Where to Drink

Where to drink in Dallas right now: 8 bars with best new happy hours

Happy Hour has arrived.

Photo courtesy of Desert Door

There are so many exciting new happy hour specials and deals for October that this list goes beyond the usual best 5. This time, five is not enough. This edition of Where to Drink has eight new happy hours you simply must try.

Here's where to drink for October:

24 Hot Chicken & Waffle Bar, the Plano restaurant that serves Nashville-style hot chicken tenders and sandwiches, is offering the deal of the century: draft beer for $1. You read that right: $1 for Dallas Blonde beers. On weekends, they fire it up with shots of Fireball for $2.50. Their signature is their Nashville hot chicken sandwich, with a crunchy, spicy-hot chicken breast, pickles, and their trademark "comeback sauce." The $1 drafts are all day every day; the Fireball deal is Friday-Saturday-Sunday.

Big Al's Smokehouse BBQ, the barbecue legend that opened near Dallas Love Field in 1974, is turning 45. In honor of this milestone, they are hosting a new happy hour every day, including weekends. Weekends, too. Specials include $1 off all adult beverages and a menu of specially priced snacks including Brisket Queso with House Chips, Brisket Nachos, Cheese Fries, and Buffalo and BBQ Style Wings. Daily, 4-7 pm.

Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar is offering one special deal: A Manhattan cocktail, paired with steak frites, for $35. The steak frites stars a 9-ounce NY strip steak. The Manhattan is a top-shelf cocktail made with Knob Creek Rye and Luxardo cherries. If you prefer wine, they'll pair you up with a glass of Daou Cabernet Sauvignon from Paso Robles. It's at the bar only, not the dining room, and it's available through November 27. 11:30 am-11 pm.

The Fairmont Dallas' Lobby Bar has a few items to lure you in to their weekday happy hour. The Texas Two Step feature combines shrimp tacos with a local wine or draft beer for $10. Other deals include $4 glasses of wine and Texas beers. A big-screen projector behind the bar shows live sporting games. Monday-Friday 3-6 pm.

Lounge Here, the hipster East Dallas restaurant-bar, is starting a new tradition called First Mondays. Until now, they've been closed Mondays, but it's their three-year anniversary, and they're celebrating by opening on the first Monday of the month, with happy hour prices plus a menu of snacks. For music fans, they're also tying it into a cross promotion with their sibling Good Records next door, where you get 10 percent off your Good Records purchase with any receipt from Lounge Here, and vice versa. Bring a Good Records receipt in to Lounge Here, and it's 10 percent off. Monday October 7, 4-10 pm.

MoMo Italian Kitchen, the long-standing Italian restaurant in North Dallas, recently renovated and expanded into the neighboring space, and now has a bar area with seating and private dining space. To celebrate, they've introduced a new weekday "Apertivi Hour" featuring signature wine-based cocktails such as the Vecchio Stile, Negoni Sbagliato, and the Tissimo; plus select wines; and Montucky Cold Snack Lager Beer; priced from $3-$7. Small plates including antipasto, lamb meatballs, gnocchi di spinaci, imported bresaola, acciughe, and the vegan fungi fresci are $2-$6. Monday-Friday 5-7 pm, Wednesday 5-8 pm.

Petro Bar & Bistro at the Cambria Hotel in downtown Dallas has introduced a Ladies Night every Wednesday. Rather than the usual Happy Hour that starts at 4 pm and ends at 7 pm, this one gives ladies the deals until midnight. Specials include 30 percent off all beers & wines by the glass, and $5 house margaritas. There's also a menu of small plates, priced from $3-$4 that includes chicken tacos, beef sliders, togarashi fries with citrus sriracha, and white cheddar & sour cream house potato chips. Wednesdays 4 pm-12 am.

Up On Knox, the Knox-Henderson restaurant and bar, has a new happy hour as well as a "reverse" happy hour with half-price menu items, martinis, and wines. You get half price on oysters, shrimp tacos, and sliders. You get half price on wines such as The Quilt Cabernet Sauvignon, Royal Prince Pinot Noir, Stag's Leap Chardonnay, Alois Lagader Pinot Grigio, and Gruet Sparkling Sauvage. You get half price on cocktails that include cosmopolitans, daiquiris, Manhattans, and gin & vodka martinis. They're also offering discounts on dishes such as grilled avocado, hand-cut fries, charcuterie, cheese plate, and meatballs. Mondays, all bottles of wine are half off. Sunday-Friday 3:30-7 pm, and reverse happy hour Friday-Saturday 9-11 pm.

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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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