The 4 Hot Spots of Dallas for Young Professionals

4 Hot Spots of Dallas for Professionals
Across the country, professionals are trending to areas we call Hot Spots of Dallas. These areas have these characteristics:

• Large amount of single professionals
• Ability to live and then quickly walk to restaurants, entertainment and night life
• Often including public transportation so besides perhaps getting to work a car may be optional
• Can be on the edge of burbs at times, but won’t have the same residents as burbs, i.e. more singles, fewer families

The 4 hot spots of Dallas are: Uptown Dallas, The Shops at Legacy, Addison and Las Colinas.
Each of these Hot Spots of Dallas has unique qualities of their own, including nightlife, dining, entertainment and residences for professionals. The following is a breakdown of highlights of each of these four areas.

THE FOUR HOT SPOTS of UPTOWN DALLAS

Uptown Dallas
Uptown Dallas is a highly unique part of town, where the majority of residents are young professionals in the 22-28 age range. It isn’t just the ages of the professionals that make this area stand out; it is the overall mindset of the people here that really give Uptown Dallas its character.

The lifestyle here is an active, busy one. Most people here are just starting out in their careers, are upwardly mobile and very social by nature. The businesses here in Uptown Dallas cater to this lifestyle to the fullest extent, making it very easy, convenient and attractive to live, work and play here. This is the most popular of the Hot Spots of Dallas. 

Some characteristics of Uptown Dallas:

• Walkability– there is no other hot spot that is as completely walkable or pedestrian oriented as Uptown Dallas. The streets and traffic flow are designed to respect the large number of people on foot at all hours of the day or night.

• The Attractions– there are an endless number of attractions in Uptown Dallas, including restaurants, bars, nightclubs, theaters and parks, all within walking distance or a short Trolley ride from each other. Most are even pet-friendly!

• The Trolley– the M Line Trolley is in partnership with the Dallas Area Rapid Transit authority and is completely free. It not only connects all the areas of Uptown Dallas; it also is the link between Uptown Dallas and Downtown Dallas. No other hot spot offers anything like the McKinney Avenue Trolley.

• The Katy Trail– The Katy Trail is a 3.5 mile long trail that runs along the west border of Uptown Dallas and is the most popular location for walking, running, cycling, inline skating and dog walking. It is also a nice short cut to take if you want to avoid car traffic, with numerous public entrances along the length of the Uptown Dallas district. It is also a very popular spot for socializing; people often meet in groups to jog, cycle or skate, or even for a romantic walk beneath the tree-lined trail, day or night.

• Concentration of Professionals– Uptown Dallas has the biggest collection of professionals from firms like Deloitte, PWC, Ernst and Young, and KPMG, as well as many lawyers, management consultants and more

Shops at Legacy
The Shops at Legacy are located off the North Dallas Tollway and Legacy Drive in Plano, TX between Legacy Drive, Parkwood Drive and Kincaid/Lundsford Roads. The Shops at Legacy are located in Plano, about ten miles north of the LBJ 635 Freeway and about twenty miles north of Downtown Dallas. The Shops at Legacy was built from the ground up to be a community for and about professionals. It is highly accessible; everything in it is within 5 minutes of each other.  This is a very appealing choice out of the Hot Spots of Dallas. 

The Shops at Legacy is also made for walking. Characteristics of The Shops include:

• Lake– The Shops has an attractive lake on the south side

• Trail– There is a beautiful walking/biking trail around the lake that is heavily treed, simply gorgeous

• Walkability– The Shops is a very pedestrian friendly atmosphere

• Parking– There is also a parking garage near the center of the Shops (just like the West Village in Uptown Dallas) for visitors as well.

Las Colinas
Las Colinas is a master planned community in Irving Texas. It was designed to be both a business complex with plenty of office buildings and a professional Hot Spot where professionals live, work and play. Las Colinas has plenty of offices of larger national firms and also numerous local firms, so there are plenty of professionals there.

Las Colinas has a beautiful canal, complete with the ability to boat on it. You can also reside in an apartment within walking distance to the canal.

Las Colinas has some tasty food and restaurants on the canal as well, such as the Rafain Brazil Steakhouse which includes private dining and a full service bar as well as The Ranch at Las Colinas, serving gourmet Southwestern, American Continental cuisine. There are even a number of dance clubs on Las Colinas Boulevard such as Beamers Nightclub and Cowboys Red River just to name a few.

Las Colinas is a good choice if you want some entertainment nearby to walk to and want to be convenient to work or owning your company and being able to get quickly to work to save time. It’s not a good choice if you want a LOT of things to walk to. Not as high of a concentration of young professionals as other hot spot areas.  Of the Hot Spots of Dallas that have have been developed, this has been the slowest to “catch ont”.

Addison
Addison’s nightlife is famous for its selection of live music venues, including Sherlock’s Baker Street Pub and Grill, Button’s, which is known for its soul food and music and the newly relocated Al-Amir, a Middle Eastern music and dance club featuring authentic belly dancing on Fridays. Most of Addison’s nightlife can be found along Belt Line Road, which is serviced by the DART city buses and taxi cabs.

Some really good places to eat in Addison are Chamberlain’s Fish Market Grill on Beltline Road, which features both lunch and dinner menus and is known for its fresh and original seafood creations. There is also JAXX Café, also known as JAXX Steakhouse on Midway Road. JAXX is known for its Pepper Steak and Chilean Sea Bass combination, also very original, with a full service bar and decent wine selection. It is advised to have reservations at JAXX during peak times. Another unique Addison eatery is Trulucks Steak and Stone Crab. It is the only restaurant in town that offers Stone Crab seven nights a week, and has a spectacular wine list as well as great music and atmosphere.

Addison is also home to tons of annual events, including Kaboomtown, a spectacular display of fireworks and pyrotechnics on the evening of July 4^th every year. There are vendors serving food and drink and often live music as well. There is also the famous Taste Addison event, a weekend blend of music and food featuring over sixty Addison restaurants that serve generous samples from their menus free or at reduced prices. There is musical entertainment, wine tasting and seminars as well as celebrity chef demonstrations. Taste Addison typically happens over a three day weekend in May every year and is a festival you won’t want to miss.

Summary
As you can see, there are attractive qualities in all four Hot Spots of Dallas for professionals. Las Colinas, Addison, The Shops at Legacy and Uptown Dallas all have very unique qualities and offer great choices for professionals to live, work and socialize. It is important to be as familiar as possible with these Hot Spots of Dallas before you make the commitment to relocate; hopefully this guide will make your decision that much easier.

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