Denton Texas Restaurants

It’s a great time to be outdoors in north Texas and historic downtown Denton offers the perfect activities for taking it all in this spring. The downtown merchants of the Denton Main Street Association (DMSA) invite you to enjoy shopping, dining, and a fashion show during the Spring Open House weekend May 5^th and 6^th. Many shops will be open extended hours and will be offering specials to their clients, such as refreshments, discounts, and drawings for prizes.

DMSA will host a fashion show at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, May 5^th, on the Denton County Courthouse-on-the-Square lawn, 110 W. Hickory St. This is an eye-catching, entertaining way to give shoppers an impression of what downtown businesses have to offer. Apparel, shoes, jewelry and accessories will be modeled in the show from various shops participating in the Open House weekend. Come for a “taste of downtown” with samplings from area restaurants while you watch the fashion show.

New this year, look for “check-in” promotions throughout Spring Open House weekend. Businesses will enroll people for a drawing if they check-in on Foursquare, Facebook, or any of the other social sites. The more places a shopper checks-in, the more chances he or she has to win a prize.

Want another way to enjoy downtown Denton? Come to the Square for the Denton Main Street Association’s Twilight Tunes concert series. The concerts start May 3^rd, with Hollertime returning to Denton after a memorable performance at 35 Denton back in March. Twilight Tunes concerts are free every Thursday night in May and June from 6:30 to 8 p.m. All concerts are on the Denton County Courthouse-on-the-Square lawn, 110 W. Hickory Street.

Enjoy the beautiful weather with friends and family and a meal-to-go from one of the many downtown eateries. Spread your blanket or set up your chairs, and enjoy an evening of great live music as the sun sets over downtown Denton. The 2012 Twilight Tunes series offers an eclectic assortment of music for all listeners. It is the perfect way to kick off the weekend early and listen to some of the best local bands in the Denton area.

For more information and a complete schedule of Open House weekend activities and the Twilight Tunes concerts, please visit the website at www.dentonmainstreet.org .

When Qantas Airlines announced earlier this year that they were offering a non-stop flight from Sydney Australia to DFW, travelers in both countries were excited and looking forward to take advantage of the flights for both business and leisure. One group in particular that took some fancy to the new schedule was a group of superstar Travel Agents from Australia. And what did they want to see? Well the Western lifestyle in Texas of course!

The Denton Convention & Visitor Bureau was excited to learn that 12 of Qantas top sellers were headed to Texas and their first stop was the North Texas Horse Country.   Despite the jetlag, the group was ready and eager to start their True Texas experience.  Their adventure began at Lantana Lodge Resort & Marina at Ray Roberts Lake State Park where they enjoyed dinner at the Bronze Buffalo Grill and overnighted in rooms that overlooked the lake and cedar, post oak and black oak trees. 

An early rise the next day, the group was met by Monica with Black Mustang Ranch who had horses ready for a scenic trail ride through the wetlands of Ray Roberts Lake State Park. Immediately after the trail ride and as soon as the summer heat started to rise, these influential travel experts boarded a motorcoach for a driving tour of the beautiful Horse Country including a behind the scenes tour of the famous Valor Farm.

It wouldn’t be Horse Country Tour without a stop to Dennards Western Store. When the travel agents “saddled up” on the motorcoach again it was with a heap of western treasure. Many of the top sellers could not contain themselves at the sight of the child sized boots in assorted colors. Several kiddos in Australia will be bragging about mom or dad’s recent trip to Texas while adorned with Texas attire.

Dana Lodge, Sales Director with the Denton CVB, was the tour guide on the recent venture, “This was a great opportunity for Denton to be able to showcase our wonderful Horse Country to these individuals who have the capability to influence and send us many visitors from Australia.”

In true Texas hospitality before the group headed out of Horse Country there was room for one more stop at a local favorite. Lucy’s Mom’s on Main in Aubrey, had a home cooked spread that only “mom” would be able conjure up. The unique antiques that adorned the restaurant and the amazing ranches just visited were the topics of conversation while the group was introduced to Texas comfort food.

It was just a glimpse of the western lifestyle many of the Australian visitors were eager to discover. The Dallas CVB was the next host and while these top selling Travel Agents were on their way to visit some iconic Dallas attractions, the character, charm and new purchases in Horse Country will make it to the top of conversation when it comes to Texas Travel.

The Texas Travel Fair, produced and sponsored by the Texas Travel Industry Association of Texas during the Texas Travel Counselors Conference (TTCC), represents one of the premier showcase opportunities for Texas destinations.  Held April 28, 2011 in Arlington, the Travel Fair is a trade show targeting Texas Department of Transportation officials, Texas Travel Counselors from the 12 Texas Travel Information Centers at Texas points of entry, and Texas Parks & Wildlife officials.  More than 100 travel counselors participated in the show along with another 100 visitor center managers and AAA office representatives from around the state of Texas. 

