Dallas - The Stoneleigh Hotel

What: The Stoneleigh Hotel
Where: Dallas, Texas
Driving time from my house: 18 min

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Welcome to the final installment of my "backyard vacation" series.  Yesterday, I took you on a Southern style, down-home tour of South Dallas and the Oak Cliff area.  Today, we're going uptown for some sophisticated living!  Welcome to The Stoneleigh Hotel!  The original 1920's Art Deco design of this historic Dallas hotel has been meticulously preserved through a recent $36 million renovation. 

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Many of the rooms are designed with deep red accents and gray velvet club chairs.

The Penthouse suite was designed by Carleton Varney of Dorothy Draper and Company.

This is serious old-school Dallas luxury.

We've got a whole day in Dallas to call our own!  If its a beautiful morning, we'll head to the Nasher Sculpture Garden for some world-class art.  I love the Henry Moore pictured below:

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If, however, the weather is cool or wet, we'll spend our morning at Antiques Moderne, a consignment shop that boasts 20,000 square feet of mid century modern heaven.  Brandi from Flights of Whimsy just did a post on this place and I can't wait to go check out the amazing inventory.

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In the afternoon, we'll drive north on McKinney Avenue to the the Knox / Henderson neighborhood for lunch at Toulouse.  We'll start with their famous lobster bisque and an order of the Vol au Vent, a puff pastry stuffed with creamy Champagne leek fondue, roasted mushrooms and carmelized shallots.  To drink?  A French 75!

Then we'll stick around for some window shopping:

Again and Again

The Gypsy Wagon

Nest

Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams

Design Within Reach

 For dinner, we'll eat at Avanti Ristorante, an intimate Italian place that has live music every night.  FI the weather is nice, we'll eat on the side patio.  We'll start with the Italian Ceviche and a Grey Goose martini up and dirty. 

And finally, back to our beautiful room at the Stoneleigh for the night.

Thanks, dear readers, for joining me on my five day journey through Texas on the lookout for great "back yard" vacations.  I've had lots of fun putting these posts together and I'm excited to take a long weekend in the near future to try one out!