Where to Drink

Where to drink in Dallas right now: 6 small bar gems for February

Cheers at Rayo in Expo Park.

Rayo

Cut through the noise of loud bars with something a little more lowkey. This is nothing against the big fun flashy hangout. But sometimes you need a place that's laid-back. These small gems fit the bill, from a new hotel bar to one of the oldest bars in Dallas — most with happy hour offerings, and those are always welcome.

Here's where to drink in Dallas right now:

Cannon's Corner Irish Pub
Oak Cliff Irish pub located in Cannon's Village, the cool Tudor-style building at 1314 W. Davis St., is a neighborhood bar for Oak Cliff with a weekday happy hour from 2-7 pm featuring $4.75 wells, $8 Irish mules, $5 red ale, and $4.50 domestic beers. There are also food specials including $7 mussels, corned beef & cabbage rolls, and Irish nachos. On Wednesdays, they have discounts on select whiskey over $12 at half price all day.

Kleo
Hotel restaurant and bar is tucked inside the Hotel Indigo in Las Colinas, which opened in December. Like the restaurant, the bar has a Mediterranean theme, in drinks such as the Mediterranean old fashioned with a Mediterranean spice cordial and cocoa bitters; the Turkish fire drill; and a Tzatziki martini with dill infused Bombay and blanc vermouth. Check them out during the bar's weekday happy hour Monday-Thursday from 2-6 pm when cocktails are half price.

Rayo
Cool little bar in Exposition Park opened across from Fair Park in mid-2024. It's from two former Portland bartenders who envisioned an offbeat yet refined bar and eatery with an extensive cocktail program. Happy hour is Tuesday-Friday from 4-6 pm and features $7 margarita, $8 slushy, $6 daily punch, $5 Modelo. They also do some respectable food; one recent menu addition is the Spit Fire slider with spicy chorizo & Wagyu, Swiss, guacamole, caramelized onions, grilled jalapeños, chili polvo, and a quail egg on brioche.

Rodeo Cold
Throwback 1970s dive and backyard bar that opened in East Dallas in late 2024 has happy hour specials Tuesday-Friday from 3-7 pm including $5 bottled and draft beer, $5 ranch water, paloma, and The Man from Waco. If you're into drinks for the table, they carry sharable drinks like The Dolly, a glittery cocktail of pink whitney vodka, peach schnapps, and pink lemonade for $45. They have specials on bites, too, including a smash burger, patty melt, and chili dogs for $6 each; stacked fries are $8.

Saint Valentine
East Dallas bar co-owned by legendary cocktail guy Gabe Sanchez (Black Swan Saloon) features a happy hour Wednesday-Sunday from 5-8 pm. Drop in on Wednesdays for $1 wings. Classic drinks including daiquiris and margaritas are $8, a dirty gin or vodka martini is $10, and the Yo Kolby! featuring High Life Pony and Fernet Blanc is $8. In terms of food, the so-called happy meal includes a black garlic burger and fries for $12.

Stan's Blue Note
Neighborhood sports bar on Greenville Avenue is one of the oldest in Dallas, first opened in 1952. It's since grown into a spot to catch a game or beer with friends, but they also have some of the cheapest drink specials in town, Monday-Friday from 4-7 pm. Mondays feature 99-cent Busch Light drafts and $2 wells, and for those with an appetite, $1 hot dogs and tacos. They also have a new late night girl's night featuring $5 wine, White Claws, and frozen espresso martinis on Saturdays starting at 10 pm.

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Chicken & Waffles News

Celeb-owned Johnny's Chicken & Waffles opens second DFW location

dallas.culturemap.com

Johnny's Chicken & Waffles

A restaurant dedicated to chicken & waffles with celebrity ties has doubled down on Dallas-Fort Worth: Johnny's Chicken & Waffles, founded by reality TV star Crystal Smith; her ex-husband singer Ne-Yo; and Karlie Redd (VH1’s Love n’ Hip Hop), has opened a location in Fort Worth, at 2707 Race St. #117.

The restaurant opened softly on July 11, with an official opening coming on July 22.

This marks the second location for the brunch favorite: AFter debuting the concept in 2020 in the Atlanta area, they opened a location in Dallas at 1326 Botham Jean Blvd. in 2024.

Chicken & waffles, their signature dish, takes its cue from the famous Roscoe's House of Chicken & Waffles in southern California (although the dish originated in Harlem at a place called Wells Famous Home of Chicken and Waffles).

Johnny's menu lets diners mix-and-match: You choose how you want your chicken and then a flavor of waffle, so you can customize your chicken-and-waffle situation to order.

Chicken comes in choice of whole wings, tenders, Buffalo wings, or a combo
Waffles comes in choice of buttermilk, pecan, red velvet, or strawberry

Their other big signatures include mac & cheese which you can order with chicken tenders, fried shrimp, or fried lobster tail, for $29.95; and cocktails served in mason jars, such as bloody Marys, margaritas, espresso martini, and a strawberry lemonade with cognac.

They also have entrees like Cajun penne pasta, brioche French toast stuffed with cream cheese, fried shrimp basket, catfish & grits, and salads like a kale Caesar. Most items are priced between $22 and $30.

Operations manager Randy Lamp says that the Dallas restaurant has been such a smash — always busy, and especially on weekends, when brunch draws big lines — that expanding was a no-brainer.

"We thought, we have this wildly successful restaurant here, it makes sense to open something in the area — but not right in Dallas," Lamp says.

They scouted about 20 locations, but it didn't take them long to narrow it down to Fort Worth, where they opened at at 2707 Race St. #117.

"Race Street fit a lot of same criteria as our Dallas location," Lamp says. "It's centrally located but it's not in a saturated retail area, and that is to our benefit. We are careful in how we choose our neighborhoods and spaces."

Lamp says that the Dallas location "showed us some things about ourselves that we liked learning."

"One lesson we learned from Dallas is that you don't need foot traffic for brunch," he says. "People don't mind driving somewhere to get brunch. So a standalone spot with good parking becomes a positive. The Race Street location has a great parking lot right behind it, and there's no one nearby that's going to get mad if we have people waiting in line."

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