Communications & Visitor Services Manager for the Denton Convention & Visitor Bureau (CVB), Veronica Maldonado, manages information for the CVB’s visitor center and attends the TTCC each year.  The education sessions and tours of the host city area give Maldonado greater expertise regarding travel opportunities throughout Texas.  She shares new knowledge with CVB Visitor Services staff so visitors and residents get the most up to date information and quality service when they visit the CVB and Chamber offices.  TTCC also allows her to spend time one-on-one with the other tourism representatives to educate them about what Denton has to offer. 

At the heart of the TTCC is the Texas Travel Fair, an expo showcasing Texas cities and attractions beyond the host region.  Kim Phillips, Chamber Vice President and Director of the Denton CVB, along with Ken Willis, co-owner of Beth Marie’s Ice Cream, promoted Denton at the travel fair. 

The Denton CVB’s exhibit was a creative mini-version of Beth Marie’s Ice Cream on the square.  A little chalkboard just like the famous menu at the restaurant presented four uniquely Denton flavors-of-the-day ice creams.  Travel counselors and managers returned to the Denton booth multiple times to “dip into” more awareness of Denton.  The Beth Marie’s theme provided a tangible way for attendees to experience a little of the ambience of Denton’s vibrant downtown.  While serving up ice cream cones, Kim and Ken talked about attractions, entertainment, special events, and accommodations in Denton.  New and existing collateral materials including the Horse Country Tour brochure, Hip to be Square brochure, and the Denton Live magazine were also on display. 

Travel Counselors left the Travel Fair armed with new information about Denton that they, in turn, will pass along to the thousands of visitors passing through their centers throughout the year. 

The Denton Convention & Visitors Bureau’s all new Hip-2-B-Square brochure hits the streets in May with lots of exciting new content – content driven by new businesses clambering to be in the heart of Denton’s hip downtown district. 

Denton is special.  The CVB team members know this perhaps better than anyone else, working as they do year-round to promote Denton, often rivaling for tourism business against cities similar to Denton in size and demographics.  “The Denton product always outshines competitors when the contest comes down to “sense of place,” says Kim Phillips, CVB Vice President.  “When clients pit our Square against other Texas town squares, we win most of the time.”  A testimony to this fact, Denton will host the Texas Main Street Managers Preservation Conference in June 2011, all of their conference activity centered downtown – the crowning triumphant edge that secured Denton as their host.

Denton’s appeal is the fact that it’s real.  No faux downtown copying Anywhere, USA.  What Denton has is uniquely Denton’s – buildings and ambience.  The result is a personality, a vibe that even casual observers pick up on quickly.  The vibe is vibrant, a pulsing energy all day that doesn’t stop at night.  After hours entertainment has become one of the biggest economic growth areas for downtown – and the whole district is that much more hip, that much funkier, and that much more of a draw because of it.

The Industrial Street businesses have been a magnet for diners and nightlife seekers for several years.  Their pull is all the stronger now with the added action of their cross street:  the daily-evolving Hickory Street development that includes loft-style living, cool restaurants like Weinberger’s Deli, Raman Republic, the newly opened Love Shack, and soon-to-open Mellow Mushroom.  New pubs like the smoke-free Hickory Street Lounge and Cellar 22 add texture to the already-bursting-with-color fabric along Hickory Street and around the Square:  Abbey Inn, Beth Marie’s, Loophole, Ruby’s Diner, J&J’s Pizza, Abbey Underground, Andy’s Bar, Hooligan’s, Vigne, The Labb, Banter, and on and on and on.  And the entire hip experience is anchored by our beautiful courthouse – one of the most photographed courthouses in all of Texas and keeper of our story in the Courthouse-on-the-Square Museum. 

Yes, Denton’s downtown life is rich fabric indeed.  And visitors are drawn to it, becoming just as enamored as do the locals.  We have the real deal downtown which is why everyone is discovering that in Denton, it just is “Hip-2-B-Square.

Hip-2-B-Square is available at the Denton Chamber of Commerce/Convention & Visitors Bureau lobby at 414 Parkway and is available for download at www.discoverdenton.com.

Story by Kim Phillips
 
 
Our heritage is a compass. It tells how we became who we are and where we have been. It is the foundation of where we will go in the future.

Our heritage is the basis of Texas pride. It is preservation and education. It is discovery. And heritage tourism is economic development.

For several decades, heritage tourism through the Heritage Trails program of the Texas Historical Commission has been an economic shot in the arm for rural Texas, to be sure. But it’s not just about the small communities.

As the Denton Convention and Visitor Bureau director, I know that heritage tourism is integral to our identity and building on it has launched Denton into the international tourism spotlight.

The Heritage Trails are “thematic” tourism that presents a holistic adventure for visitors — one that does not demand that tourists acknowledge city limit signs.

