2024 February Oak Cliff Advocate

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

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feb 24 contents

OAK CLIFF ADVOCATE VOL.17 NO.2

PROFILE 16 The woman behind Island Getaway Rum DINING 10 Cibo Divino COVER 16 Oak Cliff love stories FEATURES 4 Skate park updates 6 The kings of jazz 12 Remembering our neighborhood's celebrity chihuahua 14 8,400 hours later

The pizza oven in Cibo Divino was imported from Italy. Read more on page 10.

Photography by Kathy Tran.

Side walk Sur fing Westmoreland Skate Park receives $25K donation Story by EMMA RUBY

T h e We s t m o r e l a n d S k a t e Pa rk i s $25,000 closer to reality, thanks to a donation by Dallas business duo Monty Bennett and Sarah Zubiate Bennett.

The contribution is the largest single donation the skate park has received, says city council member Chad West.

Monty Bennett is the founder and CEO of Ashford Inc., a hospitality real estate company, and the publisher of The Dallas Express. The Bennett's donation was made after Sarah interviewed West for The Dallas Express podcast, where he discussed fundraising efforts for the park.

"Monty and Sarah Bennett’s generous contribution helps us shred previous fundraising records for this amenity," West says. "(We) will grassroots donations all the way until opening day."

The $25,000 donation brought t h e fu n d ra i s e r t o j u s t u n d e r $100,000. At the time of publishing, other donations had raised the fundraiser amount to over $100,000, a quarter of the total goal, and the Dallas Park and Recreation department gave the greenlight for Westmoreland Skate Park to proceed to the design phase.

The first phase of the park is estimated to cost $800,000, and the Dallas Park and Recreation department will match up to $400,000 raised. Advocates for the park are now looking for a naming

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worthy investment."

Currently, Dallas has one skate park located at Lakeland Hills Park in East Dallas, and one skate park under design at Bachman Lake Park. The proposed Westmoreland Skate Park would be the first in Southern Dallas, and the first paid for by a public-private fundraising match, West says.

West says he hopes District 14 residents might consider supporting the Westmoreland Skate Park amenity, now that plans for a Glencoe Skate Park are squashed after months of community debate. $500,000 was earmarked in the bond for the Glencoe Skate Park, but Haley says it has not been determined if that money will be reallocated towards Westmoreland.

"I believe there is Skate park rendering courtesy of the City of Dallas. an interest, citywide, would better serve to supplement the by residents in helping skateboarders second park phase build. find safe, fun places to skate in the "It sure would be nice to get that City of Dallas," West says. "My hope $400,000 funded and matched so we can is that both supporters and opponents go ahead and get phase one underway," of the Glencoe Skate Park will finanHaley told the Advocate. "This donation cially support the private raise for the is a huge step in the right direction ... I Westmoreland Skate Park, as commulove the fact that people are seeing the nity support in Oak Cliff is strong for benefit of (a skate park) and see it as a skateboarders in this part of town." sponsor to "help us close the final (funding) gap and kick off the construction timeline."

The second park phase will bring the cost to just over $1.7 million. There is currently $1 million earmarked in the 2024 bond for the Westmoreland Skate Park, but due to the slow nature of bond funding roll outs, Clinton Haley, founder of Skate Parks for Dallas, says the funds

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5

The

rosemont kings

Made up of neighbors from Oak Cliff and East Dallas, the Rosemont Kings are mainstays at local bars

Story by SIMON PRUITT

Photography by JULIA CARTWRIGHT

6 oakcliff.advocatemag.com FEBRUARY 2024

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7

The Kings close a late-night set at the Balcony Club.

“You have to dance your way in!” shouts a man seated at a picnic table outside, and it’s immediately clear that he’s right.

There’s no lane to walk through, no side door to sneak in the back. If you want to get inside, you’ll have to commit to the party.

Reveler’s Hall is packed to the brim.

Swelling brass, crashing drums and a thumping bass serve as the heartbeat to a crowd that’s beginning to spill out onto Bishop Avenue. A roaring guitar gives way to a long keyboard solo, and for a moment, it seems this chaos is all but orchestrated.

