Dallas Fort Worth Urban Forum

Since the forum was restarted there hasn't really been significant news about Main Street Gardens but the children's area and the dog run is about to be renovated it seems.

cowboyeagle05 wrote:Since the forum was restarted there hasn't really been significant news about Main Street Gardens but the children's area and the dog run is about to be renovated it seems.

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Please tell me they're keeping those little spinny chairs. Those have to be the best, most simple, nearly vomit inducing apparatus I have ever seen incorporated into an urban playground. I have had endless entertainment watching both young and old spin uncontrollably and face plant afterwards.

Ah, remember when the playground equipment was chrome and kids were getting their fingers fried like little breakfast sausages?

The good ol' days.

Any renderings for the park/improvements? I didn’t see any on the DDI Facebook page.

I wonder what they'll do about those 2 porta-pottys at Main/Harwood. They need to be carted away and declared EPA superfund sites. I'm not sure sprays of Clorox from a fire hose will help them.

Meanwhile, on the more positive side, the more-like-a-Christmas-tree tree is there (yay, no more excuse-for-a-tree-that-really-looked-like-a-Christmas-maypole!), and is really nice, even if it isn't a real, cut down fresh tree.

I was told that the cafe space has a new operator, with details to be announced shortly.

As for the playground, here are the renderings I've seen:

^^^
Thanks for the pix. That certainly looks like an improvement... even if it is lacking the 'ol twirl & hurl chairs.

This space has so much opportunity and a fresh coat of paint and a little love can help it get there. Nice to see the city actually maintaining a park and proactively addressing issues!

The cafe just doesn't have a big enough kitchen space. Even if they only sold tacos it seems like they need something with a bigger menu to make it worth it. Gas stations have great tacos in DFW but they also have gas and other things that make them a draw in addition to tacos. MSG was a learning experience for the Park Department I am sure. It has a lot of things we all wanted out of an urban park but gets used so heavily and got grungy real quickly. Once Pacific Plaza opens some of the pressure will be off Main Street Gardens and they can continue to evolve the use and design functions of MSG. When it was built the Statler was a dream and so was the UNT law school making use of the old city hall. DMN wasn't even rumored to be leaving its decade-old space at Young and Houston street. Now you have some more serious companies/landowners who can influence future reinvestment in the park along with actual input from residents who have used it since its opening.

Looks like the cafe will be operated by Hot Off The Press Dallas: https://www.facebook.com/40997462286839 ... 94/?type=3
They're currently at the Unbranded pop-up shop on Commerce this week: https://hotoffthepressdallas.com/

Also, the name is singular, Main Street Garden.

If "Hot Off the Press" doesn't work out, maybe they should shop it to the already established Beyond the Box which has a location on Ervay. They do prepackaged food a la Eatzi's and could prepare things in their main commissary and create a park-appropriate menu of food and drinks without needing much prep space. They could even brand it as something else.

itsjrd1964 wrote:I wonder what they'll do about those 2 porta-pottys at Main/Harwood. They need to be carted away and declared EPA superfund sites. I'm not sure sprays of Clorox from a fire hose will help them.

Well, no sooner than I get it out of my mouth, I noticed, passing by the park last night, amazingly, no more porta-pottys, and the overflow/runoff from them had been cleaned. Like they'd never been there before.

Does there need to be a cafe? Maybe a juice/drink and pastry kinda place. Bring your lunch and buy the fresh squeezed tangerine juice at the park....

Matt777 wrote:If "Hot Off the Press" doesn't work out, maybe they should shop it to the already established Beyond the Box which has a location on Ervay. They do prepackaged food a la Eatzi's and could prepare things in their main commissary and create a park-appropriate menu of food and drinks without needing much prep space. They could even brand it as something else.

Beyond the Box was one of the first to already try to run Main Street Cafe. They couldn't make it work either.

cowboyeagle05 wrote:

Matt777 wrote:If "Hot Off the Press" doesn't work out, maybe they should shop it to the already established Beyond the Box which has a location on Ervay. They do prepackaged food a la Eatzi's and could prepare things in their main commissary and create a park-appropriate menu of food and drinks without needing much prep space. They could even brand it as something else.

Beyond the Box was one of the first to already try to run Main Street Cafe. They couldn't make it work either.

Oh, I didn't know that. Well, it looks like that was for a very brief time in 2012 and things have certainly changed Downtown since then. Maybe they should give it another go. I really don't see any operator that preps food onsite being successful in this space with low volume. A grab and go (or grab and serve if that makes sense) type setup seems optimal.

"Hot off the Press" was open today. Also, the new playground equipment looks pretty dope.

They went more serious playground and less "less is more artistic play" families want things to be fun not just look good in renderings.