Dallas Union Station - Restaurants? Coffee Shops?

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SarahZ

SarahZ

Quality Control
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May 8, 2011
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I'm traveling to TX for work in a few weeks. I get into DAL at 11:30, but Hertz doesn't open until 1:00.

Can anyone recommend any restaurants in that area, or maybe a little coffee shop where I can sit with a book? I plan to walk from the train station to Hertz, since it's only a mile.
 
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That looks yummy. :)

Oh, and while I'm at it, I'll be in Dallas for six days. I'm staying at a hotel near DFW. Are there any good places to get some "Texas" food, like BBQ/brisket, that sort of thing? I want to experience some of the local flavor while down there. I'm traveling with a co-worker (she's flying), and we thought it might be fun to get out and explore the city a little.
 
If a mod wants to move this to the appropriate forum, please do so. I forgot we have sub-categories for West, South, etc.
 
SarahZ said:
That looks yummy. :)

Oh, and while I'm at it, I'll be in Dallas for six days. I'm staying at a hotel near DFW. Are there any good places to get some "Texas" food, like BBQ/brisket, that sort of thing? I want to experience some of the local flavor while down there. I'm traveling with a co-worker (she's flying), and we thought it might be fun to get out and explore the city a little.
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Your Best Bet for Real Texas Food, whether Bar-B-Q, Steak, Tex-Mex etc. is in Fort Worth, not Dallas! You have a rent Car but You can Drive to the Midway Station, then take the TRE to Ft. Worth (except on Sunday)! A Day Pass (Like $7???) is good for TRE between Ft. Worth and Dallas and D.A.R.T., the Dallas Rail/Bus System that Runs All Over Dallas! Catch the TRE @ the Ft. Worth intermodel Station, ride to Union Station in Dallas and take any of the DART Lines to wherever you want to go in Dallas! I recomm end the Texas Book Depository/JFK Museum in Dealy Plaza which is Two Blocks from Union Station!

Perhaps some of our Members that Live in the DFW Area will give you Suggestions, but it's fun to go out to the Stockyards in Ft. Worth (City Busses run between the FT. Worth Intermodel Station and there)and see the Longhorn Cattle Drive, Shoot outs and Stores and Eat a Steak or Chiken Fried Steakin a Real Steak Joint!
 
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We'll be in class all day (this is a business trip), but we have the evenings free. I probably won't be able to see the museum since I leave on Friday, but maybe I can run over while I'm waiting for Hertz to open. Even if it isn't open on Sundays, I can take a picture. :)

Edit: Awesome. It's open on Sundays. I might head over there for a quick tour. Thanks!
 
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Staying out by DFW? For some real Texas BBQ on Fri, Sat, and Sun only @ North Main BBQ just a skip and jump from the airport.

http://www.northmainbbq.com/

For other Texas food, like real Tex-Mex, try Abuelos in Hurst, a mile or so from the BBQ place. http://www.abuelos.com/myLoc.htm?geoInfo=texas

As Jim mentioned, you can drive to CenterPort Station (two miles from DFW) leave the car and take the TRE to FW, which is a good walking city with lots of nightlife (Great comedy called "Four Day Weekend http://www.fourdayweekend.com/) but the TRE does NOT run on Sunday.
 
The Book Depository is very cool, gives you a completely different angle on something that most everyone saw in their schooling at one point or another. A couple of blocks away there is also a Holocaust Museum, so its entirely possible to do both on the same trip downtown. At night there are a bunch of cool little restaurants and bars in the Deep Ellum area, but you might want to be in a group because the area outside of the neighborhood can get sketchy. Closer towards where your events are taking place is JerryWorld/Cowboys Stadium which is also a great tour. I highly recommend the tour, but its still an impressive structure just to drive by. On the north end of the airport in the Grapevine area there are some great restaurants, and on the weekend there's a tourist railroad that runs. Some of my favorite restaurants in the Grapevine area include Bob's Steak & Chop House (there are actually a few of these in the area), Winewood, and Into The Glass. Grapevine also does have a few operating wineries that do tours on the weekends. On the south end of DFW there's an American Airlines Aviation Museum that's worth a visit. Hope that helps!
 
