Eat Drink D-FW: Restaurant comebacks + the case for vermouth

After the Rangers' season-opening roster was set, John and Evan break down the final decisions and how playing time might be split at some positions. We also revisit the cool moment of Skip Schumaker informing Carter Baumler that he'd made the team while on the mound in the middle of an inning. Former Rangers catcher Robinson Chirinos, the bench coach for Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic, stops by to talk about the run through the tournament, the work the staff and players put in and the gratitude that washed over him and his countrymen after the win over Team USA. Finally, in the Archives in Arlington, we walk through some 21st Century season openers, including Alex Rodriguez's first game, which foreshadowed a season and an era. And John shares a little surprise about the time Nolan Ryan and Robin Ventura talked on opening day - for the first time in nearly 20 years since their brawl. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Spring Break served up more than just sunshine in Dallas-Fort Worth — it brought back some beloved local restaurants from the dead. We've got the details on the comebacks you need to know about.Plus, Tanner Agar of Apothecary and Flamant joins us to make the case for vermouth — the most underrated, misunderstood, and quietly essential ingredient in your glass. Think of it as the Paul Dano of booze: always in the room, doing serious work, and criminally overlooked until someone finally points it out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Attorney General Ken Paxton informed Kelly Hancock on Thursday the attorney general’s office would no longer represent the comptroller in an ongoing federal lawsuit regarding access Muslim schools have to the state’s new education savings account system. In other news, the D-FW area added more than 120,000 people from July 2024 to July 2025, according to a new census estimate; Dubai developer SEE Holding has scrapped plans for a roughly 2,300-acre mixed-use development in Kaufman County; nd the Dallas Mavericks have hired Kieran Kelliher as their new chief financial officer, an important move for the team’s business operations as the franchise prepares to move into a new arena in five years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SMU president Jay Hartzell on protests and free speech on college campuses, the future of college athletics and NIL. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dallas police’s explosive disposal team scoured NorthPark Center in Dallas Wednesday after a reported threat caused a full evacuation. In other news, Brooks Potteiger, an evangelical pastor from Tennessee and a pastor for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on a podcast this month that he wants Texas state Rep. James Talarico to die by crucifixion, prompting conflicting explanations of what he meant; the owners of The Shops at Willow Bend plan to start tearing down the mall within the next year — even if the Dallas Stars opt against building a hockey arena at the 90-acre site; and one of the Dallas region’s most well-known names in furniture is closing its retail operations. Weir’s Furniture, founded in 1948, announced on Wednesday it will shutter after all its merchandise is sold. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Historian Jon Meacham on his anthology book American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SportsDay Insiders Kevin Sherrington, Evan Grant and Shawn McFarland discuss the Rangers' final roster decisions going into Thursday's opening day in Philadelphia and deliver their predictions for the season. From Andrew McCutchen's surprising bid to the roster to the unprecedented talent at the top of the rotation, the guys cover it all, including their final take on ABS and their win totals in Skip Schumaker's debut season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Superintendents in several districts in the Dallas-Fort Worth area have announced their departures over the past few weeks. Some are retiring after lengthy tenures. Others left their districts more abruptly. In other news, city leaders promised to deliver the Dallas Wings a new practice facility in time for the start of training camp next month, but shovels have yet to hit the ground; at least two sightings of a coyote were recorded in the area on March 4 and March 12; and current MasterChef judge and former Top Chef “fan favorite” Tiffany Derry is opening a restaurant, sports bar and lounge called The Landing in Grand Prairie on April 9. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Multiple cold fronts should keep North Texans on their heels this week as temperatures fluctuate from the 70s to the 90s. In other news, Transportation Security Administration checkpoints at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Love Field were mostly normal Monday morning, defying long lines and worker shortages that have snarled passengers at other busy travel hubs; Tenet Healthcare, a major national for-profit health care company, has won a legal victory in a closely watched case related to a consumer watchdog group’s influential hospital safety grades; and the Texas Rangers selected former MVP winner Andrew McCutchen for their major league roster Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Increasing pressure from state leaders to address a perceived liberal bias in the classroom, campuses are ensnared in battles over the very purpose of higher education. In other news, a federal judge ruled last week that Texas must make its new education savings account program available to a number of Islamic schools in the state after several alleged in a lawsuit they were shut out of the voucher-like program; a 79-year-old man was identified as the person killed Saturday morning after a loose wheel from another vehicle struck his car on the highway in Dallas. Richard Hood Dunham died at the scene; and for the fifth consecutive season, the Dallas Stars are heading to the Stanley Cup playoffs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices