Sirs-

I understand that Avalon is seeking a freelancer with experience writing about Dallas attractions, and I'd like to be considered. I've written on that very subject for about a dozen print publications and other media outlets including Destination Dallas, Dining Out, AOL Cityguide, Dallas Child, The Met, and ChowBaby.com, and I've done similar work on the subject of attractions in Austin and other cities for The Onion A.V. Club, Austin Monthly, The Daily Texan, and several other magazines and online media. I'm also the author of a non-fiction book which was released in March of 2007 to praise from Rolling Stone, The Huffington Post, and other sources, and have served as a contract advertising copywriter for firms in Dallas and elsewhere. Though I moved to Brooklyn last year, I grew up in Dallas, return to the city regularly to visit family, and continue to do some freelance articles for publications based in the area.

Along with my resume, I've pasted two long sets of Dallas attraction descriptions below; please take a look and let me know if you'd like to discuss this further.

Thanks,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302




Even if breakfast weren't the most important meal of the day – and we know of no other meal that provides for an excuse to be late for work – there would still be ample reason to check out some of Dallas' many well-regarded, morning-enhancing eateries. Sure, we've got juevos rancheros and breakfast burritos like some cities have potholes (and we have those, too), but we can also out-powder anyone's French toast and hold our own in the bagel department to boot. And, yes, some of us consider chicken fried steak to be a breakfast item. Frankly, we're right.



Bread Winners Bakery and Cafe



Denizens of uptown possessing a profound love of leisurely breakfasts, bountiful menus, and nuanced egg dishes make up the bulk of the patronage at Bread Winners. Here, brunch offerings run the gamut from "scrambles" (known elsewhere as "omelets," and available in heart-friendly, egg-white-only incarnations), banana bread French toast, and muffins, to such more nuanced items as smoked salmon bagels with tomato, red onions, capers, and herb-based cream cheese. Vegetarian offerings abound – one breakfast casserole includes asparagus, artichoke hearts, spinach, and broccoli. During temperate months, the resident patio ranks among the hottest spots in Big D... figuratively, of course.



Lucky's Cafe



Because the city's automobile-inclined layout leaves few fine spots for prime people watching, Lucky's Cafe's location on the relatively well-trafficked Oak Lawn is all the more precious for those who like their breakfasts accompanied by pedestrians. Belgian waffles, pecan French toast, and country potatoes abound, while migas, grits, and grapefruit halves await the carb-adverse. But Lucky's does nuance just as well as it covers the staples; the Paella Frittata consists of rice, chicken, sausage, bell peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, and Monterey jack.



Dream Cafe



Before the increasingly populated Uptown area had the myriad morning-time eating options that it boasts today, neighborhood resident possessing an understandable aversion to cooking could depend on Dream Cafe to keep them well fed. Today, the area's breakfast crowd still looks favorably upon their longtime staple, drawn in by Tex-Mex-y items like huevos rancheros with Monterey jack. By and large, Dream deals in both healthy and pseudo-healthy fare; stir-fried veggies are a popular choice among the sort of people with the ability to turn down pancakes.



Garden Cafe



East Dallas breakfast enthusiasts aren't catered to quite as thoroughly as are their counterparts elsewhere in the city, and thus it is that Garden Cafe is a treasure beyond value for those who like their portions ample and their coffee cups perpetually overflowing. This hard-to-find diner skimps on décor in favor of ultra-hardy morning meals of the sort that rely on eggs, potatoes, and toast. The pancakes in particular stand out by virtue of their sheer, unadulterated fluffiness; this is the kind of place where the grilling of flapjacks is both an art and a science, not simply a routine.



Cafe Brazil



Cafe Brazil bills itself as "not just another coffee house," and Dallas restaurant goers seem to agree – the chain has managed to expand from one to nine locations in the years since the original spot in Lakewood appeared in 1991, racking up plenty of awards from the local dining press in the process. Here, breakfast may be had at all hours, and the menu features plenty of options with which to keep its regulars thoroughly enticed. The breakfast relleno consists of a roasted poblano pepper stuffed with scrambled eggs, chorizo, and cheddar cheese, and further adorned with a spicy cream sauce; milder palates might be more inclined towards the rosemary potatoes, a noted house specialty.



Barbec's Restaurant



Here and there, one happens to come across that special sort of truck stop-y diner where the regulars tend to regard chicken fried steak as chiefly a breakfast dish, to be supplemented by something a little more substantial at lunch; Barbec's is such a place. Those who'd prefer to have breakfast for breakfast have plenty of options, but the best of these is the surprisingly sweet beer batter biscuits accompanied by a somewhat more orthodox bowl of gravy. By and large, this is a no-nonsense breakfast spot, although the waitresses will still call you "darlin'" whether or not you're particularly cute.



