The 100 Best Places to Drink and Stay in Dallas

You enter through the back of a neighboring cafe, down a hallway, through a wooden door, and suddenly you're somewhere else entirely. This moody Oak Cliff speakeasy-style cantina stocks only bottles sourced from Mexico, and the cocktail menu is organized by historical era, walking you through the evolution of Mexican drinking culture. A James Beard Outstanding Bar semifinalist, it also does pre-Hispanic Oaxacan small plates for when the mezcal needs company.

1. Esquire The Best Bars in America
2. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Bar
3. D Magazine #20 · The 50 Best Restaurants

The mirrored back bar, lit from behind like a stage set, makes the priorities clear before you even sit down. Midnight Rambler is a subterranean cocktail lounge under the Joule Hotel, all art deco bones and low light, with a soundtrack chosen as carefully as the drinks. The cocktail program leans neo-classic, and the bartenders are the kind who can track down whatever obscure thing you're about to describe to them.

1. Food & Wine The Top 10 Hotel Bars in the US
2. D Magazine 2024 · Best Seasonal Cocktail List · Best of Big D
3. Dallas Observer 2025 · Best Hotel Bar · Best of Dallas

A Forbes Five Star hotel in Uptown, The Ritz-Carlton Dallas opens with a marble-and-chandelier lobby that earns every cliché and then tries to top it with a House of Krigler perfumery tucked into the corner. Guest rooms run gray and sleek with enough technology to distract from the views. Dean Fearing's Southwestern restaurant anchors the dining, a 12,000-square-foot spa handles the recovery, and a poolside situation fills the middle hours.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star

Some of the cocktails here took days to develop, which you can either find charming or slightly alarming depending on your relationship with drinks. Bar Colette is a reservation-only cocktail bar in Uptown Dallas where reinterpreted classics share the menu with exotic spirits, global wines, and sashimi. A James Beard nominee for Best New Bar, it draws the kind of crowd that dresses like they Googled the place first, which, honestly, they probably did.

1. James Beard Awards 2025 · Nominee · Best New Bar
2. Dallas Observer 2024 · Best Cocktail Bar · Best of Dallas
3. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Dallas

The patio seating is made from repurposed toilets and road signs, which tells you everything about the vibe before you've ordered a drink. Double Wide is a Deep Ellum dive bar with a trailer park aesthetic, cheap and stiff pours, and a music venue across the patio hosting bands and DJs on most nights. Wildsam named it one of the 50 most essential bars in America, which somehow feels both surprising and completely correct.

1. Wildsam The 50 Most Essential Bars in America
2. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
3. Dallas Observer 2025 · Best Happy Hour · Best of Dallas

A Dallas hotel set inside an old cotton and oil magnate's estate, where the wood-paneled bar runs jazz three nights a week and afternoon tea happens in the library as if that's perfectly normal. Thomas Pheasant's redesign kept the French doors and crown molding and added the kind of modern comfort that makes you forget you're sleeping in a piece of Texas history. Miron Crosby cowboy boots in your room are a nice touch.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Key
2. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended

The cocktail menu lists a drink called the Big Booty Trudy, which tells you exactly what kind of bar this is: East Dallas neighborhood spot, dressed up but never stiff. The drinks lean classic and a little cheeky, the bar food skews surprisingly serious, with a rotating kitchen pop-up from a James Beard-nominated chef. Furikake fries alongside a Mai Tai is a more natural pairing than it sounds.

1. Texas Monthly Dishes We Wanted Seconds Of: Loaded Nugs @ Rainbowcat · The Best Things in Texas
2. Eater Best New Bar
3. Dallas Observer 2025 · Best Bar To Meet Your Tinder Hookup · Best of Dallas

You will walk past it. That's by design. Apothecary is a dark, hushed cocktail lounge on Greenville where the seasonal menu gets a full thematic overhaul each year and bartenders can narrate the origin story of every pour from memory. The team spends months developing each recipe, and it shows. A James Beard Outstanding Bar Semifinalist, it draws the kind of crowd that actually reads the menu before ordering.

