Best Round-the-Corner Stroll 2011 | North Henderson at McMillan avenues | Best of Dallas® 2020 | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Dallas | Dallas Observer
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Best Round-the-Corner Stroll

North Henderson at McMillan avenues

Anything you need on a Saturday afternoon (or any afternoon, really) can be found on or around the intersection of North Henderson at McMillan avenues. Get a damn good coffee at the Pearl Cup, a funky art print or gift at We Are 1976, a couch at Again Design Studio, Sputnik Modern or Form, a Bloody Mary at Barcadia and a pomerita at Café San Miguel. Do some yoga at Padma Yoga if that's what the day calls for and you're still sober. Groceries and bulk snacks at Sunflower Farmers Market are only a block out of the way. By then, Louie's, the Slip Inn and Beauty Bar will be open and you can drink knowing you have helped save the world through capitalism and fuel conservation.

Best Century Marker

White Rock Lake's Centennial

Boat parties, bass fishing, art exhibitions, fairs, cooking expos, runs, dog park days and more celebratory events marked the 100th anniversary of our fair lake. Oh, and a huge lake clean-up, which might be the most celebratory of them all. For a century, White Rock has provided cooling lake breezes, a scenic route for exercise, a place for rowing crews to practice and a home for migratory birds. It's a jewel that we haven't always treated as such, but hopefully the rash of celebration events this year has inspired Dallasites to treat it with respect.
  • N. Buckner Blvd. & E. NW Highway Dallas, TX, Dallas, 75201 Map

Best Place to Spot a Professional Athlete

Rosewood Crescent Court Hotel

Sure, you can spot Dirk and company throwing back a few PBRs at former smoke-hole The Loon, but let's face it: You'll also have to navigate through a sea of glossy twentysomethings and SMU frat boys just to get a gander at a championship-winning athlete. If you really want to rub elbows with a sports star, and possibly buy one a drink, spend an evening at the Rosewood Crescent Court Hotel. Besides being the preferred hotel for visiting sports teams, it's also home to a Mavs fave, Nobu. Don't be surprised if you share an elevator with Kobe Bryant when the Lakers visit, but just don't do like our mom and ask him if he's there for the Miller/Stevens wedding.

Best Place to Crash A Wedding

Dallas Arboretum

Courtesy Dallas Arboretum
We're not advocating you make a regular habit of showing up to weddings uninvited, but let's say you happen to be at White Rock Lake doing a little fishing (don't eat anything you catch, of course) and you happen to see some nuptials being exchanged amidst the beautiful flora in the Dallas Arboretum. Resist the urge to scream, "Don't do it!" when the minister asks that question. Instead, eavesdrop on the blissful couple's exchange of vows in the most serene of settings, follow the wedding party to the party inside the arboretum's fancy digs and enjoy a complimentary glass of Champagne. Don't usually fish in a tux? That's OK. Pretend you're that crazy cousin who just returned from the hippie commune in Peru.

Best Virtual Tour Guide

Bishop Arts District Audio Tour by Corrie Coleman

Did you know Tillman's Roadhouse used to be the site of the Texas Bowling Center? That the makeup company turned Mary Kay empire had its humble beginnings in the same area? Or that the Oak Cliff Broom Co. was once at the corner of Bishop Avenue and Seventh Street, and that its blind owner sent an oversized broom and mop to President Franklin Roosevelt to help him "sweep away the corruption" in the government — and got a thank-you letter in return? These little historical nuggets may be interesting to read, but they're even more fun when read aloud by an enthusiastic teenager who complements the text with funny sound effects and ragtime and jazz from the period. Corrie Coleman, a lifelong resident of Oak Cliff, began researching for the tour as a Girl Scout project and got so enthusiastic that the finished tour — which cites more than 50 sources — helped earned her a spot at the TAG Magnet School at the Yvonne A. Ewell Center.

Best Neighborhood

North Oak Cliff

North Oak Cliff combines all of the best parts of Austin with none of Highland Park's pretense or the West Village's douchebaggery. Instead of cookie-cutter tract housing, the oak-lined streets are populated with Tudors and craftsman bungalows like a sprawling mosaic. Depending on your location, your neighbor is rehabbing a Spanish Eclectic or chilling in his front yard, bare-chested, drinking beer, listening to conjunto and waving at you. Take a walk or a short drive and you'll find three-dollar Maker's shots and the best smoked brisket in town at Lockhart Smokehouse, a delicious licuado de fresa at El Jordan Cafe, or legendary mac 'n' cheese at Oddfellows. Used to be, people worked on one side of the river and lived on the other. Then everyone moved to Plano. Now North Oak Cliff is on the rise. Of all the neighborhoods in Dallas, it feels most like home.

