Samantha Brown's Places to Love

-I'm in a city that has changed more in 5 years than most do in 20.

It's a city known for its stereotypical bravado and having its own TV theme song, but in a destination synonymous with sheer bigness, it's the possibility of the small, personal, and unique that has truly transformed it.

It's a city full of energy and confidence coming from people who have always done their own thing.

I'm in Dallas, Texas.

[ Upbeat tune plays ] I'm Samantha Brown and I've traveled all over this world.

And I'm always looking to find the destinations, the experiences, and, most importantly, the people who make us feel like we're really a part of a place.

That's why I have a love of travel and why these are my places to love.

Samantha Brown's "Places to Love" is made possible by... -We believe watching the world go by isn't enough.

That's why we climb... ...pedal... and journey beyond the beaten path, on storied rivers, with a goal of making sure that every mile traveled turns into another memory.

You can find out more at amawaterways.com.

-To travel is to live, and at AAA, we've been passionate about travel for over 100 years.

That's why we created AAA Vacations, member travel experiences around the world.

Learn more at AAA.com/LiveTV.

-All the untamed beauty of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, experienced on a journey by rail.

Rocky Mountaineer, proud sponsor of "Places to Love."

-It's 10:30 in the morning in Dallas, Texas, and I'm waiting in line.

My gosh, I thought we got here early, Jonathan.

-I know.

-This is incredible.

Is there always a line?

-There's still 10 minutes until it opens, and the line is already around the corner.

I've seen this line go around this block and around the next block.

-Two corners?

-Yeah.

-But at the end of the line, an amazing reward.

-Absolutely, I mean this is the best barbecue in Dallas, if not the best barbecue in Texas.

-Whoa, so I'm in for a treat.

-It's a real treat.

-Yes.

-Absolutely, yes.

-So now, when I see a line -- Because I stand in a lot of lines, but it's usually to, like, make a flight, go through security.

So when I see a line like this, I get nervous.

I'm going to miss my flight.

-Right.

-I'm looking at this line.

Are we going to make the first seating?

Is there enough?

I mean, how big is the place inside?

-Well, you know, when the meat runs out, it runs out, and if you're still in line, you don't get anything.

-Get out.

-They make an announcement over the speaker, so... -Oh, my gosh.

So you really have missed your flight, if you're at the end of the line.

-Absolutely.

However, there's a trick to skip the line.

-Okay.

-If you order 5 pounds of meat, you can walk straight through.

-I'm not going to be able to walk at all after 5 pounds of meat.

-Well, if we find some friends in line, we can get together.

-Okay.

Yeah?

-That's the trick, and then you can go straight to the front and have 5 pounds of meat, and you make some new friends.

-All right.

Here we go.

Good morning.

-Good morning.

-Well, come in.

-Thank you.

-Right this way.

-Thank you.

-Pecan Lodge is a family-owned business that started out as a small stand at the Dallas Farmers' Market.

Even though they are open only a limited amount of time, they cook meat 24 hours a day.

Okay, thank you.

-Enjoy, guys, enjoy.

-Oh-ho-ho.

Lead the way.

-Thank you.

-The 5-pounds can be whatever meat you want.

With our two new barbecue buddies, we decided it would be easy just to get The Trough, which comes with pork ribs, pulled pork, house-made sausage, brisket, and this thing.

Who's rib is this?

-It looks like it should be from a dinosaur, though.

Really, doesn't it?

-Right, right, it's what knocked over Fred Flintstone's car.

I'm going to go for it.

-Do it.

-I mean, this is, like, as big as a turkey.

For me, this is a meal that's, like, on par with Thanksgiving.

-We're not going to be having dinner, and we may not be having breakfast tomorrow.

-What I love about this place, you've got everyone.

You've got families.

-Yeah.

-Couples.

-Yeah, there's businessmen here.

I mean, there's a guy over there in a bow tie.

-Dressing up for barbecue.

-Why not?

-Why not?