1. James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Bar
2. Eater The 38 Essential Dallas Restaurants
3. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

A tunnel of flowers leads you into a maximalist cocktail bar on the ninth floor of a Dallas hotel, where art deco geometry, a bedazzled Russian doll, and fireplaces compete equally for your attention. The drink menu is just as playful, leaning on pressed mineral water and cold foams. A wraparound rooftop opens up beyond it all, which feels less like a bar patio and more like a bonus level nobody told you about.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
2. D Magazine 2023 · Best Mahjong & Martinis: The Marvelous Mrs. Mahjong · Best of Big D
3. Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Hotel Bar – U.S. Central

A former cattle ranch turned low-rise resort, with TPC Las Colinas fairways visible from most balconies, sits just minutes from DFW and somehow feels nothing like an airport hotel. The Ritz-Carlton Las Colinas spreads across 400 acres, trading the urban tower format for genuine breathing room between buildings. Three pools, a large spa, tennis and pickleball courts, and five dining options give guests enough to do that leaving feels optional.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Recommended
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The owner is often spotted bussing tables or running food on a busy night, which sets the tone for this Lower Greenville bar and American kitchen that manages to feel like it's been around forever. Cozy enough for a quiet date, loose enough for drinks with friends, it occupies that useful middle ground between neighborhood bar and proper dinner spot. An English chef handles the kitchen, keeping things grounded rather than showy.

1. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Dallas
2. D Magazine #46 · The 50 Best Restaurants
3. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

The Clint Eastwood velvet artwork made the move from Deep Ellum, and so did the regulars. Black Swan Saloon is a cocktail bar in East Dallas with a moody, kitschy interior that somehow lands as genuinely cozy, the kind of room where dressing up and wearing a vintage rock tee both look right. House cocktails and boilermakers anchor the menu, and the frozen martini has become the thing everyone's carrying through the crowd.

1. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Dallas
2. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

A cocktail bar tucked into a genuine old Uptown house, Bowen House leans into the atmosphere without making it a whole thing. The drink menu runs from draft beer and a tidy wine list up to signature cocktails with names like "For Whom the Bell Pepper Tolls," which is exactly the kind of pun that works better than it should. The crowd tends toward the kind of people who like a porch vibe without leaving the city.

1. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Dallas
2. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

Three rooms above a restaurant and café on Lower Greenville, Casa Duro is less a hotel than a very good friend's Italian apartment, assuming your friend is obsessed with Italian culture and happens to own the building. The Duro Hospitality Group runs it the same way they run the two spots downstairs: with a specificity of taste that makes the whole thing feel more like a considered stay than a booking. It holds a Michelin Key.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Key

Walls of VHS tapes set the tone at this Vietnamese restaurant and bar that's been an East Dallas fixture forever. The '60s lounge vibe makes it feel like a party someone threw and never quite ended. The menu runs eclectic but Vietnamese dishes anchor it, and the espresso martini is made with house-brewed Vietnamese coffee, in limited supply each night. Order the garlic noodles if they have them, and hope quietly that they do.

1. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Dallas
2. D Magazine #44 · The 50 Best Restaurants
3. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

The name is a portmanteau of Swiss and Texan, which tells you almost everything about the mood here. This Harwood District hotel plays continental service standards against big-hat Texan swagger, and the combination reads less like a theme than a personality. Spacious rooms with commanding views, decor with a freewheeling sense of humor, and a rooftop worth returning to every night. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Key

1. Michelin Guide 1 Key

Vinyl spins in a moody room at this Sylvan Thirty cocktail bar that went dark, then came back with a new team and the same instincts. Matcha and Parmesan were already on the menu here before either showed up everywhere else. The current list keeps crowd favorites like the Red Headed Oaxacan alongside new experiments. No reservations now, which suits a place this comfortable with walk-ins pulling up to a well-stocked bar.

1. D Magazine 2023 · Best Seasonal Cocktail List · Best of Big D
2. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Dallas
3. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

The stripper pole is decorative, full stop. That's the first thing to know about this Cedars bar, the second being that management wears suits while you eat a roller-grill hot dog next to a cigarette machine. It's dark and a little flirty, with pool and darts keeping things grounded. The dirty martini, made with fresh-pressed olive juice and an anchovy-stuffed olive, does a lot of heavy lifting for a place that also sells boxed candy.

1. Dallas Observer 2025 · Best Bar With a Stripper Pole · Best of Dallas
2. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Dallas
3. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

The house big band at this Bishop Arts bar and music venue plays with enough brass to rattle your drink on the table. Revelers Hall leans hard into 1920s New Orleans, where the mood runs festive and the dancing starts before you've finished your flatbread or charcuterie. It's not a quiet-beer kind of place, and it doesn't pretend to be. D Magazine named it Dallas's top jazz bar in 2024, which tracks.

