VisitDallas The Magazine - Fall/Winter 2019

VISITDALLAS, the magazine

VISITDALLAS the magazine

DALLAS DEBUTS:

ARTS SCENE BRINGS A WORLD OF INSPIRATION

HAUTE COUTURE MEETS HOT HOTELS FALL/WINTER 2019

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90 YEARS OF HISTORY AND HERITAGE AT COTTON BOWL STADIUM

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CLASSIC. Style .

LOCATION: ROSEWOOD MANSION ON TURTLE CREEK

Dall as is a cit y with m any sides.

There’s more to Dallas than a hit TV show. Sure, we all have horses. Most are just under the hood. In reality, Dallas is a city with many sides—unscripted and full of surprises.

The one place where heritage meets hospitality. Southern meets modern. And legacy meets luxury. From “Howdy, folks” to “Holy cow,” it’s all just a quick road trip away—hood ornament not required.

Get the most from your getaway at VisitDallas.com.

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Welcome to VisitDallas,

THE MAGAZINE.

We hope you enjoy reading our curated and original content and discover something surprising, something new, something unexpected about Dallas in the pages of this issue.

Dallas, filled with friendly people who are proud of their city, represents the classic American story. Built up from the bootstraps, bold residents with maverick ideas and big hearts have made this place legendary. Texas hospitality is what we’ve been known for since the beginning, and our gracious and welcoming people are waiting to greet you.

We like to say Dallas is the most Texan city in Texas. What do we mean by that?

You can experience expected western heritage, be mesmerized by modern and award-winning architecture, taste our culture prepared by culinary pioneers, cheer on our sports icons and be part of a city of champions, and escape into imagination

ON EEK

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and fun in our Arts District and cultural communities that deliver powerful, once-ina-lifetime experiences.

You see, there’s more to Dallas than a hit TV show. In reality, Dallas is a city with many sides—unscripted and full of surprises.

The one place where heritage meets hospitality, Southern meets modern, and legacy meets luxury. From “Howdy folks,” to “Holy cow,” we’re just a short trip away.

We hope you enjoy the information in these pages, and we look forward to hearing your feedback.

Email us at magazine@visitdallas.com and let us know what you think and what you want to read about next.

See you soon, in Dallas!

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CONTENTS Dallas Now Breaking Ground PAGE 7 It’s Hospitality Y’all PAGE 8 National Soccer Hall of Fame PAGE 9 New Art Age PAGE 10 Dallas Dubbed a “Place to Love” PAGE 12 The Kinsey Collection Arrives in Dallas PAGE 14 Dallas Dino Diggers PAGE 15 A Musical Journey PAGE 16 Meet Venny Etienne PAGE 18 Top Five Holiday Shows PAGE 20

Itinerary 36 Hours in Dallas with Linda Gray PAGE 22

Made in Dallas Behind the scenes of the making of the “Forever Texas” music video PAGE 26

FEATURES Dallas Debuts PAGE 35 Bystanders No More PAGE 48 Haute Couture Meets Hot Hotels PAGE 52 Legacy in the Heart of Fair Park PAGE 74 Scenes from the State Fair of Texas PAGE 82 12 Hotspots Reshaping Downtown Dallas PAGE 88

Dallas, International PAGE 103 Calendar PAGE 110

CONTENTS Last Bite PAGE 112

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ON THE COVER: Terra Winston photographed at The Statler Dallas by Marshall Cox with Secretary Studio. Carla Martinengo dress from Forty Five Ten.

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VisitDallas, the magazine Editorial

SVP & Chief Marketing Officer Frank Librio Director of Marketing & Communications Stephanie Faulk

Marketing Team

Senior Digital Manager Diana Alvarez Communications Specialist, International Paola Arias Marketing Events Coordinator Brenda Bond Graphic Designer Nikki Dukowitz Communications Specialist, Domestic Zane Harrington Marketing Project Manager Emily Reaves

CONTRIBUTORS Nancy Churnin’s eight picture book biographies have won the Sydney Taylor Notable, South Asia Book Award and Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People, have been honored on numerous state reading lists and have been translated into Japanese and Braille. A former theater critic for The Dallas Morning News, Nancy is an alumna of Harvard, with a masters from Columbia. She lives in North Texas.

Connie Dufner is a Dallas freelance writer whose work appears in many local publications. She formerly served as an editor and writer at The Dallas Morning News and Modern Luxury Dallas.

A Fort Worth native and true Texan, Dedie Leahy lived and worked in New York City before Dallas beckoned. She’s a writer, editor, PR pro, speaker and all-around lady-in-the-know. Dedie looks at life as a divine gift and she calls her work her passion, along with family, friends, travel, and music—especially R&B (and dancing to it). She’s always curious to learn new steps.

Content Resource Specialist Ashley Turner Writer Devon Yarbrough

FROM THE PUBLISHERS OF

Senior Project Manager, Content Development Kathy McFarland Designer Chantel Stull Director, Brand Partnerships Mary Payne Production Director Aaron Chamberlain Editorial Assistants Carson Buffett, Zoe Judilla

VisitDallas markets Dallas as the ideal visitor and convention destination in Texas. Dallas— The Most Texan City in Texas—celebrates its heritage in hospitality, and it’s the one city where Southern meets modern and legacy meets luxury.

More than 27 million people visit Dallas every year generating a total economic impact of $8.8 billion. The travel and tourism industry continues to be an important and necessary driver of the Dallas economy, supporting 65,000 jobs and offsetting Dallas residents’ taxes.

Meet us at the Visitor’s Center, located in the Old Red Courthouse: 100 S. Houston St. Dallas, TX 75202 Tourist Information: 214-749-7730 VisitDallas 325 N. St. Paul Street, Suite 700 Dallas, TX 75201 214-571-1000 visitdallas.com Please send feedback to magazine@visitdallas.com.

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Mario R. Mercado writes on music, dance, theater, art and architecture. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Opera News, Playbill, On Point for American Ballet Theatre, Travel + Leisure, Afar and Surface. As the former arts editor of Travel + Leisure, he produced the magazine’s international coverage of the performing and visual arts, architecture, and design. Based in New York City, Mario, a Texas native, is the author of The Evolution of Mozart’s Pianistic Style.

A deep connection to nature guides all aspects of Patricio Rivera’s life. Growing up in the lush, fertile surroundings of Honduras, he spent his time outdoors engulfed in nature and by the ocean. With his new endeavor, Twelve Thirty Four, Patricio brings his love for floral design, fashion, food and family together. Whether it’s weddings, collaborations with fellow artists, or creating visuals and styling for fashion accounts such as Burberry, Versace or Louis Vuitton, his goal is to bring each client’s vision to life while keeping the process organic and fun.

Jeff Sullivan is the Editorial Director at Panini America and the author of three books, including America’s Team: The Official History of the Dallas Cowboys.

He has also written for Dallas Cowboys Star Magazine, SUCCESS Magazine and The Boston Globe.

A recent British travel writer of the year, Jonathan Thompson has chronicled his journeys through all 50 states and more than 100 countries in myriad magazines on both sides of the Atlantic, from Travel + Leisure and Conde Nast Traveller to GQ, Esquire and National Geographic Traveller. Follow his travels on social media: @JT_travels.

Nick Totin has lived in Dallas for more than three years. He is a marketing strategist as well as a yoga instructor and serves on the board of directors for Black Tie Dinner, a prominent LGBTQ+ non-profit in North Texas. He enjoys the nightlife offerings of Lower Greenville, Deep Ellum and his home neighborhood, Oak Lawn.

STAFF WRITERS Diana Alvarez Diana has lived in Dallas since 2012 and resides in Oak Cliff.

She’s currently trying to perfect her chaturanga dandasana, so you’ll find her in a yoga class most evenings.

Paola Arias Paola enjoys exploring Dallas’ different neighborhoods since her move back to the city after a stint in Austin. When she’s not dining at a new restaurant, you can find her checking out a local brewery.

Stephanie Faulk A proud Texan, Stephanie has called Dallas home all of her adult life. She spends her weekends introducing her nine-year-old son to the wonders of Dallas.

Together they’ve explored the Meadows Museum and tracked down Bonnie and Clyde’s old haunts. She and her husband have amassed an impressive knowledge of Dallas’ best dive bars and karaoke joints.

Zane Harrington Zane loves nature, classical music, jazz, wine and beer, and Southern cuisine. Find him at his favorite spots: the Dallas Arboretum & Botanical Garden, Hattie’s in Oak Cliff and the Dallas Arts District, where he regularly supports the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the Dallas Opera.

Ashley Turner Ashley is a Dallas area native and loves spending her time with friends and family at a concert, shopping or chowing down at the best Tex-Mex spots in town. She is also a huge sports fan, so you’ll find her glued to the TV when the Cowboys are in season.

Devon Yarbrough Devon is a Dallas native with a love for arts and music. You can find her exploring the multiple museums in Dallas or attending an R&B or hip-hop concert. A pop culture enthusiast, she’s your go-to girl for all hot topics and celebrity news.

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Dallas

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Breaking Ground

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It’s Hospitality Y’all

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National Soccer Hall of Fame

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New Art Age

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Dallas Dubbed a “Place to Love”

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The Kinsey Collection Arrives in Dallas

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Dallas Dino Diggers

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A Musical Journey

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Meet Venny Etienne

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Top Five Holiday Shows

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s a l l aD “We’re rolling out the physical welcome mat for people traveling to our city for the first time, or rediscovering Dallas as a local.”

— FRANK LIBRIO, VisitDallas Chief Marketing Officer

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Breaking Ground Dallas’ exceptional hospitality is getting a new home base WORDS BY DEVON YARBROUGH

Combine state-of-the-art technology with exceptional customer service and mix in Dallas’ revolutionary deck park, and you get the forthcoming VisitDallas Experience Center. Last fall, we announced plans to open a cutting-edge gathering place for locals and visitors in Klyde Warren Park’s expansion development.

The VisitDallas Experience Center will be an upgraded take on a traditional visitors center, where advanced technology and true Dallas hospitality meet.

Imagine it as your personal concierge to the city with a high-tech upgrade, boasting all the service and charm you would expect from Dallas’ leader in customer experience.

“The VisitDallas Experience Center will introduce visitors to our city, and it will serve as a gathering place for locals, too,” said Frank Librio, Visit-

Dallas Chief Marketing Officer. “We’re rolling out the physical welcome mat for people traveling to our city for the first time, or rediscovering Dallas as a local.”

Expect to stop by to snag anything from VIP sports game tickets to inside advice about event happenings and Dallas swag. Described as visitor-center-meets-Apple-Store, VisitDallas will be one of the first in the tourism industry to utilize technology to enhance the visitor experience—a testament to the city’s innovative nature.

The VisitDallas Experience Center will be one element of a new deck at Klyde Warren Park, bridging St. Paul and Akard streets. The development will also include public lawns and event space.

The center is expected to open in 2023. visitdallas.com

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It’s Hospitality Y’all VisitDallas invests in excellent visitor experience

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The class is designed to empower every attendee with the skills and the mindset to create a lasting memory and experience for those travelers.

“We have the best hospitality in the South and a city that is dedicated to providing a one-of-a-kind experience to every visitor,” said Renee McKenney, VisitDallas Chief Experience Officer.

“Our people—with a welcoming spirit— is what’s kept Dallas ranked as the top visitor destination in Texas.”

Class attendees heard from former Disney executives, Dallas restaurateurs, Southwest Airlines and VisitDallas leadership and hospitality consultants. “Just being in this building will help you get better at what you do,” said Shep Hyken, author and expert on excellent customer service. Hyken is confident Dallas has what it takes to be the most

hospitable city in the nation.

VisitDallas partnered with Southwest Airlines to host the master class because of the airline’s reputation as a leader and innovator in the customer service space. Southwest has been awarded Best Customer Service six times at InsideFlyer Magazine’s Freddie Awards and ranked highest in customer satisfaction among low-cost carriers for two years in a row by J.D. Power. With the company’s corporate headquarters located in Dallas, Southwest has a direct impact on the city’s approach to hospitality.

VisitDallas will continue its investment in creating a premier hospitality experience throughout the city with the master class set to return in 2020. visitdallas.com/masterclass

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Photographs courtesy of FC Dallas

While the South may be known for its hospitality, Dallas is taking that attitude beyond expectations by creating a welcoming city where world-class customer service is the standard. For two consecutive years, VisitDallas and Southwest Airlines have teamed up to present their Customer Service Master Class, called “It’s Hospitality Y’all.”

Master class attendees work in the tourism and hospitality industries, and many times they’re some of the first faces visitors see when arriving to Dallas. As employees in the city’s hotels, restaurants and attractions, these individuals impact visitors every single day.

VisitDallas and its partners see these interactions as thousands of opportunities to create what one master class presenter called “moments of magic.”

Photographs by Joseph Haubert

WORDS BY NICK TOTIN

National Soccer Hall of Fame Finds a New North Texas Home Here’s why you shouldn’t be surprised WORDS BY ASHLEY TURNER

NATIONAL SOCCER HALL OF FAME: CLASS OF 2019

Photographs courtesy of FC Dallas

Photographs by Joseph Haubert

September 21–22, 2019

If you’ve ever dreamed of seeing how your soccer skills stack up against the pros, now’s your chance at the new National Soccer Hall of Fame in Frisco, located north of Dallas.

Field, pass and kick the ball through an interactive skills challenge and don virtual reality headsets to really get in the game. Then take a stroll through history, checking out decades of memorabilia, like FIFA World Cup trophies, jerseys of past greats and the Hall of Fame inductee wall.

This innovative museum is boasting a few firsts—it is the first sporting hall of fame to be built inside a stadium (Toyota Stadium, home of FC Dallas) and the first featuring such innovative tech.

If you’re surprised that North Texas

has scored the home of the National Soccer Hall of Fame (what many Texans call “the other football”), then it’s time to brush up on your Dallas sporting history.

Dallas boasts some serious chops in the soccer world.

Late Dallas businessman Lamar Hunt was instrumental in bringing professional soccer to the United States.

He founded the Dallas Tornado and FC Dallas and championed the sport for years. Through the Hunt Sports Group, Toyota Stadium was built and now serves as the model for all future soccer stadiums in the United States.

Dallas: soccer capital of the U.S.?

We think so.

Greats like Abby Wambach (U.S. Women’s National Team legend) and Sunil Gulati (former president of the U.S. Soccer Federation and instrumental leader to the growth of the sport) will receive the highest honor in American soccer—induction into the National Soccer Hall of Fame.

The celebratory weekend includes the induction ceremony, a concert

by The Fray and OneRepublic and a match between FC Dallas and New York City FC.

nationalsoccerhof.com

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New Art Age Check in at the Sweet Tooth Hotel

Sprinkle-filled pools, candy colors, cupcake-themed rooms—these bright and bubbly photos have likely been blowing up your Instagram feed for months. Instagram-inspired art installations have been popping up all over the nation, but Dallas’ own Sweet Tooth Hotel is more than just a gold mine for the perfect social shot.

The recently expanded, 5,000-squarefoot walk-through installation brings together local artists to interpret the “hotel’s” different themes through experiential art, inviting visitors to interact and be transported to an alternate reality.

Jencey and Cole Keeton, the couple behind Sweet Tooth Hotel, have turned what was intended to be a pop-up expe-

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rience into a permanent fixture in Victory Park. As to why the Keetons chose the neighborhood, “Victory Park is on the brink of a creative resurgence with a lot of new bars and restaurants along with a couple of co-working spaces scheduled to open, so we are excited for Sweet Tooth Hotel to be a part of this neighborhood growth,” said Jencey.

