Bill Katz flew Blackhawk helicopters for the U.S. Army for twenty years. His wife Johnnie spent twenty years in banking. They spent nine of those years overseas — Europe, Asia, moving every few years the way military families do. When Bill retired in 2001 they settled in the Dallas area, got regular jobs, and then Johnnie decided she wanted something of her own. In December 2003 they bought a sports bar on McKinney Avenue called Frankie’s. Within four years they had tripled the sales and turned it into the top sports bar in DFW.
Then the Texas Department of Transportation took their Lewisville location to build a highway overpass. The Uptown bar closed around the same time. Bill and Johnnie decided to build the biggest version of Frankie’s they’d ever attempted — 9,700 square feet across two floors in the historic Davis Building at 1303 Main Street, right in the middle of downtown. They opened in August 2015. The original 1930s bank floor is still there, preserved and worked into the retro-industrial design. D Magazine called it “that rare thing in Dallas: a real neighborhood bar.”
Upstairs is Frankie’s Downtown — 44 TVs, Golden Tee, Big Buck Hunter, pool tables, twenty taps of Texas craft beer, and a cocktail menu built by Dallas barman Eddie “Lucky” Campbell. Downstairs is The Underground, a full speakeasy with brick walls, industrial cage detail, a stage, lights, sound, and live music and DJs on weekends. No password required, which is the right call.
The food takes people by surprise. Everything comes out of a scratch kitchen — pizza dough and sauce made in house daily, burgers built with actual thought behind them. Start with the Stuffed Jalapeños — four cheeses and bacon, deep fried in a zesty batter with ranch on the side. They are exactly what you want them to be. The Nachos are built on fried wonton chips instead of tortilla chips, loaded with queso, poblano cream, grilled chicken, corn and black bean pico, sweet Thai chili sauce, and green onions, which sounds like too much happening and somehow isn’t.
The wings are the reason people keep coming back. Jumbo bone-in, nine sauce options — Mango Habanero, Honey Sriracha, KC Bourbon BBQ, Garlic Parmesan, Dry Spike and more. Dallas voted them the best wings in the city in 2021 and the regulars will tell you nothing has changed…