By mid-August, the trick to living well in Highland Park is not finding one big place to go. It is stringing together three or four small ones inside a half-mile radius. The town swimming pool closes its regular-swim season on August 16 this year, the Village patios finally cool off around seven, and the creek paths at Lakeside and Prather stay usable until the light drops. If you already live here, you know the loop. What follows is a closer look at the pieces of it, and a few things worth marking on the calendar before the season turns.
The last three weeks of pool season
The Town's pool at 3801 Lexington Avenue in Davis Park is the anchor of any August plan. The Highland Park Swimming Pool includes a 50-by-100-foot main pool plus a separate wading pool, and the Town's 2026 schedule runs from April 14 through November 25, with regular-season open swim from May 22 through August 16. That August 16 date is the one to circle. After it, access shifts and the daily rhythm changes, so the last weekends of open swim tend to fill up with the same familiar faces.
Davis Park does double duty. It includes a playground, a tennis court, benches, and paths for leisurely strolling, and it is home to the Highland Park Swimming Pool, which makes it especially important during the summer season. Across Euclid, Prather Park picks up the slack for anyone who wants shade instead of chlorine. Prather adds more of the creekside atmosphere people look for in Highland Park, and located across Euclid Avenue from Town Hall, it offers paths, benches, and a pickleball court among the trees.
If your evening routine involves a stretch or a quiet half hour before dinner, the Town runs two standing programs worth knowing about. Mindful Meditation meets every Tuesday at 11:45 a.m., and Yoga in the Park takes place on the first Thursday of each month at noon, with the park location varying by session.
Patio math at the Village
Highland Park Village is not a mall, and it does not empty out at six. It is a set of restaurants clustered inside a walkable courtyard, and each patio has its own microclimate. Pick correctly and you can eat outside comfortably by seven-thirty, even in August.
| Spot | What the patio actually is | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Honor Bar | Large outdoor patio set under a sweeping oak tree | Cocktails, walk-ins for two |
| Mi Cocina | Sidewalk seating at 77 Highland Park Village | Dogs are welcome in our outdoor seating area |
| Teak Tearoom | Large windows overlooking the nearby Dallas Country Club | Quiet lunch or late tea |
| Cafe Pacific | Interior room with courtyard glimpses | Long dinners, seafood |
| Bistro 31 | Village-facing patio in Art Deco surrounds | Groups, wine |
| Sadelle's café side | Grab-and-go window with courtyard tables | Bagels before a walk |
A couple of practical notes. Honor Bar prefers to host experiences based on smaller, more intimate parties of two, and if a reservation is not available for three or more guests, they may not be able to accommodate you, though walk-ins are welcome for parties of two. If you are two people who decided to eat out at the last minute, that is a feature, not a bug. Larger groups usually drift toward Bistro 31 or Cafe Pacific, both of which have been fixtures for decades.
Cafe Pacific in particular reads as the grown-up option. An institution in Dallas dining for over 40 years, Cafe Pacific embodies sophistication while remaining decidedly unpretentious, and its friendly neighborhood seafood restaurant has garnered praise both locally and nationally for its casual elegance, where you dine in the warm glow of dark mahogany, rich marble, etched glass and polished brass. Proper dress is required — no T-shirts, shorts or flip flops. Worth knowing before you walk over from the pool.
Sadelle's is the counterweight. It is a modern ode to New York's classic tradition of all-day dining, and since opening its first location in the heart of SoHo in 2016, the brand has reached iconic status thanks to its urbane, celebratory atmosphere and a menu of hits, including the best bagels in America. The café side is where the grab-and-go traffic runs: breakfast sandwiches and seasonal items, plus the sticky buns that put the SoHo location on the map.
The one room that is not really a restaurant
For an evening where you do not want to commit to a full dinner, RH Dallas is the Highland Park move most out-of-town guests miss. The RH Rooftop Restaurant resides on the third floor of RH Dallas, a 70,000-square-foot design gallery that blurs the lines between residential and retail, indoors and outdoors, home and hospitality, with a selection of timeless classics for brunch and dinner accompanied by artisanal wines and craft beers, where guests dine in a year-round skylit garden escape amidst trickling fountains, heritage olive trees and glimmering chandeliers. The skylit garden is the point. It reads as outdoors and drinks like outdoors, but the climate is entirely on your side.