1. D Magazine 2024 · Best Jazz Bar · Best of Big D
2. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Dallas
3. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

The tequila and mezcal list at this Deep Ellum bar is long enough to constitute a philosophical commitment. Ruins leans hard into Latin culture, with original artwork on the walls and cocktails that come with actual folklore attached. The Limbo Room out back hosts live music in close quarters. It reads like a dive bar that got serious about agave spirits without losing the plot.

1. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Dallas
2. D Magazine #14 · The 50 Best Restaurants
3. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

Pendant lights salvaged from a European monastery hang over the bar, which tells you everything about how seriously this place takes atmosphere. An old-school beer bar and pub on Henderson Avenue, The Old Monk pours drafts from around the world alongside a rotating cast of locals, with fish and chips that regulars treat as a birthright. Weekday happy hour runs until seven and has a reputation for extending the evening considerably past anyone's original plan.

1. D Magazine 2024 · Best Bar for Beer · Best of Big D
2. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Dallas
3. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

Around 700 whiskeys line the shelves at this Exposition Park bar, and the team takes the curation seriously enough that it shows. Dark, warm, and a little seductive inside, Whiskeys sits across from Fair Park in a stretch of Dallas most people drive past without stopping. Flights let you move through the collection systematically, including one that honors Uncle Nearest Green, the man behind Jack Daniel's original recipe.

1. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Dallas
2. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

Cowhide armchairs in the lobby set the tone: this is a luxury hotel that committed to being Texan rather than just landing in Texas. Part of the Auberge Collection, Bowie House brings the brand's polished design sensibility to Fort Worth's Camp Bowie corridor, pairing it with local artwork and upscale Texan cooking. Rooms, suites, and the pool terrace all lean spectacular. The Michelin Guide awarded it 2 Keys.

1. Michelin Guide 2 Keys

The cantilevered rooftop pool jutting out over Main Street like an afterthought someone forgot to pull back is the image that stays with you. The Joule is a design hotel in a Gothic bank building from the 1920s, and the tension between those two facts is kind of the whole point. It's the kind of lobby you wander through even when you're not staying there, which Dallas apparently does, given the 2025 Best Hotel Lobby nod from the Dallas Observer.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels
2. Dallas Observer 2025 · Best Hotel Lobby · Best of Dallas

Local contemporary art covers nearly every surface at Canvas Hotel Dallas, a full-service hotel on Botham Jean Boulevard that positions itself as the antidote to the city's long run of forgettable corporate rooms. The collection rotates, the pieces are by Dallas-area artists, and the overall effect is less "lobby installation" and more "someone here has actual taste." A Michelin Selected Hotel.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Named for the men who drove cattle up the Chisholm Trail, Hotel Drover sits inside Fort Worth's historic Stockyards district, where the Western aesthetic is less costume party, more lived-in. The rooms lean rustic without tipping into bolo-tie excess, the backyard has a pool and hot tub, and the upscale 97 West restaurant is on-site when the mood calls for it. Michelin awarded it one Key.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Key