-Barbecue is the great unifier, and this is the place that people come for it.

-I see a lot of people with white shirts.

So I feel they're overly confident.

-Yeah, they're asking for trouble, really, aren't they?

Although, don't forget this is dry barbecue.

-That's true.

That's true.

-So it's safer with a white shirt.

-So there is still a ton of food left.

So you guys are not, like, pulling your weight here.

You got to step it up a bit, right?

So now you have a really funny Texas accent.

Where are you from?

-So I'm from London originally.

I've been over here for about 3 years now.

-Wow, I mean, that's a huge, huge change in someone's life, to go from London to Dallas.

How do you like this city?

-This place it amazing.

Everyone is so friendly.

-Mm-hmm.

-The sun is shining all the time.

It's just... You know, I love it.

I think Dallas gets judged too often by its downtown, which is very corporate, and people come into Dallas for work.

They'll have a meeting.

They'll be going to an office, and then they'll just leave again, and they don't really explore the different districts like this.

There's so much good stuff.

If you just peel back the first layer, there's so much cool stuff in Dallas.

For instance, Klyde Warren Park, which is a great place to hang out at lunchtimes.

We get a lot of city workers there just sunbathing, having a picnic, families, people walking their dogs.

The city has all knitted together a lot more in the last few years, and it just makes for a better overall place, overall experience.

-Klyde Warren Park is relatively a new feature here in Dallas, but it's one that quickly became one of its greatest assets because it quite literally bridged a gap.

What I'm walking on used to be a recessed freeway, and that side of the city wouldn't be able to cross to this side of the city, and instead they filled it in, put a park literally on top of the freeway, and now it's an incredible gathering place for everyone who wants to enjoy a day.

With fountains to play in, and games to borrow, this is where workers from downtown, as well as nearby residents, come to enjoy a nice day.

Tables and chair encourage you to even bring your own cheese board.

And while the days of big shoulder pads and even bigger hair are long gone here, here at this park, they still have to remind women this.

'Cause we're in Dallas, baby.

[ Chuckles ] Klyde Warren Park is a part of the Dallas Arts District, one of the largest in the United States.

It encompasses 20 blocks that connect you to major art institutions, including the Nasher Sculpture Center.

-I'm Heather Joy.

I'm a visitor experiences facilitator at the Nasher Sculpture Center.

What is that?

Say you come in on a Tuesday at 11: 30, and you find me.

I'm going to say, "Hey, let's go grab some coffee."

I'm going to buy you coffee.

You're going to sit down with me, and we're going to talk about art.

Nobody else does this at any museum anywhere else in the world except the Nasher Sculpture Center.

It's a great time.

I'm going to encourage discourse with you, and my specialty is love.

This is my favorite piece in the Nasher collection.

This is "Eviva Amore."

It means "long live love" in Italian, and it's a Mark di Suvero piece.

This, to me, it's a huge explosion of love.

Okay?

So it's grounded in the heart of Dallas, and it's infinitely pointing to the sky.

-When you told me the title, I would not have thought this is about love.

-It is.

It is a representation of love.

It's got everything in it.

It's massive.

-Mm-hmm.

-It's -- It's -- -Scary.

-Scary, yes.

-It's intimidating.

-Yes, it's changing over time.

It's rough around the edges, if you see.

-It's industrial.

-Yes.

-It's hard.

It's pointy.

It's not perfect, which now that I'm talking about this, kind of does represent love.

-See?

The more you talk about it... -Like, "Oh, yeah, now I'm getting it."

Yeah, and, you know, it needs to be supported, right, or it doesn't go on.

-Yes.

-So what is the title of this piece?

-It's "Square with Two Circles" by Barbara Hepworth.

-Okay, and so how does this sculpture fit into your theme of love?

-If you really look at it, it kind of reminds me of someone holding something else.

-Oh.

Oh, yeah, it's a mother holding a child.

-Right, someone caressing.

-Of course, yes!

