2024 January Oak Cliff Advocate

OAK CLIFF J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 4 I A D V O C AT E M A G . C O M

ja n 2 4 contents

OAK CLIFF ADVOCATE VOL.17 NO.1

PROFILE 4 Manly antiques DINING 6 La Comida FEATURES 16 Speakeasies in our neighborhood COVER 10 The future of gambling BACKSTORY 20 When your mother marries a mobster

One of the many finds at Mantiques. Read more on page 4. Photography by Lauren Allen.

D I ST R I B U T I O N / A D V E RT I S I N G 2 1 4 . 5 6 0 . 4 2 1 2 ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS Frank McClendon 214.560.4215 / fmcclendon@advocatemag.com Michele Paulda 214.724.5633 / mpaulda@advocatemag.com Catherine Pate 214.560.4201 / cpate@advocatemag.com Linda Kenney lkenney@advocatemag.com Breyan Mitchell 214-517-6973 / bmitchell@advocatemag.com Classified Manager: Prio Berger 214.292.0493 / pberger@advocatemag.com Marketing Director: Sally Wamre 214.686.3593 / swamre@advocatemag.com Development Director: Alessandra Quintero 786.838.5891 / aquintero@advocatemag.com Digital Marketing & Analytics: Autumn Grisby agrisby@advocatemag.com E D I TO R I A L Publisher/Editor-in-Chief: Jehadu Abshiro jabshiro@advocatemag.com E D I TO R S : Alyssa High ahigh@advocatemag.com Emma Ruby eruby@advocatemag.com Kelsey Shoemaker kshoemaker@advocatemag.com Lillian Juarez ljuarez@advocatemag.com Editorial Assistant: Simon Pruitt spruitt@advocatemag.com Digital Editor: Christian Welch cwelch@advocatemag.com Senior Art Director: Jynnette Neal jneal@advocatemag.com Art Director/Photographer: Lauren Allen lallen@advocatemag.com Intern: Simaran Sira Contributors: Patti Vinson, Carol Toler, Sam Gillespie Contributing photographers: Kathy Tran, Emil Lippe, Hunter Lacey, Yuvie Styles, Shelby Tauber, Sylvia Elzafon, Lo Kuehmeier, Victoria Gomez, Julia Cartwright Chief Revenue Officer: Rick Wamre 214.560.4212 / rwamre@advocatemag.com Advocate (c) 2024 is published monthly in print and daily online by Advocate Media - Dallas Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation based in Dallas and first published in 1991. Contents of this print magazine may not be reproduced. Advertisers and advertising agencies assume liability for the content of all advertisements and sponsorships printed, and therefore assume responsibility for any and all claims against the Advocate. The Publisher reserves the right to accept or reject ay editorial, advertising or sponsorship material in print or online. Opinions set forth in Advocate publications are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the Publisher’s viewpoint. More than 180,000 people read Advocate publications in print each month; Advocate online publications receive more than 4 million pageviews monthly. Advertising rates and guidelines are available upon request. Advocate print and online publications are available free of charge throughout our neighborhoods, one print copy per reader. For information about supporting our non-profit mission of providing local news to neighborhood readers, please call 214-560-4212 or email rwamre@advocatemag.com.

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ABOUT THE COVER The Kessler Theater at night. Photography by Lauren Allen.

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Robert Owens' Mantiques has been a Bishop Arts staple since 2011.

NOT YOUR GRANDMA’S ANTIQUES Mantiques resides at the intersection of zen and curiosity Story by SIMON PRUITT | Photography by LAUREN ALLEN

obert Owens lights up a cigar and eases into a wooden chair. He’s relaxed, watching the cars go by behind large puffs of smoke. The animals in the neighborhood casually pass by himthey are used to his presence. Owens finds himself in this scenario nearly every day on the front porch of his masculine shop at the corner of 8th and Madison, Mantiques. His cigar-smoking, take-it-easy aura has fashioned the shop into a temple where zen and curiosity meet. He was first curious out of happenstance. His parents owned an antique shop where he spent his childhood before entering the Marine Corps as a young adult. After his time in the corps, he naturally found his way back to the antiques business. “I knew it,” he says. “It was a comfort thing for me.” Growing up, Owens observed the intentionality that his parents took in

4 oakcliff.advocatemag.com JANUARY 2024

selecting the items they sold. “My dad dealt with a lot of CAP guns, BB guns and toys from the ‘50s,” he explains. “That was his childhood.” Owens noticed a pattern in how the antique market trended depending on the era. He found that catering to the nostalgia of middle-aged people was the most lucrative strategy. “Those are the people with the disposable income now to buy toys from their childhood,” he says. “I have to adapt to ‘70s and ‘80s toys.” He first began selling on his own in the late ‘90s and early 2000s, setting up booths at antique shows across the country. “One of the promoters of the show told me I should promote the show for them,” he says. “If I promote anything, I’m opening up my own store.” Antiques can be repetitive, it’s hard for one place to stand out over another. If Owens was really going to start his own shop, it needed to have a clear brand.

