From inside new Dallas bar Lucky Dog Saloon, it’s fun to watch guests spill in.
They enter through a revolving door that looks as if it’s straight out of New York City’s Flatiron District — though, instead, we’re on Cedar Springs Road in Dallas. Customers blink to get acclimated to the dark bar inside. The former Asel Art Supply (and before that, Otey Envelope Co.) is now a tavern with exposed brick walls and a shuffleboard table. The place is casual, but the bourbon and scotch list is not. Hard-to-get spirits like Eagle Rare 17, Macallan 18 and Pappy Van Winkle 23 go for $60, $90 and $320 a pour.
Plenty of Lucky Dog’s after-work customers won’t go quite so high-end. This bar is run by the team behind Katy Trail Ice House, which is right around the corner, and customers will also be drawn to more affordable options like a Ranch Water, Old-Fashioned or a pint of beer. But the option to spend big in Dallas is there.
When operating partner Buddy Cramer bought this building, his first need was to provide overflow parking for Katy Trail Ice House. “We were originally going to tear this down,” Cramer said. “But I came in here and realized: We can’t do that.”
He leaned in to the building’s nearly 100-year-old history, picking every piece of furniture and art himself.
“I really felt Dallas didn’t have an urban, New York-style tavern,” he said. He’d stand inside the vacant building and think back a century. What would a 100-year-old bar look like?
Lucky Dog is filled with heavy wood on the floors and walls. Booths in the corner have carpet underneath and shiny red chairs with wheels, situated around circular tables. (Circular tables! They’re great for a group.) A red Pegasus sign gives a nod to the unofficial Dallas mascot — fitting, because Cramer has lived here his whole life.
He plucked a photo from the Dallas Public Library of Ashburn’s Ice Cream on Knox Street, where his dad used to go for a scoop. That photo is a few dozen feet away from a $40,000 black-and-white photograph from David Yarrow, one of the most famous photographers in the world. Maybe that’s Cramer for you: a photo from the library here, a wow-worthy piece of art there.
The bar serves food until at least 1 a.m. Options include Wagyu brisket sandwiches, bratwurst with sauerkraut and German mustard, a cheeseburger made with the same recipe as at Katy Trail Ice House, and a simple bag of Zapp’s chips.
At an early glimpse of the bar, men in golf polos huddled over tables, eating hot dogs wrapped in foil.
“We don’t have utensils. We don’t have plates,” Cramer said. “Everything comes in foil wrap, which becomes your plate.” Nobody seemed to mind.
When the place gets busy — and loud — it’s a ‘scuse me, ‘scuse me situation to find a seat. That feels just right for this Katy Trail Ice House sibling restaurant: It’s smaller and darker, but it has the opportunity to be as popular.
The bar is named after Cramer’s dog, Boss, an Australian Shepherd.
Boss’ portrait, painted as if he were a British prince, is near the revolving door at the front. It lends a Dogs Playing Poker vibe to this timeless room that just opened, on July 18, 2024.
“I want this to look like it’s been here 100 years,” Cramer said. “That’s what I do.”
Lucky Dog Saloon is at 2701 Cedar Springs Road, Dallas.
