Not everyone travelling with family wants Deep Ellum at eleven at night. Some people want two hours somewhere pleasant, a decent drink and a conversation they can actually hear.
The Wild Detectives is a bookshop in a converted Oak Cliff bungalow that also holds a proper bar. Coffee and pastries during the day, wine, local Texas beer and cocktails from the afternoon on. The back garden is strung with lights and is where most people end up. There is usually something on — a reading, live music, a film screening — and the noticeboard by the door will tell you what.
The appeal for our guests is the register. It is a genuine bar without being a late-night one, so it works if half the group fancies a drink and the other half wants to browse the shelves. Booksellers here have opinions and will happily give you one.
Best after dinner in Bishop Arts, which is a short walk. Weekday evenings are calm; Friday and Saturday fill up and the garden goes first. It is small, and that is rather the point.