“Most antique shops sell quills and tea cups,” he says. “I call that grandma’s antiques.” Owens wasn’t interested in “grandma’s antiques,” instead opting to target male customers with machismo relics from bygone years. Inside, you’ll find old advertising displays, gas station equipment and classic cameras. “During the antique shows I tried to cater more to men,” he explains. “It was a natural transition when I opened the store. Don’t ask me the price of this maker of china versus this maker. I don’t know. I lean towards the stuff I like.” Twelve years removed from his grand opening on Bishop Arts, many other vintage stores have sprouted in the area, but Owens isn’t worried. “I don’t deal with a lot of clothing,” he says. “There’s plenty of vintage clothing shops around here. There’s Dolly Python, Rare Heart Vintage. ... I’m not here to compete with anybody. I’m here to sell something that they don’t.”

Owens curates his selection based on what he naturally gravitates towards. JANUARY 2024 oakcliff.advocatemag.com

The flamingo margarita (left) pays homage to the bird that populated the Yucatán Peninsula where the Urtechos grew up. The restaurant has recently started offering happy hour specials and a full drink menu.

How a hurricane, a bad car wash, a trip to Kansas City and a brotherhood led to Oak Cliff’s latest Tex-Mex destination Story by EMMA RUBY | Photography by KATHY TRAN

6 oakcliff.advocatemag.com JANUARY 2024

ario and Ivan Urtecho were young boys in 1988, living on the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico when Hurricane Gilbert made landfall as a Category 5 storm. “When the hurricane hit we saw people dying and saw all of the flamingos flying away. We were kids when we went through that,” Mario says. “People were starving to death and were asking ‘Dónde está la comida?’” La comida. The food. The Urtechos say they were not traumatized by the event, but it has clearly stuck with them. 35 years after Hurricane Gilbert, their restaurant is named after those calls for food. Flamingos, the bird they watched fly into the whipping winds, have become the restaurant mascot. La Comida’s 2023 opening was a slow roll out. Despite the brothers’ extensive combined restaurant experience, getting to where they are now was an odyssey. In the year after Hurricane Gilbert, Mario played soccer while Ivan worked as a tourist guide. The peninsula struggled to recover from the damage of the hurricane, and in 1989 the brothers decided it was “time to fly away.” They came to Texas, and lived near Jefferson Boulevard through the '90s while they found their footing. Ivan was the first to fall into the restaurant industry. While working as a landscaper for a Holiday Inn, he met Jack Pratt Jr., whose father developed the hotels in the '60s. Pratt asked Ivan to take his brand new Cadillac convertible to the carwash. When Ivan accidentally went through the wash with the car top down, the car was soaked and he assumed he’d be fired. Instead, Pratt laughed it off and invited Ivan to work as a dishwasher at his new restaurant, Mi Casa. When Ivan decided he was ready to graduate from dishwasher to busboy, he roped in Mario to take over his old role. Then, a coworker convinced the brothers to leave Mi Casa for jobs at an up-and-coming spot in North Dallas being opened by Michael "Mico" Rodriguez called Mi Cocina.

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The Mi Cocina years were foundational for the brothers. Ivan earned the nickname Raton, or Speedy Gonzalez, for his quick work. Mario served a table without realizing George W. Bush was his customer. They worked their way up the restaurant rankings from dishwashers to “waiters doing more work than the managers,” and when it was time for Mi Cocina to expand out of Texas, the Urtechos were the ones who were called. “Mico pulled us aside and said ‘Monday you guys are going to Kansas City,’” Mario says. “I was like ‘Uh, no, I got a girlfriend.’ And he said, ‘No, you’re going, but this time you guys are gonna go as managers.’” The brothers arrived in Kansas City in the dead of winter, cold and confused, having never managed a restaurant before. While learning to navigate permitting processes and sales reports, the restaurant lost money. They were sure they had made a mistake. So they called their mom. “She said ‘ You know it’s like the song by Frank Sinatra, that if you make it in New York, you can make it everywhere.

