Friday, July 29, 2011

How to Eat Free Food in Dallas on Thursday

This article is part of my weeklong food blog series, "How to Eat Free Food in Dallas Every Day of the Week".

Thursday is a bit of an iffy day for free food in Dallas. None of the deals I found are really advertised in writing, but if you know where to go, you can find something decent to eat. This is where Nick & Sam's Grill comes in.

Nick & Sam's Grill


Since this deal isn't written anywhere I'm not sure of the exact parameters, but it seems that Thursday is a special happy hour with free appetizers laying out for the taking at the bar. Last week it was free wedges of their to-die-for grilled cheese with smoked ham and gruyere on golden brown buttery toasted bread, and this week it was free chicken wings in two different flavors.

The timing seems to be from 5-7PM, but come early to eat while it's still warm or else it'll sit out on the bar indefinitely and get cold. Note: it may be hard to find an open seat if you come after 5:30.

I suppose you could walk up and order a water and eat the free food, but a whole carafe of any one of their six specialty sangria flavors is only $10 during happy hour, and this is the equivalent of four full wine glasses of alcoholic beverage! These sangrias are mixed-to-order with fresh fruits; no pre-made drinks here. Drink up while you eat for free!

Halfway through our carafe, they brought out a round of their homemade potato chips for free. I'm not a fan of potato chips, but thick, crispy homemade chips on an empty stomach are pretty delicious. My friend and I were also served a free apple sangria (think appletini) for no apparent reason; and no, my friend is not a beautiful female and I don't think the bartender was gay. I really have no idea why he gave us an extra free drink. Big thanks to my friend @VWPSST20 for picking up the tab on the carafe!

Free Events

As previously mentioned in the opening article of this series ("How to Eat Free Food in Dallas Every Day of the Week"), Dallas is full of free events with free food AND free alcoholic beverages. You could probably eat free every night of the week on events alone. Some of these events are one-time only deals, but many of them occur on a regular monthly basis. Pick a hobby or career industry that you're interested in, find their web site, Tweetup, Meetup, etc. and sign up for the monthly happy hour event. There's usually at least one free alcoholic beverage and some free appetizers involved. The bonus is that you might meet a new client, friend, or tax accountant.

On this Thursday night I had registered in advance to attend a free networking happy hour event at the WXYZ Bar at the ALOFT Hotel in downtown Dallas. This place boasts a swanky, cool concrete modern decor. This event offered a full veggies and dip spread (see above photo), potstickers, chicken nuggets, and one free alcoholic beverage per person (plus extra drinks from the registered people who didn't show up). There was also a DJ, live singer/guitarist, and a cigar roller with free cigars by the pool. Dallas knows how to network in style, for free. :-)

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