A Perkins + Will renovation turned a landmark Deep Ellum building into this Kimpton boutique hotel, and the bones of the original structure still show. Kimpton does a reliable version of stylish-but-approachable, which fits the neighborhood's mix of music venues and murals better than anything glass-and-tower would. A solid base for exploring a part of Dallas that most conventioneers never find.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The walnut-heavy Beaux Arts lobby sets the tone at this downtown Dallas hotel, where the fixtures are bold and the lighting is the kind that makes everyone look like they have a secret. Rooms run toward warm and plush, and the suites are reportedly among the largest in the city. The heated rooftop pool stays open until midnight, cocktails included, which is a civilized policy for which the Adolphus deserves more credit than it gets.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A century-old Beaux Arts building in Uptown Dallas, the Stoneleigh is a hotel that its newer neighbors can't quite replicate no matter how hard they try. London designers Fettle refreshed the rooms by channeling Dorothy Draper, the original decorator, so the place reads classic rather than preserved-in-amber. An Italian supper club and a cocktail bar keep guests from wandering too far. The Michelin Guide has it among its selected hotels.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The cowhide upholstery and local artwork make clear that this is no generic chain drop-in: the Thompson Dallas is a city-center hotel that wears its Texas credentials alongside its Manhattan modernist bones. Rooms come with minibars stocked with Texas-made products, and a spacious spa sits on the ninth floor. The tower location means the views are part of the deal, and a modern Italian restaurant by a Michelin-starred chef handles dinner.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A former mid-century motel across from Southern Methodist University, Graduate by Hilton Dallas kept the bones and added a design-savvy refresh that fits more naturally in a coastal boutique than a Dallas zip code. The rooms are clean and modernist, the personality is intact, and the guests skew younger and lighter on luggage than the grand Texan hotel lobby down the road. The Michelin Guide lists it among its selected hotels.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The parking lot is gone, replaced by outdoor lounge space, which tells you everything about how Valencia Hotel Group rethought the classic mid-century courtyard motel. This boutique hotel in the Dallas suburb of Irving keeps the bones and swaps the rest for contemporary rooms with high-end details. Two Mules Cantina handles Tex-Mex, a beer garden runs live music on weekends, and the Salt Tequila Bar is exactly what it sounds like.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The refurbished 1961 palm tree roadside sign out front tells you everything about what this boutique hotel is trying to do: resurrect a classic Texas motor court without the questionable plumbing. Car-seat upholstery, burlwood headboards, and headlamp-shaped fixtures carry the automotive theme through all 143 rooms. A restaurant, a social club, and a rooftop bar mean you can stay in all night, and AT&T Stadium is minutes away when you can't.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Las Almas Rotas is a Dallas agave bar that stocks small-batch mezcal, bacanora, and raicilla instead of celebrity tequila, which means the flights can include pechuga mezcal, distilled with raw poultry, and bottles that fit no known category. It was a James Beard Outstanding Bar Program semifinalist. Margaritas and palomas let the spirits do the talking, and carne asada tacos and pozole rojo keep the evening from getting too educational.

1. D Magazine 2024 · Best Agave Bar · Best of Big D
2. D Magazine 2025 · Best Agave Bar · Best of Big D
3. D Magazine 2023 · Best Agave Bar · Best of Big D

1. Houstonia The Official 50 Hottest Bars in Houston

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.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

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.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
2. Dallas Observer 2025 · Best Hot Dog · Best of Dallas

Hungarian comfort food in a Deep Ellum cocktail bar is a combination nobody asked for and nobody wants to question. Armoury D.E. runs a casual, lived-in room where the drinks are serious, the kitchen leans into paprika-forward territory, and there's usually a free live show happening out back. The burger of the week has a following. Dallas Observer named it home to the city's best Bloody Mary and best bar food, which checks out.

1. Dallas Observer 2025 · Best Bar Food · Best of Dallas
2. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
3. Dallas Observer 2023 · Best Bloody Mary · Best of Dallas

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.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

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.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

Oak Cliff locals have been calling it "Barb's" for decades, which tells you everything about what kind of place this is. A low-key dive bar with a retro-cool vibe, it runs karaoke on Thursdays and Sundays and burlesque on the third Wednesday of every month, so there's always a reason the room is full. Between sets, the jukebox swings from disco to hip-hop without apology. Your bartender probably drinks here on their nights off.

1. D Magazine 2025 · Best Hole-in-the-Wall Gay Bar · Best of Big D
2. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

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.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

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.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

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.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

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.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
2. Dallas Observer 2024 · Best Fried Chicken · Best of Dallas
3. Dallas Observer 2025 · Best Late-Night Grub · Best of Dallas

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.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

Sangria in towers and a drink menu that lists "mimosas" as the soup of the day sets the tone fast at this sports bar on Greenville Ave. Every seat inside, on the patio, or up on the rooftop faces a TV, which makes the place essentially one large, well-lubricated viewing party. Best for a sunny afternoon when the patio fills up and someone's local team is on.

1. Dallas Observer 2024 · Best Sports Bar · Best of Dallas
2. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

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.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
2. D Magazine 2023 · Best Place to Day Drink · Best of Big D

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.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

1. D Magazine 2023 · Best Taproom · Best of Big D
2. Dallas Observer 2023 · Best Local Beer: Honey Citrus Blonde · Best of Dallas
3. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

A U-shaped bar, gold touches, and pink drapery tucked inside a Highland Park strip mall, which is either charming or deeply on-brand depending on your feelings about Highland Park. Coupes is a Champagne and wine bar with a serious poured-glass selection covering French bottles, Crémant, Blanc de Noirs, and Texas pours alongside cocktails for anyone not yet ready to commit to bubbles entirely.

