It’s cold outside so how about heading indoors for some art inspiration? Local museums in Dallas and Fort Worth have a number of brilliant events that are sure to keep you warm and toasty while also inspiring you to learn a little about the art scene in the area.

At the Dallas Museum of Art there is Second Thursday with a Twist or for late night museum junkies try Late Nights.  Museum lovers who are in the area in the evening can stop in at the Dallas Museum of Art for a late-night visit on the third Friday of each month. The museum is open until midnight. Late Night offers hundreds of experiences for visitors of all ages with performances, concerts, readings, film screenings, tours and family programs. Tickets are free for DMA members and children ages 11 and under, $10 for the general public and $5 for students.  The next Late night is tomorrow January 19 or February 16.

The DMA’s Second Thursdays with a Twist is from 5 to 9 p.m. and is a great way to take a unique and unexpected look at the Museum’s collection, this month with a pop culture twist.  The next second Thursday is February 8 called Heartbreak Hotel so put on your blue suede shoes and enjoy a look at velvet paintings and hip shaking.  For example, you can check out “A Big Hunk of Love all night in the museum’s Atrium or there is also a chance to enjoy tours like “Velvet Elvis,” “All Shook Up” and “Viva Las Vegas.” Tickets are $5 and free for DMA Members.

The Nasher Sculpture Center hosts First Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and allows visitors free admission to the galleries to see the variety of exhibitions.  The January event will also include a series of programs designed for children with an art scavenger hunt as well as artist demonstrations, a creative writing discussion and story time with the Dallas Public Library.

The Nasher’s ongoing speaker series features conversations and lectures on the ever-expanding definition of sculpture.  Guests will have the chance to witness first-hand accounts of the inspiration behind some of the world’s most innovative artwork, architecture and design.  Free to the public with admission to the gallery and free for members and students, the next speaker series event will be January 27 from 1 to 4 p.m. – First Sculpture: Handaxe to Figure Stone Symposium. This event will begin with an in-depth discussion about the origins of creativity in the human mind and will present prehistoric handaxes and figure stones as evidence of the earliest forms of artistic intention among ancient ancestors.  The panelists are Tony Berlant, Artist, Exhibition Co-Curator; Richard Deacon, Artist; Naama Goren-Inbar, Professor, Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem; John Gowlett, Professor, Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, University of Liverpool; Thomas Wynn, Distinguished Professor, Department of Archaeology at The University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, Exhibition Co-Curator and Lee Cullum, Panel Moderator.

The Modern in Fort Worth offers First Fridays and the next one is February 2 from 5 to 8 p.m. featuring live music by the Tom Reynolds Trio.  First Friday is a combination of live music and drink specials in the museum's Grand Lobby along with a chance to dine at Café Modern either a full menu in the dining room or lighter fare in the Grand Lobby.  A docent-led, 20-minute tour of the galleries is also available at 6:30 pm.

For children, check out the sleepovers at the Perot Museum for ages six to 14 with one 21-plus age chaperone for every four guests.  The Snore and Explore at the Perot Museum allows children to go behind the scenes with after-hours access and enjoy exhibits, a live science show, a 3D movie and even a late-night snack.  The next available sleepover will be February 17 called Grossology followed by March 16’s Video Game Science.

A healthy way to start the day or end the night, Start restaurant owner Erin McKool recently opened restaurant number two on Lemmon Avenue adding to the already successful sister on Greenville Avenue.

“I wanted to open a restaurant that filled a niche in Dallas,” McKool explains of her initial idea. “Being a brand new mom, I realized there was nowhere to get "clean" food through a drive-through in Dallas.”

McKool says she wanted to create something different than a diet concept “I wanted to be able to pull through a drive-through and order all natural food, with no preservatives, no nitrites, no antibiotics, no corn syrup and no partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. I wanted salad dressings that were made from scratch; not squeeze packets with preservatives. People seemed to be craving the same thing, and once it was successful on Greenville Avenue, we looked for another high traffic location to build our second store.”

She says she loves the Oak Lawn neighborhood where the second location opened “We have really enjoyed getting to know our new guests over there.”

Indeed, it really is hard to believe you can get healthy food like pancake sandwiches for breakfast or a variety of wraps that taste better than anywhere else in town – through the drive-through. 