Mecca Restaurant



Mecca is the sort of place where both the waitresses and customers have been coming in for a couple of decades and know each other just as well as they know the menu. The uninitiated, meanwhile, need only a know a few things: that the cinnamon rolls are huge and well-regarded; that while one might be tempted by the banana pancakes, the whole wheat blueberry version is the more highly acclaimed of the two competing sorts; and that, Mecca not being the well-kept secret it once was, one should expect a bit of a wait on the weekends.



Dallas' nascent status as a third-coast fashion node continues to solidify thanks to a spate of new boutique openings in Uptown and beyond. High-end women's apparel outlets like Valley of the Dolls serve to enhance an already admirable array of sources for designer pieces, for instance, while the newly-launched  American Girl Boutique and Bistro ensures that no actual dolls need be seen in the same dress twice. Unabashed bargain hunters aren't left out by a longshot; Mybag and Salegirl are treasures beyond measure for those whose budgets don't quite match up to their own irrepressible  cuteness.



American Girl



Whereas young girls once had to suffice to treat their dolls to makeshift tea parties on old card tables and haircuts performed by older sisters equipped with safety scissors, the newly-launched American Girl Boutique and Bistro takes things to a new level altogether. Aside from offering much of the brand's popular doll lineup and assorted doll accessories, the Galleria wonderland also features a doll salon, an in-house restaurant, and a never-ending slew of special events perfect for girls of both the real and plastic sorts.



J. Lindeberg



Catering to customers and sensibilities both European and American, J. Lindeberg specializes in everyday wear that's anything but, with the overall lineup bearing a keen emphasis on blacks, whites, and grays, as well as beyond-the-ordinary sporting outfits perfect for those golfers who insist on being dressed to the nines while playing same. The resident women's offerings are particularly sleek – such items as the Zoey Metallic Outerwear Vest go a long way towards turning jeans and a t-shirt into something more adorably dramatic.



Next Vintage



Situated adjacent to the Charlie Palmer restaurant and housed within the soon-to-be-launched Joule Hotel, Next Vintage offers a selection of some 300 wine labels taken from the 700-strong wine list that makes up the selection next door, and which itself was chosen by master somelier Drew Hendricks with an eye towards complementing the restaurant's acclaimed take on progressive American cuisine. Surprisingly enough in light of its pedigree, Next Vintage still manages to offer some of the most incredible wine bargains in Dallas.



V.O.D. Boutique



If "friendly and accommodating" isn't the first thing that comes into your head when you think of high-end apparel boutiques, then get your fashionable little self over to V.O.D. Boutique ("Valley of the Dolls," natch), which offers stylish pieces from such designers as Paric Sweeney along with some notoriously helpful customer service – employees will work around your schedule to stay open if need be, and the store even makes deliveries to boot.



Salegirl



Some shoppers delight in paying top dollar for their duds; Salegirl Dallas isn't for them, but rather for the rest of us. The store's ever-rotating selection of post-season apparel ranges in degree of bargain-friendliness from 40 to 70 percent off the initial retail price, with the items in question drawn from such outlets as J. Lindeberg and Daryl K. Accessories, shoes, and an exclusive selection of home furnishings are also on hand at similarly budget-conducive prices.



Mybag



Thanks to a staggering selection taking up more than 3000 square feet of floorspace, Mybag has already earned plenty of street cred among those area handbag enthusiasts for whom variety is an integral component of their overall accessory strategy. It certainly doesn't hurt that the retailer has also won acclaim for its unusually knowledgeable salespeople, most of whom are clearly delighted to be there. Best of all, almost everything on hand is priced less than $50.



Free People



Though Free People is actually based in New Jersey, many of its offerings seem to scream "Dallas," presumably by some happy coincidence; the resident fare consists largely of razorbacks, chemises, slips, camis, and tanks ranging in style from hippy-dippy floral patterns to slightly more conservative stripes, thus catering admirably to Big D's increasingly schizophrenic stylistic sensibilities. Fans of solids and black would be best advised to look elsewhere – Free People is unflinching in its celebration of color.