But then you hear the voice. It’s a razor-sharp alto bellowing out of a broad man with an undone bowtie and navy suit jacket matching all the musicians backing him.

His name is Kraig Loyd; they are called the Rosemont Kings. Tonight, as always, they are bringing the house down.

Loyd matches an irreplaceable voice with his magnetic stage presence, it’s tough to tell which came first. A pharmacist by day, he grew up singing in church and had a brief stint as a recording artist with an RnB album released in 2012. He joined the Rosemont Kings in 2018, when the project was more of an inside joke between neighbors than a real performing act.

“My house has an extra guest bedroom we rarely use,” says Bart Thrasher, gui-

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tarist. “I convinced my wife to set up a drum kit, PA and guitar and bass rigs. I was so excited. I went outside and two doors down some neighbors were hanging out on Richie Heffernan's porch.”

They live on Rosemont Avenue, in the Winnetka Heights Historic District.

“I asked everybody to come to my house to check out my jam room,” Thrasher says. “Richie said ‘I can play drums’, and Robbie Good said ‘You know I play bass?’ The chemistry was instant, and we started having regular jam sessions. Our wives kept saying ‘Enough, get out.’ We called ourselves The Doghouse at first.”

It was a neighborhood operation, and the group knew that everything they did should reflect that. They began to go by The Rosemont Kings soon after. Quickly, their jam sessions turned into songwriting, as the trio began to piece together a number of instrumental tracks.

“It was magical,” Robbie Good, bass says. “By the time Kraig came in a few months later, we had six or seven originals which he added some vocals over.

The Rosemont Kings were officially born.”

The Kings knew they had something special, their musical aspirations angling towards a musically-wide, funk party band. But as it stood, the production behind it had the bones of a conventional rock band; guitar, drums, bass and vocals. They had to get bigger.

Loyd invited trumpeter Ed Wagner to join the band. Thrasher invited keyboardist Brad Taylor, then Taylor invited saxophonist Jacob Frie and Frie invited trombonist Jay Hatler.

Through a neighborly game of musical telephone, a full Rosemont Kings lineup was born.

They got in the studio to record what would become their self-titled debut album, released in 2023. The record features 10 original tracks, drawing heavily from the songwriting of modern soul artists like Charles Bradley and Lee Fields, mixed with sonics that play like a high-energy version of Houston jam trio, Khruangbin.

Their most streamed song, Easy Love, is a sweet, romantic anthem perfect for when you have a special someone by your side to dance with. The second song on the album, Weekend Kind of Love, is the opposite, a playfully vain track for when you don’t.

The band hits its stride on Six Feet Down, when female background vocals are incorporated to a carefully frenetic pace. It’s a crowd favorite, along with the braggadocious Rosemont Groove, where the Kings remind you where they came from.

Crowds adore the Rosemont Kings.

They’ve become celebrated regulars at Reveler’s Hall and Balcony Club, two of the city’s predominant jazz clubs.

Getting the group together enough to become regulars and record an album is a feat of its own.

“It’s not easy but we make it work,” says trombonist Jay Hatler says. “We sometimes send recordings back and forth via text or email with different musical ideas. On one of the most recent songs we’ve written, I sent a text recording to Kraig and Robbie of a horn line I came up with. Kraig sent me back lyrics, Robbie came up with a bass line and we put it together in the next rehearsal.”

Each member has a full-time job, with a family, kids and plenty of responsibilities.

“It's been a struggle finding the balance,” keyboardist Brad Taylor says.

“But every single time I play music with this band, whether it be practice, recording or a performance, it is 100% clear that it is all worth it and probably the only thing that keeps me fairly sane.”

“It’s my dream to play music fulltime,” saxophonist Jacob Frie adds.

“My day gig pays for my night dreams.”

When they do get together, their chemistry is effortless. Each member plays their part, but they all agree upon the engine.

