Cedar Springs Wine Walk is the largest such event in Texas,
with some 3,000 people participating in the June Wine Walk
DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
Taffet@DallasVoice.com
The Wine Walk on Cedar Springs began as a part of Razzle Dazzle Dallas on Cedar Springs in 2011, and it proved to be so popular that the merchants along The Strip decided to repeat it a few times each year. But it wasn’t until 2015 that the event really caught fire, and Cedar Springs Merchants Association decided to make it a monthly event, held from 6-9 p.m. on the first Thursday of every month.
Today, the Cedar Springs Wine Walk isn’t just the largest such event in Dallas; it is the biggest wine walk in Texas. And yes, it is the biggest any way you want to measure it — whether you’re counting who has the most wine stops on their tour or whose tour draws the most paid participants.
Chad Mantooth, CSMA’s Wine Walk committee chair, said the Deep Ellum event has 15 stops, and Bishop Arts Wine Walk has about that same number. Meanwhile the June Cedar Springs Wine Walk, held earlier this week, had 30 businesses participating. (The number changes from month to month, Mantooth said.)
And while other wine walks that Mantooth has visited appear to draw several hundred paid participants, last June’s Pride Cedar Springs Wine Walk sold 3,000 glasses.
One thing that might set the Cedar Springs Wine Walk apart from similar events is the way CSMA brings the community in. “We like to partner with LGBTQ+ nonprofits,” Mantooth explained. “We have them on site and don’t charge them to be part of it.”
That allows the nonprofits to interact with community members, but the organizations also help out with the events sometimes, too: Some of the smaller stores on The Strip can get overwhelmed during busier wine walks, so volunteers from the non-profits will often step in and help out.
How it works
Wine Walk attendees start at the tent outside the Round-Up Saloon, where they pay the $20 admission fee. That includes a glass designed specifically for that month’s event, and a map showing the businesses participating that month. (You can pay your admission on site, or you can get ahead of the game at prepay online at CedarSpringsWineWalk.com.)
Once you’ve gotten your glass and your map, you can choose which business to visit first, and you can start drinking. But remember: It’s not legal to take your drink out on the street, so merchants will give you about a 2-ounce pour. But over the course of 30 stops, that adds up to quite a bit of wine.
Each merchant is responsible for buying its own wine, so you’ll taste something different at each stop. Some order their wine from the liquor store on The Strip while some source their stock from distributors and some go shopping at Costco.
Pro tip: If the line to get your glass filled is especially long at one business, just head down the line to the next one and come back to the one you skipped later on that night. There are no rules about a particular order in which you need to visit each shop.
Toward the end of the night, there’s a raffle drawing to give away prizes supplied by the merchants. Prizes have included theater tickets, gift cards to restaurants and more.
Mantooth said one month’s theme was a tribute to the late Tejano star Selena, and everyone went crazy for a cardboard cutout of the singer. So CSMA gave that away in the raffle along with the planned prizes.
“About a year ago, I got the idea of a collectible wine glass,” Mantooth said. “Now we try to keep to a theme every wine walk.”
So in December, you can count on the glass being holiday themed, and in June it’ll be Pride.
Usually, Mantooth gives the supplier a few weeks to print the glasses. This month he gave them an extra month because of the large crowd expected.
Where does the money go?
The money raised each month at Wine Walk helps pay for improvements on The Strip. Some of the money last year helped pay to have The Strip’s rainbow crosswalks rejuvenated. And then Greg Abbott stepped in with his rainbow-phobic orders, and those newly-repainted crosswalks had to be removed.
So, while The Strip is stuck for now with boring bland generic crosswalks, CSMA has some interesting additions planned for the streetscape. For instance, brightly-colored banners are going up on poles along the street. New rainbow-painted bike racks are coming, and more landscaping is in the works. CSMA is also paying for a porter to clean up The Strip four days a week. The group will announce a new project this month.
Mantooth said his personal goal is to make Wine Walk special each and every month and to keep the event feeling authentically Cedar Springs. He said he hopes the event helps make the neighborhood welcoming, social and as full of personality as possible.
“People come to this event for the wine, but what they remember is running into friends, meeting new people and feeling connected to the neighborhood,” Mantooth said, adding that he doesn’t think of Wine Walk as an event so much, but more as a celebration.
“One couple told me it was their first time,” Mantooth said. “They were from out of town and said they didn’t realize community could feel like that.