Like it or not, Bishop Arts 2.0 is happening, and the first new retail spaces are beginning to open their doors even as large swaths of the Oak Cliff sub-neighborhood are still being leveled to make way for expensive new luxury apartment complexes.
At Bishop and Melba, the first completed new building — which will soon house Lucia's new restaurant, Macellaio, a charcuterie-centric eatery with a full bar — is already home to a new concept from a Dallas brand, Tribal, a cold-pressed juice company that expanded into healthy meal plans and now is opening a juice bar, cafe and cocktail bar called Tribal All Day Cafe.
Tribal is more than the sum of its parts. The small but airy cafe serves breakfast (all day) and healthy lunches and snacks, coffee and espresso drinks, smoothies, cold-pressed juice, and a menu of liquor-enhanced juice cocktails and shots. You'll spot a bevy of trendiness on this menu: elderberry lattes, kombucha on tap, veggie bowls and smoothie add-ons such as maca and collagen peptides. But even if you don't subscribe to Goop, there's good, clean fun to be had in this bright spot.
The almond-flour tortilla chips, served with guacamole and fresh salsa ($10), make a decent gluten-free snack, and the healthy meals are hearty and worth their salt. The ALT sandwich ($9) comes piled high with avocado, lettuce, tomato, sprouts and spicy mustard on local multigrain bread, and the healthy take on migas ($7) should prove popular with the weekend brunch crowd.
But perhaps the most fun to be had here is on the drink menu, where turmeric/cayenne/black pepper cold-pressed juice shots join kombucha Moscow mules and an apple cider vinegar "oak fashioned." From the El Bucha (kombucha and tequila) to the Purple Blossom (purple cabbage, apple, lemon, gin and Champagne) to the mimosas with fresh, cold-pressed orange, grapefruit or green juice, the intersection of unabashed health and straight-up booze is kinda fun.
We dug the shots on the "for the hell of it" menu, which featured shooters such as the Fire Starter (pineapple, orange, jalapeño, lime, cilantro and tequila) and Medicine Man (orange, grapefruit, lemon, turmeric and vodka). There are healthy things in this drink, but there is also plenty of booze.
Gimmicky? Maybe. On trend? Definitely. But it's still pretty fun and healthy-ish, and after wandering the shops in Bishop Arts for a few hours, taking a few full-on shots doesn't sound too bad. The cold-pressed juice in there just makes you feel a little better about it, whether that's warranted or not. (It isn't.)
Tribal All Day Cafe, 263 N. Bishop Ave. Open 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday.