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Restaurant Openings and Closings

The Old Monk Will Open a Second Location in Oak Cliff This Fall

The beloved Henderson Avenue pub is expanding—after only 26 years.
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The Old Monk on Henderson Avenue Jonathan Zizzo

The Old Monk, the beloved Henderson Avenue pub, plans to open a second location in Oak Cliff this fall.

An alert and pub-loving reader alerted us to this news a few weeks ago, when he wrote to ask about a building being renovated into a restaurant at 810 W. Davis St., next to Bbbop Seoul Kitchen and across the way from Davis Street Espresso. The building is a former gym; I tracked it through Dallas city records and learned that it is owned by Dublin native Feargal McKinney, founder of Blackfriar Pub and the Old Monk—which, by the way, doubles as a recording studio for our EarBurner podcast.

This afternoon, McKinney confirmed the news to us in an email. “It will simply be called Old Monk Oak Cliff and we intend to have the same menu as Monk and build the space out and decorate as closely as we can to the Henderson pub. … More importantly than the appearance, I hope to create a neighborhood pub that is in keeping with the neighborhood it is in and can be around for decades.”

Katie Arterburn, an Oak Cliff resident who has been the original Monk’s general manager for 12 years, will be GM and partner of this one. (Congrats, Katie, on the shorter commute.)

“Monk is 26 years old,” McKinney added. “Not exactly a blistering expansion schedule, but I am excited to do this, looking forward to getting to know a new area and new neighbors.” (Side note: he used the same quip in an email to CultureMap.)

As for when the pub will open—well, you’ll want to be a little bit patient. McKinney is hoping for October, but it’s early days. When I followed our reader’s tip and peeked in the windows on February 29, a couple of walls and a bit of ceiling were missing, and construction workers were digging into the gym’s old flooring to begin laying the plumbing that a bar requires. In other words, it’s a hole in the ground. But it’s also a lovely 1960 building with character. A former warehouse, the space has a roll-up garage door on the back side and an ample backyard that could become its patio. You’ll be able to sit out without watching the Davis Street traffic.

Now we just have to wait half a year for a new pub that lives up to the comfort of the original. I’ll leave the last word here to our reader-informant, who lives only a few blocks away: “Oh my gosh this is the best news ever. The Old Monk!!! WOW. I can walk there!!”

The Old Monk, 810 W. Davis St. (sometime around the end of this year)

Author

Brian Reinhart

Brian Reinhart

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Brian Reinhart became D Magazine's dining critic in 2022 after six years of writing about restaurants for the Dallas Observer and the Dallas Morning News.

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