Tourism

Dallas Is Building a Naval Museum on the Trinity River

Tom Clancy buffs are already well-acquainted with the USS Dallas. The 5,700-ton nuclear submarine, a hair longer than your standard football field, was a main player in The Hunt for Red October. Back when the novel was published in 1984, the ship was still young, having joined the Navy's fleet just ... More >>

Roadtrip: Dublin Bottling Works Turns 121 and Celebrates Small Town Style. Plus, 7 New "Retro" Sodas.

Dublin Bottling Works is celebrating its 121st birthday next Saturday, June 9, with "fanfare, music and a giant outdoor party in downtown Dublin." I'm thinking this is a great road trip for the kids. You know, we always say we're going to get them out to the country more -- let them stare at vast ... More >>

Governor's Office Opts to Keep Selling Texas Using a Dallas Ad Agency. Just a Different One.

Till this morning, I'd never seen this 2-year-old Dallas-n-Arlington ad made by Victory Park-based TM Advertising as part of its Texas Tourism package; never had reason. (The Arts District! Souffles! The Dallas Cowboys!) But this morning we get word: The Texas Governor's Office of Economic Developme ... More >>

Top Chef: Texas Claims Some More Public Money, This Time for a Slick Tourism Web Site

​We're still waiting to see whether a judge thinks we're entitled to more details on how the producers of Top Chef will spend the estimated $400,000-plus the state paid to see its brand integrated into the show, which the show has thus far accomplished with lots of boots, Texas flags, and dish ... More >>

Top Chef To Cost Texas Taxpayers $400,000, Give Or Take the Bacon Budget

"Mmm. Taxpayer-funded chocolate is delicious."​For several weeks now, as Top Chef crews have bounced around the state shooting next season's Texas-centric version of the popular Bravo reality show, journalists and food bloggers have wondered: How much, if anything, did the state pay for the sh ... More >>

Yes, Top Chef is Shooting in Dallas; No, the City Didn't "Pay to Play"

​News broke a couple weeks back that Bravo's Top Chef, the king of reality food TV's very crowded hill, is busy shooting its next season in cities around Texas, including Dallas. And last week, things seemed to take a turn for the sinister, when Eater reported that a Dallas-based advertising c ... More >>

InFest in Summer Fun

On May 10, the "Dallas Wave" Officially Becomes Part of One of Seven New Texas Paddling Trails

TPWD/Michael BlackwellPaddling down the Dallas Trinity Trail​The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department sends word: May 10 is Texas Travel Rally Day, during which the TPWD will officially launch seven paddling trails in North Texas, beginning with the 8 a.m. shove-off from the Walnut Creek Paddling T ... More >>

For Those Who Love Their Wine

Downtown Omni Office Complex Gets First Tenant: Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau!

Sam MertenMayor Tom at the October topping-off ceremony at the downtown Omni​At present, the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau is HQ'd out of the Republic Center on N. St. Paul. But the city just sent word: The DCVB late yesterday signed a deal (amount undisclosed) with developer Jack Matthe ... More >>

NASA Enlists Caddo Mills-Based Armadillo Aerospace For A Boost to Suborbital Space

Mark Graham​Local private spaceflight player Armadillo Aerospace has always had a complex relationship with NASA. Like other NewSpace teams, they pretty much define themselves against the glacial pace and dense bureaucracy of government spaceflight -- but at least until there's a real market for s ... More >>

Rockets, Hookahs and Flamin' Hot Cheetos: Lighting A Fire At QuakeCon 2010

Photos by Patrick MichelsYears from now, they'll all be talking about that epic QuakeCon back when hookahs were still legal in Dallas.As Master o' Doom John Carmack wrapped his keynote sermon yesterday evening, the old familiar QuakeCon rhythm began drumming back to life, tap-tap-slurp, in the dim a ... More >>

BYOB: Taking a Guided Tour
Of Grapevine's Wineries

​North Texas has "poor clay soil, high humidity and really warm nights," in the words of a tour guide at Delaney Vineyards, but that hasn't stopped a few entrepreneurs from trying to jump start a wine tourism boom in Grapevine. Grapevine, home to seven wineries, has hosted an annual wine fest ... More >>

