Kitchen + Kocktails by Kevin Kelley runs at 1933 Elm Street in downtown Dallas, and the name spells out the deal in its own way. This is a soul food kitchen and a cocktail room under one flashy roof. The food is the headline and the cocktails do the supporting work.
Who would love it: anyone after Southern comfort food, a full bar, and a weekend brunch with a DJ. Who would hate it: anyone after a quiet pint or a craft beer wall, because this is a loud lounge built for a night out, not a low key drink.
The room reads as a polished lounge, not a neighborhood bar. The Dallas Observer files it under American and soul food downtown, and the setting matches, with low lighting and a patio for the evenings the Texas heat allows. Expect a dressed up crowd.
Drinks lean sweet and showy. The signature is the D'usse, a frozen peach pour topped with D'usse cognac, and the cocktail list runs in that direction rather than toward the classics. Beer drinkers will find the bottle list thin, which is honest for a place that put cocktails in its name.
The food is why the line forms. Lobster waffles, shrimp and grits, Southern fried catfish, and fried green tomatoes carry the menu, and the official site bills it as a number one soul food room without much modesty. The plates are large and rich.
The Elm Street setting puts it in walking distance of the downtown hotels and the AT&T Discovery District, which is part of why the brunch and dinner crowds skew tourist and special occasion rather than neighborhood regular. The patio opens up when the weather cooperates and adds a quieter seat away from the DJ.
The crowd peaks at weekend brunch. Saturday and Sunday from 10am the room fills with a brunch crowd, craft cocktails, and a live DJ, which is the version most regulars come back for. Weeknight dinners run calmer.
Hours are restaurant hours. The kitchen runs 11am to 10pm Monday through Thursday, to 11pm on Friday, and from 10am on the weekend. Reservations through Resy or OpenTable are the smart move, because the wait without one stretches on a weekend.
Against the city's dedicated cocktail dens it is the opposite approach. Where a den like Midnight Rambler builds around the drink, Kitchen + Kocktails builds around the plate and lets the cocktails follow. Know which one you came for.
The Dallas room is the flagship of a growing brand. Kelley has since opened Kitchen + Kocktails locations in Chicago, Atlanta, Washington, and Houston, but Elm Street is the original and still the busiest, per the company's own site.
There is a dress code, and it gets enforced. The lounge holds a smart casual to dressy standard after a certain hour, so athletic wear and gym clothes get turned away, which is worth knowing before a group shows up underdressed.
Pricing sits at the higher end for the category. Mains run well into the twenties and thirties and the cocktails are not cheap, which tracks with a lobster and seafood heavy menu rather than a standard soul food room.
What regulars flag is consistent across Yelp and OpenTable: the food and the portions get the praise, the brunch DJ sets the mood, and the gripe is the wait and the volume on a busy weekend. Book ahead and come hungry.
Go for weekend brunch or a Southern dinner with a sweet cocktail, not a quiet drink. It sits among Dallas cocktail bars. See where it lands in our Dallas bar guide, our best cocktail bars in Dallas roundup, and our list of cocktail bars near you.
