It’s a good weekend to be in Dallas. Mother’s Day is Sunday, a brand new park opens Saturday, and the music calendar is stacked from Friday night through Sunday. We’ve covered a lot of restaurants this week, so flip back in time a bit and gander at what’s good and what’s new.
Here is how to spend the next three days.
Friday Night — Get Out Early
AM/FM on Market Center has live music starting at 7 p.m. tonight and it is the right way to open a weekend. The all-day diner and backyard stage we wrote about earlier this week has a full Friday night slate — Cajun chicken and waffles in the kitchen, freezer martinis at the bar, and whatever is running on the outdoor stage. If you haven’t been yet, this is the weekend to go. Read our full piece here.
Saturday — The Big Day
Start the morning at the Dallas Arboretum. It is peak spring and the gardens are at their best right now — full color, cool enough in the morning to walk for a couple hours without suffering. Get there before 10 a.m. and you will have the place mostly to yourself. Tickets are $20 for adults and worth buying online to skip the line.
Then head to Halperin Park for the grand opening. The city is officially opening this five-acre bridge park over Interstate 35E between Ewing and Marsalis Avenues right next to the Dallas Zoo Saturday — the same stretch of highway that cut those Oak Cliff neighborhoods off from each other in the 1950s. Live performances, a 12th Street Promenade, and Mother’s Day activities run all weekend. It is a genuine milestone for the city and the kind of thing worth showing up for.
Saturday night, Dave Matthews Band plays Dos Equis Pavilion at 7:30 p.m. If you have a lawn chair and a cold beverage, this is a complete evening. DMB at an outdoor amphitheater in May is as Dallas summer as it gets. Get there early — parking around Dos Equis backs up fast.
If comedy is more the move, Marlon Wayans is at Improv Arlington through Saturday night. Several shows per night, easy to book, and Wayans is as sharp as he has ever been.
Sunday — Mother’s Day
Wicked is running at the Music Hall at Fair Park this weekend and Sunday matinees are the most civilized way to spend a Mother’s Day afternoon. The national tour production is strong, the hall is beautiful, and it gets you out of having to figure out a restaurant on the busiest brunch day of the year.
Speaking of which — if brunch is the plan, we put together an extensive Mother’s Day brunch guide earlier this week covering everything from hotel buffets to prix fixe menus to the most unexpected rooms in Dallas doing something worth the reservation. Read the full guide here and book before they fill up — today if possible.
Sunday night, AM/FM has Toxic Madness and War on Women on the backyard stage. If you want to end Mother’s Day with something louder than brunch, that is where you go.
A Few Bars Worth Knowing
If you want a proper cocktail before or after any of the above, Waterproof at The Statler is open and the rooftop is at its best in May. Downtown views, $10 cover on weekends, and the best place in the city to watch the light change over the skyline.
For something with a lot more character and zero pretense, Lee Harvey’s at 1807 Gould Street in South Dallas is the bar to know this weekend. Live music Friday and Saturday nights starting at 9 p.m., never a cover charge, and on Saturday night Bandelero takes the outdoor stage at 8 p.m. The backyard picnic tables, the cold beer, and whatever band is playing make for one of the best free nights out in Dallas. The half-pound burgers are not an afterthought either. Check the full weekend calendar at leeharveysdallas.com.
If you want to end the night somewhere a little more hidden, there are two worth knowing. La Viuda Negra is tucked behind a bridal shop next to El Come Taco — a tiny mezcal and agave spirits bar run by brothers Javier and Luis Villalva. The bar is stacked with tequilas, mezcals, and sotol you won’t find elsewhere in the city, and the room holds maybe twenty people but there is a small pario. We wrote about it the same time we did El Come Taco. If you are arriving late, order two drinks at once — the line can move slowly and you will not regret the backup. And on the agave front, Ayahuasca Cantina — the bar hidden behind Xamán Cafe in Deep Ellum — has one of the deepest mezcal and tequila programs in the city. Dark, moody, and the type of bar that improves a Friday night considerably.
Two Restaurants Worth a Date Night This Weekend
For Friday — casual, affordable, and genuinely good: Cafe Izmir at 3711 Greenville Avenue has been serving Mediterranean tapas on Lower Greenville since 1996 out of Mama Nazy’s recipe book. The hummus has been voted best in Dallas for years, the doner tacos and lamb kebabs hold up, and on weekends there is live acoustic guitar in the room. It is the place that feels like a discovery even if everyone around you has been coming for a decade. Open daily from 4:30 p.m.
For Saturday — book it now if you can still get in: Lucia at 287 N. Bishop Avenue in the Bishop Arts District is one of the most romantic rooms in Dallas and one of the hardest reservations to get on a weekend. Chef David Uygur and his wife Jennifer opened it in 2010 and it has held a Michelin Bib Gourmand and multiple James Beard nominations. Everything is made in house — the salumi, the pasta, the bread. The menu changes with what is available and is never wrong. Thirty-six seats, blue walls, a record player behind the bar. If you can get a table, take it. Open Tuesday through Saturday from 5 p.m.
Whatever you do, get outside. The weather this weekend is about as good as Dallas gets before summer arrives and reminds everyone what heat actually means.
