Monthly Archives: July 2026

5 Dallas Bars Built for a Day Drinking Weekend 

Text the group chat, pick a starting point, and let the day figure itself out. There’s a particular kind of Saturday that starts with “let’s just grab one drink” and ends somewhere around sunset with a group photo nobody remembers taking, and Dallas has more than enough patios built for exactly that. The trick is picking a spot with room to stay a while, food worth ordering more than once, and a vibe that doesn’t crash the second the sun gets too bright to sit outside comfortably.

These five deliver on all three, whether the crew wants live music in the background, a rooftop view of downtown, or a patio small enough that everyone ends up in one conversation instead of scattered across three tables. Grab whoever’s free, don’t overthink the plan past “let’s meet at noon,” and let one of these carry the rest of the day.

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Why Fort Worth’s Vickery Cafe Still Draws a Line Out the Door

Vickery Cafe has been a Fort Worth breakfast fixture for two decades, and this year it made its first real move, relocating from its longtime spot on Vickery Boulevard to 2421 W 7th Street, Suite 109, in the West 7th district. Chef and owner Curtis James still runs the kitchen the same way he always has: old-school diner bones with a Texas-Cajun streak running through nearly everything on the menu. It’s open daily from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., no separate weekday-versus-weekend split, which means brunch here isn’t a special occasion. It’s just what the place does every single day.

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Retro Movie Review: Life of Brian (1979)

Monty Python’s Life of Brian came out in 1979, directed by Terry Jones, written by all six Pythons together, and produced by John Goldstone, with George Harrison quietly saving the whole production by financing it himself after the original studio got cold feet and walked. Graham Chapman plays Brian Cohen, born in the stable next door to a rather more famous baby on the same night, and cursed for the rest of his short life with extraordinarily bad timing. I have loved this film for longer than I can honestly account for, and every time I sit back down with it, I’m struck again by how a movie this silly manages to also be this wise.

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Remembering Southern Kitchen and the Cinnamon Rolls That Made It Famous

Southern Kitchen ran two locations in Dallas for decades, a West spot at 2356 West Northwest Highway at Harry Hines Boulevard, and an East spot at 6615 East Northwest Highway. Both were confirmed still running side by side as of the 1960s, and at least one diner’s memory places a visit to the Bachman Lake–area location as far back as 1975. The company behind both locations operated under the name Southern Hospitality, Inc.

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 Inside Blue Mesa Grill’s Family-Run Southwestern Empire

Blue Mesa Grill has been serving Southwestern food in North Texas since 1988, when Jim and Liz Baron opened their first location in Addison. Nearly four decades later, the restaurant is still family-run. Liz remains Co-Founder, and the couple’s son Zak Baron now serves as President, running the company his parents built one dining room at a time.

There are three locations today: Addison at 14866 Montfort Drive, Plano at 8200 Dallas Parkway, and Fort Worth at 612 Carroll Street, the last of which sits in the West 7th district and anchors the company’s catering and events arm. All three share the same DNA. Bold color on the walls, a full tequila bar, and a menu that pulls from New Mexico, South Texas, and old-school Tex-Mex without picking one lane and staying in it.

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Central Market’s Hatch Chile Festival Returns to Dallas-Fort Worth August 5

Central Market’s Hatch Chile Festival kicks off August 5 this year, and if you’ve never planned a grocery run around a pepper before, this is the week to start.

The chain’s 31st annual celebration runs at every Central Market location in Texas, including the two DFW stores at 5750 East Lovers Lane in Dallas and 4651 West Freeway in Fort Worth. The premise hasn’t changed in three decades. Hatch chiles only grow in the Hatch Valley of southern New Mexico, a stretch of the Rio Grande where blazing days and cold nights push the peppers toward a flavor nobody has managed to replicate anywhere else. Green chile peaks in August. By September the pods start turning red and sweeter. The whole window closes with the first frost, usually by early October.

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Three Out of Four Americans Now Want Restaurants Without Kids — Dallas Already Solved the Dog Half of That Equation

A new survey has landed on a number that’s hard to argue with either way: 75 percent of American adults say restaurants should offer some form of adults-only dining. The finding comes from Lightspeed Commerce’s State of Hospitality 2026 report, based on a survey of 1,000 U.S. adults as part of a larger study spanning the U.S., Canada, and five European countries, and the detail that keeps the number from reading as simple crankiness is who’s driving it. Seventy-nine percent of parents support the idea, a higher share than the general population.

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Texas Just Ended the Food Truck Permit Maze, and Dallas Operators Are Already Feeling It

Until this month, a food truck that wanted to work a lunch crowd in Dallas, then a weekend market in Fort Worth, then a private event in Plano needed three separate health permits to do it legally, three applications, three fees, three inspections, for the same truck serving the same food. As of July 1, that’s gone. Texas now issues a single statewide mobile food vendor license, and for operators who’ve spent years budgeting around overlapping city fees, the change is already showing up on the bottom line.

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