15 July 18–24, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents G ritty dives. Upscale cocktail lounges. Sports bars. Speakeas- ies, such as they are (yes, we know drinking is legal). It doesn’t matter what label we give them, Dallas loves to imbibe at them. It’s said that we drink when times are good and when they are bad. So even if the rent, gas and gro- ceries are all taking bigger bites from pay- checks, Dallas still finds a way to make room in the budget for a cocktail. TABS Report, which tracks liquor sales according to data from the Texas Comptroller’s Office, reports that alcohol sales across Dallas are recover- ing from a tough winter and continue to trend upward, despite whatever misgivings we have about the state of the economy. Adult beverages in hand, we’ve updated our list of the Top 100 Bars, which adds a whopping 21 new establishments. Some of the new entries are, in fact, new businesses (or in the case of the Grapevine or Black Swan Saloon, reincarnations of previous fa- vorites), but others have been operating in Dallas for some time. It’s a crowded market, so we took a hard look at many places that have loyalists but might have lost a step. We also tightened our focus to bars that are closer to Dallas itself and the surrounding neighborhoods. (Sorry, Denton.) You might be wondering whether the amount of change in our list reflects a larger shift in how Dallas enjoys a cocktail. To an- swer that, we probed the minds of Gabe San- chez and Ryan Payne, partners in Saint Valentine and Black Swan, both of which grabbed spots in our updated list. “The Dallasite that goes out and drinks and eats, they’re more open now than I think anybody in any city was 10 or 15 years ago,” Payne says. “People’s tastes have changed, and they’re used to exploring different things.” Instead of a dozen different vodkas that are effectively the same, drinkers have de- veloped tastes for a smoky mezcal or a wheated bourbon. Craft cocktails have ar- rived en masse, and even your neighborhood bar is probably taking a little more care than mixing Jack Daniels and Coke from the bar’s soda gun. The “fickle 500,” a two-decade old descriptor of Dallas diners with short atten- tion spans that still fits a significant segment of hospitality customers today, have driven demand for new drinks and techniques, and patrons are always on the hunt for some- thing unique and Instagram-worthy. An unfortunate side effect of that demand is that some craft cocktails have crept closer to $20 (or in some cases, blown past that mark with reckless abandon). Sanchez and Payne were hesitant to comment on the trend, but we delved into the topic ourselves earlier this year and came away with some new appreciation for the art and science of mixology. “Everyone is looking for an experience in a glass,” bartender Travis Hendricks of Un- aVida told us. “They want something new, a cocktail that will create a new memory, a ‘wow’ moment.” That demand comes with a cost, now reflected in some cocktails that go for three hours of minimum wage work. Some of these creations are worth the effort. For drinks like a brown butter old fashioned at Lucia or an Amaro Transfusion from The Branca Room, the genesis of their curated ingredients began long before you ever sauntered through the door. But for every $18 classic dirty martini that we enjoyed at Columbian Country Club (another newcomer to our list), dozens of bars still splash mass-produced tequila with some soda in a glass and charge $15. We think they can do better. This is not to say that our Top 100 is being overtaken by elitist lounges and drink menus with impossible- to-pronounce ingredients. Far from it. At its core, a bar is a place for us to social- ize with friends and strangers alike, and sometimes that socializing starts over some- thing as simple as a cold draft beer or a fro- zen margarita. Sometimes, we like to do our drinking with a side of com- petitive activities. A wobbly pool table with crooked cues might do the trick, but we appreciate some- thing more thought-out. That might mean a couple of rounds of shuffleboard at Electric Shuffle, playing vintage arcade games at Barcadia or limbering up with Skee-Ball and basketball at Sidecar Social, which is why all three establishments have found a home in this year’s list. As the line between bar and restaurant gets ever more blurred, we appreciate a good food menu to pace our drinking, so we’ve made sure bars with great bites are well-represented in the Top 100. Brick & Bones in Deep Ellum rocks our world with affordable drinks and crave-worthy fried chicken. The burger at Surf Camp, Nick Badovinus’ rooftop bar in the East Quar- ter, gives off plenty of Off Site Kitchen vibes. Sourdough crust pizza at Wriggly Tin should be considered a must-order in Fair Park. And sometimes, a bar just needs to be a bar. Maybe you want the classic cocktail bar vibe without the velvet rope exclusivity, so you head to Tina’s Continental for a martini just the way you like it, nestled in a cozy bar dripping with mid-century charm. Maybe you’re in love with the diviest of dive bars, which is why a place like Inwood Tavern has been a Dallas favorite for decades. (If it’s good enough for golfer Scottie Scheffler, hours after winning The Masters, it’s good enough for us.) We Know It When We See It W hen a pitcher is dominating a base- ball game, it’s said he has great “stuff.” Batters are helpless when a pitcher’s stuff is working. And when a pitcher is getting shelled his next time out, his stuff wasn’t there that day. Players and managers struggle to define “stuff,” but like former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart and pornography, they know it when they see it. We look at our Top 100 Bars in the same way. We’ve visited every bar on this list and dozens of others in search of the stuff that makes a great bar. The drinks need to be good, naturally. The staff should be accom- modating when we order our usual, and helpful when we want to try something new. (A salty bartender isn’t an immediate disqualification, but possibly a reminder that you should’ve checked your ego at the door.) Each of these bars effortlessly knows its place and never pretends to be some- thing it isn’t. The Grapevine Bar, back on our list in its new location, is one of those bars that has great stuff. Patrons and other bar owners alike struggle to articulate why it works, but we realize we are somewhere special every time we step inside. “They’re not going to reinvent the wheel making shots and beers on Sunday when it gets fucking wild in the afternoon,” Payne replies when asked of the Grapevine’s lon- gevity. “But everybody that goes in there is very comfortable being there, and Alison McLean RaisinG the BaR Three cheers for Dallas’ Top 100 drinking spots. BY CHRIS WOLFGANG, AAREN PRODY, NICK REYNOLDS AND LAUREN DREWES DANIELS | CITY OF ATE | t Dish >> p16 Black Swan co-owner Gabe Sanchez reopened the bar this year.