DFW visit: What to do, where to go?

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Hernando

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I will be heading to DFW for a wedding Mid-July. I was hoping to get some insight from some locals as far as good places to visit brewery/Pubfood wise as well as fun things to do on the cheap. I don't mind some touristy stuff but I prefer to hit the places that are fun and not packed with tourists like myself, (i.e. river tubing). I appreciate any insight and will return the favor if you ever visit Denver. Cheers!
 
The Flying Saucer in Addison or Ft Worth are great beer bars. Top notch selections, decent prices for a bar and cool clientele. Good food. They get busy on the weekend nights, of course. Ft Worth is the funkier one, in a good funk way.

The Stockyards of Ft Worth can be fun for on foot bar hoping. The early crowd is light and calm. The night crowd gets thick and rowdy. Good times rowdy. And someone's usually got some livestock our there. Horses, cattle, a llama or a camel.

You can tour Rhars. I've been. It was neat. The place looked like it was cobbled together by homebrewing junkmen. Great beer. I think Four Corners in Dallas is doing stuff now.

Both cities have a zoo and the Dallas aquarium is nice.

Car shows are common in the spring through fall.

The metroplex, aka metromess, is huge and under a lot of construction. Bring a GPS and avoid interstates through either Dallas or Ft Worth as much as you can. 121, 161 and 183 get bogged down during rush hours too.
 
Are you going to be mostly in Dallas or Fort Worth? Or do you care how much driving you do while here? I only ask, as it will definitely determine the prioritized list I'm working on for you. :mug:
 
Most of our time will be on the Dallas side but I never mind driving as long as I am not stuck on a highway as zuljin mentioned.
 
Every brewery does tours on Saturday just about, a couple smaller Dallas side ones are Franconia, 4 Corners, Deep Ellum, Peticolas, Community.

In May there is the Dallas Brew Riot-Home Brew competition. There is a whole thread on here about it.

I would recommend planning indoor things. If you are a science geek the Perot Muesum is awesome, sells out early so get tickets online though.

As far as eating, I can only really speak to places in my neck of the woods.
Ten Bells Tavern - is AWESOME food and great local beer selection. It is English style pub so no TVs or anything but a great patio and like I said super food.
Jonathon's Oak Cliff - close runner up to Ten Bells, but a lot more known with the hipster crowd so can be extremely packed.
Other local spots in Oak Cliff that I enjoy and have good selections of brew-Oddfellows, Eno's, Tillman's Roadhouse, Bolsa.
If you want real Mexican I recommend El Ranchito (inland mexican) or La Calle Doce (coastal mexican)

Fuel City is a gas station downtown that is a good killer of an hour or so. They have the best taco's in Dallas according to D Magazine. I prefer the breakfast ones, but the lunch/dinner ones are good to. They have Longhorns and what not on site too.
 
I spent a summer there. I suggest Meddlesome Moth. It's great for beer, with friendly bartenders. Food is a bit heavy, so watch out.
 
In addition to those mentioned, Holy Grail near Legacy is nice. Trinity Hall, uptown Ginger Man, any of the Flying Saucers, The Common Table, Jack Mac's, Goodfriend, The Londoner, The Allen Wickers, Bryan Street Tavern, Zio Carlo's (Fort Worth), Live Oak (Fort Worth).

Bottles to go: Kegs & Barrels, Spec's, Total Wine & More (FW), World Beer Co Bottle Shop

For Growler fills: Whole Foods, Zio Carlo's (FW), World Beer Co Bottle Shop

BrewRiot should be another fun event this year, and I'd +1 the recommendation of checking it out. And it's definitely worth checking out the Meddlesom Moth.

Breweries:
Rahr (Fort Worth)
Martin House (Fort Worth)
Community
Peticolas
Lakewood
Four Corners
Firewheel
Deep Ellum
Franconia (McKinney)
Cedar Creek (Seven Points)
Revolver (Granbury)
(and as mentioned, most, if not all, do Saturday tour hours.)

There are more, and as I think of solid ones, I'll come back and add them here. Hope you enjoy your visit!
 
Thank you all for the helpful input. I will definitely be checking out some of these laces. I sadly, won't be there for The Riot but I am definitely going to look into the Perot museum


just eat, eat, eat. they invented food in Texas. mos def get some good Texas BBQ...everything else isnt.