Now I wish I could stay an extra day so I could do more stuff. ;)

I saw there's an X on the ground where JFK was shot, along with a great view of the book depository and the infamous grassy knoll. My boyfriend, a few friends, my father, and my boyfriend's father would flip out if I didn't take pictures of that area for them, so that's a definite must-see.

I'm so glad it's close to Union Station. I can't thank you guys enough. I would have felt terrible if I hadn't found out before my trip, and I would have been really ticked if I'd been that close to history and hadn't known it. I know it's awful, but I couldn't remember which Texas city JFK had been assassinated in. :blush:
 
Another place near Dallas Union Station is the West End. There you'll find the original TGIFridays and one of the earliest Spaghetti Warehouses. Hop on the DART (as mentioned by JimHudson) and go West/North just one stop. There are a TON of restaurants to choose from. There used to be a really cool old movie theater, but I think it's LONG gone now. Nope - it was recently renovated. It's called the Magnolia.

That thar was my old stomping grounds. I'm envious, and I hope you have a FANTASTIC trip!
 
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Also suggest heading over to the Ft Worth Stockyards, there's some good food, the occasional shootout at the OK COrrall, and real live cattle drives a few times a day. Somethign to see I guess...It's a nice diversion. A bit touristy, but it's one of those "have to do" things, when in FTW. Lots of little shops, restaraunts, bars, etc, as I recall. There is also a tourist RR there, but I didn't see it when I was there, just their old turntable they use to turn the steam engines I guess.
 
VentureForth said:
Another place near Dallas Union Station is the West End. There you'll find the original TGIFridays and one of the earliest Spaghetti Warehouses. Hop on the DART (as mentioned by JimHudson) and go West/North just one stop. There are a TON of restaurants to choose from. There used to be a really cool old movie theater, but I think it's LONG gone now. Nope - it was recently renovated. It's called the Magnolia.

That thar was my old stomping grounds. I'm envious, and I hope you have a FANTASTIC trip!
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Sadly, the West End has gone downhill a lot from it's heyday. The Palm is still there and Hoffbrau's is good...TGIF is still there, but that's about it. The Spaghetti Warehouse has gone WAYYY downhill, we will not even go there anymore.

The Magnolia is a LONG way away, in the West Village which is at the CityPalce stop of the Dart system.

The Sixth Floor Museum is a good place to go, as is the Kennedy Memorial at Thanksgiving Plaza. Just an obelisk, but quite touching. There is a brand new tourist bus system that started on November 1 that will take you from Uptown all the way to Bishop Arts District in Oak Cliff...FOR FREE!!! It is called the D-Link (http://www.dart.org/dlink/dlink.asp) Nice free trip to see the area, and you can get on/off at several stops.
 
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The 6th Floor Museum is actually only a couple or three blocks from Union Station in Dallas and that might be something you could take in while waiting for Hertz to open when you arrive.

As for dining options, I second the suggestion that you take the TRE commuter train into downtown Ft. Worth. There are options there and it's a walkable downtown area. Did that very same thing while in Dallas for a couple of days with my wife in 2005. I can ride any train, any time just for the sake of getting a train ride but my wife needs a viable reason/destination to climb aboard. In this case having dinner in Ft. Worth was the hook we needed for me to try out the TRE commuter trains.
 
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VentureForth said:
Another place near Dallas Union Station is the West End. There you'll find the original TGIFridays and one of the earliest Spaghetti Warehouses. Hop on the DART (as mentioned by JimHudson) and go West/North just one stop. There are a TON of restaurants to choose from. There used to be a really cool old movie theater, but I think it's LONG gone now. Nope - it was recently renovated. It's called the Magnolia.

