Bishop Arts District

A few months ago, I read about the Bishop Art's District in Oak Cliff via Texas Highway Magazine. This magazine is going to get me in so much trouble, and I'm loving every minute....

I planned a trip, at an unknown date...in the near future. I keep a list of places in town...and out of town I'd love to see, plan to see, will see, and then will probably blog about later. ;o) It's a long list.
I've continued to read about this area on various blogs, including Lori's outing a few weeks back. It made me look forward to the outing even more! Growing up I knew that Oak Cliff was not one of the safer districts in the Dallas Area, so the closest I've been (on a semi-regular basis) is the Dallas Zoo, which is on the outskirts of this area of town. The magazine listed the improvements that have been made to this particular area of Oak Cliff, thanks to some entreprenuers that moved in and took advantage of these vintage digs. I took a Friday off work recently between State TAKS test, and State fluency test, and slept in (a little) and then headed down to check out this new/old area of town with my Mom.
We walked around the shops and buildings in the Bishop Art's District. I really liked all the colors, and the buildings themselves. It was really peaceful to wander these old streets in the morning hours.



There were quite a few ecclectic shops, trendy boutiques, and unique spots such as The Soda Gallery which has been written up quite often in magazines.

Basically, they house just about every bottled soda under the sun. You can buy them individually, by the box, by the case....whatever. I, however, bought a little bag of bottle caps because I'm pretty sure there is a project there for me somewhere! .

The new kid on the block in the district is Dude, Sweet Chocolate

Dude, the guy working at this shop was nice! He offered us some free samples, including Crack-In-the-Box-their best seller. It's a chocolate bark with a ton of different nuts.

I settled on some Russian Marshmallows

I'd go back just because they were by far the friendliest of the shop owners, but also, it's chocolate. Who wouldn't go back for more chocolate? A side note would be that most shops don't open until 11, and even at that a lot of shops had left notes on their doors they were closing at other random times, or opening a bit later, so I'd say an afternoon outing might be a little more productive as far as seeing everything inside and out within the Art District.
Zola's Everyday Vintage has some really fun dresses, jewelry, hats, and purses, and best of all....a shop cat.

They had a lot of funky little gift ideas in the various shops. Including a lot of 'recycled' products making up eclectic goodies.

The set up in the shop displays were fun too. One store had these magazine flowers surrounding their entire clothing window display.

After shopping around a bit, we ate lunch at Tillman's Roadhouse.

I read about this restaurant in Texas Highways as well. It was one of the founding members of this re-established/old community.
This restaurant's food was soooo delicious, and I am FOR SURE going back. It's one of my favorite 'finds' recently. We went as soon as they opened (at 11:30), our server was great, the atmosphere was fun...


The food was affordable, but fresh, completely made on site, and different.
They started us out with a spoon filled with fresh potato chips.

Write-ups, and the dude at the chocolate shop, recommended the triple fries appetizer. Which we partook in...

These included homemade pickled mayo, and homemade ketchup, Sweet Potato Fries, Parmesan Fries (my favorite), and a fry with a Chili Seasoning. The problem is, 1/3 of these completely filled us up, and I didn't get to try out the 'make your own s'mores dessert.' I'll need to go back for that....soon.
Mom had a ranch salad with tomatoes and pecans that was delicious, and I had a grilled cheese with a really yummy cheese mix inside, and I substituted soup for fresh fruit.

I'm including all these pictures b/c I really like it. Really.
It was a pretty busy place to hang out, and it got busier as the lunch hour moved forward, and reservations are recommended. There were actually quite a few really great looking restaurants in this area. I understand why Texas Highways included it in areas to see around Texas. I'm definitely going back. I'm making s'mores on my next visit!
Linking To:
http://littleyayasandblessed.blogspot.com/2010/05/follow-me-back-tuesday.html