• Home
  • popular
  • Events
  • Submit New Event
  • Subscribe
  • About
  • News
  • Restaurants + Bars
  • City Life
  • Entertainment
  • Travel
  • Real Estate
  • Arts
  • Society
  • Home + Design
  • Fashion + Beauty
  • Innovation
  • Sports
  • Charity Guide
  • children
  • education
  • health
  • veterans
  • SOCIAL SERVICES
  • ARTS + CULTURE
  • animals
  • lgbtq
  • New Charity
  • Series
  • Delivery Limited
  • DTX Giveaway 2012
  • DTX Ski Magic
  • dtx woodford reserve manhattans
  • Your Home in the Sky
  • DTX Best of 2013
  • DTX Trailblazers
  • Tastemakers Dallas 2017
  • Healthy Perspectives
  • Neighborhood Eats 2015
  • The Art of Making Whiskey
  • DTX International Film Festival
  • DTX Tatum Brown
  • Tastemaker Awards 2016 Dallas
  • DTX McCurley 2014
  • DTX Cars in Lifestyle
  • DTX Beyond presents Party Perfect
  • DTX Texas Health Resources
  • DART 2018
  • Alexan Central
  • State Fair 2018
  • Formula 1 Giveaway
  • Zatar
  • CityLine
  • Vision Veritas
  • Okay to Say
  • Hearts on the Trinity
  • DFW Auto Show 2015
  • Northpark 50
  • Anteks Curated
  • Red Bull Cliff Diving
  • Maggie Louise Confections Dallas
  • Gaia
  • Red Bull Global Rally Cross
  • NorthPark Holiday 2015
  • Ethan's View Dallas
  • DTX City Centre 2013
  • Galleria Dallas
  • Briggs Freeman Sotheby's International Realty Luxury Homes in Dallas Texas
  • DTX Island Time
  • Simpson Property Group SkyHouse
  • DIFFA
  • Lotus Shop
  • Holiday Pop Up Shop Dallas
  • Clothes Circuit
  • DTX Tastemakers 2014
  • Elite Dental
  • Elan City Lights
  • Dallas Charity Guide
  • DTX Music Scene 2013
  • One Arts Party at the Plaza
  • J.R. Ewing
  • AMLI Design District Vibrant Living
  • Crest at Oak Park
  • Braun Enterprises Dallas
  • NorthPark
  • Victory Park
  • DTX Common Desk
  • DTX Osborne Advisors
  • DTX Comforts of Home 2012
  • DFW Showcase Tour of Homes
  • DTX Neighborhood Eats
  • DTX Comforts of Home 2013
  • DTX Auto Awards
  • Cottonwood Art Festival 2017
  • Nasher Store
  • Guardian of The Glenlivet
  • Zyn22
  • Dallas Rx
  • Yellow Rose Gala
  • Opendoor
  • DTX Sun and Ski
  • Crow Collection
  • DTX Tastes of the Season
  • Skye of Turtle Creek Dallas
  • Cottonwood Art Festival
  • DTX Charity Challenge
  • DTX Culture Motive
  • DTX Good Eats 2012
  • DTX_15Winks
  • St. Bernard Sports
  • Jose
  • DTX SMU 2014
  • DTX Up to Speed
  • st bernard
  • Ardan West Village
  • DTX New York Fashion Week spring 2016
  • Taste the Difference
  • Parktoberfest 2016
  • Bob's Steak and Chop House
  • DTX Smart Luxury
  • DTX Earth Day
  • DTX_Gaylord_Promoted_Series
  • IIDA Lavish
  • Huffhines Art Trails 2017
  • Red Bull Flying Bach Dallas
  • Y+A Real Estate
  • Beauty Basics
  • DTX Pet of the Week
  • Long Cove
  • Charity Challenge 2014
  • Legacy West
  • Wildflower
  • Stillwater Capital
  • Tulum
  • DTX Texas Traveler
  • Dallas DART
  • Soldiers' Angels
  • Alexan Riveredge
  • Ebby Halliday Realtors
  • Zephyr Gin
  • Sixty Five Hundred Scene
  • Christy Berry
  • Entertainment Destination
  • Dallas Art Fair 2015
  • St. Bernard Sports Duck Head
  • Jameson DTX
  • Alara Uptown Dallas
  • Cottonwood Art Festival fall 2017
  • DTX Tastemakers 2015
  • Cottonwood Arts Festival
  • The Taylor
  • Decks in the Park
  • Alexan Henderson
  • Gallery at Turtle Creek
  • Omni Hotel DTX
  • Red on the Runway
  • Whole Foods Dallas 2018
  • Artizone Essential Eats
  • Galleria Dallas Runway Revue
  • State Fair 2016 Promoted
  • Trigger's Toys Ultimate Cocktail Experience
  • Dean's Texas Cuisine
  • Real Weddings Dallas
  • Real Housewives of Dallas
  • Jan Barboglio
  • Wildflower Arts and Music Festival
  • Hearts for Hounds
  • Okay to Say Dallas
  • Indochino Dallas
  • Old Forester Dallas
  • Dallas Apartment Locators
  • Dallas Summer Musicals
  • PSW Real Estate Dallas
  • Paintzen
  • DTX Dave Perry-Miller
  • DTX Reliant
  • Get in the Spirit
  • Bachendorf's
  • Holiday Wonder
  • Village on the Parkway
  • City Lifestyle
  • opportunity knox villa-o restaurant
  • Nasher Summer Sale
  • Simpson Property Group
  • Holiday Gift Guide 2017 Dallas
  • Carlisle & Vine
  • DTX New Beginnings
  • Get in the Game
  • Red Bull Air Race
  • Dallas DanceFest
  • 2015 Dallas Stylemaker
  • Youth With Faces
  • Energy Ogre
  • DTX Renewable You
  • Galleria Dallas Decadence
  • Bella MD
  • Tractorbeam
  • Young Texans Against Cancer
  • Fresh Start Dallas
  • Dallas Farmers Market
  • Soldier's Angels Dallas
  • Shipt
  • Elite Dental
  • Texas Restaurant Association 2017
  • State Fair 2017
  • Scottish Rite
  • Brooklyn Brewery
  • DTX_Stylemakers
  • Alexan Crossings
  • Ascent Victory Park
  • Top Texans Under 30 Dallas
  • Discover Downtown Dallas
  • San Luis Resort Dallas
  • Greystar The Collection
  • FIG Finale
  • Greystar M Line Tower
  • Lincoln Motor Company
  • The Shelby
  • Jonathan Goldwater Events
  • Windrose Tower
  • Gift Guide 2016
  • State Fair of Texas 2016
  • Choctaw Dallas
  • TodayTix Dallas promoted
  • Whole Foods
  • Unbranded 2014
  • Frisco Square
  • Unbranded 2016
  • Circuit of the Americas 2018
  • The Katy
  • Snap Kitchen
  • Partners Card
  • Omni Hotels Dallas
  • Landmark on Lovers
  • Harwood Herd
  • Galveston.com Dallas
  • Holiday Happenings Dallas 2018
  • TenantBase
  • Cottonwood Art Festival 2018
  • Hawkins-Welwood Homes
  • The Inner Circle Dallas
  • Eating in Season Dallas
  • ATTPAC Behind the Curtain
  • TodayTix Dallas
  • The Alexan
  • Toyota Music Factory
  • Nosh Box Eatery
  • Wildflower 2018
  • Society Style Dallas 2018
  • Texas Scottish Rite Hospital 2018
  • 5 Mockingbird
  • 4110 Fairmount
  • Visit Taos
  • Allegro Addison
  • Dallas Tastemakers 2018
  • The Village apartments
  • City of Burleson Dallas

