Dallas

Dallas announces itself through BBQ, and that is the right order to encounter it. Texas BBQ is its own religion — brisket is the centerpiece, and the benchmark is the same everywhere: a smoke ring penetrating a quarter-inch into the meat, a bark crust that shatters slightly when you slice it, and flesh so tender it pulls apart without a knife. The good pits have a line before they open and sell out by early afternoon. This is not theater. It is the honest result of a craft that takes 12 to 18 hours per cook and tolerates no shortcuts. Dallas has its own BBQ canon, distinct from the Central Texas Lockhart-style pits that get most of the national press. Terry Black's BBQ on the Dallas side is the city's best argument — the Austin family name with Dallas execution, the brisket sliced to order off the flat and the point, the jalapeño cheddar sausage snapping through its casing, the ribs glazed dark and pulling clean from the bone. Arrive by 11am or plan around a line. Cattleack Barbeque in North Dallas operates Thursday through Saturday only, opens at 11am, and is typically sold out by 1pm. This is the local obsession — the brisket and jalapeño cheese sausage are mandatory, the fatty brisket is the move, and the operation is as no-frills as it gets. Pecan Lodge in Deep Ellum is the most accessible of the three: longer hours, more consistent availability, still excellent — the burnt ends are the order. Between these three places you have a complete education in Dallas BBQ. Deep Ellum is the live music and art district east of downtown — the density of venues per block rivals anything in Austin, and the street art murals covering the warehouse walls give the neighborhood a visual identity that feels earned rather than curated. Trees, The Bomb Factory, and a dozen smaller rooms put live music on most nights of the week across every genre. The neighborhood runs on foot and the walk between bars and venues is part of the experience. Bishop Arts District is the walkable neighborhood Dallas did not know it had — a few blocks of independent shops, galleries, restaurants, and coffee in Oak Cliff, south of downtown, with the kind of neighborhood density that takes decades to build organically. The Dallas Arts District is the largest contiguous urban arts district in the United States and the claim holds up: the Nasher Sculpture Center, the Dallas Museum of Art, the AT&T Performing Arts Center, and several other institutions are all within walking distance of each other on Flora Street. The JFK history at Dealey Plaza deserves more time than most visitors give it. The Sixth Floor Museum in the former Texas School Book Depository occupies the floor from which the shots were fired and handles the material with appropriate weight — the exhibition is careful, exhaustive, and more affecting than visitors typically expect. The view from the sixth floor window out toward Elm Street and the grassy knoll makes the geometry of November 22, 1963 immediate in a way that photographs cannot. Allow two hours minimum. Fort Worth is 35 minutes west on I-30 and should not be treated as a suburb of Dallas — it is a separate city with a distinct identity built around ranching, oil, and a genuine Western heritage that Dallas only approximates. The Fort Worth Stockyards National Historic District has twice-daily longhorn cattle drives down Exchange Avenue (11:30am and 4pm), honky-tonks that have been operating since the 1940s, and Western wear shops selling real gear to working ranchers alongside the tourists. The Fort Worth Cultural District three blocks west of downtown concentrates three world-class museums within easy walking distance of each other: the Kimbell Art Museum in Louis Kahn's extraordinary concrete-and-travertine building, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in Tadao Ando's glass and concrete landmark, and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. The Kimbell alone justifies the drive.