Dallas Fort Worth Urban Forum

I don't really care for Bucees, the only truly redeeming quality is the clean restrooms so from that angle they make nice rest areas if one is not available.

Tnexster wrote:I don't really care for Bucees, the only truly redeeming quality is the clean restrooms so from that angle they make nice rest areas if one is not available.

The success of Buc-ee’s shows that opportunity could be found where millions of other gas station operators neglected the most basic of human needs, namely by offering filthy restrooms as no more than an afterthought. Given the way that Starbucks has become the resentful, default, urban public restroom, perhaps someone with an entrepreneurial bent could consider how much coffee they could sell if they took a page from the Buc-ee’s playbook and offered available, clean restrooms in an urban setting.

willyk wrote:
The success of Buc-ee’s shows that opportunity could be found where millions of other gas station operators neglected the most basic of human needs, namely by offering filthy restrooms as no more than an afterthought. Given the way that Starbucks has become the resentful, default, urban public restroom, perhaps someone with an entrepreneurial bent could consider how much coffee they could sell if they took a page from the Buc-ee’s playbook and offered available, clean restrooms in an urban setting.

Not to mention, the food is really good. On my regular drives to Houston, I actually look forward to my meals at Buc-ee's. So, I believe the food draws people in just as much as the clean restrooms and friendly service. They're obviously doing something right.

But QT is pretty good about clean restrooms. I've only seen two exceptions around here, the South Irving and West Oak Cliff locations.

willyk wrote:The success of Buc-ee’s shows that opportunity could be found where millions of other gas station operators neglected the most basic of human needs, namely by offering filthy restrooms as no more than an afterthought. Given the way that Starbucks has become the resentful, default, urban public restroom, perhaps someone with an entrepreneurial bent could consider how much coffee they could sell if they took a page from the Buc-ee’s playbook and offered available, clean restrooms in an urban setting.

Yes. Needing to use the restroom is such a constant, basic human need, that it's shocking how many places treat it as an afterthought. More places enabling people to have a bit of dignity when they need to address this basic need (without needing to buy something) would go a long way to making city life more pleasant.
This is a problem that goes beyond businesses as there should also be much more effort and money being put towards public restroom access and upkeep.

vman wrote:Not to mention, the food is really good. On my regular drives to Houston, I actually look forward to my meals at Buc-ee's. So, I believe the food draws people in just as much as the clean restrooms and friendly service. They're obviously doing something right.

Also true. QT really upped their food offerings in the past decade, but I can't get (nor do I think want) a decent brisket sandwich from them.
If anything, I'm more intrigued by 7-11's recent foray into food offerings than I am QT's.

Restrooms don't directly generate any money, and require regular cleaning and maintenance to keep them clean. I'm not terribly surprised that gas stations don't prioritize something that loses money and potentially could invite customers that have no intentions of spending any money at all.

With that said, Buc-ee’s certainly made the smart choice to use restrooms as a way to drive people to their location so they could spend money on other things.

I also agree that I wish we could spend more money on public restrooms around the city too.

Ba bye to Harris’ House of Heroes on McKinney. I believe the neighborhood just collectively breathed a huge sigh of relief. Hopefully fewer street fights, gunshots and women screaming in the middle of the night. We’ll leave that to a little further down the street until those close down too.

MrsKravitz wrote:Ba bye to Harris’ House of Heroes on McKinney. I believe the neighborhood just collectively breathed a huge sigh of relief. Hopefully fewer street fights, gunshots and women screaming in the middle of the night. We’ll leave that to a little further down the street until those close down too.

Do these bars that are short-lived actually make financial sense? It seems like we've seen a few bars in Uptown that have popped up and only last a year or so before shutting down.

Either way, glad to see this one gone. I'm really thinking Uptown will eventually start shifting more into having more of a Lower Greenville vibe in terms of nightlife.

potatocoins wrote:Do these bars that are short-lived actually make financial sense? It seems like we've seen a few bars in Uptown that have popped up and only last a year or so before shutting down.

