After a week in Texas traveling through Houston, San Antonio, Austin and Waco, we finally made it to Dallas. We went to Dallas without any real expectations. We had made plans a few months earlier that our two friends from Indianapolis were going to fly in and spend the weekend with us.
MEET ASHLEE & HANNAH
We rented an adorable Airbnb for the weekend, where we were blessed to sleep in a real bed and shower daily. The house was just south of the city and near a cute neighborhood called Bishop Arts District. It was peppered with independent restaurants, bars, and shops.
We only have good things to say about:
Bishop Cider Co,
Dude, Sweet Chocolate
Davis Street Espresso
Dallas Grilled Cheese Co.
Hi, every city needs a grilled cheese restaurant. K bye.
Emporium Pies
Emporium is a speciality pie shop with 3 locations in Texas (2 in Dallas). We shamefully, but with no regrets, ate pie from there 3 times during our 3-day stay.🥧🥧🥧
We spent the majority of our time in another fun neighborhood called Deep Ellum. There are several top-rated restaurants, bars, breweries, and music venues as well as some stellar graffiti art.
We ate the best brisket in Texas (according to MJ) at Pecan Lodge. It's a counter service BBQ joint in the heart of Deep Ellum. We arrived around 11:30am on Friday and the line was already out of the door. One thing we've learned about traveling is that if there's a line, then it's probably worth the wait! We only had to wait for about 30 minutes before we placed our order and took a seat. We shared pulled pork, brisket, ribs, a fried rib, and some mac n' cheese. It was lip-smackin' good.
We also enjoyed a few cold ones and games at two dog-friendly breweries with awesome patios: Deep Ellum Brewing and Brain Dead Brewing
On Saturday, we took the 30 minute drive west to Fort Worth. We wanted to get outdoors during the beautiful 80degree weather so we went on a morning hike to see some waterfall action. Our water hating dog had a mid-life crisis and laid down and walked through the water. We never thought we would see the day!
After our hike we headed over to the famous Fort Worth Stockyards. After the arrival of the railroad in the 1800’s this area became a major center for the livestock business. Today the area features many restaurants and touristy type shops. If you’re nearby it’s worth a walk around.
All of this walking definitely made us hungry so it was time for TACOS! Velvet Taco is a really cool little spot that has fantastic tacos. Really, we haven’t had any food that wasn’t awesome the entire time we have been in Texas.
Saturday was the hottest day of the weekend so it seemed like a good opportunity to continue in our indulgent ways and pick up some popsicles from Steel City Pops. Putting the words “artisanal” or “gourmet” next to the word popsicle makes me MJ want to vomit but that’s how the fine people of yelp described this place. All pretentiousness aside these popsicles really hit the spot. Sometimes it’s the simple things folks.
On Sunday we visited the Kennedy Assassination Museum and Dealey Plaza. The museum is on the 6th floor of the building that the fatal shots rang out. It's a very moving experience and we would recommend it to anyone in the area. You can also see the X's on the road where the shots hit Kennedy.
After our history lesson we went chasin' waterfalls one last time on a little neighborhood hike, spent some time walking around Deep Ellum for one last go 'round and then went over to the Uptown neighborhood to a dog bar (bar and dog park collab) called Mutt Canine Cantina to let otter run some energy off before we had to drop Ashlee & Hannah off at the airport.
Without knowing what to expect from Dallas, it truly blew us away. For being such a big city, it was relatively easy to navigate and had many great neighborhoods surrounding it. Maybe it was the bed and clean shower, maybe it was all the food we ate, or maybe it's just the charm of the South!
Thank you Dallas for your hospitality!
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