8 oakcliff.advocatemag.com JANUARY 2024

If you make it in Kansas City, you can make it everywhere,’” Ivan says. “It was the best advice from Mom.” They shut down the restaurant for two weeks and started making calls back to Dallas. The Urtechos recruited dishwashers, busboys and servers they’d worked with before, promising something big was happening in Kansas City. And, they convinced Mico that Kansas City didn’t care about margaritas. Whiskey, vodka and draft beer would bring in the crowds. By the end of the year, the restaurant had changed course. Not only were they no longer losing money, Mi Cocina had become the post-game restaurant of choice for the Kansas City Chiefs. The brothers returned to Dallas and bounced around other Mi Cocina locations, but the Kansas City success left them with the “energy and motivation” to open their own restaurant. In 2014, La Comida opened in Addison. While the store was successful, the brothers wanted to return to Oak Cliff, so they shut down the Addison store in 2019. They had trouble nailing down a building in Oak Cliff, and then the pandemic hit. The Urtechos worked odd jobs and collected restaurant supplies “little by little” in a storage unit

Street tacos, chimichangas, enchilada combos and nachos are some of the tex-mex classics offered on La Comidas menu.

while waiting for the opportunity to reopen La Comida. “Like a puzzle, we put the kitchen together,” Ivan says. On September 14, 2022, their contract for the building on the corner of Zang was finalized. It was the day of the 34th anniversary of Hurricane Gilbert. The brothers did the entire restaurant buildout themselves. They worked early mornings or late nights, finding hours between odd jobs. And they found “the best support of (their) restaurant experience” in Oak Cliff. La Comida’s grand opening was on August 28, 2023, Ivan’s birthday. “I said, ‘Brother, here’s your restaurant. Happy Birthday,’” Mario says. The menu sports traditional Tex-Mex combos and dishes inspired by their Yucatán roots. The store’s recently obtained liquor license allowed for a drink menu packed with Mexican beer and signature margaritas. The house margarita, the Flamingo, is swirled with pink and matches the rest of the restaurant. “We have been surrounded by so many angels,” Mario says. “We want to make La Comida the place to be in Dallas.” La Comida, 1101 N Beckley Ave, 214.272.7437 JANUARY 2024 oakcliff.advocatemag.com

F O L L O G R N I E L TH MB GA

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Story by EMMA RUBY | Photography by LAUREN ALLEN

DOC HOLLIDAY LEARNE D TO GAMBLE IN DALLAS. ON E OF THE MOST FAMOUS GUN ME N OF THE WE ST, HE CALLE D DALLAS THE “LAST BIG CI TY BE FORE THE WE STE RN FRON TIE R.” HE’D C OME TO OUR CI TY TO SET UP A DE N TISTRY PRACTICE N EAR DEALEY PLAZA. BOU TS OF ILLN E SS KE PT BUSINE SS AWAY, SO HOLLIDAY T URN E D TO ILLEGAL CARD GAME S TO MAKE MONEY. He soon discovered it was a hobby he had a knack for. Holliday wouldn’t be in Dallas long. He was indicted, along with 11 others, on illegal gambling charges in 1874. He left the state after being slapped with a fine for the vice a year later. But unlike the infamous gunfighter, gambling didn’t leave Dallas. By the 1920s, West Dallas was known as a hotbed for gangster crime, alcohol sales, brothels and card rooms. The culture slipped into Oak Cliff throughout the '20s and '30s as police oversight became even more scarce. Prohibition may have been repealed in 1933, but in 1937 the state cracked down on gambling once and for all. The law hasn’t wavered since, and Texas has gained a reputation for strict gambling laws and busting up illegal games. With talks of legalization becoming more common in the Texas legislature, the future of gambling in our state is unclear. What would gambling mean for Texas? And what does it mean to Oak Cliff?

A N U N D E RG RO U N D I N DU ST RY

According to Chad West, city council member for District 1, gambling isn’t a concern he often hears about from constituents. Still, he worries

that a lack of legal gambling options in Dallas continues to bolster the underground communities that do exist. In February 2023, a video went viral on X, formerly known as Twitter, showing armed members of the Dallas Police Department Special Investigations Division entering a residential home in central Oak Cliff. Police had received complaints of illegal gambling occurring at the home, a spokesperson for the department told the Advocate at the time. One person was detained during the raid, but was later released. In the Wolf Creek neighborhood, an altercation at an illegal game room in March 2022 led to the shooting death of one man, police said. By the time police arrived at the scene, all but one witness had fled the location. Then there was the 2021 shooting that occurred at a gaming room near the Cedars. Robert Reynoso was shot once in the throat and killed after returning to a game room business he’d previously been denied entry to. Police records showed a man who game room employees knew as “Cowboy” had been hired to kill Reynoso. Cowboy was charged with murder in the killing, and a grand jury later declined to indict him on the charge. And in 2014, an illegal casino in Elmwood was shuttered after former neighborhood association president Kenneth Denson camped out to take photos of the establishment, which the Dallas Observer reported was bringing “hundreds of cars” to the neighborhood each night. Unbeknownst to him, Denson was crouched in the gaming room’s overflow parking lot while snapping photos, and he was soon spotted. When Dallas Police responded, they seized 31 eight-liner machines, $4,700 in cash and documents and monitors from the building, the Observer reported. More common than raids, though, are gas station slot machines, which can be found in many of the independently owned gas stations and corner stores in our neighborhood. According to Texas law, gambling is only legal if the player is in a private place, no one profits from hosting the game, and the risk of losing and

