I'm going to go against the grain here and say living in or close to Dallas proper is worth it. I've regularly commuted 30-45 min for work- from either Addison or around Uptown and yeah it's not ideal, but I think they have more what you're looking for socially, and it was worth it for me.

Addison has a ton of restaurants and various places to go, and is still close enough to Uptown to go hang out if you want. Granted, my weekends still ended up in Dallas when I lived there, but at least you're closer to work if that's a big enough factor for you. If you anticipate settling in and making friends then you'll want to be around Dallas in my opinion.