Where to drink

Where to drink in Dallas right now: 5 cocktail spots to elude the heat

Pretty cocktails from Chama Gaucha

This edition of Where to Drink around Dallas comes a little late in the month, because who has the energy to do anything in this heat? Then again, this heat is enough to drive you to drink.

These five options include some happy hour specials, a fun limited-edition themed menu, and two places that are offering drinks worth driving for.

Here are the five best places in Dallas to drink right now:

Andrew's American Pizza Kitchen
Plano pizzeria has launched a new happy hour program on Sundays-Thursdays that runs for an expansive 2-7 pm. Drink specials include $7 wine by the glass, $5 select draft beer, $10 cocktails, $10 martinis, and $8 frozen drinks. Food specials include $8 bites such as buffalo wings, fried pickles, and chips & queso; and $10 bites such as pizza skins, meatballs, coconut shrimp, cheesy fries, calamari, and fried mushrooms. Cocktails worthy of mention include Grapefruit Rose Spritz, Fig Old Fashioned, Spicy Margarita, and Duel in Manhattan. Andrew’s is known for their array of pizza styles: Dallas-style pizza (the style of pizza Picasso’s was known for), Chicago-style, Detroit-style, Tavern-style, and New York-style.

Apothecary
Acclaimed cocktail spot has launched a whimsical new themed menu called The Zodiac, with 12 never-before-served items that have an astrological theme. There are six drinks and six dishes, with each sign getting a themed dish or drink. There's a Scorpio cocktail topped with a scorpion, a crudo dish for Pisces, a quail dish with an arrow through it for Sagittarius, and a cocktail with a sugar moon for Libra. The items are presented in a wheel format, so you can match your dish and your drink. The menu will run for only 12 weeks. (Other menu items will also still be available during this time.)

Chama Gaucha
If you're willing to drive for a discounted drink, then this Brazilian steakhouse in Grapevine has an extensive Happy Hour menu with food that differs from the standard zzzz churruascuia offering, plus marked-down prices on drinks. Rib eye sliders are 3 for $14, yuca fries for $5, lobster bisque for $11, charcuterie board for $22, and Wagyu bruschetta for $15. Cocktails like capirinha, margarita, and four flavored martinis - lemon drop, jolly rancher, espresso, and cheesecake, oh my a cheesecake martini - are $9 to $10. Wines by the glass are $8 and beer, including Revolver Blood and Honey, are $5.

Nobu
Sushi restaurant in Uptown has added two new cocktails made exclusively for the Dallas location. Can't get these in Miami, Toronto, Las Vegas, Chicago, Hong Kong, or any of the other 50-odd Nobus across the globe. Although it should be noted that these are zero-proof. But don't hold that against them! Alcohol can be hard for your body to process in the heat. The Sansho Verde is reminiscent of a cucumber Agua Fresca, with non-alcoholic spirit Seedlip Garden 108 (presenting fresh garden herbs and yuzu on the nose and a lingering, tingly spice on the palate) plus cucumber juice, agave, yuzu juice, and ground sansho peppercorns; and the Oaxacan Punch, a tropical cocktail made with non-alcoholic spirit Seedlip Spice 94, presenting notes of baking spice, plus passionfruit puree, lime juice, cucumber slices, ginger beer, and Lapsang Souchong Tea infused agave syrup, which creates a smokey flavor to mimic the taste of Mezcal.

Sixty Vines
The restaurant known for its revolutionary wine-on-tap program and vineyard-inspired cuisine has a new Frozen Aperol Spritz, and while it may seem a little extra to make a trip just for a cocktail, this is not just any cocktail. Deliciously bubbly and bitter, the Aperol Spritz is already in its own right among the buzziest cocktails right now, and it seems impossible to make it better, but Sixty Vines' Frozen Aperol Spritz takes it to another level. A frozen level. The drink is a blend of Aperol liqueur, Sixty Vines’ carbon neutral Sesenta Cava, orange juice, and a splash of club soda make up this frosty concoction.

cocktails Where to Drink

Free Food

Food Bank to host summer food giveaway at UNT Dallas campus

Photo by Michael Martin

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Two Dallas organizations are partnering on a big summer food giveaway: The North Texas Food Bank is joining forces with the University of North Texas at Dallas (UNT Dallas) with a mobile food distribution event at the UNT Dallas campus on Friday, July 18.

UNT Dallas and the NTFB already host a drive-through mobile pantry each month, but this one is specifically focused on children who are out of school for the summer.

Each participating family will receive about 60 pounds of food, including fresh produce, to help fill the gap left when school-provided meals are unavailable.

So far this year, the monthly mobile pantry events at UNT Dallas have provided approximately 140,000 pounds of food to more than 1,500 families and 7,000 people. Long lines usually form on University Hills Blvd. well before the gates open.

UNT Dallas has partnered with NTFB since 2020, hosting monthly mobile food distributions on campus. Each event is supported by student, faculty, and staff volunteers, providing relief to campus and community members. The university also operates the Trailblazers Care Pantry, an on-campus resource that provides groceries, hygiene products, and a Career Closet for students preparing for interviews or internships.

A recent Feeding America study found that Texas has the highest number of food-insecure people of any state, and the Dallas-Fort Worth area ranks third in the nation. Within NTFB’s 12-county service area, nearly 744,000 people, including more than 250,000 children, don’t always know where their next meal will come from. Over 60 percent of that population lives in Dallas County.

The July 18 food distribution is first-come, first-served, and no ID or pre-registration is required. Participants must arrive in a vehicle, as this is a drive-through-only event. It'll run from 8-11 am, or while supplies last, at the UNT Dallas campus in southern Dallas, at 7300 University Hills Blvd.

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