chances of winning are the same for all participants. This means the machines are legal, as long as winnings are given as non-cash prizes. Enter the “fuzzy animal” exemption, which allows “prize vouchers” to be awarded and redeemed for prizes worth no more than 10 times the cost of one play, or $5, whichever is less. (Think about redeeming Chuck-E-Cheese tickets for a piece of candy or a small toy.) Of course, individual slot machines — and individual stores — aren’t heavily regulated. In Oak Cliff, some stores give out “store credits” that do not follow the $5 limit and can be used to redeem anything the gas station sells, including tobacco or alcohol.

A STO R I E D H I STO RY

The lack of oversight isn’t totally new for Oak Cliff or West Dallas. According to Greg Hasty, author of Oak Cliff and the Missing Pieces, establishments along the Trinity River and Fort Worth Avenue were known for selling liquor and hosting craps games during the 20s and 30s. “There was very little scrutiny over there. I think there were people being paid off” he says. “Because nobody did anything about it.” Two of Dallas’ leading gangsters during the prohibition era were men named Benny Binion and Herbert Nobel. Binion held a monopoly on the Dallas gambling scene, running policy wheels and craps games and taking 25% of the cut from each game. Nobel worked security for a gambling operator who was killed by Binion after encroaching on the boss’s territory. But Nobel, who lived in Oak Cliff, liked the money he saw coming in from the games, and decided to take his chances running games in his own neighborhood. “He was the perfect type of guy to lead an underworld type business because he had smarts, he had the connections. He had experience working for (a gambling operator) and he had a pretty fertile ground over there in West Dallas where he was operating,” Hasty says. “All of the elements

that you would want to have a successful mob and gaming operation were there for Noble.” Disagreements and turf wars between Binion and Nobel would lead to eleven assassination attempts on Nobel’s life, earning him the nickname “The Cat.” Eventually, he lost his life to a mailbox explosive in 1951 at age 42. By the time Nobel was killed, Binion was no longer in Dallas. Years before, he’d moved to Las Vegas after seeing the “writing on the wall” as Dallas officials began to finally crack down on illegal gambling in the 1940s. “I had no idea there was mob activity in Oak Cliff and the extent to which it went was far beyond my wildest dreams,” Hasty says. “I thought Bonnie and Clyde were just kind of amateur bank robbers, which they really were. But Noble was mysterious. He was the real deal.”

THE FUTURE OF GAM B L I N G

Getting an official poker room in Dallas wasn’t easy. Texas Card House was on the forefront of the Texas gambling wave when it opened in 2014, and the company was able to pave the way for poker clubs opening throughout the state by navigating the murky legal waters that the business treads in. The card houses say that because poker is a game of skill it does not fall under the legal definition of gambling. And, because the card houses do not claim a portion of the earnings, or a “rake,” they say there is no profitable benefit to the establishment through the game. Instead, money is earned through membership dues or hourly club access fees. Texas Card House opened the doors of its first Dallas location in 2020, following months of negotiation between the card house, city staff, the city attorney’s office, the board of adjustment and the Dallas Police Department. The city population was “clamoring” for poker, Texas Card House CEO Ryan Crow says. But one outspoken opponent of gambling, city council member Cara Mendelsohn, has staved off the opening of several poker rooms in District 12 and made it clear to potential operators they “are not welcome.”

After a July 2021 incident in a District 12 illegal poker room left one man with a slashed throat and in serious condition, Mendelsohn told constituents that she was working with State Representative Matt Shaheen to shut down all poker rooms in the district. Mendelsohn has said that if laws have loopholes, like those that currently allow card houses, the gray area needs to be clarified rather than taken advantage of. “If you read the state law, it seems clear that the business model of the poker rooms is illegal since they are receiving a benefit,” Mendelsohn wrote in a newsletter shortly after the 2021 incident. “Poker rooms are making millions of dollars annually. If it is deemed the poker rooms are illegal, the City of Dallas should not be issuing a certificate of occupancy for an illegal business.” Not long after opening, the city changed their minds and revoked the certificate of occupancy that had been issued to Texas Card House, telling the business they were operating illegally. Crow credits Mendelsohn with leading the hostile attitude towards card houses in the city. “There's just so much demand in (Dallas.) And the reason clubs haven't popped up all over is just because of the legal challenges that we face here,” Crow says. “Obviously, everyone in the industry is watching. And when we start getting these legal challenges … no one really wants to open.” Over the course of several lawsuits and counter lawsuits — which the city had spent $550,000 on as of January 2023 — Texas Card House and the two other poker rooms involved in the suit, Shuffle 214 and Poker House of Dallas, have been allowed to remain open. In January 2022, West made a “business friendly” proposal that he hoped would put an end to the litigation stalemate. “The city manager confirmed that staff will work with the city attorney’s office to craft a land use category that considers current penal code restrictions on card houses and also provisions that will protect neighborhoods, such as proximity limitations,” West said in that month’s city council meeting. In the last 12 months, no such land use category has been drafted. City Staff did provide a brief update at

