Saturday is the day half of Dallas has been circling since August. Texas and Oklahoma meet at the Cotton Bowl on October 10 with a 2:30 p.m. kickoff on ABC or ESPN, and the whole thing plays out in the middle of the State Fair of Texas, the way it has every year since 1929. This is the 97th straight meeting at the Fair, and the contract keeps the game at Fair Park through 2036. Texas won last year’s game 23-6, so Sooner fans arrive with something to prove.
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At the intersection of grit and indulgence in Dallas’s Deep Ellum neighborhood, Serious Pizza has carved out a name for itself—not through gimmicks, but by doubling down on what it does best: giant, unapologetic New York-style slices served with attitude. Located at 2807 Elm Street, the restaurant is as much a part of the Deep Ellum landscape as the street art and live music that surround it.
Originally opened in 2010 and now operated under the umbrella of the Milkshake Concepts group—known for places like Vidorra, Harper’s, and STIRR—Serious Pizza has maintained its fiercely independent spirit while evolving into a polished, high-volume machine.
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Every neighborhood should be so lucky as to have its history hold the best corner. In Deep Ellum, that corner is 2551 Elm Street, where the Knights of Pythias Temple has stood since 1916, designed by William Sidney Pittman, Texas’ first Black architect and son-in-law of Booker T. Washington. It was the first commercial building in Dallas built by, for, and with the money of Black citizens, and for more than two decades it served as the social heart of Black Dallas — its top-floor ballroom hosting dances, graduations, and the Fisk Jubilee Singers, its lectern held by the likes of George Washington Carver, while out on the street below, Blind Lemon Jefferson and Lead Belly were turning Deep Ellum into the blues capital of the Southwest.
Today the building carries its architect’s name as The Kimpton Pittman Hotel, and it remains the best argument in town that a building can change jobs without losing its soul.
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Justin Fourton grew up going to his grandfather’s ranch in Abilene — a place called Pecan Lodge. The old man taught him how to build a fire, how to manage a smoker, and how to wait. That last part turns out to be the most important. Good barbecue is a function of patience more than almost anything else, and the brisket that comes out of Pecan Lodge in Deep Ellum is eighteen hours of patience made edible.
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Deep Ellum has a proper English pub now, and the timing could not be better. Queens Head Pub opened Tuesday at 2713 Elm Street — the former Green Room space — and it is the second concept from Eric Bradford and Deep Ellum Collective, the group that launched The Terrace event space last September. Bradford has been part of the Deep Ellum fabric for decades, going back to the Bomb Factory era, and Queens Head is his most ambitious project in the neighborhood to date.
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The address is 2701 Main Street in Deep Ellum. The name on the door is Revolver Taco Lounge. Walk past the taco counter, past the dining room, through the kitchen, and into the back room, and you will find a different restaurant entirely — one of the finest in Texas, run by a chef who has been a James Beard finalist, operating inside a taqueria because that is how Regino Rojas has always chosen to do things: on his own terms, in his own space, without asking anyone’s permission or seeking anyone’s approval.
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In a neighborhood known for reinvention, LOCAL has taken a different approach: it has stayed. Not static, but steady rooted in both its food and its setting inside the historic Boyd Hotel, a structure that predates nearly everything around it.
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Ruins in Deep Ellum is a place that doesn’t stray far from its purpose: tacos, cocktails, and a space to disappear into for a while. The menu centers on tacos rooted in Mexican tradition but twisted just enough to keep things interesting. There’s no attempt here to be a pan-Latin fusion spot or a comfort-food haven—Ruins keeps its offerings tight, deliberate, and built for flavor.
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