Tennessee Comes To Denton

Ten Years of Armadillo Aerospace Memories, Plus a Chat With X Prize Founder Peter Diamandis

This week's paper version of Unfair Park includes the story of Armadillo Aerospace, the eight-man team of rocket builders that's grown into one of the country's leading NewSpace start-ups. From their first days tinkering in a North Dallas loading dock a decade ago to their new home in a Caddo Mills ... More >>

With NASA's Future Uncertain, Dallas Rocketeers at Armadillo Aerospace Compete In The Race To Privatize The Final Frontier

So That's Why Dallas Safari Club Said It Won't Tolerate Child Sex Tourism

​Back at the end of January, the Dallas Safari Club sent out the head-scratchingest press release in the history of ever: Said the release, it won't tolerate companies using its conventions to sell "child sex tourism" as part of their "international hunting and fishing excursions." Who said what n ... More >>

Public Art Attack: Look, It's Good for Tourism

Dallas Convention & Visitors BureauIs Pioneer Plaza really "the best example" of Dallas's "iconic public art projects"?​Pretty sure Sam's heading to the city council's Transportation and Environment Committee meeting today, during which council members will meet with Dallas Area Rapid Transit pres ... More >>

Kids, Meet Dick

DCVB CEO Proposes a Sort of "Hospitality Tax" to Fund Marketing City, Convention Center

Kimberly Thorpe Mayor Tom Leppert at the DCVB meeting this morning. In case you couldn't tell who this is.​The annual meeting of the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau kicked off with drama and class -- a few notes played on a grand piano, a few notes sung from an opera. If you're goin ... More >>

"Look at Dallas Through the Eyes of Children Who Morph into Local Celebrities."

The Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau just sent word that locally based Terry McCullough Productions, Inc. scooped up a few Tellys at the annual awards shindig honoring commercial-makers. Among TMP's first-place prize-winners was a four-minute "travel and tourism" entry commissioned by the DC& ... More >>

Chile, You Must Try the Dallas

Phillip Jones, president of the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau, and some tourism-toutin' pals went on Chilean television to sell Dallas. The result? Magic and chaos.

Dallas a Great Convention Town -- for Nuns

The River Runs

The Elephant in the Room: The Dallas Zoo's Response to Concerned Citizens

Touring "Texas on Tour," or: How Not to Get in a Lone Star State of Mind

Tom Hicks' Delay in Arlington Has 'Em Up in Arms in Liverpool. Again.

Arlington CVB's New Boss? A Dude From Dallas, Course.

Brad Oldham Says Good Morning America All Christmas Long

Fight! Fight! Fight!

Woman's Work

This one's for the ladies

The Super Bowl: Or, What's In It For Me?

Sam Coats, Like Jim Schutze, Loves Angela Hunt

How Dallas Helped and Hurt Dallas

Gay for Dallas

Space: So Not the Final Frontier

In Flames, Cannibal Corpse

Monday, July 24, at the Ridglea Theater

Quintron and Miss Pussycat

Sunday, July 2, at Gypsy Tea Room's "Tea Room"

Fear Factor

Ever wonder what's inside the Great Trinity Forest? Enter if you dare.

Patti Smith

June 19

To See the World

Fin Fight

The hunt for lunkers lands two Amazon touring companies in court

Best Outing With the Kids

Fossil Rim Wildlife Center

A Shot in the Dark

Plus: Tourist Trap

Best Place to Go for a Day Trip

Granbury, Texas

Best Zoo

Fossil Rim Wildlife Center

Empty Beach

The Modern's Diebenkorn exhibit makes it OK to hate abstract art

Conspiracy Theory

JFK assassination buffs who peddle their wares on the grassy knoll think there's a plot to put them out of business. They may be right.

Schlock value

Despite its tourist-trap chic, Chihuahua Charlie's offers a tasty and varied Mex menu

Back on the bus

HighTone's Roadhouse tour revives rock and roll caravan