There’s a formula a lot of neighborhood bars follow: pour the drinks cold, keep the food simple, and don’t try too hard. Hillside Tavern, parked in the Hillside Village shopping center at 6465 E. Mockingbird Lane in East Dallas, mostly ignores that formula. The bar food here is better than it has any obligation to be, and the wine list is legitimately good — not the two token bottles on a chalkboard you’d expect from a sports bar with eight televisions.
The place opened in April 2019, the idea of brothers Bradley and Brooks Anderson, both practicing lawyers who have been building a quiet Dallas restaurant portfolio for years — Veritas Wine Room, Boulevardier in Bishop Arts, Rapscallion on Greenville before it closed. The third partner is chef Nathan Tate, a third-generation Rockwall native who grew up on his family’s working cattle ranch and who trained under Dean Fearing at the Ritz-Carlton before going on to open restaurants of his own. That background shows up on the Hillside menu in ways you don’t expect from a bar that also airs Sunday games on a big screen.
The burger situation alone is worth knowing about. The Tate Farms Cheeseburger ($19.50) uses 100% grass-fed beef from Tate’s family ranch in Rockwall County — a place his grandfather established roughly sixty years ago, and where his brother Evan still runs the operation today. The patty comes with smoked cheddar, bourbon-bacon jam, garlic confit, white truffle aioli, arugula, tomato, and pickles. It’s not a gimmick. The sourcing is real and the flavor reflects it.
If you want something more straightforward, the Hillside Cheeseburger ($16) is a smash patty with American and provolone, dill pickles, creole mustard, and mayo on a brioche bun. The 4 Cheese Patty Melt ($17) piles American, provolone, cheddar, and jack on a mustard-griddled smash patty with caramelized onion, pickled peppers, and a secret sauce. The Okie Burger ($17) smashes thinly sliced onions directly into the beef before it hits the griddle — seasoned, pressed, and finished with thick-cut pickles and creole mustard. The Texan ($17) does the same with jalapeños in the mix, adds fried onion strings and bacon, and finishes with house-made spicy ketchup. Gluten-free buns are available for $3…