From a “conversation heart” wall reminiscent of the sweetness of elementary school to interactive audio-visual disco-inspired installations, there’s no telling what the Keetons will dream up next. Follow @sweettoothhotel for a look at Sweet Tooth’s latest developments. sweettoothhotel.com

Photographs courtesy of Sweet Tooth Hotel

WORDS BY PAOLA ARIAS

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Photographs courtesy of Sweet Tooth Hotel

DALLAS NOW

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The Wild Detectives

Dallas Dubbed a “Place to Love”

by Samantha Brown Take a sneak peek inside a few of her favorite finds WORDS BY ZANE HARRINGTON

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PUREPECHA

Amid Deep Ellum’s thriving music scene and vibrant nightlife, Brown found a hidden gem in Purepecha. Tucked away behind an unassuming taco shop, mother-son duo Juanita and Regino Rojas prepare an authentic eight-course meal of specially selected traditional Mexican dishes. In the Rojas family, food is extremely personal, and every evening 28 guests are able to experience the distinct charm and special flavors.

DUDE, SWEET CHOCOLATE

Speaking of personal, on a past trip to Dallas, Brown remembered strolling through the quaint streets of the Bishop Arts District and stumbling upon Dude, Sweet Chocolate. It made such an impact that she knew she had to return. Immersed in the wonder of chef Katherine Clapner’s confectionery masterpieces,

the TV star found the perfect taste of Dallas to take home.

THE WILD DETECTIVES

Just down the street from Dude, Sweet Chocolate, Brown found The Wild Detectives, a hybrid coffee shop, bar, live music venue and bookstore—all the best things under the roof of a charming Craftsman-style home. The Wild Detectives regularly hosts authors, artisans and purveyors of various crafts, so whether you’re with a group of friends or looking to meet a friendly Dallas local, The Wild Detectives has a seat at the table for everyone.

To see more of Dallas through Samantha Brown’s eyes and learn about the places she has visited, be sure to watch Samantha Brown’s Places to Love on PBS in January 2020. samantha-brown.com

Photographs courtesy of Samantha Brown’s Places to Love

For years, curious travelers have looked to experts for advice and the inside scoop on their favorite destinations. One expert in particular, Samantha Brown, has charmed viewers for two decades with her witty banter, excitement for new places and ability to connect with locals on almost every continent.

Born in Dallas, Brown returned this year to film for her television series Samantha Brown’s Places to Love, which seeks to find the little-known spots and haunts where visitors can find those authentic experiences that make travel so alluring.

Earlier this year, Brown visited the city’s unique neighborhoods, finding some distinctly Dallas places that you’ll surely want to add to your next Dallas getaway. Here is a sneak peek of just a few.

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Photographs courtesy of Samantha Brown’s Places to Love

Purepecha

Dude, Sweet Chocolate

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400 Years of Creativity and Contribution The Kinsey Collection arrives at Dallas’ African American Museum this fall

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building this country,” said Bernard.

The arrival of The Kinsey Collection comes as the African American Museum celebrates its 45th year and on the heels of the successful Slavery at Jefferson’s Monticello–Paradox of Liberty traveling exhibition, which attracted the largest crowds since the museum’s 1974 opening.

“Being able to share this powerful retrospective of African American history and culture that shaped our country is especially meaningful as the African American Museum marks its 45th year,” said Dr. Harry Robinson, Jr., the museum’s president and CEO. This is the first time in two years that the comprehensive collection will be seen in America.

Representing the intersection between art and history, The Kinsey Collection covers the lives and artistry of African American people from the 16th century through the years of slavery and emancipation, to the civil rights

movement and modern day. Highlights include bills of sale, advertisements, letters and legal papers documenting the slave trade; hand-colored tintypes from the Civil War era; art and literature from the Harlem Renaissance; and items spotlighting key moments in the civil rights movement, including the Woolworth store boycotts and the 1963 March on Washington.

Other items include the earliest-known black baptism record and black marriage record; an 1853 copy of author Solomon Northrup’s 12 Years A Slave (which was made into a movie and won the Academy Award for Best Picture); and a copy of the 1857 Dred Scott Decision.

The exhibition will run September 21, 2019, through March 1, 2020, at the African American Museum, Dallas in Fair Park. aamdallas.org

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Photographs courtesy of the Perot Museum of Nature & Science

This fall, Dallas’ African American Museum is set to welcome one of the nation’s most comprehensive surveys of African American history and culture outside the Smithsonian Institution, The Kinsey African American Art & History Collection. The exhibition will feature over 150 of the shared treasures amassed by Shirley and Bernard Kinsey during their five decades of marriage, including masterful paintings and sculpture, photos, rare books, letters and manuscripts.

Shirley and Bernard Kinsey began collecting as a way to remember their travels, but their collection soon became a repository for African American intellectual, historical and artistic works.

“The Kinsey Collection strives to give our ancestors a voice, name and personality, enabling the viewer to understand the challenges, obstacles, triumphs, accomplishments and extraordinary sacrifice of African Americans in

Photographs courtesy of The Kinsey African American Art & History Collection

WORDS BY ASHLEY TURNER

Meet the Real Dallas Dino Diggers

Photographs courtesy of the Perot Museum of Nature & Science

Photographs courtesy of The Kinsey African American Art & History Collection

WORDS BY ZANE HARRINGTON

In a post-Jurassic Park era, museums will quickly share that dinosaurs sell admission tickets. Guests are fascinated by these giant reptiles of a time gone by. The same is true for Dallas’ Perot Museum of Nature and Science, but now visitors can witness the excavation and research process firsthand. Last fall, the Perot Museum unveiled its newest permanent addition, the Paleo Lab. I had the exclusive chance to go behind the glass and dig like one of the pros. (That’s me, pictured above left.) As someone who grew up owning a pretty impressive toy dinosaur collection and who currently has an Apatosaurus business card holder, this was a surreal experience.

The lab, located in the T. Boone Pickens Life Then and Now Hall located on the museum’s fourth floor, offers museum guests a look into the lives of real-life dino hunters as they process and prepare fossils from the field.

And in case you can’t tell exactly what they are working on in the lab, look above the glass window and you’ll see the team’s crown jewel—Nanuqsaurus hoglundi. In 2014, it was discovered and named by the museum’s renowned paleontologists, Tony Fiorillo and Ron Tykoski. After a multi-year effort, a cast—an assembled replica of actual bones—stands proudly for all guests to enjoy.

My career didn’t take me into the field of paleontology—a dream my eight-year-old self longed for—so when I was offered the chance to uncover these remarkable extinct creatures, I jumped at the opportunity.

At a special preview, with the help of paleontologists, I got to dig out a fossil myself. The paleontologist helped me through the process of removing the rock-like substance from the actual bones. It was a slow process, using a small handheld drill. Similar to a dental

hygienist, you move the drill from side to side, never pressing too hard. What lies beneath is something never seen before by the human eye.

After doing this for two minutes, I didn’t make much headway, but I gained a great amount of respect for the work these scientists do. This laborious process takes a lot of time and often leads to even more questions about the animals buried under millions of years’ worth of soil and rock.

Just can’t get enough fossils? Be sure to check out Origins: Fossils from the Cradle of Humankind, a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see two recently discovered species of ancient human relatives for their first and only exhibition outside of South Africa. The exhibit will run October 19, 2019, through March 22, 2020. perotmuseum.org

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A Musical Journey The Turtle Creek Chorale celebrates forty years of unity and inspiration

Music has the unique ability to uplift and unify a community. Forty years ago, a group of men, brought together by their love of music, gathered to sing at Holy Trinity Church and formed the renowned Turtle Creek Chorale.

As Dallas’ first all-male chorus group, it was only the third of its kind in the nation. From that first rehearsal four decades ago to now, the chorale has been breaking boundaries and records. Their commitment to innovative performances and programming lifted the group to international success as the most-recorded men’s chorus in the world, with an astonishing 38 albums. The Turtle Creek Chorale has performed on the biggest stages in the world and for the most renowned of audiences, including two performances at Carnegie Hall and for Queen Elizabeth II. Doctors, teachers and accountants by day—and baritones by night—the chorus is as diverse as it has ever been. While primarily a gay men’s chorus, the Turtle Creek Chorale welcomes all men and those who identify as male. Today’s ensemble has grown to two hundred members who contribute 100,000 hours annually to rehearsals, performances and community outreach.

Artistic director Sean Baugh has a year of celebration and special performances planned for the fortieth anniversary season.

“We want to give everyone a voice, not just one man,” says Baugh. “Music has the power to heal, and it can shape who we are. We want to take our audiences on a journey through laughter, tears and reflection.”

The Turtle Creek Chorale fortieth season features two mainstage holiday shows, the regional premiere of a new choral musical, and the group’s triumphant return to the Meyerson Symphony Center. turtlecreekchorale.com

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Photographs courtesy of Turlte Creek Chorale

WORDS BY DANIEL HORSCH

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Photographs courtesy of Turlte Creek Chorale

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Photographs courtesy of (top) Miller Mobley, Bravo/NBCU; (middle left) Barbara Nitke, Bravo/ NBCU; (bottom left) Scott Gries, Bravo/NBCU; (right and opposite) Ashtin Robinson

Photographs courtesy of (top) Miller Mobley, Bravo/NBCU; (middle left) Barbara Nitke, Bravo/ NBCU; (bottom left) Scott Gries, Bravo/NBCU; (right and opposite) Ashtin Robinson

Meet Venny Etienne The Dallas-based designer talks Project Runway, fashion and his favorite spots INTERVIEW BY DEVON YARBROUGH

Venny Etienne is a man on his way up. The Dallas-based designer has launched his clothing line and has dressed some of music’s hottest stars, including rapper Cardi B and singer Michelle Williams of Destiny’s Child. More recently, as a competitor on Project Runway Season 17, Etienne created a name for himself one design at a time. Writer Devon Yarbrough met up with Etienne to discuss fashion, Dallas and where he finds inspiration.

Q: What inspired you to become

a designer?

A: My upbringing in Brooklyn. I grew up in the church where the youth would put on these fashion shows for the whole community.

At first, we modeled our own clothes, but one year they let us make them. So immediately I went to the Salvation Army, got a couple of blazers, deconstructed them with my mom and took them down the runway. Based on the support I received from the community and my family, I was like, “Okay, maybe I can do this.”

Q: What about Dallas’ fashion

scene appealed to you, and how did the move influence your career?

A: I’ve learned a lot about elegance from styling Dallas women. I’ve definitely developed a particular sense of elegance and sophistication by living here.

It’s funny because I look back at when I moved and a lot of my colleagues in the industry were against it. However, looking at it now, the move to Dallas was one of the best decisions I’ve made for my career.

Q: You’ve achieved a lot, in-

cluding creating your own brand and landing a spot on season 17 of Project Runway. How was the experience being on the show?

A: I’d been approached to do it in the past, but I just never felt like I was ready. However, this time I felt prepared since I had my own established clothing line and was invited to apply. Being on the show was stressful. It’s exactly what you see on TV, as far as time restraints, producing on the spot and then being judged for it. But one amazing thing I got out of the show was the chemistry and relationships

with the other designers.

Q: When you’re not working,

what do you like to do in Dallas?

A: I like hanging with friends at

JR’s or the Round-Up Saloon in the Oak Lawn neighborhood. I also enjoy going to Deep Ellum to see the people and art. They have these colorful murals, and even just seeing the graffiti on the walls helps with my creative flow.

Q: What’s the one thing about

Dallas that visitors should know?

A: The people make this city.

When I was looking to move, I visited the city and remember the people were so welcoming and friendly. That feeling made me make the decision to move— there really is something about that Southern charm.

Shop Venny’s designs at levenity.com.

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Top Five Holiday Shows Enjoy a Big D Holiday adventure at these festive performances WORDS BY NANCY CHURNIN

1. A CHRISTMAS CAROL

Dallas Theater Center at the Wyly Theatre November 20–December 29

Dallas Theater Center’s A Christmas Carol, a music-packed adaptation of 20

Charles Dickens’ story about a miserly man who opens his heart with prodding by a few visiting ghosts, is one of the city’s most beloved annual holiday traditions. The original adaptation by DTC artistic director Kevin Moriarty offers an immersive experience with actors running down aisles and holiday lights glittering on the theater’s inner walls.

The story gets a fresh spin with Scrooge as a factory owner and Bob Cratchit his foreman with Cratchit’s family and many more toiling long hours over hot furnaces. This year, you’ll get to see what special touches director Joel Ferrell has in store. One thing that won’t change is DTC supporting the hungry by collecting cans of food and donations at each performance for the North Texas Food Bank. 2400 Flora St., dallastheatercenter.org

2. THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR CHRISTMAS SHOW

Dallas Children’s Theater at Rosewood Center for Family Arts November 23–December 29

Dallas Children’s Theater, named one of the top five children’s theaters in the country by Time magazine, produces a variety of holiday shows at the highest professional level. This year’s exuberant offering is The Very Hungry Caterpillar Christmas Show, based on four of Eric Carle’s beloved picture books: Brown Bear, Brown Bear; What Do You See?; 10 Little Rubber Ducks; Dream Snow; and The Very Hungry Caterpillar, which is celebrating its fiftieth birthday. Master puppeteer Douglass Burks directs this vibrant, colorful extravaganza, created

by Jonathan Rockefeller and aimed at all ages. Arrive early for festive, holiday-themed pre-show activities, including Santa visits, and stay afterwards to get autographs from the performers.

5938 Skillman St., dct.org

Photographs courtesy of the Dallas Children’s Theater, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and Dallas Theather Center

Bigger, bolder, brighter. These words describe Dallas any time of the year, but they’re especially true during the holiday season. From magical musical performances to sparkling city lights, Dallas offers festive holiday fun for the whole family. Every year Big D Holiday showcases a full array of enchanting events—both holiday activities and ground-breaking exhibits worth visiting any time of the year—for locals and visitors to enjoy.

Dallas does the holidays in style at four of its most elegant stages—and one charmer tucked in a strip mall. Check out our top five list of must-sees and make a present of your presence at the city’s most popular shows.

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Photographs courtesy of the Dallas Children’s Theater, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and Dallas Theather Center

3. THE NUTCRACKER

Texas Ballet Theater, Winspear Opera House November 29–December 8

If you’ve ever wanted to see The Nutcracker danced with Texas-sized glitz and fun, the Texas Ballet Theater’s splendid production is a must at the elegant Winspear Opera House.

Packed with flying, magical mists and a Christmas tree that grows to preposterous proportions, the show gives its own larger-than-life take on the story of Clara, a young girl who dreams of a battle between the nutcracker gift she received for Christmas and a Mouse King, followed by a journey to a kingdom where each treat has its own dance. The company’s artistic director Ben Stevenson choreographs company dancers along with students from the Texas Ballet Theater School.

Restless kids can take a break in a “wiggle room,” equipped with a screen or window that allows them to watch

the show. Select performances feature Kingdom of Sweets activities with crafts and story time with a ballerina one hour before the show. 2403 Flora St.,

5. DALLAS SYMPHONY

texasballettheater.org

The Dallas Symphony Christmas Pops will fill Meyerson Symphony Hall with so many irresistible Christmas carols and singalongs, Santa Claus himself has pledged to pay a visit at each performance. Guest soloist and baritone Reginald Smith, Jr., a fan favorite who won second place in the Dallas Opera’s prestigious Vocal Competition, will perform, while Lawrence Loh conducts the orchestra and Joshua Habermann directs the Dallas Symphony Chorus.

Expect a touch of snow and other sweet surprises. 2301 Flora St., mydso.com

4. EBENEZER SCROOGE

Pocket Sandwich Theatre November 29–December 23

Pocket Sandwich Theatre, a cozy, classic Dallas dinner theater tucked like an unexpected gift into a strip mall, brings back its 38th consecutive annual original take on A Christmas Carol called Ebenezer Scrooge. Adapted by the company’s late founder, Joe Dickinson, it’s a musical version of the popular tale, featuring book and lyrics by Dickinson, music by Laurie Tirmenstein and additional lyrics by Rodney Dobbs. It’s always a sell-out, so make early reservations for the show and dinner if you want to eat there before the show. 5400

CHRISTMAS POPS

Meyerson Symphony Center December 6–15

See all of Dallas’ extensive holiday offerings at bigdholiday.com.