From https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2 ... bathrooms/

"Alfredo Navarro Hinojosa’s 40-some clubs thronged nightly with patrons on weekends, earning him more than $100 million over just three years, but there was a secret to his success the competition didn’t have, the feds say."

Working the American dream.

Umm what club doesn't have drug sales going on to be realistic. Discretion is always the policy in these venues.

Looks like STK Steakhouse might finally be coming to Dallas. I believe this would be the old Sambuca space on McKinney Ave.

https://www.tdlr.texas.gov/TABS/Search/ ... 2022005479

That'll be the old Perry's it seems.

CTroyMathis wrote:That'll be the old Perry's it seems.

That makes more sense! Should be a nice spot for them.

Banana Republic in West Village is closing and Jonathan Adler is opening 11/29. It will be interesting to see what will become of the BR space.

Would be really nice if the west village retail made a sharp turn to local boutiques, independent designers.

Well its leasing staff is the Highland Park Village team so it will be interesting to see who they do put in the West Village as time goes on.

Looking at this map from the leasing company of West Village is very interesting (pg 10 of the pdf)... not sure if they are confirmed leases but it shows so many new brands to the district. Maybe pre-pandemic plans? https://www.rue-re.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/WV-Hype-Deck-12.2021.pdf

Space 4: Forward
Space 5: Studs
Space 29 (previous BR) Subdivided into: Allbirds, Credo, Gorjana, Madison Reed, Rothy's, Free People Movement, Rails, The Salty
Space 40: Rent the Runway (partially owned by Neiman Marcus)
Space 46: Cosmic Culture
Space 51: Something Navy (currently has a pop-up in HP Village)
Space 52: UpWest
Space 59: Verizon
Space 64: RadPad
Space 107 Subdivided? into: Amazon 4-star, Circa Lighting, Madewell, Parachute, Rejuvination, Sincrology

That's a pretty impressive list! West Village and Knox are blowing up. It's just sad that the block South is so suburban in design with such high demand for urban retail space in that area. Hopefully this comes to fruition and we see the Central Market go in and that will change some of that.

Shell station at the corner of Lemmon and Cole finally came down in the past few days. Restaurant ( Hot Joy) still standing …wondering if Quik Trip is still the plan

Krigler is looking like it will open inside The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas by late September occupying a relatively small space that used to be an internal gift shop. The gift shop has been dark since early 2020.

https://krigler.com/?cnt=en

As far as I know, this hasn't been in the local news. Yet.

https://dallas.culturemap.com/news/fash ... el-uptown/
Teresa wrote it up later yesterday afternoon.

I saw where Coal Vines on Cedar Springs is permanently closed. (Not sure how long ago this happened) . Thats a shame. I havent been there in awhile, but the food/service was alway good. The never ending re-do/construction of that stretch of Maple probably didnt help things.

Does anyone have any updates on this article?
https://www.rue-re.com/wp-content/uploa ... 2.2021.pdf

I know Upwest opened at Northpark so maybe some of this is still a dream? Interesting how so many of these brands open in Austin first. It’s time for West Village and Knox to get the kind of stores that are on South Congress.

Dallasretail wrote:Does anyone have any updates on this article?
https://www.rue-re.com/wp-content/uploa ... 2.2021.pdf

I know Upwest opened at Northpark so maybe some of this is still a dream? Interesting how so many of these brands open in Austin first. It’s time for West Village and Knox to get the kind of stores that are on South Congress.

That is out of date from last year. Here is the link to the most up to date coming/goings. Looks similar but definitely a few changes...Bummed that Allbirds and Rejuvenation are no longer listed as coming soon.

https://www.rue-re.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/WV-Hype-Deck-6.2022.pdf

Interesting - thanks for posting. Do we think Foxtrot is moving? I guess they are enjoying Dallas if they will have 2 on Mckinney and one on Knox. I noticed the Taft store was cleared out but oddly they are still listed as an active store on the Taft site and google.