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the Dec. 12 Government Performance and Financial Management Committee meeting, after being pulled in “kicking and screaming,” West says. In the briefing, Bertram Vandenberg, interim chief of general counsel for the city attorney, said the Zoning Ordinance Advisory Committee, who will be tasked with developing the land use category, would consider limiting clubs to certain entertainment districts in the city. Vandenberg declined to say whether a new land use ordinance would eliminate the current litigation with Texas Card House, Shuffle 214 and Poker House of Dallas. Just getting an update on the possible land use category was a “very painful process,” West says, in part because a lack of urgency from constituents has left city staff “content” with waiting on the courts to decide on the legal legitimacy of card houses. Homelessness was one of the most urgent issues on the city council’s agenda in 2023. There was a city council election in May, and preparation is underway for a $1.1 billion bond in 2024. Despite the proposed solution in January, poker was not the talk of 2023. “Why would staff put their necks out on the line to provide a legal path when the courts are going to figure it out for us,” West says. “There's not people clamoring for these card houses other than the owners.” Crow disagrees. The Las Colinas poker room is the highest performing location for Texas Card House, which operates in six cities. The North Dallas location isn’t far behind. On an average night, he estimates between 500 and 1,000 people visit the two locations. Those people didn’t learn how to play poker overnight when Texas Card House opened, Crow says. They were playing underground, or traveling to Oklahoma. Each person that travels to Oklahoma represents taxes that Texas has lost, he says. In 2022, Texas Card House brought over $1.1 million in property and sales tax revenue to Dallas. And underground games can quickly turn dangerous because of the hesitation to call the police when there is a threat, a “very common story in the community” Crow says. “If something happens, we have armed security, and if something major happens, we call the police. A lot of those games that are running illegally, they're not going to call the police because they're running an illegal game and they're going to get arrested,” Crow says. “It happens all the time. It doesn't get reported, unless it devolves into a shooting, or somebody getting stabbed.” It’s a danger that West acknowledged in his 2023 plan, where he warned shutting down the Dallas card houses would only push more games underground. As a small business owner, West says he is sympathetic to the poker rooms that opened under the pretense of operating legally, before the city “changed the rules” on them. He now plans to propose a resolu-

GAM B L I N G O F F E N S E S Below is the number of total gambling offenses reported by Dallas Police for each of the last four years. C I T YWI D E 2 0 2 3 Y T D : 74 2022 TOTAL: 62 2 0 2 1 TOTAL : 54 2020 TOTAL: 82 DISTRICT 4 2023: 5 2022: 5 2021: 7 2 0 2 0 : 8

D I ST R I CT 1 2023: 1 2022: 0 2021: 2 2 0 2 0 : 2

*Data available as of Dec. 1, 2023

DIST RICT 3 2023: 6 2022: 6 2021: 7 2 0 2 0 : 7 DISTRICT 6 2023: 21 2022: 11 2021: 8 2 0 2 0 : 5

tion that will allow the card houses that opened prior to the city’s change of heart to continue operation until a state-wide decision on gambling is made. “These businesses came in, they invested capital and time and effort, in some cases they bought land and buildings,” West says. “I'm hoping to find a path to legalization for them, and then just everyone else can wait until after the state figures out.” The state-wide perception of gambling is a tricky one, Crow says. The lottery and bingo are forms of gambling that have been deemed acceptable, but he doesn’t think the taboo of games like poker or places like casinos will be going away anytime soon. It’s going to take people from around the state becoming more comfortable with different types of gambling to legalize it in Texas, he says. It’s a conversation the Texas legislature has been tossing around for years. A conversation that has been stirred even more since the recent partnership between Dallas billionaire Mark Cuban and Miriam Adelson, the owner of a mega-successful Las Vegas casino and resort company. And a conversation that Crow says will not end overnight. “We want to be friends with the city of Dallas, we want to be wanted here. We've tried to have the conversations when they're willing to,” Crow says. “(In Texas) I think (legalization) is a five-to 10-year project, but I do think ultimately it’s what ends up happening.”

