Oak Cliff

We received this great report on last night’s dinner at Oddfellows and thought our readers would appreciate the insight. Thanks to Elmwood resident Kevin Johns for sharing this first impression.

—

Last night Oddfellows held a Go Oak Cliff fundraiser with a limited preview of their new dinner menu and, if this sneak peek is any indication,  Bishop Arts has just added another must try dinner venue.

For $25, patrons were given the option of either a fried chicken dinner server family style or a vegetarian option for those that don’t eat meat.  The chicken dinner included mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, spinach and a biscuit.  The fried chicken had a great spicy crunch and was very juicy.  The biscuit was flaky with a pleasant honey flavor. (more…)

Three year old Upstart Productions has made quite a name for itself in short order. In their first season alone, Upstart landed acting and directing awards from the DFW Theater Critics Forum, and in 2010, both of their productions, subUrbia and Talk Radio, tallied three awards each. Oak Cliff resident, Barrett Nash, is a founding member of Upstart Productions’ Artistic Team.  Barrett grew up in a house near Steven’s Golf Course, where her family still lives today.  Her father, Barry Nash, is CEO of the Coaching Company and a member of Kitchen Dog Theater where he performs on stage regularly.  Barrett’s mother, Sandra, works as a Medical Aesthetician for Aqua Medical Spa.
Barrett attended Bishop Lynch High School, where she was incredibly active in the Theater Department, starring in several musicals including “Guys & Dolls,” “Mame,” “Sugar” and “Sweet Charity.”  She was also in the award-winning choir, show choir, and drill team.  Following high school, Barrett received a BFA in theater studies from The University of Texas in Austin in 2005.
Since its inaugural season, Barrett has been highly involved with Upstart, when she appeared on stage as Jessica in Upstart’s award-winning 2009 production of This Is Our Youth by Kenneth Lonergan.  Since then, she has taken on the role of producer with two productions for Upstart (suburbia by Eric Bogosian in spring 2010 and PINTER: Art, Politics, Truth in fall 2010) and contributed a great deal of extra work and input toward the non-profit theater’s fundraising efforts over the years. (more…)

Satisfied that they’ve mastered the art of good coffee, Oddfellows has announced that dinner service will start this Wednesday, March 30 and they’ve got a few seats left for a special preview dinner to be held on Tuesday, March 29.

But the real question around town is just what will they include on the dinner menu. Thankfully we’ve gotten an advance copy of the dinner menu and we can fill you in on all the details.

Here’s a few items that caught our eye:

“Full Table Dinner”: 20 pieces of fried chicken (a mix of what they are calling their ‘special recipe’ and their basic Oddfellows friend chicken), 8 biscuits, 3 dipping sauces and 3 sides (creamed spinach, mashed potatoes, mac & cheese). They say it feeds 5 – 8 and they’ve got it priced at $49.50. There is also a ‘Table Fried Chicken’ on the menu for $10.99 but it’s not clear how many pieces are included in that order. (more…)

Here at GoOC headquarters, we’re starting to ramp up efforts for the second annual Bastille on Bishop event. With that in mind, we wanted to update everyone as to the next Les Amis d’OC French meetup at the Texas Theatre on Tuesday, March 29th. All are welcome so be sure to head out at 6:30PM and grab a glass of wine at the theatre’s bar and enjoy french conversation with other Francophones. At 8PM, the 1964 classic film Les Parapluies de Cherbourg will begin. Tickets are $5 for Alliance Francaise de Dallas members and $8 for non-members.

(reposted from Bike Friendly Oak Cliff)

Since it’s almost springtime, we thought it was time to share a list of ordinances that were highlighted in our Better Block projects that we feel should be overturned in order to reactivate our city’s streetlife.

1. Remove Prohibitive Fees for Awnings:

Dallas Development Code. SEC. 43-115. ANNUAL FEE FOR USE OF PUBLIC RIGHT-OF-WAY.
(a) Except as provided in Section 43-115.1, the annual fee for a license to use a public right-of-way for the following uses is:
(4) Fee for awnings and canopies: $1,000 per awning or canopy. (more…)

Exciting plans are underway for a new restaurant to fill  the vacancy left when Beckley BrewHouse closed several months ago. The space, located at 1111 North Beckley Avenue, will now be the home of Jonathon’s Oak Cliff. Owners Jonathon and Christine Erdeljac are excited to open their first restaurant together, but the two come with more than 30 years experience.

Jonathon is the Executive Chef and Christine is the dining room manager at Bread Winners. So it should come as no surprise that they plan an “ecclectic American style restaurant with a heavy focus on brunch”. Jonathon says that his menu will include everything from scrambled eggs to chicken and waffles, and will also have a ‘grab and go’ coffee bar in the mornings for the morning commute.

Jonathon explained that it’s been their dream to open a restaurant together and they looked at vacant space all over town, “We looked in Uptown and East Dallas and really everywhere in between, but the place the felt the most like home was Oak Cliff” he said. “The hangover brunch crowd at Bread Winners always had lots of people from Oak Cliff, so we thought we’d bring it to the neighborhood”.

Jonathon and Christine hope to open before Easter and plan to serve food all day as well as offer a full bar.

There was an announcement today from Sylvan Thirty that Duncanville based, family owned grocer Cox Farms Market will anchor the development project at the corner of Sylvan and Ft. Worth Avenue.  And while the post we made on Facebook quickly gathered cheers of support, we thought it might be worthwhile to take the 10 mile drive down to Duncanville to see what Cox Farms Market is like.

The Duncanville location presumably won’t look much like the Sylvan Thirty location, primarily because they didn’t benefit from a Lake Flato designed space. Set at the back of a parking lot along Main Street, Cox Farms Market looks like a slightly smaller version of a Sprouts or New Flower/ Sun Flower market. And the similarities inside are pretty close as well.

Produce takes at least 40% of the floor space, with what appeared to be an emphasis on seasonal produce. (Although the canteloupes and watermelons made it clear that they’re still shipping fruit and veggies in.) Small hand written signs indicate the pricing on the produce and also notes the country of origin. My quick scan seemed to indicate quite a bit of American produce with a mix of produce from Mexico. (more…)

In case you’ve been taking a long winter’s nap, or living under a rock, we thought we’d take this opportunity to remind you that this Sunday, March 6th, is the Oak Cliff Mardi Gras parade and Crawfish Boil!

The parade HAS A NEW ROUTE this year and we’re really excited about it. The parade will start at Windomere and Davis, and will come down Davis past Nova, Luckie’s, and The Kessler Theater toward Bishop Arts. It will actually not turn on Bishop but rather will turn right on Madison and then turn right again on 7th Street and come past Oddfellows, Tillmans, Zen Sushi, etc before finally turning left down Bishop and ending at 8th Street (past Eno’s). We’re hoping this gives lots more great places for you to watch the parade…either along Davis or in Bishop Arts.

(more…)