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Guides for the Business Traveler
Dallas (2008)
4 hours in Dallas (2008)
Jeff Heilman helps cast aside those old Texas stereotypes and discovers the cultural and culinary magic of the “Big D.”
 | The Dallas Arts District First conceived in the late '70s and now spanning 19 blocks in downtown Dallas, this multi-venue collection is the nation's largest contiguous urban arts complex. Highlights include the world-class Dallas Museum of Art, founded in 1903 and presently featuring the Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs exhibition (until May 17, 2009); the Nasher Sculpture Garden, an oasis of calm and sculptural supremacy; and the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, an acoustic wonder featuring everything from movie screenings scored live to the works of Beethoven and Mahler.
In 2003, New York magazine ranked the Dallas area as the top city worldwide for art lovers. The highly anticipated October 2009 opening of the new four-venue, $338 million Dallas Center for the Performing Arts—almost completely funded by private donors—will surely cement the district's place on the global map.
Dallas Arts District Alliance, tel. 214-953-1977, www.artsdistrict.org; Dallas Center for the Performing Arts, tel. 214-954-9925, www.dallasperformingarts.org
|  | Haute Cuisine? You bet—count the culinary arts among the Dallas draws you never knew. In fact, star chefs across Texas are blazing bold new menus built around daring fusion and small plates, with three masters among the many—Dean Fearing, Stephan Pyles and Kent Rathbun—serving up a dazzling four hours in Dallas.
Fearing, long known as the "Father of Southwestern Cuisine" and for 20-plus years the chef at Dallas' incomparable Mansion on Turtle Creek, has written off all the old rules of fine dining at his six-restaurant, two-bar showcase at the Ritz-Carlton, Dallas. With room choices ranging from the lively, interactive Dean's Kitchen to the intimate Wine Cellar, your breakfast, lunch or dinner experience will never be the same after tasting signature dishes such as tortilla soup, maple-black peppercorn soaked buffalo tenderloin or the barbecued shrimp taco.
Equally a patriarch of Southwestern cuisine, Pyles is a fifth-generation Texan and largely credited with single-handedly transforming Texas cooking. At his eponymous eatery, located next to the Dallas Museum of Art, mouth-watering ceviches open his "New Millennium" cuisine, a global tapestry of tastes and flavors from Texas, South America, Spain, the Middle East and the Mediterranean.
And Kent Rathbun, an "Iron Chef" winner and food ambassador for the Dallas CVB, has created an absolute palace of taste at Abacus, one of his four restaurants in Texas. Rathbun trained in Thailand early in his career, and it shows; his lobster-scallion "shooters," dressed in red chile-coconut sake and served in a shot glass (a last-minute creation while cooking for a James Beard benefit dinner) will very likely rank among your best bites ever—and that's just for starters.
Fearing's at the Ritz-Carlton, Dallas, 2121 McKinney Avenue, tel. 214-922-4848, www.fearingsrestaurant.com; Stephan Pyles, 1807 Ross Avenue, Suite 200, tel. 214-580-7000, www.stephanpyles.com; Abacus, 4511 McKinney Avenue, tel. 214-559-3111, www.abacus-restaurant.com |  | The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza With Pierce Allman—the first reporter to broadcast from the scene on that fateful day in November 1963—as your audio guide, the self-guided tour of the sixth floor of the former Texas School Book Depository chronicles the life and times of President John F. Kennedy in a riveting exhibit of photographs, documentary films and artifacts. By the time you reach the "Sniper's Nest"—the corner window from which Oswald fatally fired on the Kennedy motorcade—you'll have run through an emotional gauntlet. Looking down on Dealey Plaza—seemingly frozen in time, with painted white X's indicating where the bullets struck—is chilling and unforgettable.
Open every day except Thanksgiving and Christmas, Tuesday–Sunday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m., Monday 12 p.m.–6 p.m.; 411 Elm Street; tel. 214-747-6660; www.jfk.org
|  | The Fort Worth Cultural District If time allows, make the 35-mile trek to neighboring Fort Worth, which boasts a world-class museum and cultural complex, in addition to its famed stockyards and Sundance Square entertainment district. Situated only two miles from downtown on a bucolic tree-lined and landscaped campus, the Cultural District is home to restaurants, art galleries and six outstanding museums. Among the gems: the Modern Art Museum—the oldest museum in Texas, appears to float in its surrounding lake—the Kimball Art Museum, and the Amon Carter Museum. The National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame is here, too, along with the sprawling Will Rogers Memorial Center—a multi-purpose entertainment complex under 45 acres of roof.
Fort Worth Convention and Visitors Bureau, tel. 817-336-8791, www.fortworth.com |
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