The efforts are for good reason. There's a lot of money on the line. According to the TABSReport, which tracks liquor sales based on the Texas comptroller's tax reports, the 25 highest-earning bars in Dallas collectively cleared more than $18 million just in May 2023.
Baby Dolls, the highest-earning spot outside of event venues, had total receipts of $773,972. Others that all cleared more than half a million in booze sales in May include Happiest Hour, Monarch, Komodo, Green Light Social, Vidorra, True Kitchen and Kocktails, Nick and Sam's, Carbone, Javier's, Tavern in the Grove, Biernat's, Vidorra Addison and HG Sply Co.
Dallas likes a cold drink.
But the bars that push the most drinks aren't necessarily the "best." What makes a bar a gem, a neighborhood favorite or a special night out? Is it craft or luck? Drinks or vibe? Perhaps a bit of all.
Forgive us for swooning, but the cocktail lounge Double D's, which opened in late 2022, is a perfect example of a bar that has a special energy. It feels effortless.
On a Thursday just after 8 p.m., the air outside feels like the breath from a hair dryer, even as the sun was setting. Walking into the dark and cool confines of Double D's is a relief from everything outside. A few imbibers are perched on bar stools. To the right is a lounge area with couches, backed by a rock facade a la The Brady Bunch, with a neon hot pink light punching through the room. A group of GenZers (of drinking age) is gathered around a coffee table, sipping cocktails; they could be playing Uno. They could also be in your grandma's basement. Whoever decorated the space must have scored some loot from an estate sale from the '70s.
We order an Edna's Lunchbox, based on a cocktail from a famed bar in Oklahoma City, one that's made with Miller High Life, amaretto and orange juice. It's served in an ice-cold mug and tastes like Dr Pepper. It's a slow sipper. In the early evening Double D's sports a cocktail lounge vibe with good happy hour specials and cold, hand-crafted cocktails. Later in the evening, a DJ hops into a small booth and the whole place turns into a dance floor. It's a good mix of people: older college kids all the way to 40-somethings with Facebook pages, some who stream in after dinner at El Carlos Elegante next door.
Double D's — named for its Design District neighborhood — is "not a titty bar," as a shirt reads. This is the cocktail lounge of your grandpa's polyester leisure suit dreams.
Two of the co-partners for this concept, Jeremy Elliott and Sung Joon Koo, mingle with the locals, playing host like this is their own living room and occasionally hopping behind the bar. Elliott is the embodiment of the neon sign on the back wall, dropping "All the love" on everyone he talks to.
A couple of drinks later, as we're walking out and the sun is safely tucked away for the night, a line is starting to form down the sidewalk as a bouncer checks IDs. Since its opening weekend late last year, Double D's' energy seems effortless. People pack in for, as the neon pink sign says, "All the Love."
Frankly, we need cocktail lounges this easy breezy on every Main Street in America. Co-owner and co-founder Brandon Hays is grateful the vibe here seems to have just fallen into place.
"When somebody has a beautiful baseball swing or an artist just kind of can throw something together pretty quick, it always looks like it's very easy but, yeah, it's a lot of experience and time and effort," Hays says. "A lot of losses and failures go into that too."
MySpace Beginnings
Hays started bartending at On The Border and Blackfinn in Addison in the early 2000s. Pouring drinks morphed into a gig as a self-described "promoter." When asked what that means, Hays explains he would use popular social media outlets at the time, MySpace, texts and old-fashioned business cards."I knew I'd make more money if I had more people in front of me when I was bartending. So, even when I was just bartending, I would always promote. And then I started getting a following," he says.
Other bar owners started hiring him to tend the bar for a night and promote their businesses. Freelance bartending, he'd get a percentage of sales. He sounds like a pioneering social media influencer, but Hays scoffs at the idea.
"God," he laughs. "That's a weird thing to think about."
Since those early days of slinging drinks at On The Border and posting on MySpace, things have come a long way. The Whippersnapper, High Fives, Ferris Wheeler's Backyard, Sfuzzi and Tiny Victories all fall under This and That Hospitality, which Hays co-founded along with Phil Schanbaum. Several of these spots are on our Top 100 bars list.
How does one go about creating some of the best bars in a fickle city? Hays says he and his partner start by cherry-picking locations with well-known Dallas history; their first spot, So & So's, was in the old Primo's on McKinney Avenue. Then they attach playful elements to the concepts — who doesn't like a High Five? They hone offbeat qualities and spaces where people want to unwind. For instance, their cocktail lounge Tiny Victories in Oak Cliff has a Bob Ross shrine that includes a continual loop on a TV over the bar of the artist painting happy little trees and clouds. Who doesn't want to have a cocktail and watch Bob Ross paint?
They also give thought to the specific neighborhoods for a new space, avoiding cookie-cutter concepts.
"When we did Tiny Victories in Oak Cliff there was no way we were going come in with something that we'd prepackaged somewhere else, and a feeling and a staff and a vibe that wasn't part of what the community is," Hays says. They spend time in neighborhoods first, getting to know the people and becoming students of the area.
They'll also travel to other cities to get fresh ideas. Research trips are planned to New York, Chicago and Austin, looking for pieces they can bring back to Dallas. "But luckily we don't have a lot of interference from investors or landlords or any of that. We kind of get to do what we feel is going to be the best for the space," Hays says.
So what comes off looking like a casual fun space thrown together after a vintage deep-dive on eBay was actually vetted like an FBI informant.
But as Hays alluded, these spaces don't come without their share of failures.
"They're all crushing. Like heart-crushing, because you spend so much time on these projects," Hays says of past bars and restaurants that didn't pan out. "You spend a lot of time and effort on them and, you know, you think you're doing the right things. And so it really hurts when you lose them."
The lessons learned seem evident. Small touches are noticeable at their establishments that make them stand out. Along with the Bob Ross loop, drinks at all the bars are pushed out quickly; parched bar patrons are rarely happy bar patrons. For instance, initially, Double D's was going to have a kitchen in the back but instead, the space serves as a backup bar. You don't have to use your elbows to make it to the bar for a drink, barking for attention, using a sprinter's lunge to get ahead of the bachelorette party that just showed up. Servers cruise the whole bar area with electronic devices taking orders, and return with drinks way quicker than they should at a busy bar.
This is why Double D's is one of the hot-pink glowing new additions to our annual Top 100 bars list.
Each year we like to take a lap around the bar scene and see what's new. What places did we visit once and then beg friends to return to? Places that add a tipsy flare to our city, make driving the tollway at 5 p.m. on a Friday bearable. Sometimes, anyway.
This year we've added 12 new bars to the total 100. See the full list here.