E. Mockingbird Ln., pocketsandwich.com

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ITINERARY

Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek

36 HOURS

Photos courtesy of Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek, Linda Gray, Highland Park Village, Warwick Melrose Hotel

IN DALLAS with Linda Gray

The better part of my life story has had a connection to Dallas. From years of visiting the area and filming Dallas in the late seventies to coming back for the revival in 2012, it seems I can’t stay away for very long. These days, I’ve taken on the role of official ambassador to VisitDallas—and it’s giving me plenty of reasons to come back as often as I can.

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Friday 4 PM: GET IN AND GET SETTLED

rosewoodhotels.com/mansion A legendary icon in Texas, Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek offers impeccable service and a world-class luxury experience. I have sweet memories of the Dallas cast living here in the eighties and sneaking into the kitchen to taste new offerings from the menu.

Over the years, the hotel’s intimate ambiance has never wavered and it’s often my first stop.

5:30 PM: WALK AND SHOP

Highland Park Village

hpvillage.com I love being outdoors and the shops at Highland Park Village allow me to walk and take in the fresh air, all while visiting some of the most revered boutiques and shops in the world. The beautiful Spanish Mediterranean architecture and twinkling lights make it feel intimate and glamorous.

7:30 PM: DINE AL FRESCO

bistro31dallas.com I won’t go far for dinner—Bistro 31 in Highland Park Village has long been a favorite, and its French Riviera vibe and beautiful outdoor seating are just some of the reasons why. The Spanish and Italian-inspired menu changes seasonally, so there’s always something new to try.

Photos courtesy of Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek, Linda Gray, Highland Park Village, Warwick Melrose Hotel

10 PM: NIGHTCAP

warwickhotels.com/dallas An icon of the Dallas scene, The Library Bar inside the Warwick Melrose Hotel is stylish and unique, and it’s no wonder it’s often called one of the most iconic bars in Dallas. It’s equal parts charming and impeccably chic, and it feels like my own private club.

The Warwick Melrose Hotel

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Saturday 8:30 AM: BREAKFAST Texas Spice

omnihotels.com/dallas Start the day strong with a “BDES”—the best damn egg sandwich—at Texas Spice. The rustic-chic restaurant inside the Omni Dallas Hotel also offers a $22 breakfast buffet that’s fantastically fresh and filling.

10 AM: GO ON AN ARCHITECTURE TOUR

Old Red Museum

dallasadex.org I’m an amateur architecture buff.

Significant and interesting buildings and monuments are a core part of Dallas’ identity, and you can see many examples of amazing architecture throughout the city—from art deco to modern.

There are several walking tours available Downtown alone, and each allows you to explore the city’s beauty and history through various architectural styles. mirador-dallas.com Head to the top floor of Forty Five Ten, a beautiful retail haven in Downtown, for a light lunch at Mirador. It’s next door to Eye (a giant eyeball work of art), and the restaurant’s terrace has great views of the sculpture.

Forty Five Ten

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Photos courtesy of Omni Dallas Hotel, Texas Spice; Old Red Museum; Forty Five Ten; Eatzi’s; American Airlines Center; Savor Gastropub

1 PM: LUNCH WITH A VIEW

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6:30 PM: GAME ON

americanairlinescenter.com Sports are ingrained in the DNA of Dallas and there’s nothing better than a lively Saturday night crowd at the American Airlines Center cheering on the Dallas Mavericks or the Dallas Stars. Plus, my grandchildren are mega sports fans, so if they’re joining me for a weekend in Dallas, you’ll find us courtside.

Eatzi’s

9 PM: LATE DINNER AT SAVOR GASTROPUB

savorgastropub.com Located in Klyde Warren Park, this restaurant was my favorite when I lived in a condo in the Arts District during the Dallas reboot. It’s slick, yet laid-back, and offers the perfect place to sip wine on tap and watch the park buzzing with activity.

Photos courtesy of Omni Dallas Hotel, Texas Spice; Old Red Museum; Forty Five Ten; Eatzi’s; American Airlines Center; Savor Gastropub

Sunday

American Airlines Center

7:30 AM: GRAB AND GO

eatzis.com Find Eatzi’s, a local European-style eatery, just down the street from the Mansion and conveniently on the way to Dallas Love Field. Get in line at the grill for a madeto-order breakfast burrito or an egg-white omelet.

Savor Gastropub

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MADE IN DALLAS

Dallas Has 26

Behind the scenes at the “Forever Texas” music video shoot

a New Tune

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F

Photos courtesy of SCPictures, a full-service production company specializing in creating end-to-end live-action and still photography creative content led by award-winning commercial director/photographer Stewart Cohen. Whether for a broadcast spot, a print campaign, digital online content or more likely a combination, they produce powerful results.

SCPictures takes your concepts and creates content that works across multiple channels combining traditional and digital media.

rom spirited shows at The Kessler Theater to the evolution of Deep Ellum, the history of Dallas music shows how a city has flourished alongside its rising, innovative artists. While the city’s early history is steeped in blues and those who made it—Johnson, King, Walker and Ledbetter—Dallas is a city that has always embraced a diverse array of artists, more recently Erykah Badu and Nora Jones, both graduates of the famed Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.

Live music is embedded in Dallas’ DNA. Everything from soulful blues to sultry country and praiseworthy punk has taken center stage at one time or another—a fact that speaks to the city’s malleability, versatility and hospitality as a home for artists.

One of those artists, the CASTRO band, partnered with VisitDallas to produce an original song inspired by the city.

“Dallasites are proud to live in this city and be a part of the community. We wanted a song to represent our city, and the CASTRO band was the perfect voice to capture Dallas’ essence in a catchy tune,” said Frank Librio, Chief Marketing Officer of VisitDallas. “They have an incredible story that represents Dallas’ can-do attitude.”

The CASTRO band is composed of brothers Jason and Michael Castro of American Idol fame. Jason, the oldest, became a favorite of judges and viewers alike on season seven, where he placed fourth. Jason went on to record acclaimed projects, while Michael surprised his brother when he auditioned for Idol the following season, charmed audiences and began releasing his own EPs. The band’s Dallas anthem, “Forever Texas,” extolls the virtues of the city they love, and the state they call home.

“Now that I’ve traveled across the country and seen other cities, there’s nothing like coming back home,” said Jason. “You travel to other cities, you come home and you just feel proud to be from Dallas.”

The band and VisitDallas embarked on a two-day shoot to produce the “Forever Texas” music video, following Michael, Jason and Jason’s family as they enjoyed a day in Dallas, culminating in a live performance at Gilley’s in Dallas’ Southside neighborhood.

Writer Stephanie Faulk followed the video crew for a behind-the-scenes look at the making of a music video, Dallas-style. Watch the full video at visitdallas.com/forevertexas.

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Day 1 12:30 PM

Klyde Warren Park My first day on the set of a music video and it’s already way more chill than I anticipated. No glossed-up backup dancers or lasers, but then again that wouldn’t be the Dallas way. We start in Klyde Warren Park with the full talent list, Jason, his wife Mandy and their three daughters, Madeline, Hazel and Josephine. They’re already adorable and we haven’t even started rolling. Michael plays the doting uncle, which, as it turns out, is exactly who he is in real life.

Klyde Warren Park is Downtown’s most popular green space, and it’s only six years old. A deck park built over a freeway, the park has been revolutionary for the city. This five-acre patch of park serves as the city’s playground and town square. The food trucks are the hottest spot for lunch on a weekday, and weekends play host to families, couples and pets enjoying the park’s many activations.

The crew films the family enjoying what would be any normal day in the park with Jason and Mandy playing soccer with the girls and chasing them around the tree house.

They enjoy a picnic lunch, supplemented by a few food-truck goodies. When looking for a day out, Jason said, “Going Downtown to visit Klyde Warren Park and the Perot Museum of Nature & Science is always at the top of our lists. Klyde Warren Park is key with the splash pads, the playground, plus the food trucks for when you get hungry.”

3 PM

Beto & Son The girls break away for some rest while Jason and Michael move to the second location of the day, Beto & Son restaurant in Trinity Groves. Julian Rodarte and his dad, Beto, are the creative team behind the Tex-Mex favorite, and Julian is preparing his famous liquid nitrogen margarita for the shoot. After the cameras are set, Julian starts pouring and the preparation is as cool— punny, right?—as you would imagine.

As the freezing air spills over the bowl and sinks to the floor, the liquid nitrogen instantly freezes the lime and tequila concoction. What results is a beautiful snowcone-like margarita that Julian then tops with passion fruit boba.

We all get a sample, and I can say it tastes as good as it looks.

Beto & Son is a part of the Trinity Groves

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development in West Dallas. Getting there is part of the allure as the drive takes you across the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge designed by Santiago Calatrava, a striking standout on the Dallas skyline. What started as a restaurant incubator, Trinity Groves is now a bona fide neighborhood with residential, retail and still some of the best eats in the city.

6 PM

The State Fair of Texas, Fair Park Open every fall for only three weeks, the great State Fair of Texas is a feast for the senses, from the midway games to the fried food to the end-of-night parade. The girls are living for it. And try as they may to play it cool, Jason and Michael are pretty jazzed, too. The crew starts on the midway for shots of the Texas Star Ferris wheel and carnival games, the lights and action making for some great images. Michael challenges Jason to a ladder climb. I can’t tell but I’m pretty sure they both lose.

The entire family goes in for a round of famous Fletcher’s Corny Dogs. They were introduced at the fair more than one hundred years ago and are still the stuff of legend.

They also make for a pretty cute pretend-thecorny-dog-is-a-mic moment, with the added perk that you get to eat the mic in the end.

Although I know I’m following a music video shoot, it’s hard to tell. The family, and everyone around them, is having a genuinely grand time. In my decade and a half in Dallas, I have been to the fair more than a dozen times. It never gets old—locals look forward to it and visitors get to view the perfect slice of Texas culture.

After the closing parade (it runs nightly), we wrap for the evening. Madeline, Hazel and Josephine were troopers, but we’ve all blown past our bedtime.

Day 2 1:30 PM

Deep Ellum The crew starts in the early afternoon in the hip Deep Ellum neighborhood famous for its musical roots, with Jason, Michael and friends.

The band feels at home here and the first shots of the day run smoothly. We start at Pecan Lodge, one of the city’s best barbecue restaurants and a Deep Ellum anchor. The ribs are a must, so we all try those, and then move to the

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patio for a musical moment with the guitar.

It’s a little awkward breaking into impromptu song on a crowded restaurant patio, but we’ve got the cameras and Dallas is a friendly city, so everyone rolls with it. A few even sing along.

We pick up two more shots at Braindead Brewing, a brewery that also serves some pretty fabulous food, and Dot’s Hop House & Cocktail Courtyard, a Deep Ellum bar with impressive outdoor space. Jason surprises everyone with his skills on a hand drum, explaining that the brothers grew up with music at the heart of their home.

“There was always music in our house.

One of my earliest musical memories was when my dad brought home a few albums by the Beach Boys and Elvis. He cranked up the speakers and we just listened and sang along with the family,” Jason said.

3:30 PM

Pegasus and Reunion Tower There are fewer images more iconic to Dallas than the red Mobil Oil Pegasus and Reunion Tower. Before the big concert shoot this evening, Jason and Michael head Downtown for their moment with these two historic landmarks.

The original Pegasus from Dallas’ Mobil Oil building was restored and mounted at the Dallas Omni Hotel, and it’s now at the prime height for the perfect Dallas selfie.

A few blocks away, Dallas’ iconic Reunion Tower makes its mark on the skyline—now the home of a renowned restaurant, Five Sixty, and an observation deck, where Michael enjoys taking first-time visitors.

“We went there as kids and it’s still such a cool place to visit. The 360-degree views inside Reunion Tower and the incredible food always bring me back,” he said.

5 PM

Gilley’s Dallas We’re in for a fun night as we film the band’s live performance at Gilley’s Dallas, a concert venue showcasing some of the nation’s best talent. The band—Jason, Michael and three musicians—sets up to play on the indoor/ outdoor rooftop venue overlooking the Dallas skyline.

Dancing and drinks, singalongs and selfies, two camera crews capture it all. Four hours and almost twenty takes of the song later, it’s a wrap. I find myself humming the tune for the next week and I know every lyric by heart, but I don’t mind—it’s pretty catchy.

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Brothers Jason (pictured right) and Michael Castro form the CASTRO band. Both appeared on American Idol before going on to release original music and tour. They now live and perform in Dallas.

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FEAT PAGE 35

Dallas Debuts

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Bystanders No More

PAGE 52

Haute Couture Meets Hot Hotels

PAGE 74

Legacy in the Heart of Fair Park

PAGE 82

Scenes from the State Fair of Texas

PAGE 88

12 Hotspots Reshaping Downtown Dallas

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TAEF Photographs by (top) Todd Burnsed, courtesy Momix; (below) Holger Hönck, courtesy of Nasher Sculpture Center

“In the past fifteen years we’ve seen $6 billion worth of investment poured into Downtown, so it’s not by happenstance or accident that this amazing growth has occurred.

It’s been very deliberate.”

— KOURTNY GARRETT,

Downtown Dallas, Inc.

SERU 34

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Members of Momix in Dreamcatcher, presented by TITAS/DANCE UNBOUND at the Winspear Opera House; (Below Right:) One Day, 2015, by Elmgreen & Dragset, at the Nasher Sculpture Center.

Dallas Debuts Photographs by (top) Todd Burnsed, courtesy Momix; (below) Holger Hönck, courtesy of Nasher Sculpture Center

A new music director for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the 2019 Laureate of the Nasher Prize, and dance companies from New York to South Korea are set to make their artistic mark WORDS BY MARIO R. MERCADO

C

ulture has played a key and vital role in Dallas throughout its history. Art shows figured as part of the State Fair of Texas beginning in the late 1880’s. Today, the AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, displays an exceptional collection of contemporary art from such leading figures as Jenny Holzer, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Anish Kapoor—a fact which may surprise some.

Yet, more than one hundred years ago, visionaries established a symphony orchestra and a museum—later, the Dallas Museum of Art—whose

collections grew to encompass more than five thousand years of world culture. Today, that orchestra, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, figures as one of the country’s leading musical organizations and performs in the beautiful, acoustically distinguished Eugene McDermott Concert Hall at the Meyerson Symphony Center. Its acclaimed new music director Fabio Luisi—who leads the orchestra throughout the 2019-2020 season—is the subject of this magazine’s feature on the arts, alongside the Nasher Sculpture Center and TITAS/DANCE UNBOUND. Under the aegis of TITAS/DANCE

UNBOUND, dancers from throughout the United States and abroad make up the cavalcade of companies that appear each season and offer audiences compelling dance repertory and world premieres in performances at the Winspear Opera House and Moody Performance Hall, hallmarks of the Downtown Dallas Arts District.

Each spring, the Nasher’s preeminent collection of modern and contemporary sculpture and programs are enhanced by its garden, whose verdant setting provides a quiet enticement for visitors— and a unique spot for live outdoor concerts and film screenings.

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Photographs by Holger Hรถnck, courtesy of Nasher Sculpture Center; Dallas Symphony Orchestra; Todd Burnsed, courtesy Momix. Opposite: Barbara Luisi

Cultural Scenes. (This page, clockwise): He, 2013, by Elmgreen & Dragset; The Morton H. Symphony Center; Paper from Viva Momix, presented by TITAS/DANCE UNBOUND. (Opposite): Fabio Luisi, new music director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

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W

hen Fabio Luisi stepped onto the podium at the Meyerson Symphony Center last April, the program, the first he led since being named music director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO), gave a sure sense of the dynamic direction the conductor planned for the 118-year-old musical institution. The concert featured a repertoire masterwork: Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, alongside the intensely moving Poem by William Grant Still, often described as the dean of African American composers, and the Concerto for Seven Winds, Timpani, Percussion and Strings, a virtuoso showpiece by Swiss-born composer Frank Martin.

For reasons undeserved, the orchestral music of Still and Martin, who were contemporaries (both died in the 1970s), remains largely unknown and too infrequently performed. In fact, it is unlikely these pieces had ever figured on the same orchestral program. “William Grant Still is among those composers who developed a personal language, had something to say, and deserves to be heard,” Luisi said.

“Likewise, Martin’s music is expressive of a particular idiom—spare, not opulent—and couched within a harmonic framework in an era when tonality was no longer prevalent.”

Luisi’s program demonstrated the conductor’s keen musical curiosity and an evolution in tradition that has distinguished the

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eroticism proved shocking to audiences (the opera retains its emotional punch in the twenty-first century), Luisi responded succinctly, “Salome is a symphonic work—compact, essential, short, and difficult. For a symphony orchestra it represents a style that needs to be developed and explored.”

There may be few places to enjoy the magnificence of a Strauss score as much as at Meyerson Symphony Center.

Architect I.M. Pei designed its auditorium based on the European shoebox model, and Russell Johnson provided its sophisticated acoustical scheme. Whether enjoying a solo recital or orchestral concert, listeners experience a quality Fabio Luisi was born in Genoa, Italy, of sound that is exceptional in clarity studied in Vienna, and has held notable and balance. The concert hall, which positions in Europe, including general celebrates its thirtieth anniversary this music director of the eminent Staatsfall, endures as one of the world’s most kapelle Dresden. His appointment in beautiful: wood paneling of African maDallas represents his first as conductor kore and American cherry with elegant of an American orchestra. Notably, Luisi onyx embellishment imbue the space will lead a ten-year program to comwith warmth, and offer striking contrast mission twenty works for the orchestra to the lobby’s cool austerity of marble, from composers, including Julia Wolfe travertine, limestone and glass. and Steve Mackey. “As part of my role as Since the hall’s inauguration, the music director, I wish to support the creestimation of the magnitude of Pei and ation and performance of American muJohnson’s achievement has grown, made sic,” Luisi said. “We, that is, orchestras, evident by the addition of the Meyerneed composers and their music, and son’s 4,535-pipe, four-manual organ, composers need interpreters, and the opinstalled in 1992. The resources of that portunity to write for large performing instrument and forces. In addition, the Dallas Symnew repertoire “William Grant Still is phony Chorus will provides opportube on full display nities to reach new among those composers when Luisi leads audiences.” who developed a perperformances of Luisi is also sonal language, had Franz Schmidt’s one of today’s most monumental admired opera something to say, and The Book with conductors. He deserves to be heard.”

Seven Seals, a serves as general choral-symphonic music director of masterwork with the Zurich Opera, two dazzling entr’actes for organ. Luisi, and was principal conductor of the Meta noted interpreter of Schmidt’s music, ropolitan Opera during the period 2011said, “This piece, rarely played, will be a 2017, leading acclaimed performances, discovery for Dallas audiences.” including Wagner’s Ring cycle. In Dallas, he looks forward to conducting performances of operas-in-concert each season, beginning with Richard Strauss’ Salome, based on the lurid short story A block from the Meyerson lies the Nashby Oscar Wilde. Asked about this early er Sculpture Center. It is a jewel in many Strauss masterpiece, which premiered senses. Renowned as one of Renzo Piano’s in 1905 and whose frank and decadent finest buildings, the intimately scaled

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Photographs by (top right) Barbara Luisi; (top left and below) courtesy of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra

DSO, led throughout the years by such notable musicians as Antal Doráti, Eduardo Mata, and, most recently, Jaap van Zweden. Indeed, the conductor’s plans for the DSO signals a reinvigorated era in the city’s cultural life. Such distinct organizations as the Nasher Sculpture Center and TITAS/DANCE UNBOUND, among others, continue to assume greater artistic dimension as a consequence of pioneering exhibitions, presentations, and programs, exerting influence beyond Texas, in the United States and abroad.

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Musical Inspiration. (Clockwise from top left:) Luisi leads the Dallas Symphony Orchestra; Maestro Fabio Luisi; the Herman W. and Amelia H. Lay Family Organ at the Eugene McDermott Concert Hall.

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Photographs courtesy of Nasher Sculpture Center

Works by Isa Genzken, 2019 Nasher Prize Laureate. (Below:) Schauspieler II, 2014.

(Top left:) Leonardo, 2016-17. (Bottom left:) Hallelujah, 2012.

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museum comprises a series of luminous galleries filled with displays of modern and contemporary sculpture from the Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection.

Its terrace opens to a verdant garden landscape designed by Peter Walker: allées of live oaks and cedar elms, magnolia hedges, and fountains and pools, accent outstanding works by Joan Miró, Barbara Hepworth, Mark di Suvero, and others.

The impetus for the remarkable assemblage of more than three hundred sculptures was a single gift from Patsy to her husband Ray—Jean Arp’s sinuous bronze, Torso with Buds. Thus began a tradition of reciprocal gifts and joint collecting that today forms the core of the Nasher’s preeminent collection and a foundation for ongoing acquisitions, special exhibitions, and innovative education programs, including the use of 3D modeling to recreate busts from the collection for the visually impaired to touch and explore.

On view this fall, a group of five whimsical bronze sculptures by Nicole Eisenman, a recent acquisition that is set along a still pool; and the first major U.S. museum exhibition by Scandinavian artists Elmgreen & Dragset.

During its relatively brief existence— the museum celebrated its fifteenth anniversary last fall—the institution has launched the Nasher Prize, an annual, international award made to a living artist who has had a significant influence on contemporary sculpture. In 2016, the inaugural prize was given to Colombian-born Doris Salcedo, followed

by Pierre Huyghe, and last year to the American installation and conceptual artist Theaster Gates. German sculptor Isa Genzken, the 2019 laureate, received the prestigious honor in April. As a part of programming around the prize, the Nasher organizes public lectures, panel discussions, and symposia in Dallas and cities around the world.

“Ray recognized that people enjoyed engaging with art in approachable environments, whether a garden or a setting such as [the mall] NorthPark Center,” said Jill Magnuson, director of external affairs.

In that spirit, the Nasher celebrated its tenth anniversary by commissions of sculpture and installations that were placed throughout the city, rather than in a special exhibition at the museum. Look(continued on p. 47) DALLAS DEBUTS

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Cultural Perspectives. (Clockwise from top left:) Empire/Vampire III, 16, 2007, by Isa Genzken; gallery at the Nasher Sculpture Center; a fountain in the Nasher garden.

Photographs by Carolyn Brown (Nasher garden sculpture); others courtesy of Nasher Sculpture Center

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Photographs by Carolyn Brown (Nasher garden sculpture); others courtesy of Nasher Sculpture Center

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PEI’S MARK ON DALLAS Renowned Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei passed away at 102 in May 2019, but his legacy lives on in Dallas.

Perhaps best known for the glass-and-steel pyramid he designed for the Musée du Louvre in Paris, the prolific architect also made an enduring mark on the Dallas skyline.

As the Pei-designed Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center celebrates thirty years in 2019, we take a look at all five of his remarkable Dallas structures.

Dallas City Hall Completed in 1977, Downtown Dallas With a 34-degree angle downward slope, the eye-catching building was Pei’s first work in Dallas. Due to the building’s imaginative design, Dallas City Hall has served as a backdrop for multiple pop-culture moments, including the 1987 film RoboCop and, more recently, a Solange Knowles music video.

Patriot Tower Completed in 1979, Downtown Dallas Originally named One Dallas Center, the thirty-story Patriot Tower’s diamond shape was designed to represent Dallas’ intersecting streets and complement the look of the city’s existing buildings.

Energy Plaza Completed in 1983, Downtown Dallas Energy Plaza features a sleek design of gray granite walls molded with reflective chrome and glass and Pei’s signature look of sharp angles. The angular 49-story building is based on a design using three triangles.

—DEVON YARBROUGH

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Architect I.M. Pei pictured at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, the only concert hall Pei designed.

Photographs courtesy of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra

Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center Completed in 1989, Dallas Arts District The only symphony center Pei designed, the Meyerson is ranked one of the world’s greatest orchestra halls. The exterior, which is circular in layout and constructed of glass and limestone, contrasts with the rectangular form of the concert hall. The design of the skylit lobby suffuses the sweeping, interior space with airy openness along with distinct luminosity.

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Photographs by Kevin Todora, courtesy of the Nasher Sculpture Center

Fountain Place Completed in 1986, Downtown Dallas Easily identifiable on the Dallas skyline by its sharply pointed top and mirrored finish, Fountain Place is aptly named for the 172 fountains at its base. Designed as a multi-faceted prism, the 58-story building’s various slanted surfaces create distinct profiles from every perspective.

Photographs courtesy of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra

Photographs by Kevin Todora, courtesy of the Nasher Sculpture Center

Nicole Eisenman’s Sketch for a Fountain, 2017. Bronze, five elements. Standing figure, reclining figure, and figure with can: Nasher Sculpture Center, acquired through the Kaleta A. Doolin Fund for Women Artists. Seated figure and laying figure: Green Family Collection, promised gift to the Nasher Sculpture Center.

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Photographs by Paul Azzopardi; Todd Burnsed, courtesy of Momix

(Top) Table Talk from Viva Momix.

(Opposite) Pleiades from Viva Momix.

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(continued from p. 41)

Photographs by Paul Azzopardi; Todd Burnsed, courtesy of Momix

ing forward to the twentieth anniversary, Magnuson hints that as technology continues to spur digital innovation, particularly in the work of today’s artists, it affords, too, the means for reaching ever larger, global audiences.

For TITAS/DANCE UNBOUND, the presenting organization that each year brings dance companies from throughout the United States and abroad to Dallas’ AT&T Performing Arts Center, the new and inventive is fundamental. The mission: to shine light on diverse styles of today’s modern and contemporary dance, ranging from the French-Algerian and African dancers of Compagnie Hervé Koubi, whose works meld martial arts and hip-hop, to Dorrance Dance, the boundary-loosening tap ensemble led by Michelle Dorrance, a MacArthur Fellow.

TITAS/DANCE UNBOUND also plays an

contemporary dance and foster interest important role in supporting the creation in the art form. Master classes by touring of new works that are presented before companies are also open to the public.

Dallas audiences and seen elsewhere as Within the Dallas Arts District, these commissions enter the repertory of TITAS/DANCE UNBOUND benefits dancers and touring companies. from having two striking venues for As executive director of TITAS/ presenting dance: the Winspear Opera DANCE UNBOUND, Charles Santos House and the serves as an indefatmore intimate igable impresario, “ We look for groups that Moody Perforidentifying comare at the top of their mance Hall, with panies to bring to 750 seats. In each, Dallas. Santos said, game, that offer something audiences can “We look for groups unique artistically, and enjoy the singular that are at the top will challenge audiences.” experience of live of their game, that performance, that offer something special immediacy that can quicken unique artistically, and will challenge the pulse. It offers engagement for audiences.” audiences that acknowledges the Hand-in-hand with this mission is possibilities of dance as a form of the aim to develop and expand dance leisure entertainment and, at times, audiences. Post-performance, quesartistic inspiration. As Pablo Picasso tion-and-answer sessions among dancers, remarked, “Art washes away from the choreographers and audiences help shed soul the dust of everyday life.” just the right amount of mystery from DALLAS DEBUTS

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The new Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum opens its doors

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NO MORE

Renderings courtesy of the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum

Bystanders

WORDS BY CONNIE DUFNER

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Renderings courtesy of the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum

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allas has a new Holocaust museum for our time, one that acknowledges the horror and insists on the healing.

Scheduled to open on September 18, 2019, the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum is the permanent home of an institution that began in 1984 in the basement of the Jewish Community Center. At 55,000 square feet, the new building is five times larger than its “transition location” since 2005. Early attendance goals project 200,000 visitors a year, with about half of them schoolchildren.

“Our goal is to teach them to be upstanders, not bystanders,” says Mary Pat Higgins, President and CEO. The upstander definition—someone who stands up to hatred and tries to make a difference—will be displayed prominently as you enter the exhibition spaces. “We want to promote upstander behavior, and everything in the visitor experience is wrapped around that.”

The museum is one of 21 dedicated

to the Holocaust in the United States, and the only one serving North Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma.

The building—distinctive with its copper roof (“the architect chose copper because it’s been on a journey,” offers Higgins)—is located down the block from the current location in the West End entertainment district. It is not lost on tourists or knowledgeable locals that it’s around the corner from the Sixth Floor Museum, housed in the Texas School Book Depository building, that chronicles the life and legacy of JFK. History-minded Dallasites may also remember the downtown protest of the Piccadilly Cafeteria in May 1964 (subject of one of the museum’s exhibits). Grim, yes; but do these coincidences of geography matter? Absolutely.

For the message of this museum is not about hiding or forgetting: It’s about moving forward, about conquering inhumanity through humanity, education and awareness. Genocide and how to recognize it; modern persecution; civil rights; human rights abuse—nothing’s

off-limits. Yet with all of the chronicling of horror and hate, it’s designed to reach always toward light and hope.

Near the end of the winding tour, for example, is the Call to Action room.

Through interactive experiences, it “challenges visitors how to become upstanders,” Higgins says. “You will be able to share what you are most passionate about.’’ Digital stations will provide tablets that enable you to send an email indicating your interest in an organization that has made a difference even before you leave the building. For frequent Holocaust museumgoers, it’s a refreshing respite from often-somber visits.

BEGINNING THE JOURNEY

You’ll purchase tickets for arrival timed to thirty-minute increments. Orientation begins with a four-minute film, after which the doors to the permanent exhibit will open to a flight of stairs. “Most of our visitors aren’t Jewish,” Higgins says. “The film asks the question, ‘Why should I care about the Holocaust? What

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Renderings courtesy of the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum

Renderings courtesy of the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum

difference can I make anyway?’”

Walls lining the staircase to the permanent exhibition feature the history of the Jewish people; the roots of monotheism and the history of antisemitism; and photos of local survivors and their lives before the Holocaust. “We want people to realize that they weren’t just victims. They had families too. We want people to realize, ‘this could have been my family, too,’” Higgins says.

The exhibition is divided into three core sections: The Holocaust/Shoah, Human Rights and Genocides, and Pivot to America.

THE SHOAH: GEOGRAPHY AND CHRONOLOGY

This section features a history of the Holocaust and how antisemitism played out geographically throughout Europe.

It includes a replica of swastika banners at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, a chilling symbol of Nazi power, as well as testimony of more than one hundred Dallas survivors. It also contains the “seminal artifact” Higgins says, a railcar used to transport Jews to the death camps. (The Dallas museum was the first American museum to acquire a railcar.) It ends with the story of liberation: “where they went, when they came and then

embraced America.” Proud of their new home, one survivor’s photo features a family in Dallas of the 1950s, with a young girl wearing cowboy boots.

HUMAN RIGHTS WING: DOCUMENTATION AND PREVENTION

This exhibition space is devoted to the Nuremburg trials and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as the starkly named Genocide Gallery.

Here, visitors can learn about the progression of genocide through ten other historic events, each with a parallel to the Holocaust. “The goal is to come through with a basic understanding of the ten stages of genocide, and to understand them with an awareness of what’s happening today,” Higgins says.