    Tastemaker Best Bars

    Tastemaker Best Bar contenders give Dallas drinkers a reason to raise a glass

    Teresa Gubbins
    Apr 18, 2014 | 12:12 pm

    We're excited about our first-ever CultureMap Dallas Tastemaker Awards, where we celebrate the talent in the local food and drink community. Our editors selected the nominees, and a panel of experts chose winners in nine categories — which will be revealed at our big event on May 6.

    So far, we've applauded the city's top pastry chefs and tipped our hat to the best breweries in town. Now we get to the fun stuff: best bars. Our list covers the spectrum — from the fancy hotel canteen to the funkiest dive, from the best beer bar to the pub with excellent food.

    After you've scanned this list of Best Bar contenders, head over and cast your vote in our Best New Restaurant tournament.

    Adair's Saloon
    This Deep Ellum dive is famous for beers in cans, burgers and live country music. The walls are covered with Sharpie art, and you're encouraged to add to the ever-growing mosaic of dirty rhymes and initial-filled hearts. Live music is a big draw; a Red Dirt band plays just about every night.

    Black Swan Saloon
    Understated bar in Deep Ellum is hard to find but worth the search. Owner and accomplished mixologist Gabe Sanchez knows his way around the art and magic of fruit-infused vodkas and bourbons.

    Common Table
    A pioneering presence on the local craft beer scene, Common Table boasts one of the best selections of beer on tap in the city. The bar is a destination for local beers clubs and brewers from around the country. Plus it boasts a good menu with fried calamari, margherita flatbread, and chicken and dumplings.

    Katy Trail Ice House
    Best patio anywhere, with long community tables, idyllic location off the Katy Trail and 50 taps of beer all combine to make the Ice House a major presence in Uptown Dallas. It's also dog-friendly.

    Lee Harvey's
    Quirky bar in urban South Dallas neighborhood is an acquired taste. With its enormous patio in front, it's more of an outdoor bar than anything else, with picnic tables and cheap beer. Sunday afternoons, it becomes a giant dog park, and the place has at least two unofficial mascots, one a dog, the other a cat called Bacon.