Keeping the same menu as the Greenville Avenue location too, the food is always focused on pure, all natural using many locally sourced ingredients.  Eggs, milk, sugar and many other items are always organic.  Start only uses meats and eggs from humanely raised animals and say will never use products that are raised on hormones and antibiotics, or treated with nitrites. They offer 100% grass-fed hamburgers, from local favorite, Burgundy Pastures. Bakery items are made with whole-wheat flour, and they also offer gluten-free baked goods.  For the thirsty, Start offers fresh-squeezed juices and smoothies and artisan coffee and espresso they serve is roasted locally at Full City Rooster, in the most environmentally efficient roaster available in the world.

The name, Start, was selected to inspire the community to take a first step toward eating better on the run.  McKool believes there is a growing demand for quality, thoughtfully prepared food from quick service restaurants.  Her dream is to start a trend that remodels fast food.

“On a weekly basis, we get requests to build in Preston Hollow, Lakewood and elsewhere,’ McKool concludes. “We would like to first grow our catering business and then consider where to launch site three. We are so grateful to Dallas for embracing us and for all the feedback we've received. Hearing from our guests allows us to know what to tweak and how to improve what we are doing all the time.”

Start (Greenville Ave. location)

4814 Greenville Avenue 

Dallas, Texas 75206

214.265.1411

Start (Lemmon Ave. location)

4023 Lemmon Avenue

Dallas, Texas 75219

214.599.7873

www.startrestaurant.net

Hours of operation: Open daily 7am – 9pm. 

Sometimes a city and its local business owners make an effort to stand out.  Foodie business owners in McKinney are certainly doing just that with options that include eco-friendly restaurants where all food is locally sourced to sandwich counters at boutique shops that tout green eating and of course, what city is complete without a one-of-kind brewery that will make you feel like you have stepped across the pond.

The restaurant Harvest located on the main square not only offers some of the best food in town , think crispy green tomatoes, deviled eggs for appetizers and beer battered Texas Striped Bass or Chicken Fried Chicken for a main, but the décor is a lazy, shabby chic with an overall maxim to work with only local and fresh vendors. The menu is seasonal featuring organic and while owners say “We aren’t changing the world,” they also add “but we hope to plant a seed of consideration of sustainability for future generations to come.”

Harvest owner Rick Wells began working with local/area farmers when he was putting together a charity farm-to-table dinner several years ago and it was so well received, he did another one the next year. Seeing McKinney’s success of the farm-to-table dinners and the real shift in McKinney toward more organic, locally-grown/raised food, Harvest was born.

112 E. Louisiana

Since 2010, the owners at Patina Green and Market Kaci Lyford (an interior designer) and her mom Luann Van Winckel have been offering organic food and great niche shopping.  Kaci’s husband Robert Lyford is the chef at Patina and folks say his sandwiches are to die for both delicious and organic.  The location also offers monthly reservation-only farm-to-table dinners held on second Saturdays and they serve breakfast and lunch on the food side of the place with a seating area in the back. One of Robert’s sandwiches was named by Food Network Magazine as the best sandwich in Texas and the market overall is organic with non-or-minimally-processed foods, fresh dairy and produce. 

116 N. Tennessee

Franconia Brewing Co. has a variety of sustainable practices in McKinney as well and the owner, Dennis Wehrmann is a fifth generation brewmaster.  Wehrmann says he practices a green lifestyle because it is how he grew up.  In a 6,000-square-foot facility the company began in 2008 and they now have six different beers to choose from six seasonal beers and two specialty beers, which are the Triple Dunkle and the Double IPA.

Wehrmann says his product is 100% natural meaning no artificial flavor, no spices, no food coloring and no additives and the facility is a trash-free environment where everything produced is also 100% recyclable. The building is also energy-efficient and on the top of his carport there are solar panels.

Offering tours every Saturday at 11:00 a.m. with anywhere from 150 people on a good day to 40 on a slow day, he charges $5 per person and there are no food trucks for after the tour either. Instead, the owner encourages folks to head into other parts of the city to enjoy lunch after tasting the beer. Wehrmann says green for him is no big deal since it is how he was raised “It’s a lifestyle,” he says.

495 McKinney Parkway