“I spent four years in the Marine Corps band where there was a constant push for what we called showtime,” Frie says. “Kraig exemplifies this and knows how to drive the group.”

So where are the Rosemont Kings headed? And do they have space for this project long term or even full time?

But it’s a Saturday night at the Balcony Club. Loyd takes a swig from his beer and adjusts his mic before pointing to Good, who plays the bass intro for “Celebrate,” a Rosemont original.

Just like that, they’re off. The brass swells. The drums crash. The bass thumps. The guitar roars as Taylor enters his solo.

How long will their moment together last?

The Rosemont Kings are playing.

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fo o d The farmhouse salad is topped with chicken breast, dried figs, cherry tomatoes, cannellini beans and a hard-boiled egg.

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that's amore Market, bar and restaurant Cibo Divino is a tribute to all things Italy Story by EMMA RUBY | Photography by KATHY TRAN

Italian food is the most famous, and most misunderstood, in the world. According to Daniele Puleo, a native Sicilian with a penchant for tradition, that is.

Daniele and his wife, Christina, live in Kessler Park and own and operate Cibo Divino Marketplace, a spot where the menu quality overshoots the restaurant’s laid-back, family-oriented atmosphere.

As a founding restaurant at West Dallas’ Sylvan 30, the “workaholic” couple has brought Italian fare to our neighborhood for nearly 10 years.

“Everybody thinks they know Italian cuisine, but there's so much more. It's not only about (the same) 10 recipes,” Daniele says. “I am doing this because I want anyone to get to know what real Italian cuisine is.”

Daniele has lived in the United States for longer than he lived in Italy. He immigrated at 22-years-old and bounced around Scottsdale and Los Angeles before landing in Dallas where he started restaurants Daniele Osteria and Brix Pizza & Wine, both Sicilian-inspired and well-respected in the dining scene.

10 years ago, he sold both stores to open Cibo Divino. Cibo was his chance to teach.

In a marketplace area, customers will find the Italian pasta brand Alberto Longo Pasta, which they likely have never heard of, seeing as Cibo Divino is the only store in the country to sell it. Alberto is a good friend of Daniele and Christina, and they sell his wine as well. For customers who need sauce to go along with their pasta, Cibo Divino sells their signature recipe by the jar, made and packaged by Daniele himself.

At the bar, bottles of wine are sold

at market price rather than a restaurant markup to encourage accessibility.

Daniele knows many of the winemakers personally, and loves to talk about each bottle with customers.

“I always try to bring in something special, because I want to raise the question from the customer, ‘I have never seen this.’ It gives me a chance to talk,” he says.

Many of the Cibo Divino recipes are ones that have been passed down through Daniele’s family. They are beyond personal to him, and Christina says trips to Italy wouldn’t be complete without bickering over who knows a recipe better.

“He and his mother talk on the phone daily, and they almost exclusively talk about food,” Christina says.

While Christina is a Texas native with a background in business banking, she naturally transitioned to the “behind the scenes” aspect of the restaurant when Cibo opened, happy to let Daniele be the “rockstar” in the kitchen.

The menu semi-rotates seasonally but is always packed with familiar favorites — Margherita pizza made in an Italian-imported oven, rigatoni with bolognese sauce, caprese paninis — but more experimental dishes are options too, such as the Di Fica pizza topped with gorgonzola cheese, dried figs and hot honey.

If Daniele is out of town, Christina is the person he trusts to source ingredients that meet his high standard of freshness.

“I'm standing (in a market) with all of these chefs and cooks and restaurant people, and I’m holding up everything like, ‘I need you to take out every single branzino and let me look it in the eye, because if it's cloudy, (Daniele’s) gonna say it's no good,’” she says.

But sourcing fresh ingredients is one of Daniele’s biggest rules in the kitchen.

“Buy one (ingredient) that is good,” he says, and the dish will come together.

He insists that adding or subtracting any ingredient from a recipe changes the dish completely.

“I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel. I believe if you change the ingredients you need to change the name (of the dish),” Daniele says. “If you call carbonara carbonara, then you have to follow the recipe.