1. D Magazine 2025 · Best Champagne Bar · Best of Big D
2. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

1. Dallas Observer 2025 · Best Dive Bar · Best of Dallas
2. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

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.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
2. Dallas Observer 2024 · Best Beer Selection · Best of Dallas

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.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

1. D Magazine 2025 · Best Bar Game Night · Best of Big D
2. D Magazine 2024 · Best Taproom · Best of Big D
3. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

1. Dallas Observer 2025 · Best Cocktail Bar · Best of Dallas
2. Dallas Observer 2024 · Best Bar Stools · Best of Dallas
3. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

A golden goose on an exterior black door is the only sign you're in the right place. Goose Bar is a speakeasy tucked behind Goodwins on Lower Greenville, warm-lit and quietly pleased with itself, the overhead mural instructing you to "hang in there" with no further explanation. The cocktails lean creative without being exhausting, and the crowd has mostly figured out how to drink without making it a whole thing.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

The glowing green facade on Dyer Street means your ride-share driver already knows the address. Inside, it's a bass-heavy bar where SMU students fill most of the floor and the dancing starts before anyone asks. Bar food runs better than the usual, and Tuesday open mic nights pull in live music, slam poetry, and stand-up, in case you came with something to prove or just enough drinks to think you do.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

Five feet of fried mozzarella sticks is the opening argument here. Happiest Hour is a sprawling bar and grill near the American Airlines Center, with a rooftop full of lounge seating, a big downstairs bar, and a lawn spilling out between them. It is loud and unapologetically crowd-pleasing, the kind of place that doesn't wait for you to have fun. Ample TVs cover every game, and the pregame energy rarely fully leaves.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
2. Dallas Observer 2023 · Best Place to Pregame an Event at the AAC · Best of Dallas

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

Both the bartender and the chef are named Hugo, which tells you something about this cocktail bar and seafood spot in Bishop Arts. The cocktail program gets the same obsessive treatment as the kitchen, where oysters and small plates keep people settled at the bar longer than they planned. Someone here is pureeing salted plantains for a rum cocktail reduction, and that level of commitment runs through all dozen house cocktails.

1. D Magazine The Best New Restaurants in Dallas
2. Dallas Observer New Restaurants on the Observers’ Top 50 · The Top 50 Restaurants in Dallas Right Now
3. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

A neighborhood bar that's been around forever, Inwood Tavern is the kind of place where a Highland Park day trader and a regular Joe end up on the same barstool. The taps lean local, the back bar runs to 33 whiskeys and Scotches, and the porch is genuinely good. Scotty Scheffler reportedly drinks here, still in his Masters jacket, which says something about the room's lack of pretension.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

A sprawling patio bar right off the Katy Trail, the kind of place cyclists arrive at with good intentions and leave an hour later than planned. Nearly thirty Texas beers on draft and a solid lineup of Texas whiskeys keep things local, while the kitchen handles dark-beer venison chili for anyone who needs ballast. The patio is large and loud in the best communal way. Exactly what Dallas was missing before it existed.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
2. Dallas Observer 2025 · Best Spot on the Katy Trail · Best of Dallas
3. D Magazine 2025 · Best Bar Patio · Best of Big D

A coffee shop that turns into a bar without ever closing in between, La Reunion in Bishop Arts runs from 8 a.m. straight through to 2 a.m. Laptops and headphones fill the room by day, espresso martinis and carajillos take over by night, and on weekends the whole thing can spill into a block party with Dallas DJs. It's the kind of place that makes "work from a bar" feel like a perfectly reasonable lifestyle choice.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

Red-lit and tucked into a corner of Bishop Arts that requires a little intention to find, LadyLove is a lounge and dance bar that somehow calibrated the music at exactly the volume where you can still finish a sentence. The crowd skews queer and curious, the patio turns strangers into regulars, and the house cocktails lean tart and a little spicy. DJ nights run on Saturdays.

1. Dallas Observer 2025 · Best Lesbian Bar That Isn’t a Lesbian Bar · Best of Dallas
2. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
3. D Magazine 2024 · Best Dance Party · Best of Big D

The jalapeño beer-battered corn dog only appears after 11 p.m., which tells you everything about Lakewood Landing's priorities. This old-school dive bar packs a pool table, a jukebox loaded with local favorites, and a sprawling front patio into a small space that somehow feels lived-in rather than cramped. The burger has a loyal following, and the solo seat at the far end of the bar by the door is the best spot in Dallas for quiet, amateur people-watching.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
2. Dallas Observer 2023 · Best Burger · Best of Dallas

Wood-paneled walls and old neon beer signs set the tone at Lee Harvey's, a classic Dallas dive bar that's been knocking the edge off long weeks for as long as anyone can remember. The patio is roomy enough to bring the dog, and the onion rings with chipotle aioli are the kind of thing you eat standing up and then immediately order again. Cold beer, no pretense, no dress code.

