Fresh Gifts

The essential local shop for holiday gifts? Dallas Farmers Market.

The phrase "one-stop shopping" really is apropos when it comes to the Dallas Farmers Market, especially around the holidays. If your "nice list" runs the gamut from family to friends to business colleagues and beyond, you can find exactly the right gift for everyone, all in one place. Here are a few no-fail gift ideas to keep in mind this season.

Because the Dallas Farmers Market is known first and foremost for its delectable food items, expect to discover tasty gifts for every palate — and hope that your recipients share.

Everett and Elaine makes mini pecan tarts with 100 percent butter crusts and Texas pecans, at $12 for a set of three. They also make cookies at $9 a bag, and both can be found inside The Shed and at Market Provisions inside The Market.

Chelles handcrafted French macarons, found in The Market, are like a rainbow in a box. They start at six macs for $11, and larger orders can also be assembled into a tree-like tower. Mozna Chocolate makes bean-to-bar chocolates in gorgeous packaging that run $8 a bar, and that can be found in The Shed on weekends.

Looking to give something a little more savory? Scardello starts with a beautiful wooden box and fills it with a variety of artisan cheeses and crackers; pricing depends on which cheeses you choose. (Find them in The Market.) In The Shed, T-Rex Pickles uses local produce and craft beer to make jars of uniquely Texan pickles, which come in two-jar ($20), four-jar ($40), and six-jar (four large and two medium for $75) gift baskets.

For home cooks and foodies, Texas Hill Country Olive Company has gift boxes that look like pieces of art. Locally made wood boxes are filled with award-winning extra virgin olive oil, premium crushed olive oils, and balsamic vinegars. To help your friends spice things up all year long, Taqueria La Ventana's salsa roja and salsa verde come in colorful bottles that are ideally sized for stockings.

But the Dallas Farmers Market isn't just about yummy goodies. You'll also find handmade and one-of-a-kind gifts that reflect Dallas and its heritage. At Dallas Antique Company inside The Market, scoop up a few large cowhide zip pouches ($26 each) or some copper Texas ornaments ($12.50), both locally made.

At Lone Chimney Mercantile, art prints and artistic knickknacks abound, but you can't go wrong with the succulents, planted in rustic metal containers and studded with geodes and crystals (prices vary, find inside The Market).

And it's hard to get more "Dallas" than Bullzerk, the local company that churns out cheeky T-shirts, coasters, postcards, and other items with Texas-centric commentary. The music-lover in your life would be hard pressed not to love a "Willie, Waylon, George — and Beyonce" T-shirt that pays homage to some of the Lone Star State's legends for only $23 inside The Market.

This is just a small sampling of the gifts that await at the Dallas Farmers Market. Pop in to see for yourself, and check one more thing off your holiday to-do list.

T-Rex Pickles are made with local produce and craft beer.

Photo courtesy of Dallas Farmers Market

T-Rex Pickles are made with local produce and craft beer.

shopping promoted holidays

Tex-Mex News

Get Tex-Mex and bargain margs at Alexander's Cantina in North Dallas

A Mexican restaurant with a killer happy hour has debuted in North Dallas: Alexander's Cantina & Cocina, a family-owned restaurant and bar, has opened at 4805 Frankford Rd. #105, a space most recently occupied by Casa Don Luis Tex-Mex and before that, a Corner Bakery.

Alexander's is a bigger-and-better spinoff of Alexander's Mex Cuisine, a restaurant opened in Plano in 2023 by Bernardo Garduño and his family, featuring Tex-Mex and street food from his hometown Mexico City.

Garduño worked for many years in the service industry before coming to Dallas in 2015. He crafted Alexander's menu by drawing on his restaurant experience, along with recipes from his mom.

Signature dishes include:

Pambazo — Mexican bread dipped in chili sauce, filled with potatoes, chorizo, and queso, then fried
Alambre — steak, ham, and bacon with onion, peppers, and cheese
Bistek a la Mexicana — steak tips, onion, and bell pepper simmered in a spicy tomato sauce until it turns into a stew

Other crowd-pleasers include chicken mole, brisket tacos, birria, fajitas, enchiladas, and more. They have a big selection of seafood including tacos with salmon and coconut shrimp, plus vegetarian options such as veggie fajitas and spinach enchiladas. One favorite extra: Their chips come not only with salsa but also black bean dip.

The new location has given them room to grow in a way they were unable to do in Plano, Garduño says.

"Plano is doing very well but that location is small, and there was no room to expand," he says. "We did extensive renovations at the Dallas location that included the addition of a bar, as well as room for parties and entertainment, like salsa on Fridays and Saturdays."

The menu at the two locations is basically the same but Dallas has a few new dishes such as mojarra frita, a whole tilapia fried and served with rice, plus carnitas, and a few more tacos, he says.

One item they recently dropped: soft-serve margaritas. Garduño was quick to jump on that early 2026 trend, and Alexander's made many a "soft-serve margarita" list, but the trend turned out to be short-lived.

"It did well for a month, but people went right back to regular margaritas," he says. "Those drinks are fun but they're very sweet. The mix has to be highly sugared in order to get the texture correct. The ingredients and equipment to make it were expensive, which meant we had to charge more for it — $16 as opposed to $10 for our regular margaritas."

Garduño has kept an eye on the trend. "We're not the only place no longer doing it," he says.

Besides, it was not a good fit with Alexander's generous happy hour, featuring $5.50 house margaritas, $6 flavored margaritas, and $4 beer, available from 11 am-6 pm every day at the Plano location, and Sunday-Thursday at Dallas.

"Our happy hour has become one of our trademarks," he says.

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