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Written by Administrator
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Tuesday, 29 July 2008 |
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Contrary to popular belief, there's no oil in glitzy, status-conscious DALLAS . Since its foundation as a prairie trading post, by Tennessee lawyer John Neely Bryan and his Arkansan friend Joe Dallas in 1841, successive generations of entrepreneurs have amassed wealth here through trade and finance, using first cattle and later oil reserves as collateral. One early group of European settlers of the 1850s a group of French intellectuals and artists known as the La Reunion co-operative had to pack up and move on after a series of summer droughts and a harsh winter; the few who stayed would include a future mayor of Dallas. The city still prides itself on their legacy of arts and high culture.
The power of money in Dallas was demonstrated in the late 1950s, when its financiers threw their weight behind integration. Potentially racist restaurant owners and bus drivers were pressured not to resist the new policies, and Dallas was spared major upheavals. The city's image was, however, catastrophically tarnished by the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, and it took the building of the giant Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in the 1960s, and the twin successes of the Dallas TV show and the Cowboys football team in the 1970s to restore confidence. After a slump in the late 1980s, the Cowboys are back in the big time, though their off-field antics have provided the nation's papers with some anti-Dallas copy once again.
Competitive with Houston, and smug about its cowtown neighbor Fort Worth, Dallas boasts of its ''sophistication'' and its ''old'' wealth. For all that, the stuffiness is tempered by a typically Texan delight in self-parody, and there's still fun to be had if you know where to look especially in the alternative Deep Ellum district, with its superb restaurants and nightlife.
Downtown Dallas is a hymn to commerce. Many of its skyscrapers are landmarks in themselves; at night the red neon Mobil Pegasus on the 1921 Magnolia Building on Akard and Commerce streets appears to gallop over the city, while over two miles of green argon tubing delineate the 72-story Bank of America building. The original Neiman Marcus department store, set up in 1907 by sister and brother Carrie Neiman and Herbert Marcus and famed for its glamorous Christmas catalog, is still there on Main Street (Mon-Sat 10am-6pm, Thurs until 8pm). One refuge is the Center for World Thanksgiving at Thanksgiving Square at the intersection of Akard, Ervay and Bryan streets and Pacific Avenue (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat & Sun 1-5pm), with its meditation garden, fountains and modern spiraling chapel - though even here pealing bells boom out at regular intervals. South of the square on Ervay Street looms the precarious upside-down pyramid of City Hall , possibly familiar as the police station in Robocop .
On the north edge of downtown, the Arts District boasts the huge and wide-ranging Dallas Museum of Art , 1717 N Harwood St (Tues-Sun 11am-5pm, Thurs until 9pm; free, around $5 for special exhibits; tel 214/922-1200, ), which has plenty of European works downstairs, including a good range of Mondrians, and an especially impressive pre-Columbian collection in the Gallery of the Americas upstairs. Two blocks east, at 2301 Flora St, the magnificent Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center , designed by I.M. Pei, is the home of the symphony orchestra. The vast geometries of glass, onyx and wood inside cost $80 million, as the tour guides won't let you forget.
Tourists flock to the restored redbrick warehouses of the West End Historic District , the site of the original 1841 settlement on Lamar and Munger streets, for the eighty stores and twenty restaurants here. The indoor marketplace has become something of an amusement arcade, with a Planet Hollywood , tacky giftshops, crazy golf, and fast-food outlets.
A couple of blocks south and west of here lies Dealey Plaza , forever associated with the Kennedy assassination. A small park beside Houston Street's triple underpass, it remains unchanged since the fateful day - in fact, since it was designed by a committee which included LBJ, in the late 1930s - and must be one of the most recognizable urban streetscapes in the world. The Texas Schoolbook Depository itself, at 411 Elm St, is now the Dallas County Administration Building, the penultimate floor of which houses The Sixth Floor Museum (daily 9am-6pm; $9, or $12 with audio tour; tel 214/747-6660 or 1-888/485-4854, ). Displays build up a suspenseful narrative, with the infamous blurred 8mm images of Kennedy crumpling into Jackie's arms left until the end, at which point there's likely to be much sobbing from moved visitors, who can exorcize their grief by writing in the "memory book." The "gunman's nest" has been re-created and, whatever you feel about Oswald's guilt, it is undeniably chilling to look down at the streets below and imagine the mayhem the shooter must have seen that day.
