Happy Hour News

Where to drink in Dallas right now: 8 best happy hours for July

Ellie's Restaurant & Lounge

Ellie's

Summer's here, and it's time for Where to Drink, CultureMap's monthly column spotlighting best cocktails, happy hours, and special drinks. This edition includes seven happy hours, from poolside bars to secret all-day-happy-hour finds. There's also news of a fun new mixology class at a downtown Dallas hotel bar.

Here's where to drink in Dallas for July:

The Adolphus
Downtown Dallas hotel hosts a poolside happy hour Sunday-Thursday from 4-6 pm, featuring two discounted cocktails and private cabanas for rent. Two cocktails are half off: the 818 margarita on the rocks and the Sweet Escape with 818 Tequila, prickly pear shrub, blood orange liqueur, and lime. The drinks are regularly $18 but are $9 during happy hour. (The pool menu is here.) Note: It costs $50 for a daypass, and the cabanas are $300 for six people — but hey, a drink discount is a drink discount.

Ellie’s Restaurant & Lounge
Restaurant at the Hall Arts Hotel in Dallas' Arts District has a new "Summer Fridays" happy hour beginning July 11, and running every Friday through Labor Day weekend, from 2:30-5 pm. It's half-off summer cocktails, wine, and beer, plus light bites with tunes from live DJ sets.

Elm Street Cask and Kitchen
Downtown Dallas restaurant at the Hilton Garden Inn has a weekday happy hour Monday-Friday from 4-6 pm with $9 cocktails, $5 draft beer, $5 well highballs, and $4 house wine. Bites feature fried green tomatoes, chicken fried Brussels sprouts, and Cajun spiced sweet potato fries, starting at $5. The same specials can be had at a late night happy hour on Thursdays from 9-11 pm.

Hinodeya
Acclaimed Japanese ramen restaurant on Greenville Avenue might seem like an unexpected choice for a Where to Drink roundup, but they're actually a secret find, because they have a happy hour that runs all day. On Monday-Thursday, from 11 am-11 pm, they have $5 drink specials featuring beer, wine, and sake. Wednesdays they have half off wine bottles.

Kalamaki Greek
Greek restaurant in Anna from owner Reza rt Tafa and his family serving soups, salads, and gyros opened in March 2024, only recently added alcohol, namely beer and wine including labels from Greece — and at a discount, all summer long: Wine by the glass is $6 and all beers are $4.

The Parlor
Downtown Dallas Sheraton hotel bar is hosting a guided cocktail-making class every Monday with Mixology Mondays. It’s open to both visitors and hotel guests and led by the hotel’s in-house mixologist featuring a step-by-step of cocktails such as an old fashioned or a mojito. The event is 21 and up, tickets are $30. Classes are every Monday from 5-6 pm.

Table 13
Addison cocktail lounge has a new weekday happy hour featuring discounted cocktails, beer, and wine. Old fashioneds and martinis are $7, wine and spirits are $2 off, and beer is $1 off. Snacks, too: Appetizers including spinach artichoke dip, prime beef sliders, peppered prime meatballs, and New Orleans BBQ shrimp are $3 off. Happy hour is Monday-Friday from 4-7 pm.

Ten Bells Tavern
Recently reopened cat-obsessed tavern in Bishop Arts is back with a bang. It closed due to demolition for new apartments in 2022, and it has since reopened in a new space at 231 W. Eighth St. They have a weekday happy hour featuring $5 wells, drafts and cans, and $6 appetizers like hummus or chips and curry. For $5, you can get five wings. Happy hour is Monday-Friday from 3-7 pm.

cocktails happy-hours where to drink Where to Drink

Opening News

New restaurant The Gibson fills needs of its North Dallas neighborhood

The Gibson

A swanky new restaurant has debuted in North Dallas after overcoming some major obstacles: Called The Gibson, it opened in November at 17552 North Dallas Pkwy., in the space previously occupied by Maguire's Bistro & Bar, after three years in the making.

Husband-and-wife Carl and Carrie Britton first purchased the building in 2022, intending to open a spinoff of The Funky Door, their fine-dining restaurant in Lubbock.

Carrie is a big wine buff who's certified by the Court of Master Sommeliers and is also a French Wine Scholar. She opened The Funky Door in 2010 — a rare fine-dining haven in Lubbock at the time. More recently, she's turned her attention to the Dallas area, opening a French restaurant called Vieux Carre in Flower Mound in 2023 (which is currently closed temporarily).

The Gibson was slated to open sooner, but in mid-construction, they were dealt a serious blow.

"In 2023, The Gibson was devastated by thieves," Carrie says. "They destroyed the building, doubling the remodeling budget in damage by stripping copper from the walls, stealing all the electrical wiring and components, stealing equipment, and destroying everything from the AC to the floors."

To make it worse, insurance wouldn’t cover the loss because it was theft.

"It was a blow that left me truly shaken, and for a long time I couldn’t even look at the pictures of the damage," she says. "Emotionally and financially, I had to really pray about whether I was going to get this done or not. But I really felt like it was something that I needed to do. I want to be victorious. I'm not going to be a victim."

She regained her passion, returning to the vision she had for the space.

“The building had its own personality — I felt like a kind of Hollywood glamor with a new Dallas edge would be perfect," she says.

The GibsonThe Gibson

The facade and decor have an Art Deco flavor with chandeliers, a color scheme with polished black surfaces and bronze accents, and a swooping bar in the center. They've added a patio, helping to make the space right off the Tollway feel more friendly and approachable.

The menu is American with steakhouse touches. There's a tomahawk for two, ribeye, filet, and NY Strip. Plus short ribs, salmon, a burger, vegetarian risotto, and sea bass with an unexpected white chocolate strawberry buerre blanc.

There are deviled eggs, crab cakes, shrimp cocktail, and fried pickles. Entree prices start at $20 and top out at $59 for the sea bass.

Cocktails include a pear martini and a Gibson with gin and dry vermouth, garnished with an onion. A large wine list includes what Carrie describes as “unicorns” — bottles that are hard to find, including a 1982 Lafitte.

"There are very rare wines, but we also have everything, starting from $40 a bottle," she says.

They're currently open for dinner with plans to add lunch, and there's definitely an audience. Maguire's had a big following and when The Gibson got vandalized, the neighbors came out in support.

"The neighborhood has been really awesome," Carrie says. "They would alert me when things were going on, and they were really great to help watch over it. That was a big motivation."

openings