HIT THE ROAD CAN’T-MISS GETAWAYS DESTINATION: OAK CLIFF The Brooklyn of Texas Experience another side of Dallas in Oak Cliff story by Michael Corcoran T’S NOT A SUBURB, BUT A BOROUGH. NOT AN the Dallas-Fort Worth area. But Oak Cliff has also extension, but a separate township, at least spir- been drawing visitors from all over the state in re- Iitually. Although Dallas annexed Oak Cliff in cent years. 1903, the 87-square-mile area southwest of down- They drive for hours to see musicians Michael town has maintained its own identity. If Dallas is Nesmith or St. Vincent in the intimately restored, Fort Worth the packed dance floor under a disco ball, then 35 minutes art deco Kessler Theater. Or, they visit to catch a Oak Cliff is the mysterious couple at the dark end Wichita Falls comedy revue or offbeat film at the notorious Texas of the bar playing footsie. 2.25 hours Theatre, now known more for its adventurous arts Framed by beautiful rolling hills, Oak Cliff cel- Austin programming than as the site of JFK assassin Lee ebrates independence, diversity, and creativity. It’s 3 hours Harvey Oswald’s arrest. It used to be that folks Houston Berkeley without the big college, Brooklyn sans sub- 4 hours only came to the edgy Cliff to visit the Dallas Zoo way. Just a 10-minute drive from downtown Dallas, or to chase Oswald’s ghost, but now the curious are Oak Cliff offers a convenient day trip for residents of lured by chic eateries, interesting shopping, and Illustration by Mike Lowery FEBRUARY 2017 59 HIT THE ROAD craft coffee and cocktail hangouts. musician who opened Spinster, a at C. Señor, Korean fried chicken at remains scented with grilled peppers out of your room to open space. It’s a OAK CLIFF Maybe visitors will want to follow “vinyl record lifestyle store,” on West bbbop Seoul Kitchen, gourmet flat- and onions, girded by the rumbling campus with room to roam.” is southwest of downtown Dallas. in the footsteps of Beyoncé and Jay-Z Davis Street in 2014. “Oak Cliff is spe- breads and steaks at Bolsa, fancy bass lines of hip hop and salsa. The artist-in-residence at the Bel- Visitor info is available from the to upscale coastal Mexican restaurant cial. It’s a mom n’ pop vibe in a big city.” home-cooking at Pink Magnolia, Oak Cliff likes it funky and original. mont is tough-and-tender songsmith Dallas CVB, www.visitdallas.com, Mesa on West Jefferson Boulevard, El Salvadoran cuisine at Gloria’s, or “If you’re not into the malls and the Alejandro Escovedo, who curates a the Bishop Arts District Merchant where the music moguls ordered “Where else but the best $1.35 tacos in the world at chain stores, Oak Cliff is for you,” says series of music performances in the Association, www.bishoparts lobster enchiladas and chicken mole; Oak Cliff can you find Taqueria El Si Hay. Go farther west Grover, who hosts live music at Spinster lobby and is developing a podcast from district.com, and the Oak try the upscale barbecue of Smoke, a fine dining restaurant on Davis, just past the Kessler, and two to three times per week. Instead the Belmont consisting of interviews Cliff Chamber of Commerce, with dishes like beer-can chicken and next to a car wash?” you’ll find Nova, a neighborhood of Barnes & Noble, there’s The Wild with songwriters. “I loved my time in www.oakcliffchamber.org. coffee-cured brisket; or brunch on restaurant and bar set in an old Dairy Detectives, a bookstore that serves food Austin, but there’s no place like Oak chicken and waffles with coffee or a Queen building that busts hunger and drinks, shows art films, and hosts Cliff,” says Escovedo, who lives in the mimosa at Oddfellows. It’s possible to Oak Cliff’s restaurant scene is espe- with a chicken-fried pork loin ($18) live music. And why go to Starbucks Belmont when he’s not on the road. the Kessler since its 2010 rebirth, says spend a few days in Oak Cliff without cially fluent in entrepreneurship. “Oak covered in spicy sausage gravy and when you can get fresh-roasted coffee “People come here to get things done. the Cliff is “hipster proof.” Yes, there ever going into Dallas proper, whose Cliff is a place where you can test a served with mashed potatoes. at Davis Street Espresso, which serves It’s not all talk.” are tourists, many of whom have skyline provides a spectacular view business concept or buy your first home “Where else but Oak Cliff can you an amazing “house toast” with avocado, The 2012 opening of the soaring beards and every Bon Iver record, but to the north. To paraphrase a lyric at very little risk,” adds Paul Wilkes, find a fine dining restaurant next to a tomato, and ricotta? Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, whose Liles argues that the neighborhood from Jimmie Dale Gilmore, have you who owns the Glass Optical eyewear car wash?” Wilkes poses, referencing Another Oak Cliff original is the Bel- span resembles the world’s largest but- maintains “a large ethnic influence ever seen Dallas from the pool of the boutique, while his wife, Megan, co- the dual character of the historic neigh- mont Hotel, which was the first non- terfly net, helped spur the Oak Cliff re- that inspires its creative class.” Grover Belmont Hotel? owns Emporium Pies. borhood. Rare is the trendy area that Californian motor court motel west of naissance, providing a new gateway to notes the high stroller count and says, “You just get this good feeling when In just a five-block stretch of West has so many working-class residents. the Mississippi when it opened in 1946. the area. Running parallel is the Ron- “Our hipsters have kids. It’s an older you’re crossing the Trinity River,” says Davis Street, the main drag, your din- The gentry have arrived and real estate Restored in 2005, the Belmont is more ald Kirk Bridge (formerly the Conti- crowd.” You turn in your hipster David Grover, a longtime Los Angeles ing options include Cuban sandwiches costs have risen, but the cultural air like Oak Cliff’s Chateau Marmont be- nental Bridge), which was built for cars card the first time you buy diapers cause like that Hollywood hotel, the but recently converted into a pedes- at midnight. Belmont is a place to start the night. trian walkway. Hike-and-bike trails Oak Cliff has only recently become Bar Belmont, off the lobby and outside, continue along the banks of the Trinity. hip, but it’s always been cool. These are overlooks the sparkling promises of a If Oak Cliff had a chip on its shoul- the old stomping grounds of Bonnie city in wait. der for not being on the ritzier side of and Clyde, and the home of both the “We’ve kept the motor court aes- the Trinity, it’s been whittled by arti- nation’s first drive-in restaurant (Pig thetic, but we’ve modernized it for the sans and now sits in a storefront win- Stand in 1921) and convenience store new type of traveler,” says Jordan dow of a trendy shop on Bishop Avenue. (Tote’m, later renamed 7-11, in 1927). Ford, part of an investment group that Oak Cliff’s revitalization in the early Before he became the first person to bought the Belmont in 2015. “You walk 2000s originated in the Bishop Arts play blues on an electric guitar, T-Bone District, a four-square-block area that’s Walker recorded as Oak Cliff T-Bone CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: now home to more than 50 small busi- in 1929, when he was still shining David Grover of Spinster Records, Texas nesses. The district fills on the week- shoes at Stevens Park Golf Course. Theatre’s neon sign, Davis Street Espresso, C. ends with North Dallasites, who come Two of his disciples, Jimmie and Ste- Señor, The Wild Detectives bookshop, stroll- for brunch at classic French bistro vie Ray Vaughan, also grew up in the ing Bishop Avenue in the Bishop Arts District. Boulevardier or, if they’ve made res- Cliff, though a couple of decades later. ervations a month earlier, at the tiny Adamson High, where country leg- Lucia, regarded by foodies as the best end Ray Price began singing, later Italian restaurant in North Texas. spawned “outlaw country” forbear- Eno’s Pizza Tavern and Hunky’s ers B.W. Stevenson, Michael Martin Hamburgers are more casual faves. Murphey, and Ray Wylie Hubbard. A friend from Dallas derides Oak New Bohemians singer Edie Brickell Cliff as “the new Disneyland for hip- named her 1990 song “Oak Cliff Bra,” sters,” but Jeff Liles, the longtime Dal- after her hometown. las music scenester who has booked Oak Cliff is still a bit like a Tex-Mex Chinatown; nothing would really shock you here. Not even seeing the future MARDI GRAS Mrs. Paul Simon sitting on the front Oak Cliff hosts DFW’s biggest porch in her bra, watching the world Mardi Gras parade Feb. 26. Learn more go by. You can be yourself in the Cliff. at www.mardigrasoakcliff.com. Maybe that’s what her song is about. Photos: © Robert Hart FEBRUARY 2017 61 LONGTIME AUSTIN CLUBS STORY BY MICHAEL CORCORAN NURTURE THE CITY’S PHOTOGRAPHS BY Ballast of the Beat LIVE MUSIC CULTURE TIFFANY HOFELDT 46 texashighways.com MARCH 2017 47 he Old Austin crowd loves to reminisce about all-night jam sessions with Stevie Ray Vaughan and the lost progressive-country paradise of the CACTUS CAFE Armadillo World Headquarters.