1. D Magazine 2025 · Best Dive Bar · Best of Big D
2. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

Wine on tap is the organizing principle at this Greenville Avenue wine bar, where the keg system keeps every pour sealed from light and air the way the winemaker intended. The global list runs from super Tuscans and Garnacha to West Coast standbys, with enough deeper cuts to reward the curious. The cracker-thin pizzas are good enough to order twice. The original location has a looser, more free-spirited feel than the Uptown sibling, which suits the neighborhood just fine.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

On Monday nights, the owner sits down at the piano and plays, which tells you everything about what kind of bar this is. Louie Louie's is a dueling piano bar in Deep Ellum run by musicians, so the stage gets actual attention. The signature move is ordering a cocktail by the bowl, a communal pour meant for a small group, which pairs well with the kind of night that ends later than planned.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

The name nods to an 1800s Dallas "pleasure resort" that served beer seven days a week and kept live animals on the premises. The bar on Henderson Avenue skips the animals but leans into the rest, with cocktails, a solid run of Texas beers on tap, and an indoor-outdoor layout that stays lively without feeling like a scene. Food bites keep things going, and the bar staff moves fast on that first drink, which is the only speed that matters.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

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.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
2. Dallas Observer 2023 · Best Espresso Martini · Best of Dallas

Pool tables in the back, a fireplace den up front, and a patio pulling double duty as meeting spot for both SMU students and regulars who've been coming since the place was one of Dallas' oldest bars. Under new ownership with a fresh look, Milo Butterfingers is a sports bar and neighborhood hangout that hasn't lost its original ease. Homestyle daily specials run cheap, and the booths are big enough that nobody has to go home.

1. D Magazine 2025 · Best Bar Upgrade · Best of Big D
2. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

A craft beer bar and vinyl shop sharing the same floor in Deep Ellum, Off the Record started as a browsing-and-drinking concept and became something louder. The exposed brick and crates of records are still here, but the DJs took over, and now the dance floor fills fast and stays full. A back patio exists for anyone who'd like to finish a sentence.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

Leon Bridges played the open mic here before he played anywhere else, which tells you something about Opening Bell's ear for talent. It's a coffee shop that moonlights as a live music venue, with one of the longest-running open mic nights in DFW and occasional national touring acts rounding out the calendar. Beer and wine are on hand if coffee isn't your thing, and there's food beyond pastries: sandwiches, soups, salads.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
2. Eater The 15 Coolest Coffee Shops in Dallas

The décor lands somewhere in the early 1900s, all dark wood and barroom nostalgia, which makes the drink program feel like a deliberate prank. This Uptown cocktail bar carries over a hundred craft cocktails, the Ramos Gin Fizz among them, built around what the team calls a "progressive" approach to mixing. The State Thomas neighborhood keeps it grounded; the menu keeps it weird in the best possible direction.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

The chandeliers have been hanging since the 1930s, back when this building was a department store, and they still look better than anything installed recently. Pegasus City Brewery turned it into a downtown taproom, keeping the art deco bones and adding a clean black-and-white bar that pours easy-drinking house beers. Grab a window seat and you've got Commerce Street on one side and your pint on the other, which is a fine arrangement.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

Peticolas runs a split-level taproom out of an industrial building in West Dallas, with English, Irish, and Scottish-style ales brewed on-site. It's a semi-official FC Dallas supporters' bar, showing everything from Champions League to regional Mexican matches, which explains the noise level on a Tuesday. When there's nothing on the screens, the upstairs has foosball, ping pong, and shuffleboard to fill the gap.

