The Best Places in the United States

The espresso martini that won Best Espresso Martini in the Dallas Observer's Best of Dallas landed Meyboom on the map, and the rest of the menu holds its own. This Belgian-influenced cocktail bar and brasserie on Lower Greenville leans old-world, with meticulously crafted cocktails, wine, and European brews alongside bar bites like fried goat cheese balls finished with a lambic beer cherry reduction. Cozy and a little classy, the kind of place where the drinks are taken seriously.

A red light on a side street marks the entrance, and from there you're following the speakeasy script to the letter: website password, narrow hallway, bookcase door. What's behind it is a dark cocktail bar with leather seating, Victorian details, and locked cabinets of private-label spirits. The drinks lean technical, with bacon fat-washed bourbon and toasted tortilla bitters among the building blocks. The kind of place that makes suburbanites feel delightfully conspiratorial.

The walls at this Deep Ellum dive bar are covered floor to ceiling in years of pen-and-marker graffiti, and the house policy is to add your own. Adair's Saloon runs on outlaw country and live music most nights, with the honky-tonk crowd and the boot-scooters sharing space without much negotiation. The kitchen stays open until nearly two in the morning, which is exactly when a bar burger tastes best.

The long-fermented dough is the tell at this casual pizzeria: the crust has enough flavor that people actually finish it. Deck-oven pies share the menu with Italian-American standards like arancini, and the room draws the kind of crowd that orders feta ranch with chili oil on the side without needing to be told it exists. Two locations in Navy Yard and Shaw, with a counter-service slice shop in Bethesda if you're heading that direction.

The Venn diagram of bar and restaurant has Angry Dog planted right in the overlap, and nobody seems to mind. Cold beer, a game on, chili cheese dogs, burgers, and salads that have no business being this good for a place that smells like fried onions. Close enough to the American Airlines Center and Deep Ellum that it fills up fast on event nights, but regular enough that it works on a Tuesday with nothing going on.

The counter-service offshoot of All-Purpose's DC locations, AP Pizza Shop runs a leaner menu than its siblings but holds two things they don't: pizza by the slice and a chicken-parm sandwich that reportedly requires planning around. The deck-oven pies use long-fermented dough, which makes the crust worth eating on its own. Order the feta ranch with chili oil for dipping and pretend it was your idea.

The mollette, a pulled-oxtail sandwich with pickled vegetables and a sherry glaze, sits next to lobster and oysters on a menu that refuses to pick a lane, which is very much the point. Arrels is a modern Spanish restaurant where the cooking runs from rustic to refined without apology. The fideua, made with vermicelli, Manchego, jamón, and truffle cream, gives you a reason to linger well past the bread course.

The bookshelf at the back of this Bishop Arts cocktail bar is not for reading. Pull it open and you'll find a hidden back room that rotates global themes, which tracks for a place called Atlas. Out front, Aperol spritzes share the bar with Lone Stars, and the crowd runs from locals to tourists to first dates doing their nervous best. The pho, from a co-owner's family recipe, is a legitimately strange and welcome thing to order at midnight.

Ranch Water on tap sets the tone at this sprawling Maple Avenue sports bar. TVs cover every wall, there's a game room in the back for claw machines and pop-a-shot, and the patio handles overflow when a big game draws a crowd. College football dominates, though Love Island holds its own on the schedule. The kitchen turns out salads that have no business being as good as they are, plus flatbreads solid enough to keep you from just drinking through the evening.

Barbacana is a chef-driven dinner spot in the Bayou Lofts where the menu keeps changing and borrows from African, Middle Eastern, and Japanese cooking, with Texas ingredients holding it together. You can order a la carte and share a spread, or commit to the tasting menu. The counter overlooks the kitchen, which suits anyone who likes watching someone else be under pressure. Dress nicely, bring a few friends.

The Centipede cabinet by the door tells you everything: this is a bar-arcade where a round of drinks and a Street Fighter grudge match are basically the same errand. Twenty-four draft beers keep the tokens flowing, and the front patio fits a crowd large enough for giant Jenga, which is either a selling point or a warning depending on your Friday night. The vibe hovers somewhere between dive bar and Chuck E. Cheese, and nobody here seems bothered by that.

