Dot's Hop House & Cocktail Courtyard — Restaurant in Dallas

When you have 3 hours to drink and 3 hours to sleep and you want to make the most of things you want to go to a place that’s fast and fun and aligned with Deep Ellum neighborhood.

I stayed away from bigger names, lines and chose Dots for our first rounds. Crushed an OF and an double IPA, or what locals consider a Double/West Coast IPA.

Impressive whiskey selection for what the full name suggests is a cocktail courtyard, but is like a big budget volume saloon with some tricks up their sleeves.

There was decent music, good crowd, but too cold for anyone to use the courtyard, so it was a bunch of people blocking pathways for no reason. Drink prices were pretty good. They even had some cocktails on draft, it’s impressive because I understand them better than most and they were successful in many ways and failed in ways I didn’t expect. Staff was generally nice from the doorman to the bartenders, just not as inviting and welcome. It’s a big space, even bigger when you go outside, but the rain kept it somewhat lowkey. Lots of glassware unbussed because everyone was crammed into a smaller space than need be. Prices were ok, nothing out of the ordinary.

Plenty of beers, many I knew, some I didn’t. I wasn’t about to taste a dozen beers when I asked for what’s the best representation of a Dallas IPA, they asked where I was from, I said San Diego and out came by beer. Didn’t ask who made it, just that it’s a local take.

Having only visited Dallas on this trip I had to remind myself that the eating culture here is that most people eat out because they can afford to with the housing market as it is. I drink and eat out more than most back home, so this wasn’t a surprise. Just that with people spending more they generally demand more value in return, like excellent food and drinks. I had to remind myself, if this is their saloon, imagine what their craft cocktail bars and authentic food joints are like (outside of BBQ). So I left with a happiness and was content that this was a great choice to start my...

Cons: -Large area but divided into two sections. Indoor and Outdoor. The outdoor portion is more spacious then the inside. -The chairs... Tall bar wooden chairs. That aren't comfortable and if your (fun size aka short) make your legs numb quickly. -The space inside is also very tight. I felt crumbed all night as well dined. *Neutral The menu has some average priced meals and then a few that are over price. However the menu has a nice blended price range. Pros: -The cherry limeade frozen margarita was BUSTIN'! (GOOD) A little over priced($7.00) for the size glass it is served in. -I tried the F Philly (or something to that nature) It was a mountain of items piled on top of each other smothered in queso. From bottom to the top.. *cornbread(sweet) waffle *chicken fried steak *French fries *red and green roasted peppers *queso *topped with bacon bites I was skeptical to try this because I'm not a fan of chicken fried steak. But I figured I'd never eat here again so why not go all out. I won't say it was the most delicious thing I've ever ate at a restaurant. But all the flavors did blend very well together. -Our waiter Alex was AMAZING!!! He knew the menu front and back, answered all my questions about my meal suggestion and even recommended the cherry limeade. He stayed checking on our table to see if we needed anything else all while attending to the other six tables in...

So I went for my first time yesterday and I want to say I genuinely enjoyed the atmosphere, the spacey environment and the opportunity to go outside and have a wonderful drink. What I will say is I really only saw one waitress there, aside from the bartender luckily for me that waitress decided to be my old manager from about six months ago, All I know is she kept coming outside and avoiding me and my friends table after proceeding to mean mug me the first time she came outside, She was lingering but refused to come to our table and was giving service to another couple that was out there. Note that her problem with me is just the fact that I quit without putting in a two weeks notice, that being said I don’t think you should bring personal things to work, especially when both of us are done with that job. Long story short I understand nobody else has this personal experience with a waitress there therefore they’re not going to experience what I did but I want to say I’m going through really tough things and yesterday was a day for me to get out and enjoy myself throughout those situations and in no way shape or form should I ever be treated like that, I wanna say it was really immature and it seems really childish, Jokes on her because I tip well, I spend a great amount of money wherever I decide to go drink, Her...