I can personally vouch for Brooklinen sheets and pillows. Is that Tribal All Day Cafe opening a second location? And it'll be nice for West Village to have a movie theatre again when Violet Crown opens up.

thelivingworld wrote:I can personally vouch for Brooklinen sheets and pillows. Is that Tribal All Day Cafe opening a second location? And it'll be nice for West Village to have a movie theatre again when Violet Crown opens up.

I really like Brooklinen as well, but was hoping for Parachute to move in after their pop-up in NorthPark closed (I like their line better).

Not getting an Allbirds, Rails or Rothy's in there is a bummer as well. Hopefully we see them pop up somewhere else.

As for Tribal, I think this is what's moving in: https://www.shoptribalfashion.com/us_en/

Jasimm wrote:

Dallasretail wrote:Does anyone have any updates on this article?
https://www.rue-re.com/wp-content/uploa ... 2.2021.pdf

I know Upwest opened at Northpark so maybe some of this is still a dream? Interesting how so many of these brands open in Austin first. It’s time for West Village and Knox to get the kind of stores that are on South Congress.

That is out of date from last year. Here is the link to the most up to date coming/goings. Looks similar but definitely a few changes...Bummed that Allbirds and Rejuvenation are no longer listed as coming soon.

https://www.rue-re.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/WV-Hype-Deck-6.2022.pdf

Screen Shot 2022-08-16 at 8.05.23 AM.png

I wonder if MEDIUM RARE in the old Skinny Fats spot is that DC steak chain? I saw an article awhile back that they were scouting locations for an expansion. The concept might work here with a fixed menu of steak and fries for 20something bucks.

Anyone know what is going on with the Gables Villa Rosa retail? Looks like the entire retail portion facing Cedar Springs is fenced off with active construction going on. I know il Minster posted on their Instagram that all the businesses in the building would be closing, so it looks like they may be doing away with it, which is kinda sad

Yes, I have seen the fence up for at least a month, but I can't tell since I drive down this section of Cedar Springs to Downtown rather quickly cause it is a pass-through area, not a stay-at-meander. This section of Cedar Springs/Turtle Creek Blvd is all about moving traffic as quickly to Downtown as possible. I would imagine once Lincoln gets its project open, this retail space would finally be more viable, but that's several years down the line, and I imagine current owners were well on a path to remove the retail for ground-floor units well before Lincoln started showing off its redevelopment plans. The Gable Villa retail was tried so hard but this corner doesn't have good daytime activity. The bars/clubs that dominated this area just didn't help. Plus, they never got anything too compelling to set the intersection as a stop-by and eat, work etc. Its always been a high-speed connector.

There's soil sample drilling equipment on the lot where Hot Joy was. Any idea what's going on there? At this point, I assume McDs is moving in. lol

60 story pencil thin high rise LOL

Considering the neighbors, I’m going to guess a Weinerschnitzel with drive thru. It will fit right in with QT and CVS.

Probably another Starbucks Drive Thru if anything. Just cause there is a sitdown one in West Village doesn't mean Starbucks doesn't want to have a primary drive-thru location between both sides of high-traffic Lemmon. Even considering there are two drive-thru locations on the Oaklawn side already.

Something called The GOAT. Whateverness.
https://www.tdlr.texas.gov/TABS/Search/ ... 2023009597

No idea if it's related to the other The Goat.

Edit in:

Yep, no - not related. I couldn't get the info to Gubbins fast enough.
https://whatnowdfw.com/modern-restobar- ... at-uptown/

Looks like Public School 214 has closed in the West Village.

https://dallas.culturemap.com/news/rest ... wn-closed/

Just for thread posterity, STK opened quite awhile back (2000 McKinney/old Perry's) and Mexican Sugar Cocina Y Cantina opened last week (M&O/corner of Olive & Cedar Springs, both floors.) Also, that Leela's wine bar place has been open a good while at M&O.