Last night, the Nasher Sculpture Center held its monthly Art of Urban Living salon series, during which Dallas Morning News types discuss, well, urban living. The Nasher also debuted the N Bar, its latest attempt to lure folks downtown. Every third Thursday, their cafe will magically transform itself into a scenester haven by adding a DJ and hosting a lot of people dressed in black.
The salon, moderated by the News' pop culture critic Tom Maurstad, hosted Jerry Bokamper (Mr. Dallas) and Matthew Giese, managing partner of Suite; their topic was urban nightlife in Dallas. Only, it quickly became apparent their insights didn't run terribly deep or anywhere outside the Knox-Uptown-Ghostbar gamut. Despite catering to upscale thirtysomething-and-up singles, there was nary a mention of Deep Ellum, Oak Lawn, Lower Greenville, Lakewood or even Addison. You'd think with a name like Mr. Dallas, Bokamper oughta know, ya know, more about all of Dallas.
Bokamper and Giese so kept to their hot-spot Holy Trinity--Bice, Trece and, of course, Suite--that anyone new to the city, which many in the audience claimed to be, might think Dallas' club scene consists only of high gloss, high-cost drinks with high-tone interiors reminiscent of West Elm (as so eloquently put by our music editor, Jonanna Widner). And we were supposed to be impressed by Giese's explanation that the no-cover Suite charges $300 and up for bottle service so as not to "downgrade their image." Though, making a mild stab at street cred, Mr. Dallas--who looks and dresses disturbingly like my high school U.S. history teacher--did mention Lee Harvey's, perhaps for the slumming $30,000-millionaire.
In the meantime, I'll be at the Double Wide rinsing off the experience. And to answer the general consensus of questions that boiled down to, "Where do I go and when?"check out our listings. We got everybody covered.
And, by the way, according to Exhale MindBodySpa employee Gricelda Fuller, Hotel Palomar's grand opening last night was a madhouse, with an estimated 1,000-plus invitees that included Andrew Firestone and Spud Webb . With an open bar, a Stanley Korshak fashion show, DJ Paul Andrews spinning and Bandaloop flinging themselves off the building, it sounded like the event of the night. I just wish I hadn't missed Morganne, a singer billed as (slowly tilting head) "haute couture jazz." --Rich Lopez
