The Top 13 Dive Bars Near Far-Out

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

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

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

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

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

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. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
3. Dallas Observer 2024 · Best Hot Dog · Best of Dallas

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

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

Plywood floors and neon signs for Busch Light and PBR set the mood at this Greenville Avenue dive bar, and the mood is firmly "nowhere to be." Cheap beers, darts, and well-priced shots are about the full extent of the program, which is precisely the point. The kind of place where regulars need no introduction and newcomers feel at home by the second round.

1. Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide

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

The smoked meatloaf plate, with house-ground beef, gravy, mashed potatoes, and mac and cheese, tells you everything about what this downtown Dallas dive bar is up to. Hockey on the TVs, whiskey and craft beer behind the bar, and a menu that takes bar food more seriously than its gritty room suggests it will. The fancy bologna sandwich is a standing option; the pork tenderloin shows up Friday through Sunday for those who plan ahead.

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

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