That's the distance of, like, holding a newborn baby.

That's beautiful.

-Yes.

-And what's beautiful about this garden, I think, is that it lets in the city.

We can hear things backing up.

You can here the tall crane.

Like, this museum doesn't seek, and even this garden, does not seek to push Dallas out.

-No.

-It's trying to be a part of this great city.

-Yes, the garden is hugging us.

-Hmm.

-So we're being hugged.

We're being held in Dallas.

This is "Eve," Rodin, "Eve."

-It's a Rodin?

-Mm-hmm.

Yes.

-If this is a Rodin, I would have considered him more of a classical artist, not a modern artist, which is what this museum is dedicated to.

-Right, Rodin was a sculptor who was sort of breaking the rules, right?

So he was making imperfect...

I'll use quotes.

-Yeah.

-"Imperfect" sculptures of human beings.

-He didn't make these smooth classical Greek forms where everything was perfect.

-Nice and smooth.

-The abdomen was perfect, and the legs were perfect.

-Right.

-We see dimples.

We see -- -Not just dimples, they're, like, imperfections, as if it's not finished.

-Right, right, because of the imperfections.

-Yes, that's what makes it beautiful.

-I like things to look imperfect, that it isn't perfect, and when I see stuff that's so perfect, it's kind of soulless to me.

I'm Katherine Clapner, and I make dark chocolate.

-Not just any dark chocolate, Katherine's creations are innovative, singular and deliciously unpredictable.

-So these look like real cocoa pods here, like, picked from the tree.

In my world, it's a giant truffle.

Go ahead.

-Can I... -Try it.

-Try it?

-So that is an orange marmalade.

-Oh, my gosh.

-There's a marshmallow.

-Oh, my goodness.

-And then there's a rum ganache.

-Oh, my gosh.

-So the goal is that, when you're eating it, and you're going through it, you get different things.

-I have no goals anymore after eating that.

I'm done.

-You know?

-So, Katherine, we are in a chocolate shop, but it does not feel like we are in a chocolate shop.

There's not a lot of bows, little, little cute things.

-Now, this is my kitchen.

So this is my playground.

Everything I do is about how it tastes.

I don't care about anything else.

-Mm-hmm.

-Does it taste good?

Does it meet certain requirements, I think, for stuff to taste good?

Does it have a little bit of salt?

Does it have a little bit of a tang?

Is the sweetness there, but does it not overkill the flavor of the chocolate.

That's the stuff that's important to me.

-So here in front of us, we have a tremendous amount of tastes.

-We do.

-Are you using all these ingredients in your chocolate?

-This is the wall of inspiration.

-So you might not use all the ingredients, but is it also reminding you to think outside the box?

-It's used for inspiration, but it's also used to spark ideas.

So I may look at something and say, "Oh, my God, I haven't really touched that in a while," and then it'll end up somewhere.

So, like, for example, like the sarsaparilla.

-The sarsaparilla, which is sort of your root beer, right?

Oh, yeah.

-So, right, but then you think about sarsaparilla and you think about it a little bit differently.

Taste it in a caramel.

-The sarsaparilla is in the caramel?

-Mm-hmm.

-Phenomenally complex.

-Correct, it's just -- -Because that caramel, you just get that sweetness, but then there's this other, other layer there.

-Right, and so, if you think about... -Ah.

It's so good.

-Right?

-So you put that on your caramel corn or you put it in your chocolate?

-I put that on ice cream.

-You need to be in my life, Katherine.

One of the best things you'll hear all day is that everything at Dude, Sweet Chocolate can be sampled, everything.

-This is an example of lots of flavors colliding, even in a great way.

Hibiscus, ginger, and grapefruit.

-Mm-hmm.

-They're made with Texas honey, a little bit of wildflower.

It was meant to be big and bold and in-your-face.

Well done.

-Oh, wow.

Whoa, it's like... Is it cheese?

-It is cheese.

It's actually blue cheese.

-Blue cheese?

