Dallas threw the Statler Hilton a four-day party when it opened on Commerce Street in 1956. The city had not seen a major new hotel downtown in 30 years, and this one cost $16 million, ranked as the largest hotel in the Southwest and had a ballroom that held 2,200 people. It also turned out to be the last hotel the Statler chain ever built. Hilton had just bought the company.
The building was a show-off from day one. A cantilevered concrete slab let it climb higher than anyone expected, and the skin was glass and porcelain panels in that unmistakable midcentury teal. Historic Hotels of America credits it as the first building anywhere with elevator music and the first hotel with a 21-inch Westinghouse television in every room. There was a heliport on the roof, too, for guests who preferred to skip traffic from the airport.
Audrey Hepburn checked in. So did Tina Turner and the Jackson 5. But ask anyone who knows the building’s lore, and they will tell you about the llama. In 1969 Stanley Marcus flew Llinda Llee Llama to town on a private Braniff jet for the Neiman Marcus South American Fortnight. Conrad Hilton sent a Cadillac limousine to fetch her. The staff liked her so much they asked her to stay for two weeks, and a life-size chrome Llinda still stands on the roof today.
The good years did not last. The Statler closed in 2001 and was nearly torn down in 2003. Preservation Dallas listed it as endangered in 2007 and again in 2008, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation put it on its list of America’s Most Endangered Places. In 2012, workers inside found a 40-foot mural by Jack Lubin that had been hidden since the days of the Empire Room supper club. Centurion American bought the place in 2013 and spent $175 million bringing it back, which made it the largest tax credit project in Texas.
When it reopened in 2017, chef Graham Dodds ran the kitchens as culinary director, as CraveDFW reported at the time. The lineup has shifted since then. Restaurants have come and gone, and today the hotel runs four places to eat and drink. Each one has its own reason to visit.
Overeasy is the diner and coffee shop, open at 6 a.m. on weekdays and 7 a.m. on weekends, with food until 3 p.m. and espresso until 8. Breakfast is where it shines. The Biscuit Benedict stacks shaved honey ham, two eggs and hollandaise on the house biscuit. The Chilaquiles Verdes come loaded with beans, avocado, salsa verde, cotija, pickled onion and a fried egg. And the Chicken Biscuit Sandwich gives you a choice between hot honey and creamy gravy. Pick the hot honey.
If you are more of a sweet-in-the-morning person, there is a Signature Cinnamon Roll with maple brown sugar glaze and candied pecans. Lunch starts at 11, and the Salmon Toast on marble rye with dill cream cheese and fried capers is the lighter way to go. The OE Smashburger is the other way. The drink list is short: a Mimosa, a Bloody Mary, a Michelada and a Cold Brew Martini, which is the one to order when lunch threatens to run long. They also do milkshakes and root beer floats, no judgment.
Scout is the game room, 4,000 square feet of vintage bowling lanes, billiards, ping pong and big screens. It opens at 3 p.m. on weekdays and 11 a.m. on weekends and stays open until midnight, or 1 a.m. on Saturdays.
Those lanes have a backstory. Long before Ellsworth Statler built a single hotel, he bought a four-lane bowling alley in Wheeling, West Virginia, added four more lanes and some billiard tables, and ran a citywide tournament with a $300 prize. Bowling inside a Statler is practically a family heirloom.
The food at Scout is game-night food, plain and simple. Get the Stadium Pretzel with queso and whole grain mustard for the table. The Spicy Pepperoni flatbread, with Calabrian chili and a hot honey drizzle, is easy to eat between turns. The Shrimp Po’ Boy with creole mayo is the best sandwich on the list, and the Bananas Foster Sundae is worth saving room for. This is a beer room, so order a beer.
The serious drinking happens in the basement. Bourbon & Banter sits in the old hotel barber shop, and you get in by punching a code into a vintage phone booth. The room mixes 1950s glamour with a little Prohibition swagger, the shelves hold hundreds of bourbons, and the doors open every night at 6 and stay open until 2 a.m.
The cocktail menu is split in two, Vintage and Modern. On the Vintage side, start with the Tobacco Old Fashioned: George Dickel 12 Year Bottled-in-Bond, coffee, demerara, tobacco bitters and a curl of American white oak smoke. Rye drinkers should look at the Frisco Sour, made with WhistlePig 6 Year Piggyback, Benedictine, lemon and egg white. The Ramos Gin Fizz, with Ford’s, sloe gin, marionberry, egg white and cream, is a fine order on a slower night, since a proper one takes a good long shake. And the Knickerbocker, a rum drink with Diplomatico Planas, Smith & Cross, dry curaçao, raspberry and lime, is an old recipe you rarely find on a Dallas menu.
The Modern side has a classic Penicillin, with Monkey Shoulder, lemon, honey and ginger under a mist of Laphroaig 10. There is also an Oaxaca Old Fashioned made with reposado tequila and Del Maguey Vida mezcal. If you are not drinking, the Old-Timey Soda with almond, acid phosphate and orange is a sweet nod to the soda fountains of the hotel’s early days.
Food downstairs means snacks. The BBQ Chex mix is dusted with Texas barbecue seasoning, the pork rinds get chili and sea salt, and somebody at the table needs to order the Cracker Jacks, if only for the prize.
Waterproof is up on the 19th floor, a pool bar and lounge with a view across all of downtown. It is 21 and up, and Llinda the llama keeps an eye on things from her perch. When the weather turns cold, the rooftop becomes Winterproof, with private snow globes and a Northern Lights Lounge. CraveDFW has covered the winter version for years, and in past seasons it has opened in early December.
The rooftop cocktails run bright and fruity, which fits. The Sunset Heat mixes Lalo Blanco tequila with guava, lime, Cointreau and jalapeño, and it was named for exactly the hour you should order it. The Rooftop Safari pairs Don Julio Reposado with pineapple and Campari, and the Campari should keep it from leaning too sweet. Whiskey people want the Waterproof Reserve, made with Woodford Reserve, peach amaretto and cherry and Angostura bitters. The menu up top is short, and the Prosciutto & Cantaloupe Flatbread with whipped ricotta, arugula and balsamic is the pick.
You could do the whole building in one long evening. A late lunch at Overeasy, a few frames at Scout, sunset on the roof and a nightcap in the basement. Ellsworth Statler once said a traveling salesman and a visiting prince want the same thing on the road, good food and a comfortable bed. His last hotel still covers both.
The Statler Dallas is at 1914 Commerce St. Hours and menus change with the seasons, so check each venue’s site before you head over.