A short walk from any of the above
Lakeside Park is the piece that ties the loop together. Lakeside Park is the town's best-known and largest park at 14.32 acres, with walking paths, benches, Turtle Creek views, the Teddy Bear statues, and the Read Memorial. A 20-minute walk after dinner takes you along the creek, past the bears, and back toward the Village without ever getting on a main road.
The scale is what makes it work. The Town of Highland Park maintains 22 park locations and 12 landscaped traffic islands across about 59.3 acres of green space, which creates an outdoor experience that feels local, walkable, and tied to daily routines rather than occasional outings. The park system is not a destination. It is a connective tissue you cross through on the way to somewhere else, which is exactly why it gets used every day.
What is opening and what is closing
The retail rhythm at the Village shifts almost every quarter, and this fall is heavier than most. Four fashion houses are landing in the courtyard:
- Loewe. Loewe will be embarking on a new chapter with the opening of its Highland Park Village boutique this fall, and the Spanish fashion house, specializing in men's and women's fashion, has a remarkable 177-year legacy, bringing Loewe's fusion of heritage and contemporary design to the Village.
- Brioni. Brioni is the first of the three upcoming shops to launch its first-ever standalone store in Texas at Highland Park Village, and the Italian brand is known for its bespoke creations for men, having started in Rome in 1945.
- Balmain. Renowned French designer label Balmain is set to establish its first boutique in Dallas this fall, which will be the company's second Texas location, following the storefront in Houston Galleria.
- Simkhai. Simkhai will inject a contemporary Californian flair into the luxury retail landscape, and the brand will make its more permanent mark in Dallas with a store this summer after already having been introduced to Dallas shoppers via Highland Park Village's Market as a popup this past year.
For scale, Highland Park Village is home to a roster of 60 stores and restaurants on Preston Road and Mockingbird Lane. Four openings inside one fall season is a meaningful churn rate for a center of that size, and it is why the Village has stayed as active in the evenings as it has. Foot traffic follows new tenants, and the restaurants next door benefit.
The homegrown side of the tenant mix is worth pointing out too, because it is easy to overlook next to the European names. Dallas-based brands that call the Village home include bespoke boot brand Miron Crosby and kaftan and kimono line La Vie Style House, along with elevated accessories and jewelry brand Lele Sadoughi, curated women's boutique Market, sunglass and prescription eyewear Peeper's, home interior and gift shop Madison, and St. Michael's Woman's Exchange, a specialty gift shop that donates sales to charities in the community.
Looking a few weeks ahead
August closes fast in Highland Park. Once open swim wraps, the neighborhood's outdoor calendar tilts toward walks, dinners, and the run-up to fall. The tradition that sits at the far end of the calendar is worth knowing about now, because it shapes the way people talk about the neighborhood in October and November.
Highland Park's annual tree-lighting ceremony tied to the Landmark Pecan Tree is one of the town's most recognizable traditions. The original Monarch pecan tree was first lit in 1927 and the tradition is recognized as the oldest community Christmas tree lighting tradition in Dallas County. Today, the annual ceremony gathers at the Landmark Pecan Tree on the 4200 block of Armstrong Avenue and includes festive activities, Santa, and toy donations.
The spring version of this is the azalea bloom. The Town says more than 8,000 azaleas bloom in the last weeks of March and the first weeks of April, which gives Highland Park a clear spring moment that stands out across the neighborhood. Between the two, the neighborhood has bookend traditions that everyone who lives here eventually builds their year around. August is the quiet middle stretch where the daily rhythm matters more than the calendar, which is why the pool, the patios, and the creek paths carry so much of the load.
If any of that reads like your version of a good evening, you are living in the right place. When you or a neighbor is ready to talk about what a home here is worth, or how the market is behaving in a specific pocket of town, Ana Candido would be glad to help. Let's connect.
