With so many great things to do in Dallas on any given weekend, you might wonder why you’d ever want to leave. The simple answer is this: Road trips are undeniably fun, and a quality road trip playlist makes the time fly by (which is important in Texas). Whether you’re looking for an outdoor adventure through a cypress forest, a day of wine sampling, or an entire town dedicated to smoked meats, there’s a weekend destination that’s sure to meet your needs. That said, “not too far” is especially relevant when traveling in Texas, so we’ve kept our roster of weekend getaways within a five-hour drive of Dallas. Here are the spots you need to mark on your map.

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San Luis Spirits, the makers of Dripping Springs vodka and gin, is located in Dripping Springs, Texas, in the Texas Hill Country, and offers some of the best vodka and gin in the state. Dripping Springs Vodka and Texas Orange Vodka are micro-distilled 20 times in small 50-gallon batches, then mixed with pure, mineral-rich artesian spring water from the Texas Hill Country before a final clarifying filtration through Swedish-activated charcoal. The Texas Orange Vodka is made with hand-zested Texas oranges, and after the oranges are zested, the actual fruit is donated to the Austin Zoo. Dripping Springs Artisan and Traditional gins are made in small 40-gallon batches and incorporate citrus from the Texas Rio Grande Valley and southwestern flavors. The on-site tasting room is open six days a week, and specialty cocktails are available on Saturdays. Tours are offered Thursday through Saturday and include a tasting and souvenir shot glass. Tour tickets must be purchased in advance and attendants must be 21 and up.

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This year, the biggest party of the Houston food and beverage scene came right to your living room. CultureMap’s Tastemaker Awards — Virtual Edition brought all the delicious and innovative ideas from our city’s best chefs and bartenders straight to you, courtesy of Tasting Totes that were brimming with goodies.

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DRIPPING SPRINGS, Texas — The school year is still not over but class is no longer in session, and that means many students who rely on school meals for food no longer have it.

• With school districts shut down, many students are left without regular meals
• School’s Out, Food’s In provides meals but hasn’t been able to obtain groceries
• Treaty Oak Distilling has stepped in to fill the food void 

“Our goal is just to make sure that no kid in Dripping Springs goes without food for any reason,” says Mandi McNutt of School’s Out, Food’s In—or SOFI for short—a summer food assistance program.

“We currently feed 170 kids each week during the summer,” she continued.

As a result of COVID-19 shutting down districts their work started early.

“We don’t normally jump in throughout the year but this is an emergency situation so we’ve been scrambling a bit trying to figure out how to get kids fed in the midst of all of this,” said McNutt….

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