PIVOT TO AMERICA: EQUALITY AND FREEDOM

This concluding gallery features stations on major American events, including slavery, the Native American experience, LGBTQ+ rights, civil rights and more. Visitors will “learn about how upstanders have worked through the democratic process,” to build better lives, Higgins says. “This focuses on our

incredible country and how we have been focused on our ideals.” Visitors can also experience sitting in the Piccadilly Cafeteria in 1964 to protest the refusal to serve Clarence Broadnax, an African American hairdresser at Neiman Marcus. You’ll also learn to confront your biases, known and unknown, in the Beyond Tolerance Theater. You’ll take a step toward a more just, kind society in the Call to Action Gallery and, finally, pause to mourn the lives lost in the Holocaust, genocide and so many expressions of hate. After all, for so many, there are no graves to visit.

The Reflection and Remembrance Gallery is the only room with natural light, Higgins explains. Here, before stepping back into the history-laden corner of Dallas, the stories come back to life, never to be forgotten.

DETAILS Opening Date: September 18, 2019 Where: 300 N. Houston St., Dallas Hours: Open daily, not recommended for children younger than 12 Monday–Friday: 9:30 a.m.–5 p.m.

Saturday–Sunday: 10 a.m.–5 p.m. dhhrm.org

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Haute Couture MEETS Hot Hotels Exploring the depth and breadth of the Dallas hotel scene WORDS BY ZANE HARRINGTON

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Producer: Patricio Rivera with Twelve Thirty Four Stylist: Diamond Mahone with The Clad Life Stylist Assistant: Ethan Christensen Makeup: Sandra Saenz Hair: Kelly Curry Photographer: Marshall Cox with Secretary Studio Photographer Assistant: Kenny Cao Models: Makayla Harmon, Terra Winston, Eli Shaw with Kim Dawson Agency

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fter The Joule hotel opened Downtown in 2008, a flame was lit within the city for revitalization, renovation and restoration. And as new hotel properties open in droves, some of the city’s hallmark destinations continue to make their voices heard.

With almost 34,000 rooms and annual revenue of $1.03 billion, 226 hotels call the city of Dallas home. By the close of 2019, seven new or renovated hotels and just over 2,900 rooms are expected to be added to Dallas’ hotel inventory, cementing the region’s hotel boom as the second largest in the U.S., behind only New York City.

Dallas has a hotel type and price point for every preference and budget, and new inventory is steadily being added to accommodate the Dallas traveler. Two new brands, Virgin Hotels and Thompson Hotels, are breaking into the Texas market with Dallas properties opening in 2019 and 2020.

Three individual properties along Commerce Street, each imbued with history, illustrate the diversity of Dallas’ accommodations.

The Adolphus, opened in 1912, was once the tallest building in Texas. It was built by Anheuser-Busch founder, Adolphus Busch, who dreamed of establishing the first grand and extravagant hotel in Dallas. In the years that followed, many prominent individuals have called the hotel their home away from home, including Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip; presidents H.W. Bush, Carter, Clinton, Johnson, Reagan and Roosevelt; Tony Bennett; and the Andrews Sisters.

Today, after a major renovation, walking through the preserved, wood-paneled lobby, visitors can almost hear more than a century’s worth of stories and history coming from the walls, marble floors and King of Beers chandelier.

Adolphus Hotel looks from: Eli: Forty Five Ten Terra: Carla Martinengo Makayla: Forty Five Ten, Nardos Design, Carla Martinengo

A quick stroll west on Commerce Street from the Adolphus reveals the commanding presence of the Statler.

Once a Hilton crown jewel in the heart of Downtown, the Statler now flies the Hilton flag again after a $225 million redevelopment and restoration.

The almost sixty-year-old landmark reopened last fall, paying homage to its musical roots and Conrad Hilton’s original vision for the special property.

The Statler is home to shops and several restaurants including Scout, Fine China and Bourbon & Banter.

Venture further down Commerce, and the Downtown skyscrapers give way to historic factory buildings in the Deep Ellum neighborhood. As one of Dallas’ first commercial districts for African Americans and European immigrants, Deep Ellum is one of the most historically significant neighborhoods in the city—a symbol of progress, hard work and innovation.

It’s in this neighborhood where you will find the newest style of accommodation to root in Dallas—hostels. The Deep Ellum Hostel opened last year.

The building, originally built in the early 1900s, is on the National Register of Historical Places, and today is home to fourteen total shared and private rooms, a restaurant and lounge.

The hostel is steps away from some of the neighborhood’s most popular spots and has brought life back to a former warehouse building that sat empty for decades. The interior aesthetic is modern and homey, and communal rooms are outfitted with bunk beds built by the owner from reclaimed wood retrieved during the building’s renovation.

From the Beaux Arts-styled Adolphus to the industrial flair of the Deep Ellum Hostel, in the following photo essay, we visually explore the depth and breadth of Dallas’ hotel offerings.

The Statler looks from: Eli: Traffic Los Angeles at The Joule, Forty Five Ten Terra: Forty Five Ten, Carla Martinengo Makayla: Forty Five Ten, Carla Martinengo, Traffic Los Angeles at The Joule

Deep Ellum Hostel looks from: Eli, Terra, and Makayla: Forty Five Ten, Traffic Los Angeles at The Joule

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HOTELS ON THE HORIZON Four unique properties are set to make their mark on the Dallas hospitality scene

HALL Arts Hotel

Opening 2019 183 rooms Neighborhood: Dallas Arts District True to its location, art will be a cornerstone of this boutique hotel’s design. The exteriors were designed to reflect the iconic architecture of the Dallas Arts District, and the interiors will feature contemporary art throughout from local artists and beyond. One of the hotel’s restaurants, Ellie’s, is a tribute to the developer’s mother, a trailblazer for women’s rights and one of the first women to enlist in the U.S. Navy. hallarts.com

Virgin Hotel Dallas

Renderings courtesy of the HALL Arts Hotel, Virgin Hotels, The Pittman Hotel

Opening 2019 200 rooms Neighborhood: Design District Dallas’ Virgin Hotel will be the brand’s third property to open in the United States, with seven more American locations to follow.

It will have all of the amenities savvy travelers expect—including the brand’s flagship space, Commons Club—but perhaps most exciting is its Design. A neighborhood always known for art and industry showrooms, it’s now thriving with new restaurants, bars and retail. The Virgin Hotel will be the heartbeat of this hot neighborhood. virginhotels.com Thompson Dallas The Pittman Hotel

Opening 2020 164 rooms Neighborhood: Deep Ellum The Pittman Hotel will be housed in the historic 1916 Knights of Pythias Building, the first commercial Dallas building built by and for African American professionals. Designed by William Sidney Pittman, Dallas’ first African American architect, the building was once an iconic mainstay of the Deep Ellum neighborhood and a cultural center for the community. The hotel will return the building to its original Beaux Arts glory, including restoration of the famed fourth floor ballroom where live music legends “Blind Lemon” Jefferson and Sam “Lightnin’” Hopkins once performed. theepicdallas.com

Opening 2020 218 rooms Neighborhood: Downtown The Thompson is part of the revival of the First National Bank tower on Elm Street. Costing almost $450 million and led by award-winning Todd Interests of Dallas, it’s the city’s most extensive tower redevelopment to date. The historic building, vacant for a decade, is the last major Downtown building under redevelopment. When built, it was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River, and it later served as the fictional facade for Ewing Oil in the hit television series Dallas. toddinterests.com —STEPHANIE FAULK

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Texas boasts a unique class of Southern hospitality, and Dallas, in particular, is a city with hospitality at its heart. Always warm, but real, with a ready smile and sharp sense of humor, Dallasites love their home and they want every visitor to feel at home here, too.

Entrepreneur, author and philanthropist Caroline Rose Hunt, who passed away in 2018, made a magnificent impact on the Dallas hospitality scene with her own brand of graciousness. A world traveler, Ms. Hunt wrote, “No matter how pleasant a journey, I am always delighted to be home in Dallas. For me, ‘Home is where the heart is.’ ” The guiding spirit behind The Rosewood Corporation, a family-owned company with worldwide operations and investments, Ms. Hunt led the purchase in 1979 of a historic 1925 mansion in what is now Dallas’s Turtle Creek neighborhood.

After a meticulous renovation, it became The Mansion on Turtle Creek restaurant, opened in 1980. Its adjacent luxury hotel, built in 1981, quickly garnered rave reviews plus five-star and five-diamond ratings.

Celebrity guests have included Larry Hagman, Elizabeth Taylor, Omar Sharif, Frank Sinatra, Patti LaBelle, Sir Paul McCartney, royalty and U.S. presidents.

Next, the company’s Crescent complex of hotel, office and retail space opened in 1986 in Uptown Dallas.

Ms. Hunt’s antiques emporium and tearoom located at the Crescent, Lady Primrose’s Shopping the English Countryside, was named “The Best Spot for Tea in the U.S.” by the British Tea Council.

Rosewood Hotels and Resorts eventually expanded to properties worldwide with a brand dedicated to a commitment to excellence. In 2011, Rosewood accepted an offer to sell the company. Under the current ownership, Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek, the brand’s flagship, continues to celebrate almost forty years as one of Dallas’s top destinations.

Ms. Hunt is listed in the Condé Nast Traveler Hall of Fame and was a grand dame of Les Dames d’Escoffier International, among many accolades.

Quoted in the Dallas Morning News, Ms. Hunt’s daughter, Laurie Sands Harrison, said, “My mother changed the complexion of the city . . . She took [a mansion] that was historical and made it useful and beautiful. She took thirteen acres that was a car lot and created the Crescent—one of the most beautiful Phillip Johnson buildings in America . . . My mother lived three or four lifetimes in one.”

A woman with a welcoming spirit, Ms. Hunt and her legacy made an undeniable impact on the Dallas hospitality scene.

— DEDIE LEAHY

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Photograph of Ms. Hunt courtesy of David Woo; Historical photo of the original residential mansion that became The Mansion Restaurant courtesy of Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek

CAROLINE ROSE HUNT: HERITAGE IN HOSPITALITY

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Legacy in the Heart of Fair Park The Cotton Bowl celebrates ninety years of playing host to history in Dallas Cotton Bowl Stadium historical photo

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BY JEFF SULLIVAN

Photographs by (top left) Sharon Ellman; (bottom) courtesy of State Fair of Texas Archives; (right) State Fair of Texas

Cotton Bowl Prep Showcase at Cotton Bowl Stadium in September 2016

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Photographs by (top left) Sharon Ellman; (bottom) courtesy of State Fair of Texas Archives; (right) State Fair of Texas

Texas v. OU game

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ell the story of college football. Texas high school football. The Dallas Cowboys, the World Cup, music, baseball, wrestling, rodeo, politics, religion and even hockey. Tell the story of the grandest state fair of them all.

None of those stories and countless more can be told without the Cotton Bowl, the historic cement stadium which has stood in Fair Park for just shy of nine decades. The gates were officially opened on October 26, 1930, with Southern Methodist University defeating Indiana, 27–0, in the shiny new digs.

Actually, the Cotton Bowl wasn’t the first stadium on the grounds. Nine years earlier, with a capacity of 15,000, Fair Park Football Stadium was built. The wooden structure was knocked down before construction of the new one, which originally seated 46,000 and cost $328,200, or roughly $5 million in today’s dollars. Its playing surface was 24 feet below the original ground level because of the cut-and-fill building process.

Out of necessity, Fair Park Stadium, its original name, was used for all kinds of events besides football, from the Cavalcade of History, an outdoor play with 250 actors, to a re-election speech by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936. The same year, a local oil and real estate tycoon, J. Curtis Sanford, was among those SMU fans who traveled via a one hundred-car train to see the Mustangs play in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. On the return voyage, he reportedly said, “We need to have one of those in Dallas.”

Thus, the Cotton Bowl was born. The name was inspired by the hope that the game and the stadium, its name changed accordingly, would become one of the premier sporting events and venues in the Cotton Belt. Sanford financed the New Year’s Day bowl game those first four years and lost a significant amount of money, many in the media referred to the game itself as “Sanford’s Folly.” Just 17,000 showed up for the inaugural game despite nearby

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Hopalong Cassidy at the Cotton Bowl in October 1952

Dr Pepper Dallas Cup in March 2015

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Texas Christian University and its All-American quarterback “Slingin’ Sammy” Baugh defeating Marquette, 16–6.

The 1940s brought two monumental changes to the Cotton Bowl: one to the game, the second to the structure itself. Sanford struck a deal with the Southwest Conference, then consisting of Texas A&M, Texas, TCU, Rice, SMU, Baylor and Arkansas, that its annual champion would play a highly ranked opponent in the Cotton Bowl. The 1941 contest between Texas A&M and Fordham sold out that year and every January thereafter.

Later in the decade, the stadium was expanded twice—first, adding

“All of this because one blue-eyed boy could run with the football.”

Texas v. OU game

Photographs courtesy of (top left) State Fair of Texas Archives; (top right) State Fair of Texas/Kevin Brown; (bottom left) Sharon Ellman; (bottom right) SMU

Southern Methodist University’s Doak Walker (No. 37) at Cotton Bowl Stadium

21,431 seats via a second deck on the west side in 1948, and then another eight thousand-plus tier opposite, new locker rooms and a three-story press box the following year. As to why multiple renovations were needed, the answer resides on a plaque at the main entrance to this very day: The Cotton Bowl: the House that Doak Built.

Ewell Doak Walker II might just be the most celebrated college football player of all time: A three-time All-American for SMU, the first junior to win the Heisman Trophy—he was a national phenomenon almost impossible to explain in today’s world. During the 1948 season alone, Walker, handsome and humble, graced the cover of fifty national magazines, including Life, the most prominent publication of the time, which featured a four-page spread of him not only playing football but standing alongside his future wife, Norma, in western attire. As his mother, Emma, once said, “All of this because one blueeyed boy could run with the football.”

There was seemingly nothing the 5-foot-11, 170-pound gridiron genius couldn’t do: run, catch, pass, kick, punt, return kickoffs and punts—nearly four thousand yards of total offense and 303 points in three seasons for the Mustangs.

While SMU played its home games

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Photograph courtesy of State Fair of Texas/Kevin Brown

at Fair Park rather than on campus because of Walker’s popularity, the team also played in back-to-back Cotton Bowls, tying Penn State and defeating Oregon with Walker earning MVP honors on both occasions, fitting considering January 1 was his birthday.

When Walker was racing around the Dallas grass, not only were the eyes of the spectators upon him, the eyes and ears of the nation were eagerly watching and listening. This is when the Cotton Bowl really solidified its reputation as one of the premier venues in the country, and certainly the place to be seen in the city.

Speaking of which, there is no tougher ticket annually than the Texas vs. Oklahoma game, which kicks off every October in the midst of The State Fair of Texas. The rivalry—whether it’s the Red River Shootout, Red River Rivalry or Red River Showdown, the most recent moniker—is the calendar’s most anticipated day in both states, visuals of the Texas Star Ferris wheel and the 55-foot Big Tex statue staples of the television broadcast. Located almost the same distance from the Austin and Norman, Okla., campuses, the Cotton Bowl has hosted the heated matchup since 1932.

As bigger-than-life as the game has always been, it’s become even more so the last few decades, which forced yet another expansion of the Cotton Bowl—this one coming in 2008 with the addition of nearly 24,000 seats by completing the second deck to include the end zones. That brought the official capacity to 92,100 although more than 96,000 have attended multiple Texas–OU games since the expansion.

The schools’ current deal runs through 2025, and Sooners head coach Lincoln Riley said just last year, “You can’t take it out of the Cotton Bowl, I don’t think.”

College football has indeed dominated the Fair Park landscape the last century, but it has also hosted hundreds of high school games, including a bevy of state championships, and multiple representations in the pro game. The Dallas Texans of the NFL played at the Cotton Bowl in 1952, and an AFL team of the same name returned eight years later, winning the league title in 1962.