That thar was my old stomping grounds. I'm envious, and I hope you have a FANTASTIC trip!
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The West End is a good choice. There are many options there. Also, take the McKinney Ave heritage trolley, it's free. There are many restaurants along McKinney Ave and along the trolley route. http://www.mata.org/
 
I agree with Cyndies. We ate there a couple times. Stayed within walking distance to train and hotel. Had a blast.
 
tonys96 said:
VentureForth said:
Another place near Dallas Union Station is the West End. There you'll find the original TGIFridays and one of the earliest Spaghetti Warehouses. Hop on the DART (as mentioned by JimHudson) and go West/North just one stop. There are a TON of restaurants to choose from. There used to be a really cool old movie theater, but I think it's LONG gone now. Nope - it was recently renovated. It's called the Magnolia.

That thar was my old stomping grounds. I'm envious, and I hope you have a FANTASTIC trip!
Click to expand...
Sadly, the West End has gone downhill a lot from it's heyday. The Palm is still there and Hoffbrau's is good...TGIF is still there, but that's about it. The Spaghetti Warehouse has gone WAYYY downhill, we will not even go there anymore.
The Magnolia is a LONG way away, in the West Village which is at the CityPalce stop of the Dart system.
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:(

Grapevine Mills is a Super Mall just North of DFW. Lots of neat stuff to see and spend all your Per Diem on. :D
 
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So, my current plan is to stash my bags at Union Station (if I'm allowed) and then walk over to the JFK area to take some pictures. Then I'll pick up the rental car and head to the hotel. I promised my co-worker I'd meet her there so we can get some groceries for the week. We don't want to eat out every day, but I'm keeping track of restaurant suggestions. :)

We're in class from 8:00 - 4:30 every day, so we can't do a lot of the daytime stuff, but we'll have time to go to restaurants and other "night life". We leave on Friday, so that defeats any idea of sightseeing on Saturday.
 
Sara,

I was just in Dallas in Sept. We live in Mpls so we drove down. Our hotel was right across from Union Station and we walked right there to check out the station. I was in class during the day and my husband walked over to the JFK exhibit. He LOVED it. There was a great BBQ place right on the corner. In the evening we road the light rail to different areas.. They also have a light rail train that goes right to Fort Worth. Check it out. You might not need to rent a car.
 
One of my favorite places to go is on McKinney Ave. Take the DART to City Place (the only subway station in Texas) and exit out the West side. About a 1/2 mile walk down the way (you can find it on Google if you really want to know where it is) there is a hole in the wall called "Hook Line & Sinker". Good seafood! On the way back, you can take the free street car back to the City Place subway entrance.
 
SarahZ said:
So, my current plan is to stash my bags at Union Station (if I'm allowed) and then walk over to the JFK area to take some pictures.
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Sarah, make sure you search for shell casings atop the grassy knoll. And as Venture Forth noted, Dallas' West End is nearby and nice.

My rec for Fort Worth is Sundance Square, north end of downtown, bus or walk from Intermodal Transportation Center (ITC) (Amtrak and TRE station). SS has More choices to dine and shop than Stockyards and is more logistically compact. Enjoy.
 
VentureForth said:
If you really want to play Cowgirl, there is the famous Billy Bob's...
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Oh, wow. I would not fit in there, but it might be fun to go and watch people line dance.

Brent keeps telling me to keep my Yankee in check. :) (He's southern, so this is a common joke between us.)
 
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Does Union Station have lockers? I see they have "baggage storage", but I wasn't sure if it was free or not. It would be nice if I could leave my bags while I walk around Dealey Plaza.
 
SarahZ said:
Does Union Station have lockers? I see they have "baggage storage", but I wasn't sure if it was free or not. It would be nice if I could leave my bags while I walk around Dealey Plaza.
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No Lockers Sarah but since they have Checked Baggage, the Agents will Hold your Bags for the Standard $4 a day per Bag!

Theres Basically Nothing in Union Station in what used to be the Basement (Wolfgang Puck Catering has the Upstairs Grand Waiting Room that used to be where Passengers Waited for their Trains!) Except Amtrak and DARTs Offices!

You could Claim your your Checked Bags AFTER you visit Dealy Plaza/Eat as Dave alsways advises! No Charge for that for Up to 2 Days!
 
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