After Lafayette we were on our way to Dallas. On the way, somewhere around Shreveport, we say a car that someone had spray-painted entirely black – including the tail lights.

Dallas had some very interesting buildings and infrastructure, and I wish I’d gotten a few more photos of it.

There were two foods I had to have in Dallas – steak and chili. For steak we went to Perry’s, which is actually a chain found in a few states out west. They got my order wrong, but once they fixed … a very long time later … the steak was delicious.

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For chili, we did a taste test. We We went to three places well-known for their authentic (read – all meat, no beans) Texas chili. The first was CBD Provisions, a very swanky place. The chili was fancy and delicious. It’s made with specially selected and prepared meat, beer and wine, and bittersweet chocolate. It came with a side of some great fresh-baked corn bread.

For the next two chilli’s, we got takeout. The first was at Angry Dog, a basement dive bar. It’s straightforward, and the taste of the beef and spices shine through. It comes with a bag of Frito’s as well – this is the working man’s chilli.

Then, we had the dark beer and venison chilli from Katy’s Ice House. This tasted quite different from the others, and the flavor of the dark beer gave it some richness an complexity. It had a smooth, smokey flavor.

My favorite of the 3 was Angry Dog. I’m a simple man. Ashley, though, favored Katy’s. All three were winners.

To wash all that chili down, we went out to Trinity Cider. They were friendly and had a nice space to get some creative ciders a cranberry-rosemary cider and a tequila-aged cider. The ciders were not too sweet and worth trying, though they lacked some of the aged apple complexity of my favorites.

Located in downtown not far from Trinity, we also checked out Deep Ellum Distillery. It had a comfortable atmosphere and, like a lot of newer distilleries in the U.S., probably needs some time to polish up their product.

We weren’t able to go to every distillery in the Dallas area, but the undeniable winner to us was Lone Tree. They are a 100% wheat distillery and make strong, flavorful whiskeys and quality vodkas and gins as well. We bought a bottle of vodka and of their sherry-aged wheat whiskey (we just about got the last one), which is one of the strongest-tasting whiskeys I’ve ever had. That’s how I like ’em!

The owner also got us pretty hammered.

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Wrapping up in Dallas, I thought I’d show how impressive the bulk foods aisle is in nearby H.E.B.