Select Start, the Dallas arcade and cocktail bar once tucked into Deep Ellum, has packed up its joysticks and claw machines for a new home on Greenville Avenue. The bar has left its longtime address at 2811 Main St. and opened at 4503 Greenville Ave., right at the corner of SMU Boulevard, in a space that spent the past three decades as a beloved Thai restaurant.
According to a release cited by CultureMap Dallas, the new location is officially open. The venue takes over the former Bangkok Thai restaurant, which had served the Greenville Avenue corridor for 30 years before closing in 2025. Select Start first opened in Deep Ellum back in 2018, building a following around its mix of modern arcade games, cocktails, DJs, and interactive entertainment, along with ice cream and floats served alongside soda, beer, and spirits.
Co-owner Danny Wilson framed the move as an expansion rather than an exit from the brand's roots. “We wanted to find a location where we could keep everything people love about Select Start while introducing the experience to a new audience,” Wilson said, according to the same report. Wilson also said Deep Ellum will always be a special part of Select Start's story.
Inside the New 3,500-Square-Foot Space
The new Greenville Avenue venue spans approximately 3,500 square feet and is centered around an island bar, per the report. Six televisions at the bar come equipped with Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch consoles, giving console gamers their own corner of the room. The space also features Tetris-inspired floor tiles, a nod to the arcade theming that runs throughout.
A standout feature is a 7-by-11-foot LED wall positioned beside the DJ booth, which the bar plans to use for sporting events, DJ visuals, and private-party entertainment. For food, a full kitchen with a walk-up ordering window serves bar bites and late-night snacks until 2 a.m., keeping the kitchen running well past typical dinner hours.
What's on the Arcade Floor
Classic bar games remain part of the mix, with a pool table, air hockey, and a photo booth rounding out the analog side of the room. For prize hunters, nine claw machines are stocked with stuffed animals, Labubus, mystery boxes, and oversized ducks.
The modern arcade lineup includes Mario Kart, NBA Smash N Win, Aliens Armageddon, Halo Fireteam Raven, four-player Pac-Man Battle Royale, Guitar Hero, and Whack a Clown. The bar also has four basketball shooting games, two skee-ball lanes, and a punching bag game for anyone looking to work off some energy between rounds.
Part of a Growing Local Hospitality Group
Select Start operates under Blender Brands, a hospitality, nightlife, and entertainment group founded in 2015 by Danny Wilson and Jacob Cox. The group's other properties include Coba After-Hours in Dallas, Good Side Pizza Pub, and Assembly Park in Plano, home to Cliff Coffee, Three Links, and Assembly Ice House.
The relocation lands Select Start on a stretch of Greenville Avenue that has been reshaping itself as a dining and nightlife destination in recent years. A 2023 D Magazine piece described the street as being on its way to becoming one of Dallas's best dining hubs, driven by a diversity of businesses and business owners. That same report noted physical changes to the corridor, including parking lanes converted into wider sidewalks with patios, new trees planted where cars once drove, and the roadway narrowed from four traffic lanes to two.
