These days you can tell a lot about a city’s reputation (and wealth) from whether or not it has a Carbone. Dallas now does, along with outposts of RH Rooftop and Sadelle’s, plus a forthcoming Catch and a Pastis reportedly in the works. Think everyone moved to Miami post-Covid? Actually, more have migrated to this Texas city, where the oil barons of the J.R. Ewing era are giving way to the young, caviar-bumping nouveau riche. (Fun fact: Dallas is home to 18 billionaires, Miami a mere 12.) As in Florida, the allure of no state income tax has helped, as has the feverish development of luxury playgrounds happening all over town. So is it time we all moved to Dallas? Four reasons that make the case.
(1) Ralph Lauren is investing big.
Consider it a Rorschach test for the state of retail. In March the brand upgraded from its store in Highland Park Village—its home since 1978—to a temporary space, the palatial and historic Village Theatre, a few doors down. It also opened a showroom for its home line in the Knox district. Could a Polo Bar be far behind?
(2) Southern hospitality—with a European twist.
That’s what you’ll find at the new Hôtel Swexan, brainchild of Alexis Barbier-Mueller, scion of the Swiss-Texan real estate family behind the buzzy Harwood District.
(3) Status fish, anyone?
There is no ocean in sight, but that hasn’t stopped the city from becoming a pescatarian paradise. See: the $230 seafood tower at Crown Block, the $1,000 king crab feast at Monarch, and the $200 omakase at impossible-to-get-into Tatsu.
(4) There’s culture, too. Really.
You’ll find Serras and de Koonings at the Nasher Sculpture Center, which turns 20 this year, and blue chip art at the Dallas Museum of Art. Nearby, the Meyerson Symphony Center, an I.M. Pei masterpiece, is the place the Dallas Symphony calls home.
This story appears in the September 2023 issue of Town & Country. SUBSCRIBE NOW
Leena Kim is an editor at Town & Country, where she covers travel, jewelry, education, weddings, and culture.
