An open-air sports bar that's Texan, through and through

There's no more nagging conundrum than "watch sports on TV" vs "enjoy the nice weather" -- unless you're living in 1990s Boston, where the health benefits are supplied by "Vitamin Dee" Brown, and nice weather's constantly getting mugged, then curbed. Enjoy the games and the great outdoors in 2010s Dallas, at the Nodding Donkey.

Opened today by State & Allen's brain trust, Donkey's a wood-and-corrugated steel-paneled "Texas Sports Saloon" that's traded swinging wooden doors for four enormous garage maws that unite the L-shaped patio with the island bar-dominated interior; 18 monster flat screens blast games to every nook, including a 3D TV with viewing glasses, plus three that swing to face outside, so your "Dez Nutz" fan club'll have plenty of room to hang out. All hooch comes with a chilled custom-handled canning jar, including the 6 drafts (Shock Top to Z'bock) and 15 cans (Shiner to Missoula's Trout Slayer); they're still deciding if the lone house cocktail, Donkey Punch, will contain vodka, gin, or rum, though when a donkey punches you, it doesn't matter if it's from Russia, England, or...Barbados. Inspired partly by a grandfather's Snyder, TX truck stop, the carefully considered menu starts with apps like chorizo/Oaxaca cheese-stuffed smoked jalapenos and corn bread & chili studded w/ house-smoked brisket, while mains range from a bacon-wrapped Kobe dog, to skillet-cooked steak frites w/ smoky succotash & chipotle butter, to the challah-bunned "Stacked Up Texas Burger", on which you may pile as many 4oz patties as you want (here's hoping you don't become a Backed Up Texas Burger).

Donkey's Mon-Fri 2-7pm happy hour nets $2 wells & Texas drafts, plus rotating $3 you-call-its. You can also blow small amounts of cash on video games like Big Buck Safari, Galaga, Ms. Pac-Man, and Golden Tee, but not Golden Dee -- Brown's NBA Jam nickname, though everybody shines next to Brad Lohaus.