These AreTheTenTrue Neighborhood Bars Left

SINCE THE LAKEWOOD Yacht Club: closed almost three years ago, I’ve scouted the city for other neighborhood bare. I’ve collected Suggestions from friends known to frequent such places, and I’ve stumbled on a few candidates by accident. My conclusion, after much diligent research at great personal sacrifice, is that true neighborhood bars are as scarce as blizzards in Dallas.

That’s not to say that this city doesn’t have its share of great watering holes. It does. But many of the best ones are too spiffy and sophisticated, or too cliquish, to qualify as neighborhood bars. Take Joe Miller’s, for example. I stop in this friendly establishment at Lemmon and McKinney at least one evening a week. But the regulars are mostly lawyers, judges, and media folk, not much of a mix. The Knox Street Pub, 3230 Knox, misses out for the same reason. Its patrons are predominantly SMU students and faculty, hardly a cross section. Stan’s Blue Note, 2908 Greenville Avenue, used to be an authentic neighborhood bar, but it recently has become part of the Lower Greenville Ramble.

Of course, deciding just what constitutes a neighborhood bar is a highly subjective matter. The places 1 like best may make you uncomfortable, and vice versa. With criteria forged in cities like Miami. Dayton. Detroit, and Chicago and in aimless wanderings through England, Ireland, and Canada, here’s what I look for:

Conversation: The number one reason for stopping at a favorite joint after a day at the office is to talk. After eight hours of concentration, stimulating conversation does for the brain what a brisk jog does for the body.

A rich mix of regulars: Workaholics may prefer to squander their off hours talking business and making useful contacts. But I’d rather shake off the day in the com-pany of people with varying sets of interests. Besides, it never hurts to have friends who are plumbers or auto mechanics. With regulars, a bar becomes, as they say on the television show “Cheersy,” a place where everybody knows your name.

A good jukebox: Music adds warmth to a tavern, but any patron ought to be able to listen to a song that suits his or her mood. Taped music satisfies only the person controlling the selection, usually a bartender. Live bands generally make so much noise that no one can talk. A jukebox is the best source of music, and it should of-fer big band, country, rock and roll, salsa, even classical-and one selection that gives you three minutes of silence.

Generous drinks: Conversation is fine, but a good, stiff belt helps grease the skids. Prices should be reasonable. Bartenders ought to know what you drink and have one waiting by the time you find a stool.

Wholesome scuffiness: It simply is not possible to drink and chat cornfortably in a place that is too nice. Besides, a good pub must inspire occasional rowdiness. Polished wood and brass rails create a feeling of formality and haste. They are suitable only for conducting business or trolling for members of the opposite sex. They en-courage remarks along the lines of:: ’’Let’s get out of here and go someplace where we can talk.”

With these criteria in mind here are my (choices for the ten best neighborhood bars remaining in Dallas.None qualifies on every point, but most come close.



THE GREEN PARROT

1908 MARTIN OTHER KING JR. BLVD.

A live band generally is anathema to a neighborhood bar, but the music here fits in so well that it works, Besides, first-rate blues musicians like Freddy King Jr. help attrat a mix of clientele yon don’t find in many South Dallas taverns. It is also the music mat makes this one of the few Dallas watering spots known nationwide. For visiting musicians. The Green Parrot is a must-see mecca. Big names regularly drop in to talk and jam until the small hours of the morning.

THE PROHIBITION ROOM

703 McKINNEY. 954-4407.

No downtown spot really qualifies as a neighborhood bar. but this is as close as they come, Located in the basement of the West End Brewery (including a secret room where, it is thought, illegal booze was produced during Prohibition), it is a friendly, bustling joint with a solid crowd of regulars. You may find a few lawyers and stale legislators in the bar area, but the pool room attracts blue-collar folk from nearby businesses.

Though the Starck Club is located just upstairs, you won’t find the punk crowd in the Prohibition Room. “No, flannel shirts are big in here,” says managing partner Billy O’Connor.

OKEY DOKEY

2739 NORTHW’EST HIGHWAY. 352-9632.

Frank Barrow rightly describes his bar as a ’”darts pub.” It’s known as the best tavern in the area for serious competition, but it is also a friendly place for people who want only to drink, talk, or watch. Clientele includes flight crews from nearby Love Field along with doctors, lawyers and blue-collar workers, The jukebox is ecleictic. Bartenders are friendly. Professional football and other sports dominate two television screens. Monday through Thurs-, day evenings, though, the bar’s twelve darts, teams assemble for league matches, and all. else is forgotten.



HOLE IN ONE CLUB

2603 N. CARROLL AVENUE. 823-0895.

This club is so named because. several year ago. a nine-hole putting green oc-cupied the spate that now is the game room. Today, that room is devoted, to darts-members of the Dallas Darts Association compete Monday. Wednesday, and Friday nights, However, because the area is partitioned off from the main bar-room, the game doesn’t dominate as it does at the Okey Dokey. There’s plehty of Boom for talking at the long, old-timey bar and a scattering of tables. There’s even space for dancing if someone feels the urge strongly enough to move a pool table from the middle of floor. The jukebox is mostly country. but there are enough, rock tunes and golden oldies to break the monotony. Reguars include a social and ethnic mix of people who live nearby- and a few white-collars who work in the, American General building about a block , away. According to Ed McGinley. the manager, no single patron has been a Hole In One regular since the club opened ten years ago. but “we have a few id here who look like it.



