When people visit Texas, they want to eat barbecue. That’s the thinking behind Seely’s Mill, a new barbecue restaurant with Tex-Mex and Southern influences located inside the newly rebranded Beeman Hotel in Dallas.
Both the Beeman and Seely’s Mill were named after parts of Dallas' history. The hotel is named for John Beeman, one of Dallas County’s earliest settlers. According to Dallas Morning News archives, Beeman claimed 320 acres in North Texas in the 1840s. His son-in-law, John Neely Bryan, is credited as being the founder of the city of Dallas. The new barbecue restaurant Seely’s Mill is named after a mill in Dallas County that a spokeswoman says was built by Beeman.
The Beeman Hotel and Seely’s Mill are located on Central Expressway, across the thoroughfare from Southern Methodist University. The hotel and its restaurant are intended to be a spot for visitors to experience Dallas, and Texas, all in one place.
“With everything stemming from the John Beeman name and the family, we felt it was a good time to focus on Texas barbecue,” says hotel general manager Jared Williams. “Anybody visiting from outside of Texas really doesn’t have to go far to get a taste of what Dallas is offering.”
The restaurant has an indoor and outdoor smoker, and Williams says the best way to get a taste of the restaurant’s barbecue is with the Signature Sampler: sliced brisket, pulled pork, smoked pulled chicken, burnt ends pit beans and a cheddar biscuit. The brisket comes rubbed with salt and pepper, Central Texas style, though Williams says the barbecue is meant to represent Texas as a whole, not just one region.
Plus, there are plenty of menu items with wider culinary reach. The street tacos — especially the chopped brisket with pickled jicama — take on a Tex-Mex spin. The smoked onion and pimento cheese dip leans Lowcountry. Burnt ends got their start in Kansas City but have become staples at some Texas barbecue joints.
“When you come to Texas, you either want Tex-Mex or barbecue. And we wanted to offer both,” Williams says.
And then there’s a cheeseburger, made with beef from 44 Farms, a ranch southeast of Waco that has become popular among independently-owned restaurants in the Dallas area.
Diners at Seely’s Mill will enter the hotel lobby to get to the restaurant, which is designed by Studio 11 to feel like a modern-day saloon. Diners can also sit outside on the patio, a detached area available for those who prefer open-air seating. The barbecue menu is also available as a “knock and drop” room service option for hotel guests.
Anyone who prefers takeout — or is choosing to avoid restaurants or bars during the COVID-19 pandemic — can call the restaurant or walk inside to order, then take it to-go.
The cocktail menu has Texas, Tex-Mex and Southern roots. A spiced pecan Old Fashioned, made with praline liqueur and orange bitters, was one of the most popular drinks on opening weekend, Williams says. It comes with an orange slice frozen into one big ice cube that sits in the middle of the glass. The “skinny” serrano margarita is made with Desert Door sotol from Driftwood, Texas, a town near Austin.
“We get a lot of requests for skinny margaritas and skinny, spicy margaritas,” says Williams, whose company operates other hotels in Dallas and beyond. “The thought there was: This [margarita] goes well with your street tacos.”
They’re also selling beer flights, tequila flights and whiskey flights. The beer flight, $22, lets customers pick four options, including popular local brews such as Revolver Brewing’s Blood & Honey and Deep Ellum Brewing Co.'s Dallas Blonde.
A side room called the Rhapsody Room is intended to have a speakeasy vibe, where hotel guests and locals can go to enjoy a cocktail.
“I just envision sitting down, having a nice Old Fashioned, listening to some acoustic,” the GM says.
Seely’s Mill is at 6070 N. Central Expressway, Dallas (inside the Beeman Hotel). It opened Sept. 25, 2020.