-Blue cheese.

-If you would have told me to put blue cheese with chocolate, I would think that's crazy.

-Because it's really easy to get a preconceived notion that something is going to be odd or weird or whatever.

Yeah.

-Mm-hmm.

Salami?

-Well, it was kind of an accident.

-I had a book when I was young about chocolate, and there was a great line in it, and it said, "The greatest tragedies were written by the Greeks and Shakespeare.

Neither knew chocolate."

-[ Laughs ] -Dude, Sweet Chocolate is located in the Bishop Arts District which features close to 60 locally-owned businesses, shops, and restaurants that inhabit the 1920s buildings and arts-and-crafts-style homes.

One of those businesses is a one-of-a-kind bookstore called The Wild Detectives.

So when you walk up the stairs and into this shop, what you experience is this immediate sense of peacefulness.

You experience a calm just, like, wash over you as you take in the books and you hear and feel the wood creak under your feet, and you take in the wood beams.

Is that what you were going for, in terms of people experiencing your shop?

-I don't think it was anything planned.

I mean, we were just trying to make a space that somehow could reflect those things and attract people with those same interests.

-Javier owns The Wild Detectives with his friend, Paco, and while both are full-time engineers, their business experience is, shall we say, commendable.

-I should say we have zero experience with anything related to book-selling, bartending, or bar business or coffee, of course, but we have a lot of experience consuming those.

So that's, I mean, to our credit, we have a few notions about how a customer... -Interacts with a space.

-...navigates places like that.

-The way of the cafe and even the bookstore, they've become actually people's office spaces.

People come here with their laptops.

They come here with their phones.

They've got their earbuds in, and they're doing work, and so that's not about communicating.

That's not about having a discourse.

How do you encourage that?

-During the daytime, we just let it happen, and people like to come here to work or to meet people and just to carry on with, like a normal coffee shop, I would say.

But then, once we get into 6:00 PM, we do different things.

We pump up the music.

We bring down the lights.

We cut off the WiFi, which is probably the most drastic movement you can think in a coffee shop nowadays.

-Wow.

[ Chuckles ] Wild Detectives also has a backyard, where hundreds of community events play out over the year.

Back in the small space of the store, the books are all well-curated by friends from around the world.

Javier even has an incentive to order books through them that no online retail giant could ever duplicate.

-You buy a book through us, it might take a little longer, but we don't charge shipping services, and we buy you drinks when you pick up your book, something you will never be able to with Amazon.

-So free shipping and handling and a nice lager.

-Yes, yeah, or a cocktail.

-Or a cocktail.

For many people, the look of Dallas can be narrowed down to one article of clothing.

It's still a great iconic look, but I discovered a shop where the one-of-a-kind creations go far beyond 10 gallons.

-First thing is always find a hat.

So let's try a couple on, and we'll find one that fits you.

-Some good ones here.

-Let's try this one first.

-Okay, thank you.

-See how that feels.

-It's a little loose.

-A little loose.

-Uh-huh.

-A little old school.

-A little old school.

-Let's bring it modern a little bit.

Let's try another one.

-All right.

Yeah.

-I'm Travis Austin.

I'm a designer and artist.

We specialize in vintage leather jackets and custom hats.

We do our best to instill confidence into every single person who walks through these doors.

That one is a little too big, I think.

-This is not Samantha.

-A little too modern, let's just bring it back a little bit.

-Dial it back.

-There's one, that brown one right behind you with the silk scarf.

I think that one might be perfect.

-I love the flowers.

-Straight 1970s silk head wrap, I think that might be it.

-You think it?

-Yeah, I think we found it.

-It fits.

-See, third one is a charm every time.

-What is it about the hat that we love?

Because the hat has made a total comeback.

-Yeah, the hat is back, you know, and it's a canvas that can hold confidence in a lot of different ways.

-That's great, and, you know, you hit the nail on the head when you said confidence because, if I'm walking down the street, and I see a man or a woman wearing a hat, wow, just there's an energy and you.... -Yeah, your eyes go right to them.