One block west of Dealey Plaza, in the Dallas Historical Plaza on Main and Market streets, an open cenotaph, designed by Philip Johnson and enclosing an 8ft flat granite block, stands as the John F. Kennedy Memorial . Alongside, at 110 S Market St, the Conspiracy Museum (daily 10am-6pm; $7) is a dreadful waste of money. It strives to impress with its CD-ROM technology, but in fact displays the usual amateurish hand-drawn diagrams and wild accusations, interpreting virtually every public act in America since the late 1950s as the work of the Professional War Machine.
A little further south and east is the city's main business and administrative district, focused around City Hall on Marilla Street. Pioneer Plaza , at Young and Griffin streets, holds the world's largest bronze sculpture, a monument to the cattle drives that depicts forty longhorn steers under the guidance of three cowboys.
You can see all of these and much more from the 51st-story observation deck in the Reunion Tower , 300 Reunion Blvd (daily 10am-10.30pm; $2), on the east side of downtown next to the Amtrak station. The Dome Lounge , in the Tower, provides a good place to sip some liquor.
Farther southeast, across I-30, near Harwood Street at 1717 Gano St, Dallas's first park, Old City Park , now serves as both recreational area and museum, charting the history of the city from 1840 to 1910 through more than thirty buildings relocated from towns in north Texas, among them a farmhouse, a bank, a train station, a store, a church and a schoolhouse (Tues-Sat 10am-4pm, Sun noon-4pm; tours Tues-Sat 11.30am and 1.30pm, Sun 12:30pm and 2:30pm; $7; 214/421-5141, ).
ARRIVAL
Dallas is served by two major airports. Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) (tel 972/574-4420, ), as big as Manhattan and the world's second busiest airport, is exactly midway between the two cities (around 17 miles from each). Telephones in the baggage claim area link up to a variety of different shuttle buses , such as Super Shuttle (tel 817/329-2000, ) and Discount Shuttle (tel 817/267-5150, ), all charging around $15 to downtown; taxis cost around $40 (Yellow/Checker tel 214/426-6262). The other major airport, Love Field (tel 214/670-6080), used mostly by Southwest Airlines, lies about nine miles northwest of Dallas, from where taxis to downtown cost around $15, shuttles charge $9, or you can take bus #39 to downtown for a total of $1. Greyhound is at 205 S Lamar St downtown, while Amtrak's 1916 Union Station is further west at 400 S Houston St. The Trinity Railway Express service goes east to Richland Hills; once construction is completed, the service will continue to downtown Fort Worth.
Dallas proper is circled by Inner Loop 12 (or Northwest Highway) and the Outer Loop I-635 (which becomes LBJ Freeway). A car makes sense in a city this size, though the main sights of downtown's Central Business District are easy to tour on foot. The downtown visitor center is at the "Old Red" Courthouse, 100 S Houston St, in the thick of the Kennedy-related sights (daily 9am-6pm; tel 214/571-1300, ). The city also runs a 24-hour Events Hotline (tel 214/571-1301).
DART, the Dallas Area Rapid Transit system (tel 214/979-1111, ), operates the city's buses ($1 local services, $2 express buses and trains) and a swish light rail network that links downtown and the Dallas Convention Center with the West End and various sights (fares $1 local, $2 express; all-day pass $2). Both DART buses and trains operate every day from 5am to 12.30am. The McKinney Trolley (tel 214/855-0006, ) runs north from the downtown Dallas Museum of Art to the historic McKinney Avenue area (every 30min daily 10am-10pm; one-way $1.50, all-day pass $3).
The post office is at 1201 Main St (Mon-Fri 6am-4pm, Sat 6am-2pm; tel 214/752-5654; zip code 75202).
