Post by Rick MasseyPost by Stumpy the Lawnmower Guythere was only one Blues Lakefront across NW HiWay from Bachman Lake.
Forest Lane was a BEP or Dixie House. Gene Street and Phil Cobb
started with a bar called J Alfreds where there was a sign at the door
"these folks are barred" and you wondered just how bad "these folks"
were considering the bar patrons. at some point Gene and Phil built
the first BEP on Cedar Springs. Blues came along when they bought a
chicken joint on NW Highway, I think. Blues seemed to be a training
store (kinda hard to find lakes suitable for a restaurant like the
original) for future managers and servers as soon as they got good they
went to a new Prufrock (as in J. Alfred Prufrock) location. They
opened other BEP stores and I do believe the first store in Houston was
robbed....the guy managing the store had started either at the original
BEP or Blues and he related the story at the bar one night in Blues.
they opened a Dixie House (I think that was what the Forest Lane store
was) in an old liquor store down from Blues and then sold Blues to an
Egyptian named George....things kinda went downhill then but it was an
interesting watering hole for sometime until they finally lost the liqour
license. Friendly Chevrolet owned the land and it became a parking
lot.
fwiw there's a Dixie House over on Belknap in FW and possibly
another....these were local to FW and I believe the DH name actually
belonged to them and not Prufrock.
Post by Rick MasseyPost by Stumpy the Lawnmower Guyanyone remember the old Blues Lakefront by Bachman Lake (while it was
still in the Prufrock family)?
Yep, and their second location on Forest Lane, which didn't last too
long. (It became Dunston's Steak House after that) I miss several
Prufrock restaurants, like Tamales, The Old Church, and Black Eyed Pea.
(The Prufrock BEP was a completely different type of place from the ones
these days)
Close. Dixie House was one of their first restaurants, and that was the
one in Oak Lawn -- the first repeat of a location was a Dixie House in
Lakewood. We used to eat at the Oak Lawn location all the time. I
remember the references to "Dixie Lakewood" and the rather wonderful
watermelon sherbert with chocolate chips in it instead of watermelon
seeds. (The original recipe called for the seeds back in, but one of he
founders' grandmother replaced them with chocolate chips because the men
would use the seeds as poker chips at Baptist Church Socials when she
brought it)
I was in J. Alfred's once with my cousin.
I know the Forest Lane location wasn't a Dixie House, because I used to
see it all the time as we went to the Fed Mart across the street. At the
corner of Marsh there was the Phillips 66 station, then Burger King, then
Pizza Inn, then Taco Patio, and then Arby's. Next was Hannah's Pies, or
possibly H. Salt Fish and Chips, (I get those two mixed up a bit) and then
the restaurant that became Edunstun's, then the Wolf Nursury with the Jack
in the Box in front of half of it, then the Bee Clean car wash.
This was back in the day when we had a set list of restaurants we liked to
visit from time to time -- Tupinamba in the huge location on Northwest
Highway, Jay's Marine Grill across from Love Field, (decent fish but
amazing rolls and onion popovers) The Spanish Galleon in Medallion Center,
and the El Fenix buffet at Webbs Chapel and Forest. (A Wednesday night
constant for most of my youth)
The first Black Eyed Pea I knew of was on Greenville near where Elitrique
Boutique is now. (Also close to the corpse of Desparado's)
buildings. once the Brits took over in 86 you started seeing new stores
in new buildings. I note that there may actually be a DH still in Dallas
totally different. ahh the memories of the copper clad bar at Blues and