-So everything that you are going to do to this hat is going to be an emblem of me and my personality.

-Absolutely.

-So now that I have my hat, what's the next step of your process?

-So now we go over to the worktable.

We're going to make it beautiful.

-Wow.

See, I'm already walking differently.

-I know, right?

I'm going to ask you some questions.

We're going to sit down.

We're going to make it yours.

-All right.

-All right.

So I'm going to ask for the hat back.

-Okay.

-This is the fun part.

-Mm-hmm.

-Do you have any lucky numbers or a date that you like to commemorate or something that's inherent to you?

-The date that my children were born.

-Okay.

-I was also born in 1970, which I love, that I'm a '70s kid.

-Hey, that's beautiful.

We can commemorate that.

Silver or gold?

-Gold.

-Feather or a matchbook?

-Feather.

-Beautiful, that's it.

-Can I tell you one more thing about me... -Yeah, go ahead.

-...that I think you would really appreciate?

-Come on.

-I was born in Dallas, Texas.

-Are you serious?

Look at that.

I had no idea.

-So I'm very proud of that.

-Beautiful.

-We only lived here a year of my life, but I still consider myself a little yellow rose.

-You are a Texan.

-I'm a Texan.

-You are a yellow rose.

-Exactly.

-I'm going to try to find a yellow rose.

I'm going to put it in your hat for you.

-I feel like, in Dallas, at least you had an entire population of people who are at least used to wearing cowboy hats.

-Exactly.

-You know, they were used to wearing a hat.

-But the cowboy hat is a very traditional, like, historic prideful thing here.

-Right.

-So when you have this New Age artist, you know, coming in with his modern hats that are flat brim and have safety pins in them, not necessarily, you know, widely accepted.

-Your big-city ideas.

-Yeah, exactly.

So it definitely there was a learning curve to this city and how to, you know, approach this market, but, you know, at the end of the day, if you treat people the right way, and you shake their hands in the right manner, things work out.

You know?

Things always work for good-hearted people, and that's it.

And we're done.

-I love it.

-Enjoy.

-I love it.

Can I try it?

I'm going to try it on over here.

-Yeah, absolutely.

-All right.

It's a hat that reminds me of my children, my childhood, and where I was born.

-When I was a little kid, I remember I have this recurring dream.

It was a scene of me at different ages cooking along with my mom.

-And everyone you cook with in this small restaurant is your family.

-This is it.

Welcome to Purpecha.

Purpecha is the name of the indigenous people of Michoacn.

-And that is the cuisine that you prepare here at the restaurant.

-Exactly.

[ Speaking Spanish ] -This is such a beautiful space that you've created.

-Thank you.

-I mean, it's so intimate, and, in fact, you come from a very busy street, and you come into your taco bar, which is kind of rowdy and fun.

You come down this long hallway, and you enter into what absolutely feels like someone's home.

-That's the idea.

-How many people do you serve a night?

-14 people, two seatings per night.

-Is there a menu?

-There is no menu, no written menu.

I don't want them to feel that they are in a restaurant.

So me not having a menu gives me the freedom of explaining them where it comes from and how we cook it and how do you eat it.

-Adding to the uniqueness of the night, Regino's father, who, when not doing the dishes, is hand-engraving collectible firearms.

It's a tradition of Mexican scrollwork that has been in their family since the early 1800s.

Did your mom teach you how to cook?

-Yes, this is like a constant learning, even together when we're doing a dish that it's not, you know, common for us to do.

We study it and then like, "What about if we do this?

Why not do this?"

-Uh-huh.

-It's kind of, like, our collaboration of a finished product of a dish.

-Sure.

What are you prepping now?

-This is what is called a flauta.

-Mm-hmm.

-Flautas are tacos.

They're rolled up and then fried, traditionally filled up with the shredded chicken, but here we make our guisado, which is a stir-fry with the cold-water lobster tail meat and a little bit of mescal.

