State Fair News

Dallas restaurants salute the State Fair with their own funky fare

CBD Provisions is doing fried Oreos.

CBD Provisions

As the State Fair of Texas readies for its 2024 debut, fairgoers are anticipating the dozens of new food items that have been added this year's lineup. But on those days you're not visiting the fair, you can still indulge, since some Dallas restaurants are joining in with their own renditions of State Fair-style food.

Here are restaurants where you can to find State Fair of Texas themed food and beverages with specials running from September 27-October 20. (And we'll be adding more as they come in.)

CBD Provisions restaurant at the Joule Dallas hotel in downtown Dallas has introduced two limited-time Fair-inspired dishes: loaded fries with smoked brisket and bacon; and deep-fried Oreos in cinnamon batter with cream cheese icing.

Chef Point Bar & Restaurant is bringing back their State Fair Bloody Mary, stacked with a turkey leg, corn on the cob, deep-fried PB&J, waffles, and more.

Community Beer Co. released its annual Funnel Cake Ale, a special State Fair-style brew it serves every year during State Fair time. It combines all of the sweet and toasty flavors of a funnel cake in a convenient beer. It was released on August 22 and will be available at both Community Beer on tap and in six-pack cans and at the State Fair of Texas.

Dragonfly at Hotel ZaZa has $15 special bites, including The State Fair Poutine volcano salt fries topped with chopped brisket, BBQ sauce, scallions, cheddar cheese, and chopped onion; and blackberry cobbler, with white chocolate cream, cinnamon streusel, and graham cracker.

Fletcher’s Original Corny Dogs will not only be at the State Fair of Texas, but it also has a food truck every Friday through Sunday from 11:30 am-7:30 pm at Klyde Warren Park, where it serves all six corny dogs including The Original, Jalapeño and Cheese, the turkey Bird Dog, and a veggie corny dog.

Flying Fish is offering a Larry’s Deep Fried Banana Pudding with whipped cream, cinnamon sugar, powder sugar and topped with a vanilla cookie for $8; and alligator queso starting at $9 for a cup.

Lucky's Cafe has an $11 corn dog duo and fries paired with a $6 Cotton Candy Pilsner from Texas Ale Project.

Meddlesome Moth will offer several specials starting at $12 available after 4 pm, including Tex’s Blue Ribbon Feast, which is fried chicken, whipped sweet potatoes and marshmallow, cheddar mac and cheese, braised greens, and cornbread.

Pete's Dueling Piano Bar has a limited-time $14 cotton candy cosmopolitan featuring a lemon-flavored vodka-base, lemon juice, a splash of soda, and cotton candy-infused simple syrup.

Snuffer's is serving $8 chili cheese mini corn dogs topped with house-made chili, onions, cheddar, and jalapeños.

The Statler is all in on the fair: Overeasy will offer guests fried Monte Cristo bites for $16; Scout has funnel cake fries for $8; and Waterproof has a cotton candy cosmopolitan for $12.

UnaVida has a churro banana split, featuring fresh strawberries, Mexican vanilla ice cream, espresso chocolate sauce, brûléed bananas, caramel-filled churros, and fried candied peanuts for $12.

state-fair

Tex-Mex News

Get Tex-Mex and bargain margs at Alexander's Cantina in North Dallas

A Mexican restaurant with a killer happy hour has debuted in North Dallas: Alexander's Cantina & Cocina, a family-owned restaurant and bar, has opened at 4805 Frankford Rd. #105, a space most recently occupied by Casa Don Luis Tex-Mex and before that, a Corner Bakery.

Alexander's is a bigger-and-better spinoff of Alexander's Mex Cuisine, a restaurant opened in Plano in 2023 by Bernardo Garduño and his family, featuring Tex-Mex and street food from his hometown Mexico City.

Garduño worked for many years in the service industry before coming to Dallas in 2015. He crafted Alexander's menu by drawing on his restaurant experience, along with recipes from his mom.

Signature dishes include:

Pambazo — Mexican bread dipped in chili sauce, filled with potatoes, chorizo, and queso, then fried
Alambre — steak, ham, and bacon with onion, peppers, and cheese
Bistek a la Mexicana — steak tips, onion, and bell pepper simmered in a spicy tomato sauce until it turns into a stew

Other crowd-pleasers include chicken mole, brisket tacos, birria, fajitas, enchiladas, and more. They have a big selection of seafood including tacos with salmon and coconut shrimp, plus vegetarian options such as veggie fajitas and spinach enchiladas. One favorite extra: Their chips come not only with salsa but also black bean dip.

The new location has given them room to grow in a way they were unable to do in Plano, Garduño says.

"Plano is doing very well but that location is small, and there was no room to expand," he says. "We did extensive renovations at the Dallas location that included the addition of a bar, as well as room for parties and entertainment, like salsa on Fridays and Saturdays."

The menu at the two locations is basically the same but Dallas has a few new dishes such as mojarra frita, a whole tilapia fried and served with rice, plus carnitas, and a few more tacos, he says.

One item they recently dropped: soft-serve margaritas. Garduño was quick to jump on that early 2026 trend, and Alexander's made many a "soft-serve margarita" list, but the trend turned out to be short-lived.

"It did well for a month, but people went right back to regular margaritas," he says. "Those drinks are fun but they're very sweet. The mix has to be highly sugared in order to get the texture correct. The ingredients and equipment to make it were expensive, which meant we had to charge more for it — $16 as opposed to $10 for our regular margaritas."

Garduño has kept an eye on the trend. "We're not the only place no longer doing it," he says.

Besides, it was not a good fit with Alexander's generous happy hour, featuring $5.50 house margaritas, $6 flavored margaritas, and $4 beer, available from 11 am-6 pm every day at the Plano location, and Sunday-Thursday at Dallas.

"Our happy hour has become one of our trademarks," he says.

tex-mex openings

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