Eat Well and Sleep Cheap in Dallas

A Dallas mini-trip report
I had a building conference to attend this weekend, (the National Green Building Conference). Not a family roadtrip, but a trip worth reporting on nonetheless. In a couple of days, I'll drive to Houston to visit sdome job sites and shoot video. I'll check in with a Houston mini-report too.

Hotels.com: an excellent suite for $50 per night
Well, not every night; it was $40 for a couple of the nights. The room has a nice living room with couch and desk. The desk faces one of two wonderful flat screen TVs. So I could actually work through my inbox and watch playoff basketball at the same time. Other features: luxe bathroom, fridge, microwave, and Starbuck’s coffee packets. Did I mention the little balcony? The king bed takes up most of the bedroom, which is ok for a single occupant. It would be pretty cramped, I imagine, for a couple


Uncle Julio’s: Great Mexican food
I like warm salsa. Uncle Julio’s has warm salsa. Normally I ask for more salsa as soon as they bring the first bowl because I know my track record. I forgot to ask for more this time, but when I saw that we were running low, I asked for more. Before I ran out of salsa, my dinner was served and then along came the salsa. I ordered a nice grilled chicken dish with rice and beans (can’t remember the name of it). The only thing that was a bit disturbing was that about 20%-25% of the items on the menu contained frog’s legs—which might be a hit with young boys.
Bottom line: Great food, expensive margaritas (and not great—stick to Shiner Bock beer), great service, and good prices (High teens, low $20s).

Gloria's: Excellent food
Gloria’s main room is one of those big rooms with a high ceiling and not much fabric on the walls to absorb sound. Consequently it was loud. Other than that, it had a nice atmosphere. The wait for a table was nonexistent if we chose to sit outside, so that’s what we did. Unfortunately the table we got was right under the speaker, so outside wasn’t much quieter than inside.

The food was fantastic. I had a Salvadoran grilled chicken and sausage dish with plantains, yucca, and a nice green salsa.
Bottom line: Excellent food, excellent service, good prices ($20s).

Frankies Sport’s Bar and Grill: Burgers and beer
We wanted to watch the Red Sox-Rays game, which was the Sunday night ESPN game, figuring we had a good chance we looked for a sport’s bar. Frankie’s had the Red Sox-Rays on about 60% of the twenty TVs inside. On the other 40% of the TVs was the Celtics-Magic playoff game, and on a couple of straggler TVs was the Bruins-Hurricanes playoff game. Good night for Boston Sports (All three Boston teams won).

I had the ‘Spank-me Burger’ (loaded with jalapeños, onions and a horseradish sauce).
Bottom line: good food, good atmosphere, good service and great prices $12-15s.