The list of excuses is endless: your boss is a jerk and you need some personal space to avoid going all Office Space on him: You've billed too many hours for the quarter and you can't work any more, anyway; it's greater than 72 degrees during a month that normally features ice and snow; your dog died; your ex-boyfriend or girlfriend finally changed the Netflix password and now you've got to pay to stream House of Cards; your hard drive failed and you know for certain you'll never recreate that beautiful paragraph that would have finally gotten you that book deal; you started your taxes and the preliminary results are no good; you got fired; you stubbed your toe; it's your birthday; it's your friend's birthday; oh screw it you just feel like it, OK?
Day drinking is one of those activities that's just as good at dulling the blow of bad news as it is for heightening the celebration of just about anything you want to attach a few beers to. It's also a great way to erase a day, but only if you booze it up at a place that was made for drinking in the afternoon. These bars won't fail you.
Truck Yard (pictured above) This place is the king of all-day drinking in Dallas. It doesn't get any better. There's outdoor seating when the weather is nice, and when it's not you can hunker down indoors. Within a beer bottle's throw there are always a few food trucks, and the best cheesesteak around is waiting for you as soon you get drunk enough to be reminded that cheesesteaks are a good idea, which is not that drunk at all.
Ten Bells Tavern This Oak Cliff bar has become a staple since opening in 2012 in part because their kitchen turns out some great bar food, winning a Best of Dallas award in 2013. Don't miss the wings, or the fish and chips.
The bar is small, but that's OK. When the weather is nice enough (and even when it's not) you'll find people out back with glasses of beer in their hands, sitting at the picnic tables.
The Loon Have you tried to get into The Loon on the weekend after 9 p.m.? It's awful. There's this strange thing called a line that runs the length of the bar outside and you have to stand in it before you get a drink. There should never be lines at casual bars, ever. Lucky for you they open at 11 a.m. most days and the place is nearly empty: day drunk.
See also: The Loon Is Moving to Make Room for CVS, But Not Before a Proper Goodbye
The Ginger Man This Uptown bar boasts one of the better beer selections in town, and it opens at 1 p.m. seven days a week. There's picnic-style seating in the beer garden out back, an upstairs lounge with its own bar, and a balcony with still more picnic tables under a covered patio, all in support of a sizable bar that never, ever seems to be empty.
Club Schmitz Pull on a cold bottle of beer and slowly slip back in time. This place hasn't changed much since it opened in 1946. There's a set of DART tracks built over the place now, but inside, things are just as they've always been. There's bar food if you're hungry -- nickel-thin burger patties on honest buns with plenty of mustard, and plenty of fried things from the deep fryer -- but mostly there's cold beer and conversation. Find a local, buy him a beer and look out the window. You'll see Denton Drive as it was decades ago.
Lee Harvey's There's not a whole lot going on in this section of town, but Lee Harvey's is worth a trip on its own. The bar feels more like a house (with a bar and a pool table in it) and the front porch may or may not fall down before you finish your first beer, but that's what makes dive bars exciting. And if you're into dive bars and you're in Dallas, Lee Harvey's is one to hit.
