Summer in Dallas is not for the timid. It is hot, it is relentless, and it demands a game plan. If you are hosting a pool party this season, the smartest thing you can do is stop trying to play bartender the whole afternoon and make one great batch cocktail that does the work for you. Then fill a tray with a few things people will actually talk about. Here is our version of a proper Crave-worthy pool day.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
Preston Center has been missing a rooftop bar for about twenty years. CRAFT Restaurant & Beer Market showed up on April 1 and fixed that, along with a few other things the neighborhood did not know it needed.
The concept started in Calgary in 2011, built by PJ L’Heureux into nine Canadian locations before he decided Dallas was where to make the American move. His partner here is Tom Gaglardi — owner of the Dallas Stars, the man who brought Moxie’s to Dallas years ago and knows how to read this market. The two of them landed at 5974 W. Northwest Highway in the old medical office space across from the Starbucks on Kate Street, gutted it, and built a 10,500-square-foot room with a 360-degree bar at the center and 5,250 square feet of rooftop patio on top. The rooftop is one of the first of that size in Preston Center. On a clear May evening it is the best outdoor seat in this part of Dallas.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
The cocktail party that works is the one that does less than it should. Twelve passed bites do not work. Three signature cocktails do not work. A sit-down menu pretending to be a cocktail party does not work. What works is five small things you can pick up with one hand, one good drink already poured into a pitcher, a bowl of nice olives somewhere visible, and a host who actually shows up to her own party instead of disappearing into the kitchen for the first hour.
That is the whole formula. People come to a cocktail party to talk to each other. The food is there to keep nobody from getting drunk on an empty stomach, the drink is there to give them something to hold, and the host is there to keep the room moving. Nothing else.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
Omar Flores has another one coming. Maroma, the latest project from Big Dill Hospitality and the Marshi family, opens Monday, May 4 in the Design District at 1333 Oak Lawn Avenue, on the ground floor of the new Thirteen Thirty Three Building. The premise is coastal Mexican cooking — ceviches, aguachiles, raw bar, mesquite-grilled meats — done with the kind of restraint Flores has been known for since his Driftwood and Whistle Britches years.
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You know a brunch spot is working when the valet is full, the front patio is full, and nobody at any of the tables seems in a hurry to leave. That is Beverley’s Bistro & Bar on a Saturday around noon. The food is the reason, but the mood is why people stay. A couple at the bar splitting a plate of caviar latkes and not saying much because they do not need to. A family of six crammed into a corner booth with three kinds of eggs between them. Somebody at the next table ordering a second glass of prosecco before their plates have been cleared. You walk in and you feel like you just showed up at a party that was already going.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
For a long time, Dallas got a little too much credit for its steakhouses and not nearly enough for its bars. That’s changed. The James Beard Foundation has taken notice. So has Michelin. Heavy-hitter bartenders who built careers in New York and LA have been quietly landing here, opening rooms that can hold their own against anything in those cities. The cocktail scene isn’t up-and-coming anymore — it’s arrived. These five bars are proof.
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Lumis, a globally inspired lounge from Houston-based DMP Concepts, is set to open this fall at The Seam, Dallas’ upcoming premier lifestyle and hospitality destination in the Design District. The intimate cocktail destination will be located at 1444 Oak Lawn Avenue at the heart of the development.
DMP Concepts, a group led by Mayur Desai in partnership with Atik Mistry and brothers Jinesh and Krutik Patel, brings together a collaborative team that emphasizes creativity, international inspiration, and a focus on atmosphere-driven concepts. Lumis serves as the flagship of an emerging portfolio defined by sophisticated yet approachable spaces, cocktail craftsmanship, and service that prioritizes consistency and guest connection.
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If you have not made it to The Usual on Magnolia Avenue in Fort Worth lately, April gives you several good reasons to fix that. The bar — which opened in 2009 and has the quiet distinction of being the second oldest craft cocktail bar in Texas — is rolling out a new seasonal menu, launching a weekly creative gathering series, and hosting a dinner on April 26 that pairs sous chefs from Bonnell’s Fine Texas Cuisine with one of Fort Worth’s best bartenders. Three different things happening in one month is more than most bars manage in a year.
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