Bill Katz flew Blackhawk helicopters for the U.S. Army for twenty years. His wife Johnnie spent twenty years in banking. They spent nine of those years overseas — Europe, Asia, moving every few years the way military families do. When Bill retired in 2001 they settled in the Dallas area, got regular jobs, and then Johnnie decided she wanted something of her own. In December 2003 they bought a sports bar on McKinney Avenue called Frankie’s. Within four years they had tripled the sales and turned it into the top sports bar in DFW.
Then the Texas Department of Transportation took their Lewisville location to build a highway overpass. The Uptown bar closed around the same time. Bill and Johnnie decided to build the biggest version of Frankie’s they’d ever attempted — 9,700 square feet across two floors in the historic Davis Building at 1303 Main Street, right in the middle of downtown. They opened in August 2015. The original 1930s bank floor is still there, preserved and worked into the retro-industrial design. D Magazine called it “that rare thing in Dallas: a real neighborhood bar.”
Upstairs is Frankie’s Downtown — 44 TVs, Golden Tee, Big Buck Hunter, pool tables, twenty taps of Texas craft beer, and a cocktail menu built by Dallas barman Eddie “Lucky” Campbell. Downstairs is The Underground, a full speakeasy with brick walls, industrial cage detail, a stage, lights, sound, and live music and DJs on weekends. No password required, which is the right call.
The food takes people by surprise. Everything comes out of a scratch kitchen — pizza dough and sauce made in house daily, burgers built with actual thought behind them. Start with the Stuffed Jalapeños — four cheeses and bacon, deep fried in a zesty batter with ranch on the side. They are exactly what you want them to be. The Nachos are built on fried wonton chips instead of tortilla chips, loaded with queso, poblano cream, grilled chicken, corn and black bean pico, sweet Thai chili sauce, and green onions, which sounds like too much happening and somehow isn’t.
The wings are the reason people keep coming back. Jumbo bone-in, nine sauce options — Mango Habanero, Honey Sriracha, KC Bourbon BBQ, Garlic Parmesan, Dry Spike and more. Dallas voted them the best wings in the city in 2021 and the regulars will tell you nothing has changed.
The burger program is serious. The Fire Station #18 is the one to get if you want heat — fire roasted jalapeño, poblano, and serrano peppers, pepperjack, spinach, carrot-habanero aioli, and fried onion rings on a jalapeño-cheddar bun. The Larry Bird goes the other direction — caramelized pepper bacon, KC Bourbon BBQ sauce, cheddar, crispy onion rings, and Frankie’s sauce on the same jalapeño-cheddar bun. The Pastrami Burger with thin-sliced pastrami, bacon, a sunny-side up egg, Swiss, pickles, and brown mustard on brioche is the one that looks like too much on paper and disappears faster than any of them.
The Philly Cheesesteak — grilled steak, grilled onions, roasted red pepper blend, queso, and Fritos on a fresh hoagie roll — is not what Philadelphia would recognize but is absolutely what Dallas wants, and it works. The Club Sandwich is a double-decker with deli ham, roasted turkey, caramelized pepper bacon, cheddar, Swiss, and pesto mayo on Texas toast. The kind of club sandwich that makes you wonder why more places don’t take the club sandwich seriously.
On the pizza side, the Lone Star Heat with pork and spicy honey on house-made dough is the one with its own fan base. The Buffalo Chicken Pizza has been on every table at some point. The Carnivore is what it sounds like.
Finish with the fresh-baked chocolate chip cookie — large, warm, with vanilla ice cream and Ghirardelli caramel and chocolate sauces. It’s the dessert a bar has no business pulling off this well.
Happy hour runs weekdays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and all day Tuesdays. Frankie’s Downtown is at 1303 Main Street in Dallas, open Monday through Wednesday until midnight, Thursday through Saturday until 2 a.m., and Sunday until midnight. Find them at frankiesbar.com.