However, they moved to Kansas City

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Photographs courtesy of the Dallas Sports Commission

THE WINTER CLASSIC COMES TO DALLAS On New Year’s Day, the Cotton Bowl will host the 2020 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic, the signature event of the National Hockey League’s regular season.

The Dallas Stars will host the Nashville Predators, the team they defeated in the first round of the playoffs last season, and fans couldn’t be more ecstatic. The venerable stadium sold out within minutes—more than 80,000 tickets, second-fastest in Winter Classic history. “It tells you what an incredible hockey market this is,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman says. “You aren’t going to believe what this iconic venue is going to look like.”

Not only will it feature one of the five biggest crowds in league history, it will be the southernmost outdoor contest ever played. Weather shouldn’t be an issue, though, as the average January temperature in Dallas is 45 degrees—outdoor NHL games have been played in as warm as 65 degrees.

The Stars started talking to league officials about hosting a game

in 2016. The following year, Stars president Brad Alberts took a tour of the Cotton Bowl. “I loved it. I loved the oldness of it. I loved the history of it. I loved the sight lines,” he said. “I went out on the 50-yard line, looked around and said, ‘This would be awesome.’”

A multi-day Winter Classic Fan Fest will accompany the event, featuring lots of country music and State Fair-like food, the whole event bringing in an estimated economic impact of $30 million. But perhaps the best news of all is that the eyes of the sports world will once again be on the Cotton Bowl on New Year’s Day. “You watch [the Winter Classic], dream about it and think it’s the coolest thing in the world,” Stars goalie Ben Bishop says. “You see college football games in this stadium and see how many people are there. Now we get the same opportunity. It’s a dream come true, a great opportunity for all of us and it should be a lot of fun.”

–JEFF SULLIVAN

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Photo courtesy of State Fair of Texas Archives

COTTON BOWL COUNTDOWN Top five games in stadium history Over its historic nine decades, the Cotton Bowl has hosted some of the most memorable football games ever played. Here are our top five:

4) Texas vs. Oklahoma, 1984: There are many contenders in this storied rivalry: 1994 and 2008 come to mind, but this 15–15 draw in a blinding, driving rainstorm between the two top-ranked teams in the land stands out. Legendary Sooners coach Barry Switzer took an intentional safety late in the game only to see the strategy backfire when the Longhorns advanced the ball far enough for Jeff Ward’s 32yard field goal as time expired.

3) Green Bay vs. Dallas, 1967: The history of the NFL would read much differently if the Cowboys had emerged victorious in this league championship contest played on New Year’s Day, as the Packers went on to win Super Bowl I two weeks after their 34–27 triumph in Big D. “Dandy” Don Meredith drove the Dallas offense to

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the 1-yard line in the final minute but the Cowboys were unable to convert the tying score.

2) Brazil vs. Netherlands, 1994: Yes, a different kind of football from this classic 1994 World Cup quarterfinal matchup. The teams combined for five goals in the final thirty minutes, including Brazil’s game-winner on a 25-yard free kick after the Netherlands stunned the sold-out crowd by scoring twice in twelve minutes to tie the match at 2–2. There were several controversial calls down the stretch in what many consider one of the iconic matches in soccer history.

1) Notre Dame vs. Houston, 1979: The conditions for the 43rd Cotton Bowl were beyond brutal, with the wind chill below zero most of the game and Fighting Irish quarterback Joe Montana battling the flu. The future four-time Super Bowl champion ate some chicken soup on the sidelines in the second half before engineering a comeback for the ages, scoring 23 points in the final seven minutes and 37 seconds, including an 8-yard TD pass with no time left. Notre Dame 35, Houston 34.

–JEFF SULLIVAN

Elvis Presley photo courtesy of State Fair of Texas Archives. Others courtesy of State Fair of Texas/Kevin Brown

5) Highland Park vs. Waco, 1945: Nowadays, Texas crowns a dozen high school state football champions. Back then, it was just one, and this matchup drew 45,790 fans—a Lone Star high school record that stood more than 30 years. Trailing 7–0 in the fourth quarter, Waco’s James “Froggy” Williams caught a down-and-out from Clifford “Cotton” Lindloff and raced 86 yards for the tying score. The schools were named co-champs.

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Texas vs. OU game, 2018

Elvis Presley performs at Cotton Bowl Stadium

that offseason and became the Chiefs.

The main reason for the departure was another team who was sharing the same home address, the Dallas Cowboys.

Both Dallas franchises debuted in 1960, and while the area was obsessed with football, there was limited interest, and/or familiarity, in the pro game. The Cowboys mailed out 200,000 letters in hopes of securing a solid base of loyalists at the Cotton Bowl. There were 2,165 charter season-ticket holders. They didn’t win a game that season and barely 3,000 fans showed up for the home finale, prompting a visiting reporter to joke, “There aren’t enough Texans here to defend the Alamo.”

Dave Sherer played at SMU in the late-1950s with “Dandy Don” Meredith, who much like Walker was such a popular draw that the team played its home games at the Cotton Bowl with not an empty seat in the house. The two were once again teammates on that 1960 Cowboys team.

“When we were at SMU, walking on that field at the Cotton Bowl, you felt like there was nothing more important taking place in sports, you couldn’t make out a single face in the stands, there were just people everywhere,” Sherer says. “Then we’re on that same sideline [with the Cowboys], and you could find your family and friends within seconds, wave to them. There was no one there.”

Eventually, the Cowboys started winning and fans responded accordingly, selling out the majority of home games from 1966–71 when they moved to Texas Stadium. In 2010, the Cotton Bowl lost the Cotton Bowl Classic when the game moved to the new AT&T Stadium.

As for the future of the Cotton Bowl, the city already has $50 million set aside for future renovations and an additional fundraising program underway.

Looking back over the decades, few venues have witnessed more legends, from Tom Landry to Billy Graham to Elvis to Bruce Springsteen to Doak Walker to Pele.

Tell the story of Dallas, its history, its pomp and pageantry, its culture and passion, its teams and celebrations.

That story can’t be told without the Cotton Bowl.

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SCENES

from the

State Fair of Texas WORDS BY JEFF SULLIVAN

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All photographs in this section courtesy of State Fair of Texas/Kevin Brown

N

o one is certain of the origins of the saying “Everything is Bigger in Texas,” which has been around for more than a century, but the State Fair of Texas certainly plays its role in supporting the claim—and then some. Dating back to 1886, millions visit Fair Park in Dallas each autumn for rides, livestock, cars, Big Tex and inventive fried foods only a Texan could dream up.

This year, the gates open on Friday, September 27, for a 24-day run of, well, everything. The theme is “Celebrating Texas Creativity,” which includes painting, cooking, designing and inventing. Last year, those attending the State Fair represented all fifty states and 183 of the 195 countries around the world, according to a map VisitDallas set up to show where fairgoers are from.

Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the fair’s run will draw 100,000 or more to the gates, and this year’s Texas vs.

OU game is slated for Saturday, October 12. Nearly 200,000 attended last year.

The fair celebrates all things Dallas and Texan. In the next few pages we explore the images that make the annual festival so iconic. bigtex.com

S C E N E S F R O M T H E S T A T E FA I R O F T E X A S

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S C E N E S F R O M T H E S T A T E FA I R O F T E X A S

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FAMOUS FLETCHER’S A can’t-miss fried fair food In the words of Skip Fletcher, “There are one hundred ways to screw up a corny dog.”

Skip—son of one of the original Fletcher’s Corny Dog founders—and his family have been serving their famous corny dogs at the State Fair of Texas since 1942, and they’ve mastered the golden-fried treat.

Fletcher’s sells half-a-million corny dogs during the fair’s three-week run in September and October every year.

Essentially a deep-fried, cornbread-battered hot dog on a stick, the Fletcher’s Corny Dog recipe is a family original that’s been pleasing patrons for more than 75 years.

“Corny dogs are simple, but they ain’t easy,” Skip said.

Fletcher’s starts with a high-quality beef and pork blend frank that’s dipped into batter mixed to the perfect temperature and texture. During the frying process the dog demands diligent rotation to avoid uneven cooking, which could result in an unsightly condition called “yellow belly.”

What emerges is the perfect handheld fair food, best eaten piping hot and with mustard—unless you’re one of those ketchup-ers, but we’ll let that slide.

—ASHLEY TURNER

S C E N E S F R O M T H E S T A T E FA I R O F T E X A S

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Midnight Rambler

Forty Five Ten

WORDS BY JONATHAN THOMPSON

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Fine China photo courtesy of The Statler Hotel

12 Hotspots Reshaping Downtown Dallas

Midnight Rambler photo courtesy of The Joule Hotel; HIDE photo courtesy of HIDE; Forty Five Ten photo courtesy of Forty Five Ten

HIDE

Fine China photo courtesy of The Statler Hotel

Midnight Rambler photo courtesy of The Joule Hotel; HIDE photo courtesy of HIDE; Forty Five Ten photo courtesy of Forty Five Ten

Fine China

T

he urban renewal that’s reshaped Downtown Dallas in the past five, ten and even twenty years has been transformative for the city. Spurring a large part of the most recent growth is a significant uptick in people calling Downtown home, from a low of two hundred residents only two decades ago, to now nearly 12,000 in the Downtown core and more than 70,000 in the connected neighborhoods. With this residential rebirth comes more green space and services, a thriving dining scene and inspiring retail.

Even as the youngest working generation flocks to live Downtown, it’s still the largest employment hub in North Texas. According to Downtown Dallas, Inc., an organization serving as the principal advocate, champion and steward of Downtown, the transformation of commercial real estate has been instrumental in the neighborhood’s rebirth.

“Developers took old buildings and gave them new life, turning what was once vacant office space into residential. It’s added this thriving element of

downtown living into the picture, which is something Downtown Dallas— even in its heyday—never really had,” said Kourtny Garrett, President and CEO of Downtown Dallas, Inc. This development does double duty, also making Downtown a bustling travel hub.

“In the past fifteen years we’ve seen $6 billion worth of investment poured into Downtown, so it’s not by happenstance or accident that this amazing growth has occurred. It’s been very deliberate,” Garrett said.

In the last eighteen months alone, five major new hotels and more than thirty new restaurants have opened in the heart of the city. In October 2017, one of the most iconic hotels of the 1960s was reborn in a blaze of style and publicity. The Statler, beloved by celebrities from Elvis to Coco Chanel, was back.

The phoenix-like return of the Statler after so long was no isolated incident, either. Downtown Dallas has been rising from the allegorical embers at an astonishing rate. There were forty signature office towers sitting empty twenty years ago; now they’re all full or undergoing massive redevelopment.

Add to that AT&T’s ambitious new Discovery District—a four-block campus off Commerce Street complete with restaurants, performance spaces and a Times Square-style video wall—and you have a downtown area moving in the right direction, and fast.

“This revitalization began in the late nineties, so we’re almost twenty years in, but by no means does that mean we’re done or that we’re slowing down,” Garrett said. “It’s a multitude of the big and the small that will make the next ten years just as transformational, if not more, than what we’ve seen so far.”

The “big” includes the addition of highspeed rail, expanded public transportation, new parks and entirely new Downtown districts, like the East Quarter and AT&T Discovery District.

And it’s the “small”—restaurants and bars, the makers and creators—who are shaping Downtown into an authentic neighborhood with its own culture and flavor.

With more big plans afoot, here are twelve stylish standard-bearers making a big stir at the heart of the Big D.

12 HOTSPOTS RESHAPING DOWNTOWN DALLAS

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THE STATLER

The current pinup for Dallas’ resurgent Downtown area, the mid-century Statler was nearly demolished multiple times before being lovingly redesigned and reopened as a sleek, well-heeled destination property. The Statler 2.0 includes upscale, street-facing restaurants Fine China and Over Easy, as well as Waterproof—a swanky rooftop bar and pool. But the spot that’s got Dallasites most excited is Bourbon & Banter, a basement speakeasy (accessed via a fake telephone booth) that prides itself on having the best bourbon collection in town and an extraordinary cocktail list to go with it, including the Pompadour—served with a blow-torched brûlée top to be smashed before drinking.

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thestatlerdallas.com 1914 Commerce St, Dallas, TX 75201

“Entering Bullion is like ascending into an alien spaceship from a luxury galaxy,” wrote the Dallas Observer when the dazzling highend French restaurant landed Downtown in March 2018. The gilded eaterie is the brainchild of Michelin-starred chef Bruno Davaillon, who’s assembled his own crew (from his native France and beyond) to perfect his vision of bistronomie—a minimalist, back-to-basics marriage of haute cuisine and farm-to-table cooking. (Picture venison served with chestnuts, poached pear and swiss chard.) The restaurant’s exterior is as unforgettable as its menu—from the outside it resembles a gold bar wedged into the side of a skyscraper. bullionrestaurant.com 400 S Record St, Suite 150, Dallas, TX 75202

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2 Photos courtesy of The Statler and Buillon

BULLION

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Photos courtesy of The Statler and Buillon

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Photos courtesy of The Adolphus Hotel and Commissary

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COMMERCE GOODS + SUPPLY A recent addition to the remodeled Adolphus Hotel, Commerce Goods + Supply is a hip, breezy boutique situated at street level in the historic property. With an emphasis on local Dallas designers, it’s home to a treasure trove of stylish clothing, curios and accoutrements, curated by retail expert Christine Visneau.

Standouts include updated Western wear with a twist from 1791 Supply & Co., quirky accessories from Field Rations—and an impressive array of hats from iconic local manufacturer Stetson.

(The latter includes a new design, “The Renard,” which is exclusive to the store.) shopcommercedallas.com 1321 Commerce St, Dallas, TX 75202

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COMMISSARY

Photos courtesy of The Adolphus Hotel and Commissary

Until recently a vacant building, Commissary is now one of Downtown’s most popular daytime haunts. Best described as a European-style market, it’s part-bakery, part-gelateria, part-butcher, part-espresso bar and plenty more besides.

Perched at the corner of Main and Field streets and wrapped in a splashy blue tile mosaic created by revered Cuban artist Jorge Pardo, it’s a lively addition to the neighborhood and already making a name for itself as a destination spot for a morning latte, lunch on-the-go, or leisurely dinner. commissarydallas.com 1217 Main St, Dallas, TX 75202

12 HOTSPOTS RESHAPING DOWNTOWN DALLAS

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FORTY FIVE TEN This luxury five-floor boutique on Main Street has been described as a major flag in the ground, affirming Dallas’ fashion credentials. That’s an understatement of epic proportions. Forty Five Ten has proved so popular that a spin-off store opened in New York in the spring 2019. The secret of its success is a world-class mix of high-end collections for women, men and the home (think Prada, Celine, Dries Van Noten, Balenciaga, Rosie Assoulin and many more), impeccably curated in glimmering surrounds. This is fairy-tale shopping at its finest—and the fashion lovers of Dallas can’t get enough of it.

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fortyfiveten.com 1615 Main St, Dallas, TX 75201

A playful interpretation of a late-nineteenthcentury Dallas dining saloon, newcomer Billy Can Can is a modish blend of the chic and the tongue-in-cheek. Obsessively populated with items that are either handmade or handchosen from local antique stores—from grainy Victorian photographs and vintage signs to Texan taxidermy—it’s all tied together in a rustic-luxe swirl of mahogany, leather and perfect pools of private light. The food here is insanely good, too: venison tartare, roasted Gulf snapper and hot-chicken-style fried quail are all on the menu, along with a giant tomahawk steak, meant for two and served with roasted bone marrow. billycancan.com 2386 Victory Park Ln, Dallas, TX 75219

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6 Photos courtesy of Forty Five Ten and Billy Can Can

BILLY CAN CAN

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Photos courtesy of Forty Five Ten and Billy Can Can

12 HOTSPOTS RESHAPING DOWNTOWN DALLAS

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Photos courtesy of Deep Ellum Denim and The Joule Hotel

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DEEP ELLUM DENIM Business partners Jeff Kaufman and Bennie Reed had one plan when they opened Deep Ellum Denim: to find the best denim brands on the planet and bring them to Dallas.