-Mescal?

-Yes.

-Oh, all right.

-Yes, no need of those.

I want you to do this with your hands.

-Oh, oh.

-Traditionally you eat flautas with your hands.

-So wonderful.

-Excellent.

-Muchas gracias.

-Okay, now let's talk about that mole.

-Let's talk about the mole.

-It's a dish that has been with me throughout my life, and it represents a lot for me.

-And your mother made the best mole in town.

-My mother makes the best mole in town.

You have to get a little tortilla and get it wet, and with your hands, you know, just pick a little bit of everything and put it in your mouth.

-So we got the onions.

We got the little bit of meat.

-Pickled red onion, nice.

That's an epic bite.

Awesome.

[ Laughs ] -Mm.

Your father being the dishwasher clearly has the easiest job, because I'm just going to...

There's not going to be anything to clean.

-[ Laughs ] - Waiting on the rain She's taking her time Humming my name Thumbing through my mind I ain't going -Now, is this the same neighborhood we were at for Pecan Lodge?

-That's right, yeah.

This is where we had barbecue earlier.

-Okay.

-It's called Deep Ellum.

-Deep Ellum, is that like antebellum?

-No, it's because we're on Elm Street right now, which is kind of the main thoroughfare, and it goes all the way back to downtown, and so we're deep on Elm Street, and in the old days, they used to pronounce it Ellum.

So it kind of stuck, Deep Ellum.

- And when the seasons turn -This is such a great neighborhood, and what I really love about it is just the buildings are all one story.

Right?

It's open.

The streets aren't too wide.

There's definitely an artistic feeling about it, but there's also a cozy intimate feeling, too.

-Yeah, that's right.

-Yeah.

-That's right, and that was a conscious decision by the city, as well.

They decided, in the early '80s, that they were going to protect Deep Ellum the way it was, and so they basically bottled that creativity and protected it, as it was.

So now we're seeing the results of that farsighted decision... -It's amazing.

-...from 35 years ago.

-We're enjoying that now.

-Yeah, exactly.

-So what are we going to enjoy?

-Well, what kind of music do you fancy?

-Oh, well, I'm, I mean, I like rock and roll.

-I know just the place.

It's called Blue Light.

-Okay.

-Shall I show you?

-Yes.

-All right.

Let's go.

- Will you tell me I can't stay here?

Well, tell me where to go -The music scene here in Dallas is so eclectic and rich in tradition and history, from Stevie Ray Vaughan to real, true Southern blues.

It's everywhere.

So if you're ever here, go see a show.

-When you come to Dallas, you'll find a lot of things that you didn't expect to find.

First and foremostly, the food, the arts, the music, the neighborhoods.

Dallas is finally becoming the city it always thought it was going to be.

-You might not expect Dallas to be an artistic city, but Dallas is actually pretty cool, and you might want to come visit here.

Actually, you should come visit here.

- I'm a tumbleweed -When you can take a stroll where nature and community inhabit a once-forgotten space, when you can listen to people's big ideas in their own personal and creative spaces, when you can enjoy a city you thought you knew but didn't expect to find, that is when we share a love of travel, and that's why Dallas, Texas, is a place to love.

-Thanks, guys, thank you.

-For more information about this and other episodes, destination guides, or links to follow me on social media, log on to placestolove.com.

Samantha Brown's "Places to Love" was made possible by... -We believe watching the world go by isn't enough.

That's why we climb... ...pedal... and journey beyond the beaten path, on storied rivers, with a goal of making sure that every mile traveled turns into another memory.

You can find out more at amawaterways.com.

-To travel is to live, and at AAA, we've been passionate about travel for over 100 years.

That's why we created AAA Vacations, member travel experiences around the world.

Learn more at AAA.com/LiveTV.

-All the untamed beauty of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, experienced on a journey by rail.

Rocky Mountaineer, proud sponsor of "Places to Love."