Mikayla
Oh, Dallas. You Love Your Nightlife.
Welcome to Dallas After Dark, your new go-to for everything [awesome] pertaining to Dallas nightlife. Here, we’ll be exploring the best that the Big D has to offer in terms of parties, concerts and hip happenings. No stone will go unturned or drink unfinished in our search for the most fun, debaucherous and downright riotous good times to be had in our city.
Before we go delving into the depths of Dallas nightlife, though, an overview of the current status quo seems a good idea. After all, in an attempt to find the best the city has to offer, we need to establish a starting point.
So what of it?
Well, let’s face it: Dallas nightlife is disjointed at best. Surely you’ve noticed the segregation.
No, I’m not talking about race relations, but rather the rigid cliques that form in each area of the city, limiting diffusion of persons from one area to another. In the animal and monarchical world, one calls this “inbreeding.”
If you live in Uptown, you drink in Uptown — or perhaps West Village for the more adventurous set. You live in the M-Streets? You’re most likely spending your weekends stumbling down Lower Greenville. Deep Ellum? See you at Double Wide on Saturday.
The problem with Dallasites is that we are all too comfortable with that which is familiar to us — and it gets in the way of our capacity for fun, dammit. Yes, the neighborhood bar where everybody knows your name is good fun, but what of the single tattooed girl sipping on a craft brew at a dive in Oak Cliff? Your “home bar” is comfortable, but chances are the tattooed chick is a dime, and probably wild in the bedroom. How are you going to meet her if you’re busy at the overpriced McKinney Avenue pub, being awkwardly eyeraped by the friend-of-a-friend-of-an-ex that you hit-and-quit last week? You’re just not.
And so we begin our journey of exploration into the nocturnal nuances of this great city, I have a challenge for you, Central Track readers: Explore new territory! Go to bars unknown! Interact with strangers1 Say “yes” to off-the-wall outings! Get out of your fucking bubble!
How many times have you heard your friends say, “We do the same thing every weekend!” and let loose a violent sigh? Just ban that sentence from your vernacular, Dallas. Because, I promise, it doesn’t have to be like this. You have options far and wide. Dallas is the one of the largest cities in the United States. We have enough bars and events to prove it.
You probably just haven’t been to them yet.
That’s why I’m here. I’ll help you find them.