Best Hipster Compound To Wait Out the Apocalypse

The Belmont Hotel

If you've gotta watch Dallas' magnificent skyline burn on Judgment Day, there is no better spot than the collection of white stucco buildings perched above Sylvan. It is a hipster ecosystem unto itself. The boutique hotel's rooms are spartan — some might call that retro — but honestly, you need to get used to a little austerity now that society as we know it has reached its nadir. Because that's an awful realization to come to, you'll probably need alcohol. The Belmont barkeeps make a great gin martini. While you're at it, take a stroll around the hotel grounds. The sidewalks are stone inlaid with pastel ceramic shards, and the landscaping is desert chic — the cacti and desert flora will outlast us all. By now, you're probably worked up an appetite, so check out Smoke before its food stores are raided. If you're feeling brunch, they have a spicy Bloody Mary that will slap you awake. Rapture or not, this could be the closest some of us will get to heaven.

Best Unsanctioned Urban Memorial

Frankie 45 tags all around Deep Ellum

Deep Ellum has pretty much always been a neighborhood covered in graffiti — beautiful street art, let's be clear, and pieces that are often commissioned by local business owners at that. Interesting, then, that the most uplifting of all the tags found these days in the neighborhood are its newest, blatantly unsanctioned efforts. In the wake of the death of 24-year-old Frankie Campagna on New Year's Day, spray-painted homages started popping up all around the neighborhood, honoring the young Deep Ellum native, bartender and frontman of the adored area greaser punk outfit Spector 45. Most simply read "45," referencing Campagna's "Frankie 45" nickname. Few, if any, have been taken down. Fitting: Campagna's father, Frank Sr., owns the Deep Ellum gallery Kettle Art and is himself responsible for a number of the other murals found on Elm, Main and Commerce streets. As much as his father, the younger Campagna was as an iconic figure in the small, close-knit neighborhood. Thanks to the "45" scribbles that still line the neighborhood walls, he remains one. More important is the message behind these marks: Deep Ellum has always been and forever will be a place that takes care of its own.

Best Cold, Hard Evidence Jesus Rode a Dinosaur

Creation Evidence Museum

Did man and dinosaurs coexist? Is the Earth merely thousands, not billions, of years old? Did Jesus ride a dinosaur and was that dinosaur named Skippy? No, of course not, dummy. Are you running for president in the GOP or something? Wake up and smell the paleontology, for Chri ... no, wait. The world's end may be near, so maybe now is a good time to start hedging some of those bets. Listen, you don't have to give up science and rationality to accept that the planet is young and velociraptors and men walked together. (In the latter's case, briefly ran screaming is more likely.) Just tool your way south to Glen Rose and check out Dr. Carl Baugh's collection of fossils of human hand and footprints from sedimentary rock. They prove conclusively that man and dinos were neighbors — or, in the alternative, that some people will believe anything. If you feel ashamed afterward, you can always stop by Dinosaur Valley State Park just down the road from the museum and suck in a little science sightseeing. You never know how this whole "apocalypse" thing might work out, so it's wise to cover your bases.

Best City Council Member

Mayor Mike Rawlings

Look, we can only give this award to District 14's Angela Hunt so many years before we start looking a touch biased. We considered Dwaine Caraway, but isn't that whole Arthur-and-Archie, at-least-he's-entertaining joke played out by now? District 3's Scott Griggs is smart, neighborhood-oriented and a proponent of walkable, bikeable neighborhoods, but we have some doubts about the Oak Cliff streetcar thing he supports, so we're going to wait to see how that flies before joining his fan club. Why pick the mayor, the man anointed by the Citizens Council, the pol who employed a political consultant being investigated by the FBI? Because five months into his term he hasn't done anything to really piss us off, which has to be a new record for a mayor in these parts. He hasn't called for any big public works boondoggles. He's come out strongly in favor of ethics reform and limiting the sway of lobbyists, and as the city's former homeless "czar" he worked diligently to bolster Dallas' care for the indigent. Oh, we know the time is coming when we'll call him all sorts of bad names, but in the meantime let's give the man a pat on the back. There's plenty of time to stick the knife in there later.

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