Daniel’s Note: Matt and Emily’s Date Night was split between Oak Cliff (South Dallas), and the Park Cities (which are two little cities in the heart of, and completely surrounded by Dallas).

We decided to find something different to do for entertainment; we aren’t the concert going types.  My first idea, some sort of Sunday brunch at a strip club, was immediately out of the question because neither of us were free on a Sunday, at least I’m assuming that’s what Emily’s reason for saying “No” was.  Our next idea was a fireworks show but unfortunately there wasn’t a large fireworks display in the area until July sometime (the powers at be forgot about Texas Independence Day, I know.)  We searched several websites to find cheap or free entertainment including groupon.com, restaurants.com, dallasobserver.com.

First, we live in a hip, up and coming part of Oak Cliff full of some less well known bars and restaurants.  We found a deal on yelp.com for a week long happy hour at some of the popular bars in our area.  We chose the patio bar at the Hotel Belmont which is known to have one of the finest views of downtown Dallas. The Belmont is a unique treasure for Dallas. Originally built in 1946 along the only major road connecting Dallas and Fort Worth at the time, the hotel served as a stopping point for weary travelers as they made their way through North Texas. Only a handful of these popular hotels/motels still exists along Fort Worth Ave. and the Belmont, designed by famous residential architect Charles Dilbeck, is certainly special and a rarity in Dallas for it’s art moderne style.

Our drink specials were half off normal prices all week long.  The drinks at Hotel Belmont are rather expensive (think hip young bar) but at half price they were quite reasonable.  I had the Lonesome Highway (sort of like a Mohito/Margarita) and Emily had a Belmontini.

They were both delicious and in the end set us back $10, normally $20.  We made sure to tip our waitress on the full price of the drinks (we’re frugal, not cheap) and enjoyed the end of the day with the warm sun and fruity (and very stiff) drinks.

As I said above, our entertainment plan was different than others’.  We searched for any special museum deals during the week.  The world renowned Meadow’s Museum of Art at Southern Methodist University has one of the largest collections of Spanish art outside of Spain which ranges from the 10^th to the 21^st century.

The Meadows Museum was constructed in 1965 with funds from the Meadows Foundation, an organization created by Texas oilman and philanthropist,  Algur H. Meadows. Mr. Meadows and his wife were inspired by the Prado Museum in Spain and provided the funds necessary to establish an acquisitions program for the University, which amassed a large collection in a short period of time.  Since his death in the late 70s, the Foundation has continued its support of the Museum’s permanent collection. Needless to say, it is quite impressive, with works ranging from a 17^th century wood sculpture with gold-leaf of St. Ignatius Loyola to several Picasso pieces. The exterior of the Meadows Museum is beautiful with a 90-foot long moving, copper sculpture and water feature designed by Santiago Calatrava, the Spanish architect behind Dallas’ soon-to-be bridge to no where! (Photo credit: someone’s flickr page)

The museum usually charges $8 per adult but on Thursdays after 5pm the admission is free for all. Parking for museum patrons is also free.  We spent two hours walking through their galleries and it was rather empty, which is nice for looking at art.  Walking around for two hours we worked up an appetite.  Total price: $0.

The Park Cities in Dallas are known for numerous local eateries and many of them are rather expensive.  We wanted to eat something quintessentially Dallas and knew that the original Burger House was less than a mile from campus.

The burgers are delicious, but they are really known for their specially seasoned French fries (these got me through medical school – for real.)  They don’t have many advertised specials, but by joining their email list on the website we were offered $1 off any sandwich, fries and drink combo.  Total cost $9 x 2 = $18.

Total cost of the night: $28 not including tip at the hotel.

As stated before, we aren’t typical Dallasites. We are very big nerds who enjoy architecture, museums and greasy hole-in-the-wall burger joints. This was the perfect evening for us, and at $28 total, is affordable for any other nerdy couple out there! Of course, I still wish we could have pulled off the Sunday strip club brunch. Another challenge perhaps…

Be sure to read all of the DFW $40 Date Night Challenges before voting, so check out the rest!

• Blaine’s Date Night
• Matt and Emily’s Date Night
• Mayra and John’s Date Night
• Stuart and Jessica’s Date Night
• Vote! (At the bottom of the summary)

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