Tag Archives: Cocktails

Misti Norris at Far Out

photos by Joey Stewart

Earlier this month the Michelin Guide added five Dallas restaurants to its 2026 Texas selections. Far Out was not one of them. That is worth a second look, because few kitchens in this city have had a better year.

Far Out sits in a converted Quonset hut at 1906 S. Haskell Ave., just north of Fair Park, with a cactus-lined patio out front and a bar that stays busy well after dinner. Owners Caroline and James Lee brought in Misti Norris as culinary director in May 2025, a few months after she closed Petra and the Beast. She has been cooking on Haskell Avenue ever since, and the rest of the country has noticed.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under Joey Stewart, Steven Doyle

The Statler at 70: History, Hidden Bars and What to Order at Every Spot Inside

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.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under Steven Doyle

Alex Fletcher’s Rising Tides Is the Best Kind of East Dallas Dive

If you have had a good cocktail in Dallas any time in the last 15 years, there is a decent chance Alex Fletcher had a hand in it. He started as a barback at The Quarter Bar, then ran the bar programs at The Quarter, Bread Winners, Victor Tangos and the original Henry’s Majestic. Until late 2023 he was national beverage director for Hospitality Alliance, the group behind Toyota Music Factory and Victory Park, and his own company, Shaken + Stirred Hospitality, has partnered with places like Henry’s Majestic and Punch Bowl Social. A neighborhood dive on Garland Road might look like an odd next move for Dallas’ go-to cocktail guy.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under Steven Doyle

Where to Drink with Ghosts in Dallas and Fort Worth

Ask a bartender who has worked a few closing shifts in an old building, and sooner or later you’ll hear about the door that swings shut by itself, or the footsteps upstairs after everyone has gone home.

Believe it or don’t. Either way, every stop below is open, pours a good drink and has a ghost story that has outlasted generations of staff. With Halloween coming, here’s where to have a drink with the dearly departed in Dallas and Fort Worth.

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under Steven Doyle

Marlowe Debuts in Uptown Dallas | New Elevated Lounge Experience

The old brick building at 2912 McKinney Ave., near Howell, was Theory Nightclub for a while. Today it opens as Marlowe, a lounge that would like to handle your entire night, from a 6 o’clock martini to closing time at 2 a.m.

It isn’t quite a restaurant and it isn’t quite a club. Come early for drinks and a few plates, swing by after dinner somewhere else, or settle into a banquette and stay while the lights come down and the music comes up.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under Steven Doyle

Happy Hour: Make a Granda Ocho Tonight

Pomegranates come into season here right about the time the evenings finally drop below ninety, and the two things belong together. This is a drink for that stretch, when it’s still warm enough to sit outside but the light’s going earlier every week.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under Steven Doyle

Build Your Own Chicken and Waffle Plate at Johnny’s, DFW’s Two Locations

Crystal Smith grew up on Georgia’s favorite brunch dish, and by 2020 she’d decided it deserved a restaurant built entirely around it. She opened the first Johnny’s Chicken and Waffles in College Park, outside Atlanta, with then-husband Ne-Yo and Love & Hip Hop’s Karlie Redd backing the idea. Six years and a handful of states later, the plates are still enormous and the waffles are still stacked with more toppings than seems reasonable. Johnny’s now has two DFW locations: Dallas, open since May 2024, and Fort Worth, open since July 2025, and both are worth the drive on an empty stomach.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under Steven Doyle

Six DFW Spots Built Around a Great Appetizer and a Great Cocktail

There is a certain type of night that beats dinner every time, and it doesn’t involve an entree at all. It’s the night where you and a friend claim two stools at the bar, order something small and shareable, and let a good cocktail do the rest of the talking. Nobody’s watching the clock. Nobody’s splitting a check three ways over who ordered the extra side. You just eat with your hands, sip something someone actually thought about, and let the evening go wherever it wants to go.

Dallas-Fort Worth has gotten very good at this kind of night lately. Between new openings and old standbys sharpening their bar programs, there’s no shortage of places built for exactly this pace. Here are six worth building a whole evening around, appetizer and cocktail already paired so you don’t have to think too hard about it.

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under Steven Doyle