Case in point:

In 2005, Denton partnered with two other communities — Fort Worth and Pilot Point, both participating cities in the Texas Lakes Trail Region — to apply for a Texas Historical Commission Partnership Grant for development of cross-jurisdictional heritage tourism projects.

Our partnership was awarded the grant, with which we developed the North Texas Horse Country Tour, a program that invites people to experience North Texas in the Lakes Trail Region, where more than 300 horse farms and 25,000 horses make the equine industry the largest agricultural economic impact.

It is beautiful country and the only place in the United States boasting virtually every breed and every discipline of horses, plus world-famous trainers, breeders, stallions and mares. 

Three cities, all vastly different in size and budget, put the North Texas Horse Country into the tourism marketplace and have welcomed visitors from all over the U.S. as well as international locales like Mexico, Brazil, Italy, Denmark and Germany.

In Denton, we realized a boom in tourism, particularly the group tour market — going from one tour every once in a great while to almost 50 full motor coaches in 2010 — of 2,500 new tourists.

Every tour roams the region and even the state, making an impact in multiple communities: a restaurant in Pilot Point, a ranch tour in Denton, a hotel in Lewisville, a Western wear store in Fort Worth and so on. 

The Horse Country Tour is award-winning as one of the most successful partnerships ever to develop a shared tourism product and to sustain it, even making it grow.

In 2010, collateral supplies were exhausted. The project grew from the original three cities to nine communities to produce 50,000 new brochures and a website to facilitate the visitor experience in the region.

Such a partnership would have been impossible without the umbrella of the historical commission and the forum provided by the Heritage Trails for networking and developing creative collaborations built on uniquely Texas themes.

The Butterfield Overland Trail project is another great example that used the North Texas Horse Country project’s successful model and greatly expanded it. This trail commemorates and invites visitors to experience the first transcontinental mail route in the U.S.

Much like the revered Route 66 that still plays host to thousands of visitors every year, the Butterfield Trail provides a theme to gain attention and qualify visitor interest and then infuses the communities all along the route as it is today, with those visitors spending money and discovering parts of Texas they would likely never have explored.

Where the Horse Country Tour involved nine cities within the Texas Lakes Trail region — an amazingly cooperative feat to begin with — the Butterfield Trail project ended up involving 30 Texas cities and spanned four of the 10 Heritage Trails.

Today, 75,000 Butterfield brochures are in circulation and tours are beginning to gain momentum, with multi-day treks between small towns and with day trips originating at various starting points all along the trail from Sherman to El Paso.

The Texas Historical Commission is vital for the Heritage Trails program to operate effectively.

The commission provides a credible umbrella that unites the individual trails into a bigger program, a state initiative, if you will, that carries a lot of weight when municipalities are considering partnerships of any kind that require shared expenses.

The commission’s oversight is paramount, as well, to maintaining the forum through the Heritage Trails program for these unconventional partnerships to be forged, massive projects birthed, and then — most difficult of all — for them to be completed and sustained.

The Heritage Trails encompass the truly Texas experience people imagine when they think about Texas.

Our name conjures up mystique, adventure and yet-untamed places unlike any other state in the nation. And rural Texas authentically delivers on those expectations. 

Heritage tourism is revenue to Texas, one of the solutions — not burdens — within the weighty budget challenges our Legislature faces in the current session.

Chris Flemmons faced lots of hurdles to get music lovers to realize the importance of 35 Conferette as a must-attend festival.    But…he has done it!  What started as NX35 in 2009 with a few hundred attendees welcomed 17,000 people just one year later.  Projections for 2011 are that attendance will push well beyond that ceiling this year.

In just 3 years, 35 Conferette has accomplished what it set out to do…put the spotlight on Denton’s unique music paradise.

Since Denton is literally THE music land of Texas, festival-goers get to see and experience what local Dentonites enjoy on a routine basis.  The recently released schedule includes a mix of local, regional, national and international bands, including some very impressive headliners.

Taking advantage of one of Denton’s greatest attributes, its historic Square,  35 Conferette is set to come alive among the historic buildings,  shops, restaurants, cafes, bistros, wine shops and plenty of pubs and bars all within walking distance of the Square and each other.  There are 11 official venues with bands playing back to back every night, and, new this year, 3 additional outdoor concert stages Downtown where shows will begin at 4pm on Thursday and Friday and 2pm on Saturday and Sunday.

Not sure what show to attend? Check out 35C’s extensive schedule and playlist.   Purchase a 35C 4-Day Pass wristband for $85 for the best music crawl experience:  any show, any time plus all the conference sessions.  Day passes all the way down to tickets for individual shows are also available.  And, outdoor concerts on the stage at the Square are FREE!

Scott Porter who plays with the band Record Hop (which have played 35C and are on the schedule again this year) summed up the festival best in a 2009 interview with the Denton Record-Chronicle.  “Where music is made doesn’t matter as much as it used to; but, Denton’s wonderland of music would be difficult to replicate anywhere else.”