Craft Beer News

Dallas dads express love for craft beer and Lake Highlands with new brewery

Oak Highlands Brewery in Lake Highlands will feature five year-round beers and more than a dozen rotating flavors.

Photo courtesy of OHB

Craft beer is coming to Dallas' Lake Highlands neighborhood via Oak Highlands Brewery, a brewery and taproom opening on July 18 at 10484 Brockwood Rd.

That location is a warehouse that was previously owned by a T-shirt company and, before that, a vending machine and ice cream distributor. Nicknamed OHB, it comes from "local dads" Brad Mall and Derrin Williams, with the goal of becoming a destination for craft beer aficionados, starting with their neighborhood. Half of their investors are residents of Lake Highlands.

Their year-round lineup will include five beers: Tripel, Dunkelweizen, Kolsch, IPA and a Dortmunder Lager. It'll be served in their taproom, but also eventually on draft and in cans in in local bars, restaurants and retail stores.

They'll enhance that with rotating, experimental, seasonal beers, produced in small batches and featured on tap at the brewery. Ultimately, they plan on 20 taps of house-brewed beers, with up to 15 new beers at any given time. They'll also do a charity beer, with proceeds benefiting local nonprofit groups.

The brewery is 16,200 square feet, and the 3,000-square-foot taproom has windows that look into the brewing operation. OHB will be open Thursday through Saturday, with food trucks on the weekends.

To celebrate its debut, OHB is hosting a grand opening on July 18 with food trucks; beer; and live music by Charley Crockett, Shotgun Friday and Ole G. Tickets are $16.82 in advance and $20 at the door, sold on the website. There'll be a limited number of tickets sold, with no guarantees of availability on the day of the event.

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Pizza News

Donatos Pizza totes its unique crust to new location in Flower Mound

dallas.culturemap.com

Donatos

A pizza chain with a quirky obsession on its crusts is coming to Flower Mound: Donatos Pizza, the franchise famous for spreading its toppings to the very edge of the pizza, will open a location at 1400 Long Prairie Rd. #160.

According to a release, it'll open on December 17.

Donatos Pizza was founded by Jim Grote in Ohio in 1963 from a single stand, and remains family-owned. Their signature is to place the toppings on their pizzas "edge to edge" — for clueless diners who do not like plain crust edges. (Come on, the crust is the best part.)

Their menu features more than a dozen varieties of pizza such as veggie, four cheese, and pepperoni with hot honey. Their signature crust is a thin-crust but they also offer thicker alternatives as well as a cauliflower crust. Pizzas come in a 7-inch individual and go all the way up to a 14-inch large. Prices range from $15 to $25.

Fans appreciate their better-than-average ingredients and describe it as more flavorful compared to other corporate pizza chains, with a crisp thin crust and generous toppings.

In addition to pizza, Donatos' menu includes oven-baked wings, sub sandwiches, including meatball and Italian cold cuts, plus appetizers and salads.

The Flower Mound location will be a family affair, owned by Lynne and Ralph Pence, whose son Travis will oversee day-to-day operations. The Pence family has deep connections to Donatos including the fact that Lynne's sister used to work for the company, while her brother-in-law still does.

"We're from Columbus, Ohio — it is where our kids grew up and where our family is—it also happens to be the hometown and birthplace of Donatos Pizza," Lynne says. "Our daughter in Oklahoma found out Donatos was coming to Edmond, where she lives, and called us. She was so excited that Donatos was finally coming down south and we wanted to be a part of it."

This is the second Donatos in the Dallas area: a location opened in Frisco in November — the first in Texas.

There are currently 470-plus locations in 28 states. That includes 175 stores plus nearly 300 non-traditional locations nationwide, including select Red Robin restaurants, sports, and entertainment venues.

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