1. D Magazine 2025 · Best Taproom · Best of Big D
2. Dallas Observer 2023 · Best Local Brewery · Best of Dallas
3. D Magazine 2024 · Best Brewery · Best of Big D

Townes Van Zandt played this stage, and so did the Chicks at their first Dallas show, which tells you everything about the room's taste. Poor David's is an old-school live music bar, been around forever, built around a serious lineup of country, folk, and acoustic acts. There's a big bar, plenty of space to settle in, and the kind of crowd that actually listens.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
2. D Magazine 2023 · Best Dance Hall · Best of Big D

A cowboy-hat-wearing doorman perched on a barstool out front marks the door at this Western-themed dive bar on Ross Avenue. Inside, a beer-chugging bass fish watches over the pool table and neon booths, while glitter-filled drinks pay tribute to Dolly Parton. Out back, a patio big enough for line dancing hosts chicken shit bingo, with actual chickens making the call.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

Rainbow decor flags this as the anchor bar of Dallas's gayborhood on Cedar Springs, and the vibe is loose, colorful, and cheap in the best way. Roy G's is a diner bar where the shot combos come with candy as a chaser and the prices make a Thursday feel like a Friday. The food, from a pickle-brined chicken sandwich to a smash burger, holds its own against the drinks, which is a higher bar than it sounds.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

Erykah Badu's band plays here regularly, and Badu herself has been known to walk up and join them unannounced. That's the kind of thing that happens at Sandaga 813, a laid-back music lounge across from Fair Park where the booking swings from reggae nights to jazz and the room hums accordingly. No frills, no posturing, just a dark and groovy space that takes its sound seriously.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

Ships is a dive bar that's been around forever, wedged between the Lower Greenville club strip and an old East Dallas neighborhood. That geography shows up in the crowd: regulars who've held the same barstool for decades sit a few seats from musicians and late-night stragglers catching a game. The old guard enforces a genuine no-cussing policy, so keep it civil, or at least quieter than you planned.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

Dark wood booths and old-world clutter give this Irish pub on Henderson a genuinely lived-in feel, even though it hasn't been around forever. A covered deck out back shifts the mood from cozy to open-air in about twenty steps. The beer menu runs from Hoegaarden and Paulaner to local Deep Ellum pours, and the food leans classic bar with a Tex-Mex detour. Whoever programs the 80s rock soundtrack is the unsung hero of the operation.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

The sprawling outdoor courtyard is what makes St. Pete's the anchor of Deep Ellum. It's a neighborhood bar that also runs a solid kitchen, which means you can grab a stool and a beer or actually eat a meal, depending on your Thursday. The scene around it has shifted for years, but the bar hasn't bothered to notice. If you've been looking for a regular's spot to call your own, the counter here has been waiting.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

A dive bar on Lower Greenville where the TVs outnumber the opinions, which is saying something. Stan's Blue Note runs on sports, cheap pitchers, and a rotation of barstools and soft couches that makes a four-hour game feel almost reasonable. Table shuffleboard and foosball cover the gaps when nothing's on. The Cowboys will probably lose, and this is a perfectly decent place to watch that happen.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

The Yelp complaint that someone left about the music not being changeable is basically the place's mission statement. Strangeways is an East Dallas neighborhood craft beer bar with a patio, walls covered in eclectic art, and a vibe that has no interest in pleasing everyone. The beer selection earned a Dallas Observer nod. Watch for flight nights and pop-up dinners when they surface.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
2. Dallas Observer 2025 · Best Beer Selection · Best of Dallas

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

Three outdoor patios, one of them rooftop, is a lot of square footage dedicated to a Dallas evening. Sundown at Granada is a live music bar on Greenville Avenue, sitting next door to the Granada Theater and pulling some of the same touring acts onto its own stage. Inside, the lighting is kept low in the way bars should be. The bar staff moves fast, and the kitchen punches above the usual bar-food ceiling, which makes it an easy place to stay all night.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

Perched above the old Lakewood Theater, this dimly lit jazz bar has the kind of second-floor intimacy that makes the rest of Dallas feel very far away. The dance floor leaves just enough room for cheek-to-cheek, which is either charming or a fire hazard depending on your mood. Bring someone you want to know better, because the room will do the rest of the work. D Magazine named it the city's top jazz bar in 2025.

1. D Magazine 2025 · Best Jazz Bar · Best of Big D
2. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

A red light over an unmarked alley door is the only sign you've found the right place. The Branca Room is a speakeasy-style Argentine cocktail bar tucked behind Chimichurri Bistro in Bishop Arts, lit by crystal chandeliers and hung with Argentine art. The drinks lean into amaro and vermouth, and the cocktail menu has a sense of theater, one arrives in an IV bag.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
2. D Magazine 2023 · Best Speakeasy · Best of Big D