Virgin Hotel Dallas

If Richard Branson’s various Virgin brands have a common thread, it’s an intention to make the kind of jet-set lifestyle for which Branson is famous accessible to everyone — and in the case of Virgin Hotels Dallas, in the city’s blossoming Design District, that means the high-design, high-art boutique-hotel experience, at a price you don’t have to be independently wealthy to afford.

And, this being Virgin, it also means a strong dose of swinging Sixties modernism — most apparent in the restaurant and bar, but visible in the rooms as well, with their curvaceous modern furniture and their mid-century aesthetic. The style is elevated, to be sure, as are the comforts, but perks like free wi-fi and a minibar stocked with items at street prices, without the typical hotel markup, underscore Virgin’s populist mission.

A word about the setting: Dallas is a more urbane and sophisticated city than it often gets credit for, and the Design District is even more so. All the same, hotels as hip as the Virgin aren’t exactly commonplace. The Commons Club, the hotel’s multi-purpose food and beverage venue, is one of the city’s gathering spaces, an indoor-outdoor space that’s equally well suited to daytime co-working or a night on the town.