Located a short walk from The Statler on the eastern side of Downtown, their studio showcases hundreds of pairs of jeans of the highest quality. Their focus is on quality raw selvedge denim, stocking labels that will have connoisseurs salivating—including Tellason, Naked and Famous, Japan Blue and Momotaro. deepellumdenim.com 3107 Commerce St, Dallas, TX 75226

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MIDNIGHT RAMBLER

Photos courtesy of Deep Ellum Denim and The Joule Hotel

It might be considered a little presumptive to name a bar after a Rolling Stones song, but one gets the impression that Mick Jagger would wholeheartedly approve of Midnight Rambler. Nestled in the basement of the wonderful Joule Hotel on Main Street, it’s a speakeasy inspired by the dark glamour of old school rock and roll—from its décor to its drinks menu. Open until 2 a.m. every night, it’s a favorite of the see-and-be-seen crowd. Frequent cameos by famous faces are a testament to the coolest crowd and some of the craftiest cocktails in town. midnightramblerbar.com 1530 Main St, Dallas, TX 75201

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UNRUH FURNITURE

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Launched in Dallas last year, Unruh (pronounced “un-roo”) sells beautiful, handcrafted furniture to order. Based out of the airy, brick-lined Brake & Clutch Warehouse, their carpenters walk you through every step of the furniture-making process in person—from the best types of wood and finishes for you, to the specific dimensions of your home. They’ll then build your furniture for you from scratch—and personally deliver it with a lifetime guarantee. Not bad for a business which started as a hobby in a garage! unruhfurniture.com 3601 Main St #150, Dallas, TX 75226

It might seem odd to include a grocery store here, but Royal Blue is not your runof-the-mill retail experience. Instead, the establishment is more of a modern, urban twist on the traditional Spanish bodega: a local vendor selling fresh, fast-casual dining options and home essentials. The difference here is that Royal Blue is catering directly to the young professionals of Downtown Dallas, with a mission statement to stock exactly what they need, where they need it, and when they need it. It’s been nicknamed the “hipster grocery store,” and with stores in Austin, and a new store coming to San Antonio, it seems to be right on trend. royalbluegrocery.com 1800 Main St, Dallas, TX 75201

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10 Photos courtesy of Unruh Furniture and Royal Blue Grocery

ROYAL BLUE GROCERY

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Photos courtesy of Unruh Furniture and Royal Blue Grocery

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Photos courtesy of Mirador and HIDE

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MIRADOR Mirador is Spanish for a turret or tower, providing the best possible vantage point over its surrounds. This insanely good restaurant—located in a rooftop penthouse on Main Street—fits that moniker perfectly. But even the stunning views of Dallas’ famous skyline (via Mirador’s eleven-foot floor-toceiling windows) will be forgotten once your food arrives: light, intelligent twists on traditional dishes, served up like miniature works of art—in a futuristic space with a chic, distinctly European vibe. If the sun’s shining, Mirador (in particular its wraparound terrace) is pretty much unbeatable as a lunch spot. mirador-dallas.com 1608 Elm St, Dallas, TX 75201

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HIDE

Photos courtesy of Mirador and HIDE

Crowned as the best new bar in Dallas when it opened, HIDE is the place to seek out if you’re into scientific cocktails and a lively, eclectic crowd. The drinks are mixed via all manner of fiendish devices, with bartenders deploying everything from centrifuges and lasers to roto-vaporizers in order to purify and intensify the flavors. Unlike most bars, HIDE is also sitting in plain sight, with floor-to-ceiling windows on Elm Street. A combination of all these factors—not to mention the behind-the-bar herb garden and excellent bar snack menu (try the crispy ahi poke tacos)—make this the perfect place for after-work sundowners. hide.bar 2816 Elm St, Dallas, TX 75226

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AUSTRALIA’S NO. 1 FOOD MAGAZINE

DALLAS,

International Travel abroad and tell people you’re from Texas, and most will conjure images of both wide-open spaces and gleaming cities, dusty cattle drives and shiny American ingenuity. The Texas mystique is real, and for international visitors Dallas embodies the best of Texas.

International visitors represent big dollars for Dallas, and the market has grown significantly over the past five years. Fueled in part by new direct flights to DFW International Airport—more than forty new international direct routes added in the past five years, in fact—the city now welcomes about 2.6 million international visitors each year. And the average overseas visitor stays four times as long and spends eight times more than the average domestic visitor.

Always with an eye on growth, VisitDallas employs sales and marketing strategies to increase international visitation. We partner with Visit Fort Worth in five different international markets, allowing us to extend our message and budgets and to promote a product that celebrates all facets of our region, from

Since this article was published, the following changes should be noted: Baby Back Shak is located at 1800 South Akard Street, Dallas. HIDE is located at 2816 Elm Street, Dallas.

the perceptions of traditionally western to modern and cosmopolitan.

In each issue of VisitDallas, the magazine, we’ll feature recent coverage from a core international market. The following feature appeared originally in MiNDFOOD, one of Australia and New Zealand’s most impressive magazines. Launched more than ten years ago by passionate husband-and-wife team Michael and Michelle McHugh, MiNDFOOD shares its smart thinking philosophy with readers around the globe. This piece celebrates all things barbecue and bars in both Dallas and Fort Worth. Cheers, mate!

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AS SEEN IN >>

“Barbecue is king in Texas. For many here, it is a nearspiritual experience.

Come hungry – and come early.”

& GRILLERS

You know you’ve reached barbecue heaven when you visit Texas, home to 2500 barbecue joints, and tuck into the tastiest sausages, beef brisket and pulled pork with our ultimate barbecue bucket list.

WORD S BY J ONATHAN THOMP S ON

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086 | mindfood.com VISITDALLAS

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FOOD : DALLAS BARBECUE

W

hichever way you slice it, barbecue is king in Texas.

And with more than 2500 barbecue joints currently basting, roasting and grilling across the Lone Star State (the most in any of the 50 US states), there’s plenty of choice to be had.

Nowhere is this more true than in the sprawling DFW Metroplex at the northern end of Texas – the official name for the twin cities of Dallas and Fort Worth, with their combined 7.4 million residents. If Texas is the home of barbecue, then this is its capital.

For many here, barbecue is a near-spiritual experience, with heated arguments frequently erupting over who serves the best pulled pork, who makes the tastiest sausages and, above all else, where to find the tastiest beef brisket. Because that (with a spicy tomato-based sauce on the side, not pre-dipped – there’s a crucial difference) is generally accepted

by Texans to be the greatest of all smoked meats.

SMOKING STORIES The sizzling love affair between Texas and barbecue can be traced back more than 1000 years, to when the indigenous Caddo Indians slow-cooked venison over smouldering wood in the Eastern part of the state. They were joined in the 17th century by Spanish settlers, bringing with them their own style of cooking meat, ‘barbacoa’. And then again in the early 19th century by waves of German and Czech immigrants, who smoked their leftover meat in enclosed vessels for longer safekeeping.

By the great cattle drives of the 1860s and ’70s (particularly up the famous Chisholm Trail from Fort Worth to the distant Kansas railheads), all these influences had combined to create what we’d recognise as ‘barbecue’ today. Indeed, this was the way the thousands of cow hands and trail drivers were fed, from the flocks they tended on their epic pushes north.

A century later, it was a Texan – president Lyndon B. Johnson – who became the first to use beef brisket as a tool of international diplomacy. In 1964, the then-US leader raised eyebrows around the world when he hosted the first ever barbecue state dinner, in honour of the Mexican president-elect.

COME HUNGRY Today, Texans remain just as proud of their hot, smoky inheritance. Many will loudly denounce ‘inferior’ barbecue iterations – from the smoked chicken of Kansas City to the vinegar-based variants in North and South Carolina – but you’ll still find them tucking into these and more besides, right across the DFW Metroplex.

If you’re looking for barbecue in Dallas or Fort Worth, you’re in the right place. Just come hungry – and come early, because many of the best joints simply close as soon as they run out of meat. And you don’t want to be the person who queues for an hour or more, only to come away with empty hands and a growling stomach.

The good news is that there’s no shortage of options. From high-end to hole-in-the-wall, this is your ultimate barbecue bucket list in Dallas–Fort Worth.

RAILHEAD SMOKEHOUSE, FORT WORTH 2900 Montgomery St, Fort Worth (+1 817 738 9808, railheadsmoke house.com) “Life’s too short to live in Dallas,” is the motto here. It’s on the walls, it’s on the uniforms, and it’s sold on T-shirts.

But that doesn’t stop Dallasites making the 40-minute pilgrimage to join their neighbours as they tuck into Railhead’s famous ribs, sliced beef and cheddar peppers.

It sounds cliché, but the ribs really do fall off the bone here, and the salami is the best for miles, particularly when served with bottles of beer so cold you’ll find ice inside them. The good news is that if you’re in a hurry to get back to Dallas, there’s a drive-through option, too.

After all, sometimes life’s too short to sit in a Fort Worth restaurant waiting for service, particularly when the barbecue is this mouth-watering.

ORDER THIS: Pork Sandwich (see below) – available on Mondays and Fridays, this is a sandwich worth rearranging your diary for. Tender strips of

smoked pork with tangy tomato sauce, dill pickles and onion, served with crispy fries. And book an early lunch – these bad boys sell out quickly.

INSIDER TIP: If flying into or out of DFW, you can get a barbecue hit at the airport – Railhead Smokehouse recently opened an outlet there.

PECAN LODGE, DALLAS 2702 Main St, Dallas (+1 214 748 8900, pecanlodge.com) The pit-smoked food at this restaurant in hip Deep Ellum is simply out of this world – as evidenced by the queues outside every single lunchtime. In particular, the brisket (see above) with southwestern seasoning is cooked for up to 18 hours, giving it a ridiculously rich flavour, while the handmade jalapeño sausages are insanely good, and plenty of Dallasites swear by the beef ribs, too. Your main problem will be choosing what not to eat, but happily there’s a handy ‘select all’ option in the form of The Trough – a little bit of every meat on the one platter. For your sides, the mac and cheese, and fried okra, are winners. If you’ve got any room left afterwards, the desserts at Emporium Pies (emporiumpies.com) – arguably the finest pies in Texas – are just a few seconds’ staggering distance away.

ORDER THIS: The “Hot Mess” – a large sea salt-crusted sweet potato, stuffed with barbacoa, chipotle cream and shredded cheese.

INSIDER TIP: The queues are long, but if you’re ordering more than five pounds of meat, you can jump straight to the front (request a take-out box for anything you can’t finish).

18TH & VINE, DALLAS 4100 Maple Ave, Dallas (+1 214 443 8335, 18thandvinebbq.com) You’d think it barbecue blasphemy in these parts, but this Kansas City-style barbecue restaurant has gone down extraordinarily well in Dallas. Even the name – the intersection of streets where Kansas City’s barbecue scene began – seems to be a gentle dig at Dallasites.

But with brisket this juicy and burnt ends this melt-in-the-mouth, nobody is complaining.

Restaurant owner and pit master Matt Dallman is a KC native, but his wife is a Texan. And that blend informs the unique menu, from the mustard-slathered beef tenderloin to the smoked pork chops with apple sauce.

Meanwhile, there’s a cauliflower ‘steak’ for vegetarians and a suggested beer pairing for each of the main dishes. The décor itself is a treat, too – think sophisticated ▶ mindfood.com | 087

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FOOD : DALLAS BARBECUE

HEAD ONLINE We Aussies are definitely partial to a barbecue, and MiNDFOOD has featured many barbie recipes over the years. Find plenty at mindfood.com/ barbecue-recipes.

1930s-style speak-easy (see above), replete with a jazz club upstairs.

ORDER THIS: The Dizzy Sandwich – slowsmoked hickory pulled pork topped with slaw.

INSIDER TIP: Try the ‘off-menu sandwiches’, such as the ludicrously delicious Burnt End Grilled Cheese.

LOCKHART SMOKEHOUSE, DALLAS 400 West Davis St, Dallas (+1 214 944 5521, lockhartsmoke house.com) This crowd-drawing haunt is well positioned on the first corner as you

including the perfectly charred burnt ends.

Meanwhile, the Kreuz sausages – a favourite of barbecue aficionados in these parts – are delivered fresh from Lockhart itself every day. The meat is so flavoursome sauces are unnecessary, but if that’s your thing there’s an impressive array of different heats and flavours lined up opposite the bar.

ORDER THIS: Smoked Prime Rib (see left) – an uncommon cut to find on the menu at a counter-service restaurant, served to perfection here.

INSIDER TIP: If you’re planning to eat here, go early or late. They cook in two batches each day, so the meat is fresh for dinner. Expect a number of cuts to be sold out – at least temporarily – at around 2pm.

HEIM BARBECUE, FORT WORTH 1109 West Magnolia Ave, Fort Worth (+1 817 882 6970, heimbbq.com) Not to be confused with the similarlymonikered girl band from California, Heim began life in early 2015 as a simple Fort Worth barbecue truck, swiftly becoming one of the most popular four-wheeled food stops in town. Within a year, husband-and-wife duo Travis and Emma Heim had upgraded to bricks

“Heim began life as a barbecue truck.”

enter the fashionable Bishop Arts District.

Named after the tiny Texan town a couple of hours’ south that claims to be the spiritual home of barbecue, Lockhart has a large and loyal following of ravenous smokeheads. The food – ordered at a butcherstyle counter at the rear of the restaurant – is consistently excellent, with standout stars

and mortar – in the shape of a converted 1920s property on trendy West Magnolia Avenue. But while the surrounds have undeniably improved, the heart of the menu remains the same.

Standout dishes (see some, left) include the chopped Brisket Sandwich (served in a more-ish jalapeñocheddar bun) and the Niman Ranch Beef Short Rib. But the real star is undeniably the unusual (and justifiably famous) Bacon Burnt Ends.

ORDER THIS: Bacon Burnt Ends – smoky, tender-crisp pieces of pork belly served in a peppery sauce.

INSIDER TIP: Unlike many barbecue restaurants, Heim boasts a whiskey selection almost as extensive as its meat menu. Made for washing down copious amounts of smoked meat in true Texas style.

WOODSHED SMOKEHOUSE, FORT WORTH 3201 Riverfront Dr, Fort Worth (+1 817 877 4545, woodshed smokehouse.com) Renowned local chef Tim Love picked a cracking spot for his temple of meat: down on the leafy banks of the Trinity River, complete with plenty of outdoor seating (see below). The upscale

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menu is just as pleasing as the views, with dishes selectable by the type of wood they were cooked over – mesquite, pecan, hickory and oak. There’s nothing as basic as a dish of the day, though.

There’s an ‘animal of the day’ – and it could be anything from goat to rattlesnake. Throw in the addition of seafood – the open-fire paella is a particular treat – and live music in the evenings and you have a winner.

ORDER THIS: Texas Trinity Platter – if you’re in a group, this is a

no-brainer. A grand cavalcade of meats, including sausage, pork ribs and beef brisket, along with a variety of sides and accompaniments like borracho beans.

INSIDER TIP: Unlike most barbecue joints, the Woodshed Smokehouse serves breakfast. Start the day like a champion with Woodshed Poutine, served with chopped brisket and a fried egg.

THE SLOW BONE, DALLAS 2234 Irving Blvd, Dallas (+1 214 3777727, slowbone.com) The name of this rustic restaurant is somewhat misleading, as they frequently sell out of their delicious smoke-kissed meats at great speed. But this cafeteria-style joint in the swanky Design

District (see below) is popular for a reason – its outstanding menu.

