The heat finally broke, the patios are full again, and nobody in Dallas has to sweat through a shirt just to sit outside with a cold one. This is the season the city waits all summer for. Round up a few friends, pick a spot, and let a Saturday afternoon stretch until somebody remembers they had plans.
Here are five places that do day drinking right, from Lower Greenville to Oak Cliff, with a little something for the beer people, the brunch people and the friend who only drinks mezcal.
Sundown at Granada
Start high. Sundown at Granada sits right next door to the Granada Theater at 3520 Greenville Ave., and the rooftop patio gives you a front-row seat to the whole Lower Greenville parade below. It opened in 2011, and it has quietly become one of the easiest Saturday decisions in East Dallas.
Weekend happy hour runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, and the mimosas are priced like the bartender wants you to stay a while. The scratch kitchen leans fresh and seasonal, with plenty for the vegetarians and gluten-free folks in your crew. Grab a table upstairs, order another round, and watch the light go gold over Greenville.
The Rustic
The Rustic turns a corner of Howell Street near Lemmon and Central into a sprawling Texas backyard. Texas country star Pat Green helped launch it in 2013, which tells you where the music started, though the stage has wandered well past Texas country since.
The outdoor space holds a crowd of up to 2,000, so a group of eight never feels like a problem. Grab a table near the stage, order a round of Texas craft beer, and settle in. If there’s a band on, you’ll stay longer than you planned. If there isn’t, you’ll stay anyway.
Saint Ann Restaurant & Bar
If your group wants a patio that looks like somebody actually designed it, head to the Harwood District. Saint Ann Restaurant & Bar lives on the ground floor of the old St. Ann’s School, a two-story red brick building that Harwood International saved and turned into a restaurant wrapped in gardens and art. Harwood bills the patio as the largest garden patio in Dallas, and after one lap around it you won’t argue.
Weekend brunch makes it an easy afternoon. Claim a table among the greenery, start with a round of cocktails, and let the city noise fade into the trees. Upstairs, the Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller Museum houses its Samurai Collection, which gives the history buff in your group something to talk about while everyone else orders another drink.
Las Almas Rotas
Dallas’ first mezcaleria opened in 2017 in an old Expo Park storefront at 3615 Parry Ave., and Las Almas Rotas still feels like a secret the neighborhood decided to share. Owners Shad Kvetko and Taylor Samuels started it as a mezcal dinner club with friends before it ever had a front door, and that spirit of passing a glass around the table never left.
The back bar holds hundreds of agave spirits, from mezcal and tequila to sotol. Put the staff to work, order a mezcal flight for the group, and sip slowly. The kitchen has built its own following, too, so order a round of street tacos on house-made tortillas to keep the flight honest.
Oak Cliff Brewing Co.
Finish south at Tyler Station, the old warehouse at 1300 S. Polk St., and walk around back to the beer garden at Oak Cliff Brewing Co. Picnic tables sit under shade trees above the Elmwood Branch of Cedar Creek, and founder Joel Denton’s family has been in Oak Cliff for four generations, so the place feels like it belongs to the neighborhood.
The paleta-inspired beers are the crowd favorites, the Bounced Czech pilsner is a near-perfect afternoon beer, and Texas Monthly has singled out the Hefeweizen as one of the best in the state. The Tyler-Vernon DART stop is steps away, which makes it the smartest pick on this list for anybody leaving the car at home.
Whichever spots you choose, line up a designated driver or a ride home before the first round. And save a little appetite for Monday. Texas Chicken Fried Steak Day is October 26, and nothing settles a big weekend quite like cream gravy.