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OUT OF

SIGHT

a Ru by St or y by Em m La ur en A lle n Ph ot og ra ph y by

If you were in the mood for a drink in 1920s Dallas, you would have found yourself on the West side of downtown, trading a password for a glass of liquor. For get the Bis hop Art s hap py hou rs, the esp res so mar tini flig hts or the hol ida y-th eme d sho t spe cia ls, bar s wer e dar k, haz y and hus hed . At leas t, tha t’s wha t mo der n iter atio ns of spe ake asie s see m to thin k. Tod ay, the palp able buz z tha t com es from bre akin g the law is gon e, but som e bar s in our neig hbo rho od pro pel tha t sen se of exc item ent by stay ing hid den . It’s har d to say wha t mak es a spe ake asy a spe ake asy. ec te d en tr y? Is it a pa ss w or d pr ot ta il m en u? co ck A ga ng st er in sp ire d ba ck dr op fo r ay A lo ok -t he -o th er -w ta ke pl ac e? ill ic it ag re em en ts to In Oak Clif f, at leas t, that doe sn’t seem to be the case . Out of sigh t and out of mind , bart end ers cate r to a “if you know you know ” crow d. Th e qu est ion is: Are you in the kno w?

BR A N C A

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M us ic wa fti ng th ro ug h th e ev en in g air is on e of th e fir st in di ca to rs of th e Br an ca Ro om’s ex ist en ce . Th e int im at e co ck ta il lou nge is hi dd en be hi nd th e wi ne ce lla r in Ch im ich ur ri, Bi sh op Ar ts’ Arge ntin ea n bi str o, bu t it ca n als o be ac ce ss ed th ro ug h a do or in th e Bi sh op Av en ue all ey th at st ay s op en at ni ght. “It’s like th e 1920 s, wh en pe opl e he ar th e mu sic th ey kn ow th e do or wi ll be op en an d th ey ca n co me on in ,” sa ys Ja me s Sl at er, Ch im ich ur ri ma na ge r an d co -own er. Slate r sta rte d th e Br an ca Ro om in su mm er 20 22 af te r loo kin g fo r “s om et hi ng di ffe re nt” to brin g to Bi sh op Ar ts . Th e me nu di sp lay s th e cu ltu re of Arge nt in a, an d th e Ita lia n in flu en ce on fo od an d di ni ng in th e co untry. Am ar o, ch ar tre us e, tru ffl e vo dk a an d ve rm ou th ar e ma de in ho us e. W ith ei gh t ta bl es — no re ser va tio ns , fir st -c om e fir st -s er ve — an d no ba r se at in g, it’s a co zy se tti ng fo r a cr af t co ck ta il. Th e sp ace fill s up on we eken ds , wh ere th ey ’re op en Th ur sd ay th ro ug h Sa tu rd ay, fro m 7 p. m. to 2 a.m . W hi le th e sp ac e is hi dd en , Sl at er aim s to ma ke an yo ne fe el we lco me . “In or de r fo r pe op le to en jo y th e ex pe rie nc e we do n’t do dr es s co de s or pa ss wo rd s,” he sa ys . “Ju st co me en jo y it.” The Bra nca Roo m is nam ed afte r the ital ian bitt ers com pan y Fer net -Br anc a, wh ich bec am e pop ula rize d in Argent ina in the ear ly 190 0s and ope ned a Bue nos Air es dis tille ry in 192 5. The her bal form ula was ma rketed as a me dic ina l pro duc t during Am eric an pro hib itio n.

D E VI L' S BACK P ORCH in lyd e w e re n ie a n d C n o B h n tc e h re ,w e r st h ib it io n e ra Tri n it y R iv ro e p th e th s, g ie n it D u ri g st e r a c ti v c k Po rc h . f th e ir g a n D e v il ’s B a e th h ef a n d s a n th e p e a k o g h e re ? ’” C as know in w s th a e ll m a D so e do ey s ays. of We st ‘H o w d o w n Ja y Va ll a g li a in k It in rk th o a sk in g ew Y “I w a s in g in a n d R o c c o’s N m t o in c a d S e f rt o g n ot a s st a o p e ra to r d s o m e th in e id e of D a ll d ts e u e o n m e o w o ry.” “Pe o p le fr I th o u g h t te ll th e st (B a rr o w ). e) b u t to e d d ly ly s in C C v d t n u ro a abo it y G e n n ie e d in Tri n lo ri fy (B o n g e p to o d e’s h c ly sy u a C so m e a ke and o f B o n n ie c k Po rc h sp a ry B a be 's rs n il e a v c e iv D ann n ge th e 8 9 th a r a n d lo u b n ” o y , a 3 w 2 a e 0 v of th y e le to r May 2 ly -l it , “o u t c c e ss e d b a im , d ’s o e c h c T o R d e a th s. d fl o o r of th e se c o n fa m o u s . fo u n d o n se st a ir c a s h o ts o f in g d u e m -r d d e te fr a m b o a rd s o r a p a in b a r. D a rt c o v e re d in e is th t e u c a o p ame btl e b u t The s d ri fl e s fr e b a r's su te th n u to o M te . u trib g a n g s te rs ta b le s c o n n d p o ke r a l o w it h o p d an st e r m oti f, g n a g e . y th rg ck ue buzz y ene o r th e b la it e s c o nti n and bar b a se d d ri n k b s il h nd ta a tc k o s c y o sc a C r, a Fri d G o d fa th e h u rs d a y s, e T h n T e e p k o li is s name t. sp e a ke a sy in g s. T h e v a te e v e n y sa y s. p owder w d fo r a p ri e k o o v e s,” Va ll e b ro G ss y le it n n u ri s, T y r a S a tu rd th e b a r fo th is to b e “We w a nt

