It's the 2025 edition of our annual CultureMap Tastemaker Awards, celebrating the people and places that make Dallas a dynamic dining destination.

It includes this special editorial series in which we're highlighting restaurants, bars, and chefs who've been nominated in eight categories by our admirable judging panel comprised of last year's winners and local dining experts. We’ll follow that with a celebration of the nominees and the winners at an awards ceremony and signature tasting event on Thursday, May 1 at the new Astoria Event Venue. (Early Bird tickets are on sale now at discounted rates of $60 for general admission and $99 for VIP.)

So far, we've covered Best Neighborhood Restaurants, Rising Star Chef, Best Coffee Shops, Best Eatertainment Restaurant, and Pastry Chef of the Year. We've also launched our Best New Restaurant category, with an accompanying tournament where you can vote once per day for your favorite nominee in a bracket-style competition. It has already reached Round 2 which ends on April 19; the entire competition ends on April 29.

For Bar of the Year, the list of nominees includes new bars and not-so-new, and ranges from a subterranean lounge to a bar perched high in a downtown hotel; from a retro-leaning cocktail lounge to a wine bar with a special niche.

Here are our 10 nominees for Bar of the Year in 2025:

Bar Sardine
French mini-bistro from the Vandelay Group brings a little Parisian charm to Snider Plaza. There are Frenchy snacks like quiche, truffle frites, and caviar, and it's also a good place to get fancy Euro-influenced drinks like a Negroni Bianco with gin, or a Margarita Royale with "fluffy" pineapple foam, prosecco, and lava salt.

Catbird
Located on the 10th floor of the Thompson Hotel, this jewel-box restaurant is definitely in the catbird's seat, with. a greenery-framed rooftop terrace overlooking the downtown skyline; an atmosphere that's a cross between swanky and buzzy; regular DJ action; creative snacks; and avant-garde cocktails such as vodka with clarified tomato water or a nitro espresso martini.

Clifton Club
Casual-sophisticated bar on Fitzhugh serving cocktails and bites has an enviable location next door to its sibling, power-player restaurant Beverley's, which makes it a kind of overflow — a place to hang before or after dinner. But the Clifton also hosts fun events — trivia nights, $10 martinis on Thursdays, and special events like Stoner Night on April 20, and they keep late-night hours, staying open on weekends until 2 am.

Columbian Country Club
Premier cocktail lounge in east Dallas from a trio of hospitality veterans pays tribute to an iconic Dallas golf club with a swinging retro flair — very New-York-City with a Wolf of Wall Street vibe. We're talking martinis, a tequila program, a piano player — a place you can have a cocktail after work or go out on a date, nosh on a sushi roll or a little caviar, with good music, where you can dance if you want.

Ginger's
Subterranean cocktail lounge in Dallas' East Quarter is a combination of moody noir and open-nightly no-reservations-required informality — like a bar you'd find in any sophisticated downtown metropolis. At $20 a pop, the cocktails — created by mixologist Sean Kenyon and bar lead Eric Simmons — are not cheap, but they're also not ordinary: the old-fashioned, for example, has rye with Texas chai syrup and Scrappy’s Aromatic Bitters, and the Fromage Noir has goat cheese-washed gin with spiced pear syrup.

Milo Butterfingers
Dallas bar was way ahead of the curve when it opened as a neighborhood honky-tonk and Dallas’ first beer garden back in 1971, and for years, it endured as a dive bar, sports bar, and SMU hang. In 2024, SMU grads Len Critcher and Chris Camillo, who'd patronized the bar themselves, acquired and restored it, adding it to their portfolio of Dallas institutions Inwood Tavern and Chelsea Corner.

Patrick Kennedy's Irish Pub
Downtown Dallas spot named for JFK’s great-grandfather is part of a family of Irish pubs from Irish native Alan Kearney (Playwright Irish Pub, The Crafty Irishman Public House, Cannon’s Corner Irish Pub). It features pub fare such as fish & chips, plus more than 100 whiskey options and dozens of beers on tap. But unlike its cozier siblings, PK is roomy with 6,500 square feet, table & booth seating, and a wrap-around outdoor patio.

Scarlet Lounge
Deep Ellum lounge in the old Truth & Alibi space has a sweet story: Longtime Truth & Alibi employee Victor Garcia, who wanted a bar of his own, took over the reins from the original owners. In the tough market that is Deep Ellum, he's created a place where you can sup on short ribs or cilantro lime chicken for dinner, then stick around for craft cocktails, bottle service, music, nightlife, and glamour.

Saint Valentine
East Dallas cocktail bar with a slight retro vibe is from a pair of acclaimed mixologists — Gabe Sanchez and Ryan Payne — who regularly win awards for their cocktails and great hospitality. At Saint Valentine, they achieve greatness without making it look like they're trying, in drinks such as the Space Vato with mezcal, Aperol, papaya, and cucumber, and in snacks such as fried olives or hashbrowns with caviar.

Valle Lounge
Wine bar and cocktail lounge in the former Bishop Cider Taproom is a spinoff from the owners of Vinito wine shop, who wanted to offer a place where patrons could sit down and enjoy a glass or bottle of Mexican wine or beer, agaves, and craft cocktails. The selection of Mexican wine comes in every varietal: tempranillo, malbec, rose, sparkling, chardonnay, chenin blanc, with many bottles in the $30 range.