in Life & Arts and Fridays in DFW.com Weekend. 817-390-7538
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