Tastefully minimalist martini bars are all well and good, but there'll always be a place for the humble (and not-so-humble) dive bar in the heart of the Dallas lush. Some, like Adairs, have inherited their status as "dive" by virtue of having been around for decades and having once been frequented by Willie Nelson; others, like The Loon, seem to defy that categorization by way of top-notch Italian bar food of the sort that's not really bar food at all. And then, there's Double Wide, which proudly cultivates the ethos, and does so rather convincingly at that.



Winedale Tavern



Winedale leaves no rock unrolled in its ongoing quest for area music venue supremacy. Not only does the longtime local favorite offer an eclectic mix of live music acts hailing from Dallas and elsewhere, but it also plays host to prominent Djs, open mic nights, and even weekly karaoke sessions, thus supplementing its on-stage talent pool with the musical stylings of Bill from accounting. Pool tables and other, similarly appropriate diversions help to liven things up even further.



Lakewood Landing



Rightfully billing itself as an "upscale dive," Lakewood Landing has reinvented itself as a somewhat more cerebral drinking spot over the past couple of years while still retaining much of the same inimitable flavor that made it a neighborhood favorite to begin with – literally. The menu includes wings of both the "hot" and "scorching hot" varieties, not to mention chicken fried steak, pork tenderloin sandwiches, and even some vegetarian offerings, most notably the quesadillas. Flavor of a more figurative sort may be found within the jukebox, which has actually won awards for the general niftiness of its selection.



The Loon



The Loon takes the not-so-subtle art of the bar menu to brave new territory, supplementing its suds with an Italian-heavy menu drawn from the work of a prominent local chef. Pizzas come equipped with gourmet touches like radicchio, caperberries, pine nuts, and pesto, while such other signature entrees as the chicken boscaiola with artichoke hearts served in white wine sauce might reasonably force the patron to wonder if this is really a bar, and, if so, what Italian province he's in and how he managed to end up there without realizing it.



Cosmo's



Cosmo's has plenty to recommend itself to those among the younger crowd with a penchant for low lighting, kitschy knick-knacks, and reasonably inexpensive drinks. But it's also a swell watering hole for older nightlife lovers, incorporating reasonably adult-friendly music and a generally mature ambiance into a nonetheless dynamic, perpetually interesting overall bar scene. The old-school jukebox lends the place a bit of Neil Diamond-esque credibility as well.



The Slip Inn



Though it can be easy to miss even for those who may have reasonably believed themselves to have hit up every hot spot in town, The Slip Inn is well worth the effort to locate – behind the windowless walls is a downright admirable music venue of the sort that sets itself apart from others of the genre by way of such notable features as amateur DJ night, whereby the humble patron may try his or her hand at scratchin' away to the bemusement of others.



Louie's



Louie's is that particular sort of dive that manages to bring in reporters, the people the reporters are reporting on, and other local power players, and not just because the hole-in-the-wall, unlike many others, actually takes credit cards; the biggest draw (aside from the booze) may very well be the unusually gourmet-friendly sandwiches and pasta dishes, not to mention some memorable desserts. If you happen to be an investigate journalist hoping to overhear a hush-hush conversation between city council members and local lobbyists, this is the place to be.



Time Out Tavern



Perhaps best know to area commuters as the little place with the black-and-white pinstripe awning next to the dry cleaners, Time Out Tavern better deserves to be known as your favorite after-work hangout, particularly if you happen to be a sports fan. Among other things, the longtime Lovers Lane mainstay offers big screen satellite football games, shuffleboard, pinball machines, and pool tables, thus providing the thirsty sporting enthusiast with all manner of amusements of both the active and not-so-active varieties.



Adairs



Back in the day – way back in the day, that is – Adairs was a major hangout for such venerable icons of Texas strummin' as Willie Nelson and Junior Brown, and if that de facto endorsement doesn't quite cut if for you, there's always the burgers, which can't claim the same level of widespread fame as can Willie or Junior but are nonetheless very big and satisfactorily greasy. Tellingly, each weeknight brings a different drink special; Wednesday's one dollar drafts are pretty durn hard to beat.



The Grapevine



There's plenty to like about The Grapevine, and plenty of patrons to like it – weekend evenings often see the house thoroughly packed, thus giving latecomers an excuse to check out the rooftop patio which itself offers an eagle-eye view of the well-trod environs. Among other delights, the bar offers particularly strong frozen drinks (with the bellinis being a major draw), an ultra-cozy interior, and one of those new-fangled jukeboxes possessing every song one could imagine along with plenty others that one probably couldn't.