    Libertine Bar
    As Greenville Avenue becomes more cool and more crowded, the Libertine becomes a more invaluable alternative. The laid-back vibe is somewhere between stoner and hipster, while the selection of beer on tap is as good as it gets in Dallas. A nifty menu of edibles is priced at $10 or less and includes a few vegan dishes.

    Mansion Bar
    Like the Mansion restaurant and hotel, the Mansion Bar is a class act, through and through. With its marble on the floor and petite size, it feels European. More a collection of cozy nooks than anything else, it provides the perfect location for a nightcap or an illicit rendezvous.

    Standard Pour
    Uptown's version of a dive translates into a spot that's informal yet has the sophistication of a cocktail lounge. There's plenty of see-and-be-seen along with well-made drinks like the Moscow Mule: vodka, ginger and lime juice served in a copper mug.

    Trinity Hall
    This Mockingbird Station hangout has the classic trappings of an Irish pub — rich mahogany wood, live music, wide assortment of beers and excellent food for a bar, including an ever-growing selection of vegan items. Owner Marius Donnelly is an incomparably hospitable and accommodating host.

    ---

    Come celebrate the Tastemakers with us on Tuesday, May 6, at Seven for Parties in the Dallas Design District. To learn more about the event, including information about our beneficiaries, judges, participating restaurants and ticket sales, visit our Tastemakers website.

    Common Table

    The Common Table in Dallas
      
    The Common Table/Facebook
    Common Table
    unspecifiedseries554589738
    news/restaurants-bars
    series/dtx-tastemakers-2014

    most read posts

    Dark comedy Friendship covers male bonding with copious cringing

    Dallas house for sale from the '50s is still in original condition

    Dallas farm-to-table champion Profound Farms closes produce operation

    Tex-Mex News

    Upscale Dallas Mexican restaurant Hugo's Invitados closes last outlet

    Teresa Gubbins
    May 19, 2025 | 4:33 pm
    Hugo's Invitados
    Photo courtesy of Hugo's Invitados
    undefined

    A highly-regarded Mexican restaurant has closed: Hugo's Invitados, which had been wowing crowds at its Las Colinas location 5240 N. O'Connor Blvd. #160 since 2018, closed in mid-May.

    According to spokesperson Matt Whiteley, the lockout came as a surprise. The restaurant issued a statement which said that "we find ourselves unexpectedly closed," before apologizing for the "incredible inconvenience."

    "We assure you, this was not our decision. We were in the midst of ongoing negotiations with property ownership, when the proprietors elected, without warning, to suddenly and fully terminate the terms of our lease," their statement said.

    Hugo's first opened as a partnership between entrepreneur Mark Hulme and restaurateur Hugo Miranda (Meso Maya), with an ambitious and well-executed menu of chef-driven Mexican food with dishes such as Wagyu carne asada, Mexican cioppino, and scallops with huitlacoche & corn couli. Margaritas were made with organic ingredients, and everything on the menu was gluten-free.

    They went on to open a Tex-Mex spinoff Hugo's Lost Colony in 2021, followed by the debut of a fresh taqueria called Honest Taco in Dallas' West Village in 2022. (They also had plans to open a second Hugo's in Uptown Dallas in the McKinney & Olive luxury tower but that plan got scuttled; they went on to open a Hugo's in the West Village in 2023.)

    Their momentum got derailed due to a string of unfortunate circumstances — including Miranda contracting COVID in 2020, as well as a change at the West Village, where restaurateur Mike Karns took over as majority owner and promptly installed his own concepts in the Honest Taco space: first Mexican Test Kitchen, a pop-up, which he replaced with UnaVida, now reportedly closed.

    But the original Hugo's at Las Colinas still had a loyal and consistent following, and had also become a destination for gluten-free diners, Whiteley says.

    "That location was still doing very well," he says. "We had regulars from the neighborhood as well as customers who came from outside the area, and we also had the same staff who were with us from day one, who cared deeply and who get all the credit for the quality and service."

    They hadn't lagged significantly on rent and were anticipating a brisk Mother's Day weekend with full reservations; alas, the new-ish landlord, a company called Water Street O'Connor LP, abruptly locked the space the Thursday before.

    "It would have been a special weekend for our customers as well as for our 70-plus employees, whose livelihoods depended on this small business," Whiteley says.

    It's an unfortunate ending for a restaurant that could have been a run-of-the-mill Tex-Mex but was instead something much better, and Whiteley says that, at this point, as much as they'd like to revive it, the likelihood that it will resurface is slim.

    tex-mexclosings
    news/restaurants-bars
    series/dtx-tastemakers-2014
    CULTUREMAP EMAILS ARE AWESOME
    Get Dallas intel delivered daily.
    Loading...