TL;DR

• Stay
  • Four Points by Sheraton Dallas Fort Worth Airport North, 1580 Point W Blvd, Coppell, TX 75019
    • This place wins the award for the longest name of a hotel – at least by word count. An affordable, clean and convenient airport if you’re flying into or out of DFW.

• Eat/Drink
  • The Rustic, 3656 Howell St, Dallas, TX 75204
    • A place to see, a place to be seen, and a place to enjoy live music.
  • Dot’s Hop House, 2645 Commerce St, Dallas, TX 75226
    • Correction. This is the place to be seen. An outdoor patio is a great place to eat and drink on a warm night.
  • Adair’s Saloon, 2624 Commerce St, Dallas, TX 75226
    • How does one get a Lone Star (the local beer), watch a man fall and hit his head on the dance floor (who then comes and put his bloodied arm around me in a warm friendly embrace), and hear a great band all in the same night? Read on below.
  • Oddfellows, 316 W 7th St, Dallas, TX 75208
    • The signs outside of a restaurant always tell a good story.
  • Joy Macarons, 839 W. Davis Street, Dallas, TX 75208
    • Go for the frozen macaron on a hot day.
• See
  • DLM Supply, 837 W Davis St, Dallas, TX 75208
    • A charming menswear store with plenty of trendy clothing.

Trip Background

This post is terribly delayed from September 2017. I am getting in a better cadence of publishing my content so please forgive me!

I’m a sucker for cheap flights, as you’ve probably guessed. This American Airlines basic economy flight cost me $88.41 for the roundtrip journey from San Francisco to Dallas, although an unexpected change in plans resulted in me buying a $79.21 one-way ticket to return to SF at a different time. But knowing that I could spend the weekend in Dallas, I hit up my friends Laura and Leilani to see if they’d be down to spend a day sightseeing and hanging out with me.

Unlike my last trip through Dallas (a stopover on the way to Mexico City, in which we went to see the JFK Museum, among other things), this was not meant to be a sightseeing tour. My flight arrived in the evening on September 16th, 2017, so I asked my friends if they’d be down for dinner, a Sunday brunch, and then some wandering before I left on Monday. To my delight, they were more than willing to host me and hang out!

Day 1 (September 16, 2017): A crappy Lyft driver and a Saturday night out in Dallas

This particular trip started on a rather auspicious note.

I’m always amused by rideshare drivers who say they’re “here” before they actually arrive at your location. In this case, my “driver” Brandon indicated he had arrived at my house and then literally drove away from me. Pretty lame move, but it wasn’t the first time a driver had done this to me. I found another drive relatively quickly and in short order I was on my way to the airport.

The flight itself was a relatively unremarkable three hours and after arriving in DFW, I rented a car and drove to Laura’s house. We decided to head to The Rustic for dinner and drinks – and it’s clear that in Dallas there are people who go out with a plan to mingle. There were a couple groups who showed up at The Rustic with this plan in mind, but it was nothing compared to what was to come. We listened to the live music, enjoyed our dinner and drinks, and then left to head over to Dot’s Hop House. *This* was the place to be seen.

It was a really nice night out and the center courtyard is a great place to sit with a cocktail and some friends to shoot the breeze on life. There were awkward groups of single men eyeing the crowd, mixed groups of young professionals out to have fun, and then groups of women who seemingly enjoyed rejecting male advances.

After one drink at Dot’s, Laura and Leilani opted to introduce me to Adair’s Saloon. This is where the night went from amusing to simply ridiculous. This is the kind of bar where a night goes downhill or gets amazing in a hurry. We saddled up to the cash only bar and ordered Lone Star beers (as one does in Dallas) and within a half hour we saw a guy dancing with a woman fall over and hit his head on the floor. His friends laughed and picked him up then did their best to bandage him up as he bled on the floor. I know this because a few minutes later, he walked over to the three of us and introduced himself to us while in a completely inebriated state. He was actually incredibly friendly and we discussed the fact that he voted for Donald Trump but still wanted to engage people of differing political opinions (note that I did not bring up the topic of politics). Oh Dallas, never change.

Day 2 (September 17, 2017): The Classy Bishop Arts District

Our only full day together in Dallas took the three of us to the Bishop Arts district, which is a wonderful mix of eclectic museums, coffee shops, and delightfully pretentious and charming restaurants.

I thought about buying this for my wife

Bishop Arts District

The ladies suggested we go to Oddfellows for brunch and we decided to explore the neighborhood after they put our names on the waitlist. As we perused the museums and shops, we settled on a coffee before lunch and very quickly received a message that our table was ready.

We needed coffee…bad

How we determined our afternoon plans

When oh when will we be seated?

Oh, that was quick.

Yay for booze!

Aperol Spritz

Local murals and art

After brunch, we drove to a nearby shop called Joy Macarons. It doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to realize we were in the mood for dessert and instead of picking a standard macaron, I decided to try their ice cream sandwich made with macarons. There’s also a fun men’s clothing shop next door called DLM Supply if you’re in the mood for some new threads or fun accessories.

Lemon macaron – I think

Returning home to Laura’s house on a warm Dallas fall afternoon, Leilani left us to walk her dog while Laura and began to discuss how much apartments and homes cost in Dallas. As I perused on Zillow, we discovered an open house four blocks away.

“Want to go see an open house with me and pretend to be my wife?” I asked.

She accepted the first part, but not the latter.

And off we went to browse a very awkward shaped and narrow pair of units in a nearby development. An hour later, after walking around her neighborhood to see any other available units, we retired to the house to bask in the glow of the air conditioning. We thought about going out for dinner, but opted instead to have gyros delivered. Besides, why go out when you can stay in and play with a dog as cute as Dillon (Laura’s pup)?

Dillon!

Knowing I needed to get work done that next day, I bid Laura adieu and spent most of the night and next day taking work calls from my room at the Four Points by Sheraton Dallas Fort Worth Airport North.

Final Thoughts

This was a slightly ridiculous trip in terms of how fast I got in and got out of Dallas. But it was a cheap trip – and seeing friends, enjoying a leisurely brunch, and wandering around Bishop Arts was a pretty solid way to spend a weekend.