EATING
Many of the less expensive - and least extravagant - of Dallas's five thousand restaurants are concentrated in Lower Greenville Avenue , which runs northeast of downtown parallel to I-75, and trendier Deep Ellum , where even the excellent New American cuisine won't break the bank.
Café Brasil 2815 Elm St tel 214/747-2730). Open 24hr on weekends with great omelets, crepes and enchiladas.
Deep Ellum Café 2706 Elm St tel 214/741-9012. The first restaurant in the area and still the benchmark for the rest. Very popular, serving delicious, casual food (think waffles, crepes, sandwiches) for around $10. Open until 2am on Fri and Sat.
El Fenix 1601 McKinney Ave tel 214/747-1121. Don't let its ubiquity within the Metroplex stop you from trying out this ultra-reliable Tex-Mex favorite; don't miss the tortilla soup.
Firehouse 1928 Greenville Ave tel 214/826-2468). Inventive (if a bit pricey) menu - think antelope tenderloin - smack in the middle of Lower Greenville.
The French Room The Adolphus 1321 Commerce St tel 214/742-8200. Perhaps the best restaurant in the state, with prices to match the top-notch French food and exquisite decor (hand-blown crystal chandeliers, marble floors and so on).
Gloria's 600 W Davis St tel 214/948-3672. Catfish ceviche, hot banana-leaf tamales and other low-priced, top-quality El Salvadorean dishes.
Green Room 2715 Elm St tel 214/748-7666. Post-modern decor, with up-to-the-minute American cuisine downstairs, and pizzas on the roof with views across Deep Ellum to downtown.
Mia's 4322 Lemmon Ave tel 214/526-1020. A family-run Mexican restaurant, a favorite with the Dallas Cowboys.
Monica's Aca y Alla 2914 Main St tel 214/748-7140. Wood-grilled nouvelle Mexican food, with dashes of Mediterranean and Asian influences, in a Deep Ellum hot spot jumping with live salsa and mambo on weekends.
Samba Room 4514 Travis Walk tel 214/522-4137. Sexy, Cuban-themed space with fabulous mojitos and a beautiful patio.
Sonny Bryan's Smokehouse 2202 Inwood Rd tel 214/357-7120. The original location - it still looks like a shack - of a favorite local barbecue chain, but get there in good time as the meat can be all snapped up by early afternoon.
ENTERTAINMENT
The two nightlife destinations in Dallas have to be offbeat Deep Ellum - where among the trendy clubs the innovative Pegasus Theater , 3916 Main St (tel 214/821-6005, ), puts on avant-garde and independent plays - and the ever-so-slightly gritty Lower Greenville . Elsewhere nightlife is pretty formal. Mainstream attractions include the Dallas Symphony Orchestra at the showpiece Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center (tel 214/670-3600, ), and the Dallas Black Dance Theater at 2627 Flora St (tel 214/871-2376, ). In June and July, free Shakespeare in the Park performances are held in Samuell-Grand Park, east of downtown near the intersection of I-30 and Hwy-87 (tel 214/559-2782, ).
For a real Wild West night out, head to the Mesquite Championship Rodeo , well out of town on I-635 at Military Parkway (April-Oct Fri & Sat 8pm; $10-28; tel 972/285-8777, ).
Full listings can be found in Thursday's Dallas Observer ( ), Friday's Dallas Morning News ( ), or the events information line (tel 214/571-1301).
Adair's 2624 Commerce St tel 214/939-9900. A country-music bar that attracts both old-timers and students with its hard-edged honky-tonk music.
Bar of Soap 3615 Parry Ave tel 214/823-6617. Groovy pub-cum-laundromat on the outskirts of Deep Ellum, opposite Fair Park. Open daily 3pm-2am, no cover.
Club Clearview 2803 Elm St tel 214/939-0077. Four-in-one Deep Ellum warehouse; a cool dance club, blacklight room, endless bars, and big touring acts, plus a great rooftop deck.