Lee Harvey's



Some say that naming a bar after a notorious assassin is in poor taste; we say those people haven't tried Lee Harvey's panini sandwiches with portobello mushrooms, which are every bit as tasteful as Dear Abby circa 1970. Nor are they likely to have munched on one of the bar's resident grilled cheese sandwiches, served on jalapeno bread for a bit of much-appreciated bite. Meanwhile, the  patio found outback makes for a swell place in which to sip on a Pabst Blue Ribbon.



Double Wide



After re-opening under the ownership of two of its former bartenders, Double Wide continues to enthrall Dallas residents with what may very well be the finest collection of southern-chic knick-knacks to be found this side of Garland. It's also a great resource for those who like their beers obscure and their ambiance moderately anachronistic, but who'd rather not visit the in-laws out in Longview to experience such things with too much authenticity.



Dallas has served as an incubator for such a diverse array of musical genres that it would be hard to identify any particular one of them as constituting "the Dallas sound." One the one hand, you have pockets of distinctly Texan blues and country performances of the sort one hears at Poor David's Pub, Hole in the Wall, and Gilley's; on the other, you have venues hosting such an eclectic schedule of music that it would be hard to classify them at all, such as Lee Harvey's and the Granada Theater on Greenville. Nothing embodies the difficult-to-pin-down nature of the local musical aesthetic more than Deep Ellum, the city's downtown arts district and the home of such alternative-rock friendly venues like Gypsy Tea Room and Club Dada as well as the decidedly swing-o-centric Sons of Herman Hall.



Sons of Herman Hall

3414 Elm Street

Dallas, Texas

75226

214-747-4422



Having been built in 1911 to serve as the local headquarters of a German social organization, Sons of Herman Hall now instead serves as the headquarters of local swing dancing enthusiasts. To this end, the venue offers swing dancing lessons every Wednesday evening, which may be put to good use every weekend when some of the state's hottest swing, country, and bluegrass bands show up to get down. Downstairs, a rather venerable  bar keeps things going on weekdays.



Gilley's/Palladium Theater

1135 S. Lamar Street

Dallas, Texas

75215

214-428-2919



Named after the honkey tonk nightclub of the same name which served as the setting for so many mechanical bulls rides in the film Urban Cowboy (and which later burned down), Gilley's Dallas still caters to the same niche by way of an incredible lineup of local and touring musical acts and a huge, 10,000 square foot dance floor. Gilley's is also home to events like the Dallas Jazz Legends Festival and the Dallas Golden Gloves amateur boxing tournament.



Granada Theater

3524 Greenville Avenue

Dallas, Texas

75206

214-824-9933



After decades of renovations, retoolings, and all-around re-purposing, the Granada Theater has undergone a staggered evolution from prominent local movie house to history-laden live music venue. Aside from its swell location amongst Greenville Avenue's other notable attractions, Granada is today known for its state-of-the-art sound system, beautiful interior, and full kitchen and bar service, all of which come together to provide one of the city's most unique concert-going experiences.



Gypsy Tea Room

2548 Elm Street

Dallas, Texas

75226

214-744-9779



Gypsy Tea Room has been a fixture on the storied Deep Ellum music scene ever since it was founded in 1998 by the owners of Trees and Green Room (which, at the time, were the hottest clubs in the area); over a relatively short career, the two-staged venue has played host to hundreds of top-notch local and national acts with a particular emphasis on rock and country.



American Airlines Center

2500 Victory Avenue

Dallas, Texas

75219

214-665-4299



As home to both the Dallas Mavericks and the Dallas Stars, American Airlines Center has taken on the mantle of area sporting mecca. It's also become the most popular and well-attended attractions in Dallas proper, hosting such other huge events as the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus along with a non-stop onslaught of concerts, Broadway hits, and other similarly crowd-pleasing draws.





NOKIA Live

1001 Performance Place

Grand Prairie, Texas

75050

972-854-5111



Grand Prairie's resident mega-stadium takes audience amenities to the next level; even standard seating is unusually comfortable and spacious, while the luxury suites are, of course, quite a bit more so. Between its massive capacity and top-notch facilities, Nokia Live has become one of the region's most popular venues in which to see touring headliner acts from B.B. King to The Eagles.





Balcony Club

1825 Abrams Road

Dallas, Texas

75214

214-826-8104



The Balcony Club is one-third singles bar, one-third after-work hangout, and two-thirds jazz venue – which seems impossible until you come in and see it for yourself. Set above the equally venerable Lakewood Theatre, the East Dallas watering hole has long been one of the area's most prominent haunts, drawing in an unusually celebrity-heavy clientèle along with some moderately famous local faces as well.





