The Deep Ellum Wine Walk is hosted by Paula Harris (front, far left in lemon-print dress).
Courtesy of Discover Deep Ellum
Picture it: Deep Ellum, 2014. Beyoncé’s “Drunk in Love” is everywhere; we can’t get enough of “True Detective” and Paula Harris, co-owner of Kettle Art on Main Street, gets an idea about discovery.
“I’m a native Dallasite,” says Harris. “But it took my husband, a transplant from the East Coast who came down here 40 years ago, to teach me about my own town. I think that is true culturally for a lot of people in Dallas.”
The aforementioned husband, Frank Campagna, who founded award-winning Kettle Art in 2005, is known to many as the “godfather of Deep Ellum.” Who better to give Harris the grand tour of the neighborhood? But she wondered, what about the rest of the city?
Spurred by a friend who had launched a shopping stroll-type event elsewhere in Dallas, Harris sketched out a plan for the first Deep Ellum Wine Walk. Her idea, basically a monthly pour-by-pour neighborhood tour, was met with skepticism at first by prospective participants. In fact, only four Deep Ellum businesses signed up for the first walk, which kicked off from Kettle Art in September 2014.
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‘I told ya so’
Cut to month two, and Harris could have totally said, “I told ya’ so.”
“Word spread all over the neighborhood,” she says. “People were coming to me and saying, ‘That thing that you mentioned, I heard it was really great, let’s do it.’”
In October 2014, the Deep Ellum Wine Walk expanded to include 10 businesses, growing to a dozen the month after. As the event continued to grow, themes were added — tiki, Happy Hallo-Wine, sugarplum stroll – plus monthly maps and artist-designed wine glasses. Today, the event regularly includes up to 20 businesses per month, drawing crowds by the hundreds. In the current Deep Ellum climate, grassroots efforts such as this are an especially helpful and accessible way for the area’s businesses to market themselves.
“The Wine Walk does a great job of introducing people to the neighborhood,” says Pete Zotos, owner of St. Pete’s Dancing Marlin, a Commerce Street mainstay since 1994. “It’s not a gigantic financial drain to give away some wine, and every now and then people come by and have a nice dinner too.”
Marco Cavazos, a relative newcomer who brought his Poets Books to Deep Ellum from Oak Cliff in 2025, also benefits from what he calls a “rush of people” from the event.
“We generally get a mix of familiar and new faces,” he says. “It’s a great way to experience the neighborhood in a low-pressure, laid-back way.”
Sept. 19: Electric Avenue stroll
On Saturday, September 19, the Deep Ellum Wine Walk will celebrate its 12th Anniversary with an Electric Avenue throwback theme. Each of 19 participating businesses will offer complimentary wine pours when guests flash this month’s Jeff Skele-designed glass.
“By doing this we’re highlighting the really wonderful people we have in the neighborhood,” Harris says. “We really care about each other, and we’re also providing a livelihood for others by creating a vibrant neighborhood.”
The Deep Ellum Wine Walk takes place on every third Saturday of the month. Tickets ($25) are available online at www.discoverdeepellum.com.