THE BANDERA CLUB

10815 FEHCUSON ROAD.279-3774.

Keeley Smith on the jukebox? This has to be a great place. Despite its location in a so-called dry neighborhood (which means you have to pay a five-dollar annual membership fee before being served), this ten-year-old club may be the closest thing to a (rue neighborhood bar left in Dallas. A pool table, a dart board, and several video games are available, but they don’t get in the way.

The clientele ringes from old men in overalls to Loretta Lynn lookalikes to yuppies of both sexes. Many of them own vans and get together for trips The Banders Club helps organize. “They are the neatest people in the world,” says Clenda Doyle, a bartender. “When someone comes in. they; either belong or they don’t. If they do, they’re welcomed If they don’t, they know it.” Such intuition has its limits, of course. It was here that two sisters recently tried to hire a man to kill their husbands. The fellow they chose as hitman reported them to the police.

LAKE WOOD LANE

5818 LIVE. OAK STREET. 823-2410.

This is the closest thing to a neighborhood bar you’ll find in the Lakewood area these days, It has most of the features that make a great neighborhood spot. For some reason, though.; the Landing hasn’t caught on like the Yacht Club did. Perhaps it’s because of the location, across from Genaro’s Tropical restaurant and near a flower shop and a loud live music club called Schooners. The juke box is excellent, though weighted heavily toward the big bund numbers favored by older patrons. “If I had my way,” says owner Bob Crundy. ’’all the music would be big band. But I had to put some country on the jukebox because people asked for it.” Dancing is encouraged. The women behind the bar are friendly but don’t remember names as well as they might.



CLUB SCHMITZ

9661 DENTON DRIVE 352-0153.

Club Schmitz has been owned and run, by the Schmitz family since it opened forty years ago. Cousins “Bugin” and Leonard Schnntz started it. Their sons, Jim, Bob. and Larry, run it now. Gustomers are diverse-young, old, professional blue-collar. They drop in to shoot pool, play shuffleboard, and drink,

In the summer, the bar is popular with softball teams and children’s groups. During the school year, North Texas State i University students stop by on their treks between Dallas and Denton. Because Club Schmitz serves what may bo the best cheeseburger in Dallas, workers in the industrial area along Harry Mines Boulevard fill the large room every day for lunch. For a year or so. rumors have circulated that Club Schmitz was about to be torn down, but Bob Schmitz says no way. “The land-lord plans on developing the area around us into retail and office space” Schmitz says. “But there are no plans to change the bar.”



THE CEDAR PUB

5814 CEDAR SPRINGS. 358-3381.

Owner Madeleine Johnson describes the decor of this Oak Lawn club as “”primari-ly meesy,” but it’s a comfortable kind of , messy-posters, photos, and anything a customer wants to tape up. Announce-ments and graffiti litter a blackboard, which recently declared, ’’The Prince’s , visit has been canceled due to lack of park-ing.” The jukebox is mostly golden oldies-everything from Frank Sinatra to Merle Haggard-with a smattering, of mellow contemporary rock. Darts are thrown competitively here, but conversation its the main attraction.

Most of the customers know each other and visit the Cedar Pub lor at least a cou-ple of drinks every night- In fact. John-son says, “If someone misses a day, the others begin to worry. It is a very close group.”



THE HIDEAWAY

8363 MEADOW ROAD. 750-1550.

The, location of this bar, in an apartment gheltto between upper Greenville Avenue and Central Expressway, means that patrons are predominantly young, single,: white-collar, and while. There is enough of a mix, however, that no one need feel uncornfortable. For entertainment, the bar has pool tables and video games.

The jukebox isn’t bad. but no one ever plays it. if we want to hear a song, the bartenders have to put the money in,’’ says manager John Mattson. Most of the customers seem to prefer watching MTV ion the big-screen television that dominates one quarter of the room, There’s no accounting for taste.



SONS OF HERMANN HALL

3414 ELM. 747-4422.

Until about three years ago. this Deep Elluim institution-constructed by the Sons of Hermann in 1911, the hall is the last frame structure in downtown Dallas-was a strictly private fraternal insurance society. The members, of German descent, met here to celebrate their heritage. Now, because membership is thinning out, others are invited to join for dues of seventy-five cents a month. Wednesday nights, German singers and dancers meet in the upst iupstairs ballroom. On Fridays, the enormous beer hall becomes a ’’Songwriters’ Sanctuary” where local musicians perform their own material. The barroom feels like a turn-of-the-century saloon. In fact, the hall is so authentically Old World that the makers of two movies-The Jesse Owens Story and Dallas: The Early Years-used it as a set.

Despite the drive for new blood, many of the regulars have come here for years. “My son. who is now twenty-two, grew up in this place,” says custodian Car! McCur-dy. “He’s been a member since he was born. just like a lot of other people.”