Devil's Back Porch opened on the anniversary of Bonnie and Clyde's deaths. While the bar is not meant to glorify the gangsters, it is meant to commemorate their role in West Dallas history.

AYA H UA S C A CANTINA It's generally not a good idea to open unfamiliar doors when out in public, but at Xamán Café, it’s encouraged. After all, how else would you find yourself sucked into the moody, candle lit cantina, Ayahuasca. Bar manager Andrés Alvarez says the space pays homage to the "ancestral" foods and drinks of Mexico, while also tapping into the modern foodie culture that dominates Mexico City today. “A lot of people think (Mexico) only has tequila or mezcal but there is so much more,” Alvarez says. Every cocktail at Ayahuasca is made with a Mexican spirit as the base, and the bar’s shelves display dozens of foreign liquor labels. (“We don’t have casamigos,” he says.) Reservations can be made at Ayahuasca, which sports table and bar seating. On Fridays and Saturdays a

Robert Gossett, Emilio De Leon, Angel DeLeon, Stephanie Uryasz, Fernando Morales

full dinner menu is offered, but on other days of the week an “elevated cantina” menu is served. Alvarez says the more “casual menu” is meant to encourage guests to come as they are. Catering to an “adventurous and curious” crowd, the cantina offerings are packed with ingredients like pork confit, baked bone marrow and agave goat cheese. The bar typically plays “Mexican chill music,” to go along with the low-key vibe, but every other Thursday a Mexican House DJ is brought in and “things get rowdy.” Ayahuasca has been open for three years, and can only be accessed through a large wooden door in the back of Xamán Café. “No passwords here, the people who know know,” Alvarez says. “We aren’t that pretentious.”

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The candles and low lighting at Ayahuasca often make guests feel like they are "at church" or a spiritual experience, bar manager Andres Alvarez says. JANUARY 2024 oakcliff.advocatemag.com

When your mother marries a mobster The story of Joanie Starr & the Ohio Mob Story by EMMA RUBY | Photography by SHELBY TAUBER

or 11 years, James Mi c h a e l S t a r r knew a handful of facts. It was 1962 when his parents stuck him, his sister, his pets and his belongings into a car. He was 11 years old. The family drove from Ohio to Dallas in the sweltering, late August heat. And two weeks later his mother was gone. He didn’t see her again until he was 22 years old. “I went up to visit her after we reconnected and she was kind of slowly spilling out all these stories about exactly what happened,” Starr says. “I think she had a lot of guilt.” What the longtime Kiestwood resident learned, and what he is now chronicling in his soon-to-bereleased book, O n t h e Wing, was that his mother left the family after receiving a threat saying she and her children would be hurt if she did not return to Ohio. Joanie Starr, his mother, had unknowingly married a man with mob connections. A city employee and nightclub singer in East

