Local Sips

Dallas brewery expands into white-hot hard seltzer market

Dallas' Deep Ellum Brewing Company has been turning out innovative brews since 2011, when it became the city's first craft brewery. It has since expanded with an off-site small-batch brewery and taproom in Fort Worth called the Funkytown Fermatorium.

When it comes to what Dallas (and beyond) is drinking, DEBC has been bold, fearless, and unapologetic from the start.

Now it's made the leap into hard seltzer, the most popular drink of the moment, with the release of Blind Lemon. Like everything Deep Ellum Brewing does, it's made to stand out — and here's how:

The story behind the name
The moniker is in tribute to blues legend "Blind Lemon" Jefferson, who began his career in the 1920s playing guitar and singing on the streets of Deep Ellum neighborhood. He went on to become one of the biggest-selling down-home blues artists in American history. He was known for his unusual vocal range and loud volume, and in homage to the original Blind Lemon, this hard seltzer bubbles over loudly with lemony flavor.

Natural ingredients
It starts with natural lemon flavors, then continues with only one gram of carbs and zero grams of sugar per 12 ounce serving. Oh, and it's only 100 calories, with 5 percent alcohol by volume.

How it's made
Crafted with a process similar to DEBC's other brands, Blind Lemon makes use of cane sugar instead of the usual malted barley that is in a typical beer. When yeast is added, the result is an unusually spritzy and light brew, great on its own or even better as a cocktail base.

Drink up, do good
DEBC has partnered with many amazing local organizations including Foundation45, Deep Ellum Community Association, Deep Ellum Foundation, and Paws in the City, to name a few. Now you can feel even better about supporting this Texas brand.

How to get it
Blind Lemon is available both on draft and in 12-pack cans. While you're at it, be sure to load up on Dallas Blonde, Deep Ellum IPA, the Mexican-style lager Neato Bandito, and Easy Peasy, a session IPA brewed with lemon and tangerine peel.

It's brewed with natural lemon flavors.

Deep Ellum Brewing Blind Lemon hard seltzer

Photo by Ashley Gongora

It's brewed with natural lemon flavors.

breweries promoted cocktails craft-beer drinks deep-ellum

Hot Dog News

Portillo's hot dog chain opens first airport shop in Dallas-Fort Worth

Portillo's

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Travelers taking flight can now get a hot dog: Portillo’s, the fast-casual chain from Chicago, is opening the first-ever Portillo’s airport location in Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.

The new location is one of two — along with another in The Villages, Florida — that will feature a new small, dine-in only format. It won't have the traditional drive-thru. Because there is no drive-thru at the airport, see. See what I'm saying.

Unlike traditional Portillo’s locations, the airport restaurant will feature a smaller, walk-up accessible footprint with multiple ordering touchpoints – including at the register, self-order kiosks, and order ahead for pick-up.

There will also be a variety of seating options accommodating more than 50 guests as well as a grab-and-go area — useful for travelers taking food on the plane, to their gate, or for leisurely meals during layovers or the unfortunate flight cancellation.

Portillo's partner for the DFW Airport location is PhaseNext Hospitality, whose president and CEO Roz Mallet says she is "thrilled to partner with Portillo's on this first airport location."

“As a fan of the culture, food, and history of Chicago, I have also been a longtime fan of Portillo’s,” Mallet says.

Guests can expect signature Portillo’s items like Chicago-style hot dogs, Italian beef sandwiches, char-grilled burgers, and Portillo’s "famous" chocolate cake.

Hot dogs come in regular, chili cheese, Polish sausage, and Maxwell Street Polish sausage which has mustard and grilled onions.

Their Italian beef sandwich features thinly sliced roast beef served on French bread, which is then dipped in hot gravy. You can order it dipped with sweet or hot peppers and mozzarella.

Portillo's first entered the Dallas market with a location at the Grandscape development in The Colony in January 2023. They have seven other locations in DFW, in Allen, Arlington, Denton, Fort Worth, Grand Prairie, Grapevine, and Mansfield.

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