Club Dada

2720 Elm Street

Dallas, Texas

75226

214-744-3232



As one of the longest-running venues in Deep Ellum, Club Dada was a pioneer in the effort to turn the neighborhood into the Texas music icon that it is today. After two decades, the newly-renovated Elm Street venue still plays host to a wide range of musical acts hailing from Dallas and elsewhere with the help of of three stages, an equal number of separate bars, and a particularly swell patio.


Lee Harvey's
1807 Gould Street

Dallas, Texas

75215

214-428-1555




Over the course of its relatively brief history as a South Dallas hangout, Lee Harvey's has won astounding levels of both critical and popular acclaim for its fun, easygoing happy hour scene, its dog-friendly demeanor, and for the extraordinarily diverse range of musical acts that show up on weekends. Often overlooked in all of this is the resident kitchen, open seven days a week and offering an admirable selection of burgers, sandwiches, and other appropriate bar food items.



Hole in the Wall

1530 Main Street #111

Dallas, Texas

75201

214-744-3663



As a staple of the local blues scene, Hole in the Wall hosts performances nearly every night. Weekend evenings bring in touring acts from around Texas and beyond, while weekdays are generally more structured; check out The Skeeter Brothers Jam on Tuesdays, Texas Slim with Joey Love on Wednesdays, and Jackie Don Loe on Thursdays. Beyond the blues, the resident burgers have been lauded by press and public alike.



Poor David's Pub

1313 S. Lamar Street

Dallas, Texas

75215

214-565-1295



Poor David's Pub may be on its third incarnation in as many decades, but the central appeal remains the same – it's still a highly casual, music-centered bar that specializes in rebel country while occasionally veering into other related genres, and it still pulls in such icons of Texas music as ex-Texas Jew Boys front man and occasional gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman.



BARRETT BROWN__                               512-560-2302 barriticus@gmail.com <mailto:barriticus@gmail.com>



Copywriter/ Feature Columnist/ Contributing Editor/ Book Author

With focus on political satire, policy analysis and contemporary humor.

Published Work/ Freelance Media Experience:

PoliticalBase.com – Created content and served as paid blogger for online political news start-up founded by former CNET owners. 2007-2008.

Fox Business Channel, Yahoo, Minyanville.com – Writer on freelance creative team for animated humor series Minyanville, which aired on Fox Business Channel's Happy Hour program as well as on Yahoo Finance. 2007

The Onion A/V Club - Freelance copywriting for The Onion's features department. 2006-2008.

Sterling and Ross Publishers – Authored nonfiction book of political humor, Flock of Dodos: Behind Modern Creationism, Intelligent Design, and the Easter Bunny, released in March 2007. Book received praise from Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, Rolling Stone, Skeptic, Air America Radio, Huffington Post, others.

Anglesey Interactive, Inc. – Produced online marketing collateral (web text, press releases, etc.) in support of firm's "Riight.com <http://riight.com/> " integrated search engine in June 2007; have continued to engage in blogging for the site from January 2008 forward.

Dining Out - Feature writing for national restaurant publication. 2006-2008

National Lampoon - Occasional contributor; past features included "Pick-Up Lines That Don't Seem to Work," "Craig's Conspiracy Corner," "A Guide to Dealing with Housecats," more. 2003 - 2006

Evote.com <http://evote.com/> - Weekly columnist and feature writer for political analysis site from October 2004 to November 2005.

AOL CityGuide - Web content writer from 2000 to 2004 – Researched/ created coverage of event and entertainment venues. Served as regional correspondent for Dallas, Austin, New Orleans, Houston and Little Rock markets.

Additional magazine work - Ongoing, have contributed feature articles from serious political commentary to humor pieces to children's recreational activity coverage to fine dining overviews for outlets including business-to-business publications Pizza Today, Club Systems International, Dallas Market Center, D.C.-based public policy journal Toward Freedom, London-based public policy journal Free Life, humor magazine Jest, regional publications The Met, Austin Monthly, Dallas Child, Oui, literary journal Swans, dozens more.

Additional writing projects - Created both print and online marketing collateral for New York tech start-up Organic Motion, Inc. Researched and wrote entertainment/dining/venue content for Dallas ad agency Avacata and clients' marketing collateral, including that of luxury resort real estate firm. Have created marketing copy for Verizon via Dallas ad agency Sullivan Perkins, produced website copy for design firm NPCreate.com, provided public relations pieces for Texas energy company EBS and Dallas real estate firm Dunhill Partners, more.

Education:

1999 - 2003 University of Texas at Austin, College of Communications