Brisket is king, but it’s served in a multitude of ways, from halfpound on the bun to housemade Mexican tamales and chunky chilli. Don’t be misled by the seemingly simple menu choices – there are a number of hidden

gems lurking in plain sight, including cilantro sausages and stuffed pork loin. The sides are considerably more than an afterthought, too, with options including Brussels Sprouts and Cauliflower Au Gratin, and Horseradish Cream Potato Salad.

ORDER THIS: Brisket – pure, simple and exquisite, it’s so juicy it needs no sauce and no introduction.

INSIDER TIP: It’s only open 11am to 3pm every day, and closes as soon as the meat runs out, so expect the sold out sign any time after 2pm.

BABY BACK SHAK, DALLAS 800 South Akard St, Dallas (+1 214 428 7427, babybackshak.com) “If you’re looking for barbecue that makes you want to call up your

friends, you’ve come to the right place,” claims the Baby Back Shak advertising. And to be fair, praise for this revered downtown Dallas establishment has been spreading by word of mouth for more than 20 years now. The succulent pork ribs from which this establishment derives its name are still on the menu, served in the famous spicy house rub. But this is more than just a rib spot. For starters, it’s one of the few places around that serves boudin blanc – a delicious white Belgian/French sausage – and its smoked drumsticks are another major off-radar hit.

ORDER THIS: Rib Slab (see left) – winning countless awards over the last two decades the spicy ribs remain lipsmackingly awesome. A full slab is a meal in itself and a steal at US$18.

INSIDER TIP: The restaurant’s reputation is founded on its famous Shak Rub seasoning.

You can take home a jar to impress guests at your next barbecue.

barbecue salami and Braunschweiger (pork liver sausages) – as well as whole smoked chickens, turkeys and barbecue hams, which cost between $16 and $80, and are worth every dime.

ORDER THIS: Pulled pork-stuffed potato – a generous pile of pulled pork, cheese, sour cream and pico de gallo packed inside a baked potato.

INSIDER TIP: It’s one of the few leading barbecue joints that deliver meals anywhere in the US, carefully packaged in styrofoamlined boxes and secured with frozen gel packs.

COUSIN’S BARB-Q, FORT WORTH 6262 McCart Ave, Fort Worth (+1 817 346 2511, cousinsbbq.com) With a name like Cousin’s, it’ll come as little surprise that this cosy eatery is a family owned establishment.

And, like most families, they’ve expanded over

the years, from a simple ‘low-and-slow’ joint in 1983 to six restaurants in and around Fort Worth, all selling the same morsels in ‘Texas-size portions’. It’s famous for handmade sausages, prepared in the old-school German style. The Pit Ham and smoked Texas Pork Ribs are also popular, especially when washed down with a Cousin’s Draft Root Beer Float.

ORDER THIS: Smoked German Sausage – the item on which Cousin’s built an empire. Order it as part of a dinner plate and it’ll come with Texas Toast and two sides of your choice (don’t miss out on the Fried Okra, whatever you do).

INSIDER TIP: Many people don’t look this far down the menu, especially once the meat sweats set in, but Cousin’s does outstanding traditional Texan desserts from peach cobbler to banana pudding. ▶

ANGELO’S, FORT WORTH 2533 White Settlement Rd, Fort Worth (+1 817 332 0357, angelosbbq.com) Marking its 60th anniversary this year, Angelo’s is one of the most established barbecue restaurants in the South, let alone the DFW Metroplex. It opened on St Patrick’s Day in 1958, serving hot barbecue cooked over hickory wood and cold beer served in frosted mugs, and has continued in the same vein ever since. It’s renowned for its pulled pork tacos, mindfood.com | 089 DALLAS, INTERNATIONAL 107

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FOOD : DALL AS COCKTAILS

DALLAS & FORT WORTH When you want to follow up that barbecue dinner in style, take yourself to one of the many cocktail bars in town. Here is our pick of the bunch …

WORD S BY J ONATHAN THOMP S ON

BOURBON & BANTER, DALLAS 1914 Commerce St, Dallas (+1 469 320 8990, bourbonandbanter dallas.com) This photogenic basement bar (see above) is cleverly accessed via a fake telephone booth and prides itself on having the best bourbon collection in Dallas. You’ll find it beneath the historic Statler hotel in a space that used to house the onsite beauty salon.

ORDER THIS: Pompadour – a bourbon cocktail with a brûléed top, to be cracked before drinking.

MIDNIGHT RAMBLER, DALLAS 1530 Main St, Dallas (+1 214 261 4601, midnightramblerbar.com) Inspired by the dark glamour of old-school rock and roll, this lively speak-easy (see above) tucked beneath The Joule hotel boasts the coolest crowd and some of the craftiest cocktails.

Always buzzing, it’s open nightly until 2am.

ORDER THIS: Hot Buttered Soul – brown butter bourbon, pecan syrup, lemon, cinnamon and cayenne pepper.

HIDE, DALLAS 816 Elm St, Dallas (+1 214 396 8050, hide.bar) Crowned the best new bar in Dallas last year, seek it out if you’re into scientific cocktails and a lively, eclectic crowd.

It’s perfectly positioned in Deep Ellum – the hipster-friendly enclave

THOMPSON’S BOOKSTORE, FORT WORTH 900 Houston St, Fort Worth (+1 817 882 8003, thompsons bookstore.com) A self-styled ‘literary speak-easy’, you’ll find this bar beneath a former bookstore in the heart of downtown

on the eastern flank of downtown – and it’s swiftly become one of the hottest tickets in town.

ORDER THIS: Smoke & Mirrors (see above) – mezcal, chartreuse, clarified lime and peppercorn tincture.

Fort Worth – pull the right book to reveal the secret staircase. Comfy leather furniture and literally hundreds of vintage volumes make this the kind of venue you could easily settle into for hours on end, particularly when the cocktails are this good.

ORDER THIS: Grapes of Wrath – TX whiskey, homemade syrup, fresh lemon juice, egg white and Château Ste. Michelle Syrah.

PROPER, FORT WORTH 409 W Magnolia Ave, Fort Worth (+1 817 984 1133, propermagnolia.com) Perched on the edge of the up-and-coming Near Southside district, PRoPER isn’t your run-of-the-mill cocktail bar. For starters, it’s pleasingly kind on your wallet. And in place of the clichéd candlelit

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velvet settees to perch on while sipping your handcrafted cocktails (see left). Don’t forget to dress to impress.

ORDER THIS: The Mansion G&T – a smart take on the classic cocktail, this drink is made with Junípero Gin, house-made tonic, kaffir lime leaf and grapefruit zest.

HEAD ONLINE It’s World Cocktail Day on Sunday May 13, so go to mindfood.com/ favourite-cocktails for our favourites to try.

lounge it has a breezy open vibe, with the very welcome option of outdoor seating. This place is quite literally a breath of fresh air.

ORDER THIS: The Fix – this is a sweet, ginbased cocktail that is mixed with seasonal fruit sugar syrup.

TRUTH & ALIBI, DALLAS 2618 Elm St, Dallas (+1 469 417 9660, truthandalibi.com) We have bad news for those with a sweet tooth: The Deep Ellum

Candy Company was not really founded in 1921 as the bright sign outside suggests.

Instead, it was created in 2014 as a front for Truth & Alibi, a concealed cocktail bar within (see below).

If you still want to go inside, check the Facebook page for the monthly password and wear dancing shoes.

ORDER THIS: The 12:00am Alibi – expect hot pink champagne and vodka served up in a champagne glass.

It’s delicious!

PARLIAMENT, DALLAS 2418 Allen St, Dallas (+1 469 804 4321, parliamentdallas.com) The barman at this venue is almost as theatrical as the bar.

‘Lucky’ Campbell – a fedora-wearing, shakerslinging Dallas legend – prides himself on the extensive, extravagant drinks menu at this sophisticated little gem. Mr Campbell and the other members of Parliament have pored over history books and dusty menus alike to give new life to a series of traditional American cocktails.

ORDER THIS: Ramos Gin Fizz – a historic take on the gin fizz, unearthed from an 1893 Roosevelt Hotel cocktail menu, including egg white, gin, lemon, cream, orange blossom and soda.

THE USUAL, FORT WORTH 1408 W Magnolia Ave, Fort Worth (+1 817 810 0114, facebook.com/ theusualbar) Fort Worth’s first craft cocktail bar is still going strong, a decade on.

The locals love it, thanks largely to the unique (and sometimes bizarre) flavour combinations and homemade ingredients on offer, including spirits infused with freshly grown herbs.

THE TIPSY ALCHEMIST, DALLAS 2101 Cedar Springs Rd, Dallas (+1 469 899 7080, thetipsyalchemist.com) Science and booze collide at The Tipsy

ORDER THIS: The Booker T Flip – aged cachaça, lemon, green onion syrup, maple and a whole egg.

MANSION BAR, DALLAS 2821 Turtle Creek Blvd, Dallas (+1 214 443 4747, rosewoodhotels. com/en/mansion-onturtle-creek-dallas/ dining/mansion-bar) A bona-fide icon on the Dallas scene, this bar is the centrepiece of Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek – a palatial early 20th-century home transformed into one of the most luxurious hotels you’ll find in America. The Mansion Bar has the feel of a refined private members’ club, with leather-lined walls and opulent

Alchemist (see above), where ‘Scuba’ Steve Underhill has taken an old property and transmuted it into pure gold. The luxurious, intimate bar is where the dressy and dapper of Dallas now come to drink. You can expect cocktails topped with liquid nitrogen, ordered from a quirky menu resembling the periodic table.

ORDER THIS: The Edison (see above) – a bright green drink served in a light bulb-shaped glass; it’s a perennial crowd favourite.

ENJOY TEXAN BEST Come and meet the MiNDFOOD team at Meatstock, May 5-6, Sydney Showground, Sydney Olympic Park. meatstock.com.au. mindfood.com | 091 DALLAS, INTERNATIONAL 109

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8/31 – 9/1

RIVERFRONT JAZZ FESTIVAL

NOVEMBER 5 – 17

dallassummermusicals.com

Andrew Lloyd Weber’s musical spectacular “CATS” will hold its Jellicle Ball in Dallas’ Music Hall at Fair Park. The whole family will enjoy this beloved musical re-imagined for the next generation.

tbaalriverfrontjazzfestival.org

This jazz-filled, two-day festival is entering its third year. This year’s lineup includes Dallas legend Erykah Badu, The Dallas Hot Band featuring Shaun Martin and members of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra with America’s original “Dreamgirl” Jennifer Holliday.

9/8 – 12/29

DALLAS COWBOYS

9/27 – 10/20

STATE FAIR OF TEXAS

8 – 10

Presented by Texas Monthly and VisitDallas, this festival celebrates the best of Texas and brings together thought-leaders and one-of-a-kind panels from talent like Leon Bridges, St. Vincent and Brandon Maxwell.

Kick-off the Dallas Cowboys’ regular season on September 8 with a home game against the New York Giants at AT&T Stadium.

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Dallas shines even brighter during the holiday season! Big D Holiday is a collection of festive fun across the city, including parades, shows, Santa, shopping and more.

Start with a “howdy” to Big Tex (a larger-than-life cowboy) before embarking on this 24-day spectacular. More than one hundred years old and the largest state fair in the nation, it’s a crash course in everything “Texas,” held in historic Fair Park.

klydewarrenpark.org Highlighting Dallas’ ever-expanding culinary scene, Park and Palate showcases Dallas’ best chefs serving bites paired with sommelier-curated wine pairings in the heart of Dallas: Klyde Warren Park.

BIG D HOLIDAY bigdholiday.com

bigtex.com

PARK AND PALATE

THE EDGE OF TEXAS texasmonthly.com

dallascowboys.com

OCTOBER

CATS

DECEMBER 12

CHER americanairlinescenter.com

Hot off of the European leg of her “Here We Go Again” Tour, Cher will wow audiences at the American Airlines Center with her biggest hits through the decades, plus new music from her recent “Dancing Queen” album, a tribute to the music of ABBA.

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Bottom left and top right: Photos by Joseph Haubert. Middle and bottom right: Photos courtesy of Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden

Left: Photo courtesy of State Fair of Texas/Kevin Brown. Right: Photo courtesy of CATS.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

SEPTEMBER

JANUARY 1

BRIDGESTONE NHL WINTER CLASSIC dallassports.org

Be there as history is made with the first ever outdoor NHL game at the Cotton Bowl Stadium. The Dallas Stars will face off against the Nashville Predators in what is sure to be a high-energy game.

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DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. PARADE dallasmlkcenter.com

This year will mark the 38th annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Parade. Stepping off in historic South Dallas along Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, the parade honors Dr. King’s life and legacy.

FEBRUARY 3

CELINE DION americanairlinescenter.com

The pop-ballad queen will bring her legendary performance to Dallas with the “Courage” World Tour. The tour will include fan-favorite songs and music from her much-anticipated fall 2019 album.

DALLAS BLOOMS dallasarboretum.com

Witness spring come to life at the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden during Dallas Blooms, the largest floral festival in the Southwest.

Bottom left and top right: Photos by Joseph Haubert. Middle and bottom right: Photos courtesy of Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden

Left: Photo courtesy of State Fair of Texas/Kevin Brown. Right: Photo courtesy of CATS.

Late Feb – April

FOR A FULL LISTING OF EVENTS, GO TO VISITDALLAS.COM

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

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Texas Chicken Fried Steak Day got its start at Norma’s Café, a Dallas home-cooking institution. They’ve been serving up classic CFS and comfort food in Oak Cliff and additional locations for more than sixty years.

RESOLUTION “ WHEREAS, Texans are re-

nowned for their love of chicken fried steak, that exceptional dish that elevates the hearty flavor of beef to new heights by coating it in batter and breading and frying it until the ingredients are melded in a blissful union; and

From House Resolution 1419, proclaiming October 26 as Texas Chicken Fried Steak Day, adopted by the Texas House of Representatives on May 30, 2011.

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Last Bite WHEREAS, A food that

reflects the history and diversity of our state, chicken fried steak has been linked to the German specialty Wiener schnitzel, which arrived in Texas with European immigrants; other food historians note that chicken fried steak is similar to pan-fried steak, a favorite of Texas cowboys; and

WHEREAS, Generations of

Lone Star State residents have partaken of this beloved entree, and happy memories of putting knife and fork to a chicken fried steak in the company of family and friends are shared by countless people all across Texas.”

VISITDALLAS

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Texas Chicken Fried Steak Day got its start at Norma’s Café, a Dallas home-cooking institution. They’ve been

UNWRAP THE BEST OF TEXAS Experience the holidays in Dallas with a special Texas twist during Big D Holiday. With hundreds of festive activities to enjoy across Dallas—including musical performances, a downtown tree lighting and a jaw-dropping New Year’s Eve fireworks display—you’re sure to find the perfect way to experience the magic of the holiday season.

YOUR UNFORGETTABLE HOLIDAY MOMENTS START AT VISITDALLAS.COM/BIGDHOLIDAY

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Dallas: A world of

Inspiration Dallas is a city with many sides, but our artistic one shines brightest. Downtown you’ll find the largest contiguous urban arts district in America, part of a collection of architecturally stunning venues and museums that spreads across the city. Take in rousing opera and classical music, the best of Broadway and soul-stirring dance—plus, striking sculpture, classic landscapes and inspired multimedia installations. No matter which side of the Dallas arts scene you sample, you’re sure to head home inspired.

Find tickets, shows, exhibits and more at VisitDallas.com Location: The Majestic Theater Featuring: Ballet Folklorico, Bishop Arts Theatre Center, Bruce Wood Dance, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Dallas Summer Musicals, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Sammons Center for the Arts, Texas Ballet Theater

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