Taking in a flick, no, a film, at the Texas Theatre in Oak Cliff feels like a refreshingly analog experience when compared with the soulless modernity of your local theater. That hand-crafted experience can be upgraded a great deal by stopping by the classy bar before you find your seat. The refreshing Baby Fay is also a rather stout drink, consisting of tequila, ginger beer, hibiscus and lemon. It beats an Icee at Cinemark any day of the week.

The husband-and-wife team of Jeff and Marissa Allen opened their first location of Cookie Society in 2018 with the goal of producing the ultimate cookie. In the beginning, there were just two varieties, chocolate chip and banana pudding. The latter has become their signature flavor, but over the intervening years, they've expanded to scores of varieties. They're baked fresh daily, so naturally they don't have all 70 varieties every day, but part of the fun is walking in and seeing what they have. There is also a cookie(s) of the month, a rotating stable of new and interesting flavor combinations such as French toast or peaches and cream. Whatever the flavor, you can expect large and perfectly cooked cookies with chewy centers and slightly crispy edges. And, there's a rewards program.

If one spot in Dallas best embodies "chill," it's here. Tyler Station's lowkey taproom offers a consistent array of affordable craft brews, and the nearby picnic area is the ideal spot to meet with friends and let the kids work off some energy outside. Bring your own picnicking supplies or indulge in any of the adjoining food trucks which range from tacos to vegan burgers. The brewery is also steps away from a DART station, making accessibility a piece of cake.

The pandemic wasn't kind to many restaurants, including Rich Vana's Heritage Table in Frisco. But out of a crisis, Heritage Table has reemerged as one of the best farm-to-table restaurants in the area. There are Southern-inspired classics like fried green tomatoes and chicken pot pie, or seasonally creative masterpieces like a wagyu beef shoulder served on a bed of sweet potato risotto or the aptly named Whole Beast, which exemplifies Vana's dedication to using as much as possible of every vegetable and protein that comes through the kitchen. The trek to Frisco is worth it for this Southern charmer that belongs in any discussion among the area's best dining establishments.

What is it about this Henderson Avenue modern-day brasserie that explains its brilliance with cheese? The Porch has been a standby for going on 15 years, and its cheese-based dishes regularly find themselves on our Best Of lists. Readers picked The Porch's mac and cheese as the city's best last year, and this year, we're back to sing the praises of its grilled cheese. Maybe it's the mix of the exotic and the mainstream, where cheddar and American cheese melt side by side with Gruyere and Parmesan. Maybe it's the perfectly toasted brioche containing the gooey melty goodness within. Maybe it's sitting on the patio with a comfort food classic that makes us forget our worries, if for a plate's worth of time. Or sometimes, the magic needs no explanation.

Local star chef Misti Norris recently expanded her much-lauded Petra and the Beast to include a brunch service on Sundays, and there was much rejoicing. This is not your grandma's mimosa and omelet station brunch, however. There is not a single eggs Benedict to be had. Instead, Norris puts her trademark spin on the menu, with locally sourced and in-house cured meats, microgreens and fermentation. Start off with a couple of inexpensive craft cocktails before indulging in a starter such as smoked redfish dip or the charcuterie board, but don't pass up the allium fried chicken thigh with its satisfyingly crispy skin and onions adorned with a fried egg.

E Bar made some headlines last year for its stance on serving people who smell like marijuana (short version: if you do, they don't). But aside from the no-bake business model, E Bar earns back some street cred with its killer queso. Skip the entry-level queso and opt for the namesake. It's a straightforward affair of white melted cheese with an island of seasoned ground beef flanked by domes of sour cream and guacamole dropped in the middle. A cup goes for $11.50, but make a bowl for $1.50 more and turn it into a meal on its own. We're not ones to judge.

You're in the Lower Greenville/Knox-Henderson district, and time has faded from evening to the wee hours of the morning. You went through a parade of cocktails, and now you're starving. We've all been there. This is where Plomo comes in. Plomo, open until 4 a.m. on weekends, doles out a smorgasbord of after-hours, munchies-curing, specialty quesadillas, many named for notorious drug lords. Take the Escobar, for example: Stuffed with rib eye, melted Jack, avocado, elote and pickled red onion. Or the El Chapo, made of piquant pork chorizo, Jack, pico, pickled radish and cilantro. But our favorite may very well be the Vasquez, which has Caribbean jerk chicken, mango, jalapeños, pickled red onion, salsa verde and sriracha. And be sure to order your quesadillas "dirty."

We had the privilege of visiting Kitchen + Kocktails (from restaurateur Kevin Kelley) in October. It made our Top 100 Restaurants in 2023, so yeah, Kitchen + Kocktails made an impression. One of the dishes we're still daydreaming about all these months later is the oxtail served over a fluffy bed of rice and savory Southern gravy. Good oxtail should fall right off the bone when picked up, which is precisely the case at this swanky downtown restaurant and bar. If you're into oxtail, it's hard to imagine anyplace doing it much better than Kitchen + Kocktails.

Chicken-fried steak is to Texas as Cajun food is to Louisiana, and when you find a place that does it right, you owe it to your friends and family to spread the good word. Well, friends, we are here to share the word that Jonathon's Oak Cliff and Jonathon's Forestwood knows how to do chicken-fried steak right. Not only is the portion size as large as a human head, but the steak is tender, juicy and seasoned well, and more important it is battered with a saltine cracker mixture that doesn't get soggy and fall apart the second after the peppered cream gravy is poured on top. It remains crispy and crunchy through the very last bite, which is why it rises to the top of our list.