Liverpool, Ohio, Joanie had become enraptured with a man named Bus Cartwright as soon as she met him. Her nightclub singing career had caused a strain on her first marriage with Starr’s father, so she turned to Cartwright. Family members warned her Cartwright was “shady.” Joanie ignored their concerns and married him anyway. Within a few days, she realized her mistake and fled the state alongside her first husband. “She got this call and the voice on the phone wasn't my stepfather, she said it was some stranger,” Starr says. “He said, ‘If you're not on the next plane back to Ohio, we're going to throw acid in your face, and we're gonna hurt your kids.’” While doing research for his book series, Starr learned there were mob families in Pittsburgh, Youngstown and Cincinnati during this time. East Liverpool sat within that triangle, and Starr believes Cartwright was involved with the LaRocca organized crime family, earning their trust by “doing the books.” When the Starr family first arrived in Dallas, Joanie went to a pawn shop to sell the ring Cartwright had given her. The sale led the Ohio men looking for her to Dallas, over 1,200 miles away, within a matter of days. In a small town like East Liverpool, word traveled fast and everyone knew Starr’s uncle had recently made the move to Dallas. When Joanie disappeared, Cartwright “started contacting all of the network” of “shady businesses” in Dallas, putting out the word of the kind of ring to be on the lookout for. “When she got back to Ohio, she said one of the first things (Cartwright) did was hold up that ring in his hand. Kind of like saying, ‘Don't ever try this again,’” Starr says. “So that was one of the freaky scary things to me that just, it made me think she wasn’t making it up.” The “you can run but you can’t hide” message stuck with Starr, who says his “sweet and innocent mother” was not conniving enough to invent such a dramatic story. When Joanie called Starr over a decade later, her life had finally stabilized. Cartwright had died, and Joanie had remarried a kind man named Paul and moved to Cleveland. Starr ended up settling in Oak Cliff, after moving around Texas and Oklahoma in his 20s. He got married and had a successful career as an ad writer. Then, 13 years ago, he realized he had a story to tell. “I was like how do you do this? I don't know how you write a story that (is fiction). So I felt the need to have as much fact under my belt as possible,” he says. “So it was a long time before I figured out how to feel confident with it.” Plus, the nature of the story left Starr feeling a bit “paranoid” about publishing. “There may still be people that are in Dallas and have a little bit of a kind of shady connection with the mob, right? And I was wondering that when I started writing,” Starr says. So, Starr started with a blog where he chronicled the timeline of Joanie’s life and his own with as many details as he could surmise. He started on a fiction book, then pivoted to a young-adult series told from his perspective, before returning to a fiction story set in a “shady” steel mining town. On the Wing was released on Amazon Jan. 1. The story follows a Joanie Starr-esque protaganist whose life follows a similar path that Starr's mother's did. It is the first of three books in the series. For Starr, the opportunity to share his mother’s story has been a way of healing the hurt of a little boy who grew up thinking his mother had abandoned him. And it has given him a sense of justice for the “kind lady” who just wanted to sing. “The difference between a small town and a big city, in a big city (corruption) kind of comes out in the news,” Starr says. “Whereas in a small town, where I lived, people intentionally avoided talking about it because they didn't want to talk about people that they know are trouble. They didn't want to get in trouble for something that they might have said or didn't say.” JANUARY 2024 oakcliff.advocatemag.com

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We worked with Bart during one of the hottest housing markets in recent history. Bart stuck with us through several offer cycles, and each new house he found was better than the last. His background in architecture and construction is a huge plus. He always has a flashlight in the car and is ready to crawl down below a house. You won’t be disappointed with his skills and work ethic. Thanks Bart for everything! -Maggie M.

BART THRASHER

Realtor® bartthrasher@dpmre.com 469.583.4819

JANUARY 2024 oakcliff.advocatemag.com

An End to End Real Estate Experience Unlike most other significant life purchases we make, buying or selling a home is a process. It’s imperative you have confidence in that process not only at the outset and the outcome, but at every point in between. Seeing buyers and sellers through is something every one of our professional, educated, client-centric associates knows how to do. And we’d love to do the same for you.

daveperrymiller.com Price and availability subject to change. Information deemed reliable, but not guaranteed.

SOLD, Represented Buyer

406ravinia.dpmre.com

214windomere.dpmre.com

414 N. Windomere Avenue

406 S. Ravinia Drive

214 N. Windomere Avenue

5 BED | 3.2 BATH | 4,050 SQ. FT. | $1,050,000

3 BED | 2.1 BATH | 1,829 SQ. FT. | $799,000

2 BED | 2 BATH | 1,506 SQ. FT. | $525,000

Michael Mahon

Diane Sherman

Vinnie Sherman

214.914.5410 mmahon@dpmre.com

469.767.1823 dsherman@dpmre.com

214.562.6388 vsherman@dpmre.com

2218lawndale.dpmre.com

SOLD, Represented Seller

JUST LEASED

2218 Lawndale Drive

2222 Elmwood Boulevard

634 N. Tyler Street

2 BED | 1 BATH | 1,411 SQ. FT. | $382,500

2 BED | 2 BATH | 1,220 SQ. FT. | $355,000

4 BED | 3 BATH | 2,418 SQ. FT. | $3,200/MO.

Diane Sherman

Vinnie Sherman

Laura Wiswall

Bart Thrasher

469.767.1823 dsherman@dpmre.com

214.562.6388 vsherman@dpmre.com

214.695.3759 laurawiswall@dpmre.com

469.583.4819 bartthrasher@dpmre.com