Trip to Dallas: Culture, Baseball, and the Best Burger in Texas

Last year I blogged about being a longtime Boston Red Sox fan and our trip up to Fort Worth/Arlington to catch the Sox on one of their swings through Texas to play the Rangers. Last season, the Rangers weren't good. This year, though, things were different in August. When the BoSox traveled to Texas to take on the Rangers, they were one-two in the AL wild card standings, only a couple of games apart. Last season, the stadium was half full at most. This year there were barely any empty seats.

Papi at the bat

So even though the Sox lost again, we were glad we went. Much better drama. Maybe I'm nonchalant about Boston losing now that the Rangers have faded and the Red Sox are on their way to the postseason?

Naturally, the trip was about more than just baseball. Since we stayed in Fort Worth last year, we spent the weekend in Dallas this time. The stay was short, but that didn't prevent us from soaking in a little culture at the Dallas Museum of Art. The museum has a great collection which is uniquely divided up by geographical region rather than style or time period. The Native American collection was wonderful, especially the ceramics. We also visited the nearby Nasher Sculpture Center. The space there is beautiful, both indoors and outside in the sculpture garden.


Nasher sculpture

We also spent a little time checking out downtown Dallas and one of the nearby neighborhoods, Deep Ellum. The historic part of downtown was pretty cute, although it was a bit dead, probaby because it was a Sunday and pretty hot out. If history, presidents or conspiracy theories are your thing, there's a lot of stuff to see associated with JFK, including the infamous Texas School Book Depository (now a museum).


Downtown Dallas


A map of the JFK crime scene


The Texas School Book Depository building

Deep Ellum, a few blocks from downtown, is the requisite arts and entertainment district. It has a bit of a funky vibe, a nice alternative from the Texas-conservative feel of downtown Dallas. There are some nice little food and drink spots, cool stores, and lots of great street art.






Deep Ellum wall paintings

Of course, as you could probably guess, we did some eating as well. We had a tasty lunch at Medina on Saturday and a nice breakfast at All Good Cafe Sunday morning -- not to mention a few good beers at the Dallas outlet of one of our favorite Austin pubs, The Ginger Man.


Origami fills the skies at the All Good Cafe in Deep Ellum

The culinary highlight of the weekend, though, was Sunday lunch at The Grape, home of Texas Monthly's top rated burger in the beef-happy State of Texas (see prior blog post). As soon as we saw that the top spot was held by a place in Dallas, we figured we'd have to incorporate a visit into our weekend in Dallas, so we made a reservation.

The burger at The Grape is no mere quarter-pounder or even a half-pounder. Theirs weighs in at 10 oz., and it comes with a thick slice of cheddar and a few strips of bacon. So we decided to split one and also share a lighter entree.

And that big ol' burger did not disappoint. We ordered it "on the rare side of medium," and it came out about medium-rare. The beef was excellent, lightly seasoned and cooked perfectly. I normally don't get cheese on my burgers because I like to get a better taste of the beef, but this was great cheese -- sharp but not overpowering. The bacon provided a nice note of smokiness and a little bit of crispiness to balance out the moist patty. So while the hype was as big as this burger, we both thought the burger lived up to it.


Righteous burger

After our Sunday lunch, we felt full and satisfied as we climbed into our car to head back to Austin. Great weekend, excellent burger, and while the baseball game didn't go our way, I'm already looking forward to heading back up to Dallas-Fort Worth for next year's Red Sox visit. And just in case we can't wait to return to The Grape for some more beefy goodness, the #2 Texas Monthly burger joint is located right here in Austin.