Hide 2.0 will have two-and-a-half times more space and a rooftop patio.
6:00 AM on Apr 13, 2021
Dallas cocktail bar Hide is moving to Lowest Greenville.
Owner Nick Backlund says he enjoyed the bar’s several-year run in Deep Ellum, but Hide has been in hiding since June 2020, when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the temporary closure of all bars during the coronavirus pandemic. Instead of reopening Hide in the same neighborhood, Backlund chose to pack up the cocktail shakers and head for Greenville Avenue, to a two-story building with a rooftop patio and two-and-a-half times more space.
The new Hide takes over Eastside Social, a short-lived neighborhood bar. The address was previously an Afghan restaurant named Nora that got a visit from a famous spiky-haired chef for the Food Network show Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives. (Nora relocated to the Bishop Arts District several years ago.)
“It was a great opportunity,” Backlund says of the spot on Greenville. “We’ve always said if a rooftop patio came about and was in the right spot, we would do it. It popped up in the middle of the pandemic, and as crazy and as scary as that sounds, we jumped in.”
Plus: Hide had outgrown its Deep Ellum digs, and not only because of lack of space.
“Our crowd was more of a chill cocktail vibe and less of a rageface party vibe,” he says. Wild Friday and Saturday nights in Deep Ellum didn’t seem to cater to the bar’s best attribute, drinks — some made with geeky components, like dehydrators or hand-held carbonators — that are enjoyed slowly by a laid-back crowd.
Backlund’s goal, now and then, is “to create approachable cocktails that people can enjoy and not have to think too much about,” he says.
Moving to a bigger space was key, especially during the pandemic, when Backlund found that serving to-go cocktails just didn’t work for the Hide brand. “Our bread and butter was people in the building, drinking cocktails and talking to bartenders,” he says.
Hide 2.0 is expected to open in July 2021. It will have a heavy cocktail focus, like the original. Examples of drinks that will be on the menu include a popular cocktail named the Green Tara, a vodka-based drink with jasmine green tea, lime, lemon and vanilla; and the Blind Date, a simple, two-ingredient drink made with rye whiskey and dates, blended. The bar will also make about five hand-carbonated cocktails, including a gin and tonic, like it did before.
Backlund owns and operates Royal 38, a dinner and cocktail spot that opened on N. Akard Street near downtown Dallas in the middle of the pandemic. And he’s a majority owner in Toller Patio Bar and Kitchen, an outdoor bar on Ross Avenue in Dallas.
Hide’s move to Lowest Greenville is a coming-home moment for Backlund, whose first job in Dallas was as a server and manager at HG Sply Co. a few doors down.
“I met my wife on Lower Greenville; I have great memories of Lower Greenville,” he says. “We’ll take the nightlife of Deep Ellum and merge it with a little bit of a restaurant feel. … We just want to churn out really good cocktails and really good food.”
Hide is expected to open at 1928 Greenville Ave., Dallas, in October 2021.