A converted warehouse near downtown with exposed brick, high ceilings, and the kind of eclectic lighting that says someone had fun with the budget. Barrio Brewing Co. is a sprawling brewpub with an old-school Tucson feel, pouring house-made ales alongside a pub menu that leans local, including their own take on the Sonoran Dog. It's been around forever, which in Arizona brewing terms makes it practically a geological feature.

There's no sign in the dim Preston Tower corridor that leads here, which is either a design choice or a filter for the impatient. Bernie's is a cocktail bar with art deco bones, a playlist running Quincy Jones and Stevie Nicks, and drinks poured by bartenders who treat a proper old fashioned as a matter of professional pride. The phone doesn't eat first at the well-dressed bar, which suits the regulars just fine.

The whole room is dressed as a vintage luxury train car, TVs where the windows would be, all looping passing landscapes in sync. It's a cocktail bar, a narrow one, with a chandelier whose crystals would really benefit from something rumbling the floorboards. The drinks lean into the theme, shifting and a little secretive, the kind you order twice without quite knowing why. The bathrooms apparently have their own story, though you'll have to go find out.

The fried chicken gets a 24-hour brine before it hits the fryer, which tells you something about the kitchen's priorities at this Deep Ellum cocktail bar. Six house cocktails are priced like they want you to order a second round, and the vibe is the kind of loose, unhurried thing that feels increasingly rare on Commerce Street. The Dallas Observer handed it Best Fried Chicken in 2024, so the secret is somewhat out, but the room still has its own quiet momentum.

The "Be Kind, Unwind" sign sets the tone at this neighborhood bar just outside Deep Ellum, built from near-scratch inside the bones of the old Starlight Lounge. It's a no-frills spot with DJ nights, music videos, and karaoke keeping things lively. The frozen cherry limeade with vodka is the move, though an Old Fashioned made with Garrison Brothers Single Barrel is there when you feel like being about it.

Gaucho chefs orbit the dining room with long skewers of rotisserie-roasted meat, slicing tableside until you flip your token to red. Tucson's lone Brazilian steakhouse, it runs the full rodízio spread, heavy on beef but with pork, chicken, and lamb in rotation. The room leans formal, all dark wood and white tablecloths, so this is date-night or celebration territory. The picanha, a beef cap with a fat ribbon that keeps every slice moist, is the cut to watch for.

A grilled pimento cheese sandwich and 24 taps anchor this low-key beer garden on the east end of Deep Ellum, where the patio comes equipped with heaters in winter and misters in summer, which is thoughtful given that Dallas has about nine months of summer. The beer selection runs deep into local cans and rotating taps, the bartenders actually know what's on them, and Wednesday brings a small Miller High Life with a Jameson shot for anyone who needs a Wednesday reason.

Andes chocolate mints come with the tab, which sets the tone pretty well for this bar in the Ross Ave corridor. The whole room reads like a grandmother's parlor, elegant and faintly shabby, carpet included, paying loose homage to an old Dallas club of the same name. The drinks lean pricey and the crowd leans comfortable with that. A warm crab dip circulates if anyone gets hungry enough to order off the bites menu.

A 99-tap draft list is the kind of thing that sounds made up until you're standing in front of it. This Deep Ellum bar and restaurant sprawls across a 10,000-square-foot dog-friendly patio, with heaters for the nights when Dallas pretends it has winters. Cocktails lean creative alongside the craft beer deep dive, and the kitchen runs brunch and bar food that takes itself seriously enough to matter.

The long wooden bar and a crackling fireplace in winter tell you everything: this is a cozy Irish beer bar on Lower Greenville that has been around forever. Guinness, Harp, and Smithwick's anchor the taps, the whiskey shelf leans heavily toward the Emerald Isle, and the dart board sees real use. Food is American bar grub, which is fine, because nobody came here for the sandwiches.

Earthy green walls and eclectic artwork set the mood at this seasonally driven neighborhood restaurant on Speedway. The menu rotates monthly, so the kitchen chases whatever's good right now rather than coasting on a signature. The wine list is serious enough that the room fills with people who came as much to drink as to eat. Dress is relaxed, but the cooking skews ambitious, the kind of place where the specials board is genuinely worth reading.