Where to Drink

Where to drink in Dallas right now: 8 best happy hours for June

Bites and drinks from Te Deseo.

Te Deseo

If you're truly committed to your cocktails, then drinking can take place any time of the day and any day of the week. But why shouldn't you avail yourself of the generosity of Dallas' hospitality industry, ready to woo you to their establishments with a dollar off here, a free wing there?

These eight happy hours all feature something new or especially discounty that make them worth the trip:

Al Biernat's North
Steakhouse is serving an exclusive cocktail and appetizer menu, available only during June. The steakhouse has partnered with Scottish Isle of Harris Gin to be the first restaurant in the U.S. to serve this ultra-smooth small-batch Gin. The special menu features three cocktails paired with a specialty mixed appetizer plate for $35, as follows:

Grapefruit Martini with grapefruit juice, St. Germaine, prosecco
Singapore Sling with Angostura bitters, lime juice
Bee's Knees with lemon juice, honey

The Mixed Appetizer Plate includes Goat Cheese Bruschetta, Roasted Prosciutto Dates stuffed with goat cheese over sweet potato crostini, Smoked Salmon Avocado, and Caprese featuring tomato mozzarella topped with basil gremolata on a cracker.

Bonchon Addison
Korean fried chicken concept has launched a special Friday Happy Hour featuring free fried chicken and $2 on all beer, including Deep Ellum Brewing Co., Asahi, Kirin, and Sapporo. You get a free order of Bonchon's Korean fried chicken including one chicken wing, chicken drum, and boneless chicken strip, prepared in one of Bonchon's three sauces. The offer available for dine-in or takeout orders only, and limited to one order per customer. You'll probably want to pick up some kimchi and japchae, while you're there. The special runs every Friday night in June - June 11, 18, and 25 - from 5-8 pm.

Dive Coastal Cuisine
Snider Plaza spot recently rolled out two new cocktails for summer: the Poolside Paloma with Avion tequila, grapefruit soda, agave nectar; and the Hibiscus Margarita with Avion tequila, hibiscus syrup, and lime juice. Their new Happy Hour is available weekdays from 2–5 pm, and all-day on Saturdays, featuring $9 margaritas.

Mot Hai Ba
French-Vietnamese concept has reopened its location in Victory Park with a Happy Hour for both food and beverage every day from 4-6 pm — not just weekdays! There's an additional 20 percent off the entire wine list on Wednesdays, while Victory Park neighbors and industry workers get 20 percent off on Tuesdays. They're open Tuesday-Saturday, closed Sunday-Monday.

Palmer's Hot Chicken
Hot chicken concept on Mockingbird Lane has created a new cocktail called the Kevin’s Sunrise, with Espolon Reposado, pineapple juice, orange juice, elderflower, and grenadine, garnished with cherry and orange. They host Froze Fridays every week, featuring $5 frozes, year-round.

The Rustic
Uptown hang has new happy hour specials, served 3-6 pm every day, featuring $5 Frozens — House Margarita, Frose, and one rotating frozen drink — and $5 Bites – Meatballs, Deviled Eggs, and Queso. They also offer a $9 "Legendary Margarita," which is, no, not $5, but still a value. And you can add a "Tequila pop" to any frozen for $3.

Shakertins
Every Tuesday through June, it's "Rock Band Karaoke" featuring Live 80, a cover band, who provide the soundtrack while you belt out the lyrics to your favorite songs and show the crowd what you’ve got. It'll end with a $500 grand prize karaoke competition. Whether you perform or not, you can can still partake in their Tuesday happy hour, featuring $2 tacos, Milagro tequila shots, and Sol beer, from 9–11 pm.

Te Deseo
Harwood District hosts a happy hour every Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday from 5-7 pm featuring $5 bites, $5 margaritas, $5 beers including Dos Equis on tap, and a $5 sparkling wine on tap. If you're feeling spendy, they've also introduced new seasonal cocktails including:

Bad Bunny, with Bacardi Superior, carrot, lime, pineapple, and Campari
Soleada Sour with passionfruit rooibos, Tito’s vodka, acidified guava nectar, soda
Dragon’s Breath with ypióca cachaça, Bacardi coconut, pomegranate, passionfruit, lime, and absinthe

where-drink cocktails lists bests

Ice Cream News

Global ice cream brand Kelvin Scale makes creamy U.S. debut in Frisco

Kelvin Scale

Ice cream cones by Kelvin Scale

A unique new ice cream shop has made its U.S. debut right here in the Dallas area: Called Kelvin Scale Ice Cream, it's a dessert shop featuring ice cream, waffles, shakes, brownies, and ice cream cakes and it's now open in Frisco at 2650 King Rd. #750, in a former spa business near the intersection of Main Street.

Kelvin Scale was originally founded in India, where it has approximately 40 locations. The name comes from a temperature scale used by scientists that starts at zero — which they wink at with a motto that says "the Absolute Zero of additives."

Bringing it to the U.S. is a team of entrepreneurs who were impressed with the premium quality of the ice cream and other menu items, says spokesman Ram Bonda.

"We make the ice cream from scratch, not from a mix, with none of the additives or stabilizers used by some ice cream brands," Bonda says.

They also tout their use of A2 milk, a whole milk that has become popular because is supposedly causes less gas or digestive discomfort than regular milk — a claim that has yet to be proven. Nonetheless, A2 milk is more expensive.

They also do not whip in much "overrun" — the industry term for infusing air to make ice cream lighter (and less costly to produce).

"The texture of our ice cream is very creamy and rich, and you definitely get more with each scoop," Bonda says.

They offer an unusual selection of flavors, with global influences such as Belgian chocolate, Biscoff cookie caramel, cotton candy, and blueberry cheesecake. More exotic offerings include chikku, made from the sapota fruit which has a distinctly caramel flavor; lychee, from the floral fruit that's popular in Asian cuisines; and Rajbhog, a flavor that pays homage to an Indian dessert featuring almonds, pistachios, and saffron.

"We'll feature 24 flavors in the store, pulled from a total bank of 70 to 80 flavors, with flavors rotating in and out according to what's in season and trending," Bonda says. The company enjoys keeping tabs on social media and weaving in flavors that turn viral.

One scoop is $4.50, but additional scoops are a dollar, making it irresistible to get two scoops instead of one.

There are sundaes of all kinds, brownies solo or with ice cream, and an entire menu of waffle treats: waffles with Nutella, waffles with fruit, a red velvet waffle, and a waffle sandwich with ice cream sandwiched between two waffles.

Frisco was a natural place to introduce the brand in the U.S., Bonda says.

"It's one of most rapidly growing cities in the U.S., and it seemed like the ideal place to launch our flagship location," he says. "The location has an open kitchen so you can see the ice cream being made."

ice cream openings