On the Menu: Midnight Rambler Dallas

Welcome to On the Menu, where we explore what makes a bar’s menu unique, intriguing, and all-around delicious.

It’s that wonderful time of the year when bars around the world are celebrating the season with traditional drinks like coquito as well as festive originals, like those from Miracle Pop-Up. At Dallas’ Midnight Rambler, which recently marked its 10th anniversary, the bar team aimed to create cocktails that evoke the nostalgia of being home for the holidays. While there are requisite takes on eggnog and mulled wine, the team found more unexpected ways to distill yuletide memories and flavors into the glass. “The holidays are usually the best memories for everyone,” says Gabe Sanchez, who took command of the bar’s post-Covid revamp. “We always want to reinforce the idea of family, belonging, and togetherness.”

Pushing the Envelope

For a decade, Midnight Rambler, founded by Chad Solomon and Christy Pope in the basement of The Joule hotel in downtown Dallas, has garnered national recognition and a loyal following for its compelling culinary drinks, like the beef stock-sherry cocktail Pho-King Champ. The drinks have earned Midnight Rambler several accolades over the years, including D Magazine‘s “Best Drinks That Push the Envelope” in 2019 and a reoccurring spot as regional honoree at the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards.

After Solomon and Pope’s departure in 2020, the hotel brought on Sanchez, an award-winning bartender and owner of beloved local bar Black Swan Saloon, to reopen the underground cocktail lounge. As the bar’s “cocktail expert” (his official title there), he works with the bartenders on creating the imaginative menus. Case in point: a Miami Vice Jello shot that masterfully resembles a deviled egg. “The creative process is a sounding board for everyone. Nothing is off limits—technique, spirits, process—unless it is egregiously expensive or inefficient,” he says. Together they invent, build, and fine-tune the drinks “until they are tasty, efficient, fun, and hopefully cause someone to smile after tasting them.”

Holiday Potluck

This year marks the third year the bar has created holiday-specific menus since it reopened in 2021. In 2023, the drinks honored popular holiday movies, such as Die Hard. But for Sanchez, his favorite holiday menu “is still our ode to the Toys R Us holiday newspaper catalog.” However, this year’s holiday menu, called “Bless Your Heart,” might be a contender. For the drinks, several of the bartenders looked to their family’s own holiday tables for inspiration.

Bartender Jennava Walker leans into the savoriness of a Gibson by incorporating elements of her aunt’s potato salad into the cocktail. Vodka infused with dill, celery, and mustard seed and dry vermouth infused with mustard results in a spot-on recreation of the potluck staple’s flavors in this delicious riff. Walker also honored her great grandmother’s ambrosia salad in her Everything Bundt Pan cocktail made with pistachio-infused gin, pineapple, cherry, lime, Calpico, and pandan. And making childhood dreams come true, she garnishes the drink with a heaping spoonful of mini marshmallows and a neon red maraschino cherry.

Meanwhile, bartender Leo Ramos uses mole, a labor-intensive sauce that’s a key ingredient in Mexican holiday food, to build a spicy, savory take on a tropical classic with his Molé Colada. But it’s his Ponche Highball, a refreshing version of the hot Mexican fruit punch, that’s already one of Sanchez’s favorites from the menu.

Sparking Memories

As a labor of love by the entire staff, as well as an homage to their families, Midnight Rambler’s holiday menu menu is shared with deep pride. “Watching them work through the nervousness, curiosity, and joy of creating was like watching your kids in the week leading up to Christmas morning,” says Sanchez. “The ultimate goal is that the cocktail makes someone remember and send a ‘Hey, I miss you, I know it’s been forever, this cocktail made me think of you…’ text message from Midnight Rambler to a loved one.”