Club DaDa 2720 Elm St tel 214/744-DADA. Famed Deep Ellum club where Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians began their days. Open mic on Sundays, live bands and club nights.
Muddy Waters 1518 Greenville Ave tel 214/823-1518). Generally acknowledged as the city's best down-home blues bar, with live acts at weekends.
Sons of Hermann Hall 3414 Elm St tel 214/747-4422. Delightfully old-school country venue where the Texan masters come to play as well as respectful young outfits channelling the masters.
Tejano West 6532 E Northwest Highway tel 214/361-6083. A welcome break from the sometimes over-busy Deep Ellum scene, with great music and a laid-back, festive crowd.
Trees 2709 Elm St tel 214/748-5009. Deep Ellum warehouse turned auditorium, popular with up-and-coming indie rock bands.
FAIR PARK
Not far southeast of Deep Ellum, Fair Park , a gargantuan Art Deco plaza bedecked with endless Lone Stars, was built to house the Texas Centennial Exposition in 1936, and hosts the annual State Fair of Texas, the biggest event of its kind in the US. Among its plethora of fine museums are the Dallas Museum of Natural History (daily 10am-5pm; tel 214/421-DINO, ; $6.50), which boasts reconstructions of the 20,000-year-old "Trinity River Mammoth" and a lagoon nature walk; the hands-on Science Place (Mon-Sat 9.30am-5.30pm, Sun 11.30am-5.30pm; $7.50; tel 214/428-5555, ), which sets out to teach kids and adults about physics and dinosaurs and the like, hosts lively lavish temporary exhibits, and has its own IMAX screen ($6.50); and the Dallas Aquarium (daily 9am-5pm; $3; tel 214/670-5656, ).
The Women's Museum (Tues 10am-9pm, Wed-Sun 10am-5pm; $5), is the latest addition to a collection of museums in Fair Park. Young girls will likely benefit the most from the rah-rah attitude on display, from the Electronic Quilt - a video project highlighting achievements in women's history - to the Wall of Words, featuring inspirational quotes from female leaders. The nearby African-American Museum (Tues-Fri noon-5pm, Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 1-5pm; suggested donation $2; tel 214/565-9026) features a superb collection of folk art in its permanent collection,complete with detailed biographies of the artists responsible. These include Clementine Hunter, a Louisiana field hand who used materials left over by artists visiting the wealthy plantation where she worked; Charles Williams, known as Artist Chuckie, from Shreveport, Louisiana, who was "discovered" in 1989 when a neighbor's house burned down and he refused to leave his mother's home until his 700 paintings were brought out; and the real stand-out, Bessie Harvey, who died in 1994. She worked with found pieces of wood, spray-painting them and sticking on other materials to produce scenes such as the extraordinary Jonah and the Whale and Two Heads Are Better Than One . Changing exhibits here focus primarily on African art.
The centerpiece of the park, however, has to be the magnificent Hall of State Building , an Art Deco treasure of bronze statues, blue tiles, mosaics and murals, with rooms decorated to celebrate the different regions of Texas. The park also holds the Cotton Bowl stadium (tel 214/638-BOWL, ), home of the annual college football classic, while for three weeks in October, Fair Park spills over with more than three million revelers enjoying the riotous State Fair (tel 214/565-9931, ) itself.
SOUTHFORK RANCH
The former TV home of the Dallas soap's wheeling-and-dealing Ewing clan, Southfork Ranch (daily 9am-5pm; $7.95) lies about 25 miles northeast of Dallas, beyond I-75 at 3700 Hogge Drive, in Parker. Having lain dormant for two years from 1991, it was purchased by a private firm and has since been kitted out as a convention center-cum-Western mini-theme park, with a museum in which you can see the gun that shot JR and Jock Ewing's original 1978 Lincoln Continental. There are also plenty of Stetson-dominated giftshops and Miss Ellie's Deli . The Ranch House itself is surprisingly small - all the show's interior scenes were shot in California, and the exterior views used a very wide-angled lens. Most recommended for those very serious about their kitsch. |
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Dallas 
