The Top 16 Places to Drink Near Dayne's Craft Barbecue
-
Rank 1. The Wild Detectives
Coffee
Books hang from a clothesline in the backyard, which tells you most of what you need to know about this Oak Cliff bar and coffee shop tucked into a charming old house at the edge of Bishop Arts. It doubles as a bookshelf-lined indie bookstore, with foreign titles and small-press finds sharing space with your pint. Shakespeare in the Bar happens here, as do concerts and readings. Bring the dog.
-
Rank 2. Ayahuasca Cantina
Mezcal Mexican
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.
- Esquire The Best Bars in America
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Bar
- D Magazine #20 · The 50 Best Restaurants
-
Rank 3. Community Beer Co.
Beer Bar
- Dallas Observer 2023 · Best Local Beer: Honey Citrus Blonde · Best of Dallas
- D Magazine 2023 · Best Taproom · Best of Big D
- Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
-
Rank 4. Tiny Victories
Cocktail Bar
A small Bob Ross shrine materialized organically behind the bar here, one piece at a time, and nobody stopped it. That sets the tone for this cocktail bar just west of Bishop Arts, where the drinks are serious but the attitude is neighborly. The classics menu leans on genuine pillars of the canon, and happy hour runs deep into the week. Weeknights feel like catching up; weekends feel like something else entirely.
- Dallas Observer 2023 · Best Cocktail Bar · Best of Dallas
- Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
- D Magazine 2023 · Best Happy Hour · Best of Big D
-
Rank 5. Jettison
Cocktail Bar
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.
- D Magazine 2023 · Best Seasonal Cocktail List · Best of Big D
- Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
-
Rank 6. La Reunion
Coffee
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.
-
Rank 7. Barbara's Pavillion
Dive Bar
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.
- D Magazine 2025 · Best Hole-in-the-Wall Gay Bar · Best of Big D
- 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.
-
Rank 9. Atlas
Cocktail Bar
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.
-
Rank 10. Hugo's Seafood Bar
Seafood
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.
- D Magazine The Best New Restaurants in Dallas
- Dallas Observer New Restaurants on the Observers’ Top 50 · The Top 50 Restaurants in Dallas Right Now
- Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
-
Rank 11. LadyLove Lounge & Sound
Cocktail Bar
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.
- Dallas Observer 2025 · Best Lesbian Bar That Isn’t a Lesbian Bar · Best of Dallas
- Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
- D Magazine 2025 · Best Dance Party · Best of Big D
-
Rank 12. The Branca Room
Argentine Cocktail Bar
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.
-
Rank 13. Peticolas Brewing Company
Beer Bar
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.
- D Magazine 2025 · Best Taproom · Best of Big D
- Dallas Observer 2023 · Best Local Brewery · Best of Dallas
- D Magazine 2024 · Best Brewery · Best of Big D
-
A big patio courtyard anchors this laid-back sports bar on Lemmon, where misters and shade trees keep the crowd functional even in a Texas August. Inside it's dark and comfortable in the way a good neighborhood bar should be. The bar food runs better than the setting implies, with the pizzas pulling more orders than you'd expect. Service is quick and genuinely warm, and regulars have a way of making newcomers feel like they've been coming here for years.
-
A sign above the bathroom explicitly bans cocaine, which tells you most of what you need to know about The Grapevine's charms. This sprawling neighborhood bar and kitchen moved from its beloved pink adobe on Maple Avenue a couple years back, and the regulars followed, along with most of the staff. Strong drinks, plenty of outdoor space, boudin balls from the new kitchen, basketball on screens, and karaoke when the mood strikes.
- D Magazine 2024 · BEst Bar Resurrection · Best of Big D
- Dallas Observer The Ultimate Dallas Bar Guide
- Dallas Observer 2024 · Best Come Back · Best of Dallas
-
Rank 16. Hidden Door
Dive Bar