Is there a place in mind that I should go to for that Texas BBQ?
 
I actually made a quick reference on the brewery tours around the Metroplex. Hope this helps you find one that works for you.


http://peticolasbrewing.com/brewery.php
1st and 3rd Saturdays 1-3pm $10/person
2026 Farrington Street
Dallas, Texas 75207
214-234-7600

http://www.rahrbrewing.com/our-brewery/tour-tasting.html
Every Saturday 1-3pm $10/person
701 Galveston Ave.
Fort Worth, TX 76104

http://www.franconiabrewing.com/tours.html
Every Saturday 11am $5/person
495 Mckinney Parkway
Mckinney, Tx 75071

http://www.deepellumbrewing.com/tours/
Every Saturday 12pm – 3pm & Thursday evening from 6pm – 8:30pm $10/person
2823 St Louis St, Dallas TX 75226

http://www.cedarcreekbrewery.com/the-brewery.html
Every Sat Noon-3pm. $7/person
244 E. Cedar Creek Pwky
Seven Points, TX 75143

http://firewheelbrewing.com/tours/
Every Saturday 11-3pm starting June 29th. $10/person
2806 Lawing Ln, Rowlett, TX

http://www.lakewoodbrewingcompany.com/events/tours/
Every Saturday Noon-3Pm $10/person
2302 Executive Drive
Garland, TX 75041
 
Nice! That is awesome. Not sure if I'll be able to get any tours in since the wedding in actually on Sat. but I can at least got get a few sample flights from some of these breweires. I actually had a bottle from Rahr it was their snowpoclypse and it was awesome. I maybe able to hit up deep ellum Thurs. Thanks for the info everyone and I will most definitely be checking out Smoke as well.
 
Hernando said:
Nice! That is awesome. Not sure if I'll be able to get any tours in since the wedding in actually on Sat. but I can at least got get a few sample flights from some of these breweires. I actually had a bottle from Rahr it was their snowpoclypse and it was awesome. I maybe able to hit up deep ellum Thurs. Thanks for the info everyone and I will most definitely be checking out Smoke as well.

So how was your Dallas trip? Where did you end up going?
 
onetoeddogbrewery said:
So how was your Dallas trip? Where did you end up going?

I will not be in Dallas until July 11th. So far we are planning on doing a floating concert. Ill definitely be hitting up some breweries. I think we'll probably try smoke out and a few other BBQ joints. Bachelor party will consist of shooting and them drinking. Ill fit in as much as I can between the wedding
 
Hey hey. Thanks everyone for the sound advice. I unfortunately missed the brewery tours and was under the impression the breweries were setup like here in Colorado where you cold go have beer any time and not tour the facilities.

BUT, I did have plenty of Texas beer. First stop in from Luv was Sonny Bryants. I was going to go to the floating concert but it was cancelled due to rain so that sucked. Went to Specs and got a lot of beer for the hotel. First night there I went to the Gingerman but took the stupid Hwy system and the off ramp I needed was closed, GPS did not like that to much so what should've taken 30 min took 1 hr 1/2. But it was well worth it. The Imperial Texan was my favorite of the night. the Deep Ellum IPA had promise but the Keg was just tapped and the beer wasn't cold.

I made it to twin peaks and that place wasnt very fantastic so I wandered down the parking lot to the Flying Saucer where the waitress DID know about beer. They had a fire sale on all Texas beers and I could've stayed there all day if I didn't have a wedding to go to that day. I really like Peticolas beers.

Made it to the Perot got through two floors in 4.5 hours. Loved that place. Hit up Fuel City for tacos and corn. Went there 2x's during my stay and stuffed my face. Went to the stockyards checke dout the white elephant and some of the shops. Afterwards, we went to the Meddlesome Moth, that spot was really cool. we ordered food to share and had a flight and a beer. It is Belgium Independence so that is what they had on tap but it was still great.

The one place I disliked due to rude service was the rooftop bar at NYLO. Holy crap that place sucked. (no offense if you love that place). Great atmosphere, crappy staff.

I really tried to make it to Smoke but it just didn't happen. Smoke is a destination on the next trip there for sure.

On the way back to love I stopped at Mike Andersons and had one last plate of Texas Que. Thanks again everyone for the advice. I'll definitely be back and will have to try some of the things I missed, Cheers!
 
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