You can’t just put fish in it or chicken in it, then it’s not carbonara anymore.”

After 10 years at Cibo Divino and 20 in Dallas, Daniele still hasn’t tired of the kitchen. When he finishes running the kitchen, he goes home and cooks for himself and Christina.

“I told him I was going to start cooking more this year and he was like ‘Why?’” Christina says. “And I was like, ‘You’re right.’”

Each year, Daniele returns to his home country to visit family and source ingredients. He and Christina also lead group trips to Italy to further educate people about the region’s cooking and wine.

But when he is in the United States, his cooking is what maintains his connection to Italy and brings him comfort.

In his experience, Italians become “even more Italian” once they have left the country.

“Once we live outside of Italy, we care about Italy more,” he says. “It's also a sense of comfort, you know, it's a sense of knowing that what I come from, I will never forget.”

Cibo Divino, 1868 Sylvan Ave., 214.653.2426, cibodivinomkt.com FEBRUARY 2024 oakcliff.advocatemag.com

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OH, SOPHIA Story by EMMA RUBY

Photography by JESSICA TURNER SOPHIA LOREN WAS KNOWN FOR HER LARGE BUST, SMALL WAIST AND LONG LEGS. She weighed almost four pounds and was a celebrity at Lula B's where her owner, Pamela Robison Mullins, began renting a booth in 2019. And she attended service at Kessler Park United Methodist Church every Sunday, where she sat "quiet as a mouse."

Sophia Loren, our neighborhood's celebrity chihuahua, died on Jan. 7 after being hit by a vehicle on Tyler Street. She was nine years old.

"Of all the loves I have lost, the loss of Sophia Loren has by far been the most painful. She was my soul dog," Robison Mullins says.

Robison Mullins met the tiny chihuahua while volunteering at Dallas Animal Services. Sophia Loren weighed less than two pounds and had been one of four Chihuahuas taken from a home during an animal cruelty investigation. Robison Mullins had been instructed to move Sophia Loren to a new pen at the shelter, where she would be with another dog from the same home.

"After I shut the glass door, she softly put her paw up on the glass and left it there, just looking at me. I was touched," she says.

She decided if the dog was unadopted by the next day, she'd adopt her. Robison Mullins and her husband nursed Sophia Loren to her "goal weight" of 3.9 lbs, and from then on, the two were inseparable.

For years, Robison Mullins took Sophia Loren to Kessler Park United Methodist Church where she was the celebrity of greeting time. During one Sunday, a fellow church member commented that Sophia Loren's outfit was the same as what she'd been dressed in the week before.

"I couldn’t have that," Robison Mullins says. "I started purchasing and sewing her clothes, necklaces, making her hats and painting her fingernails red or pink. I made costumes for her too. At the end of her life, she had over 40 outfits, 25 hats and several necklaces."

In 2019, Sophia Loren began visiting Lula B's Antique Mall alongside Robison Mullins on Saturdays. Her notoriety at Lula B's became so large that she was highlighted as a standout pet in the Oak Cliff Advocate's 2021 pet edition.

"She was a unique and unusual Chihuahua because she would allow anyone to pet her or hold her, including children, as long as she could see me," Robison Mullins says. "She never snapped at anyone. Those who needed healing sometimes cried while holding her. You could see the change come over their face."

Sophia Loren was perhaps most famous for the time she jumped out of a birthday cake dressed in a Marylin Monroe blonde wig and red lipstick for a friend’s birthday party.

Robison Mullins says Sophia Loren had an affinity for movie nights, and her favorite film was Beverly Hills Chihuahua. It was not unusual for neighborhood kids to join the duo for pizza and popcorn.

"We had the best time watching (Beverly Hills Chihuahua) numerous times," she says.

Robison Mullins volunteers for the Chihuahua Rescue and Transport's Southwest division. In lieu of flowers, she asks donations be made to the rescue in Sophia Loren's name.

Sophia Loren's favorite movie was Beverly Hills Chihuahua.

12 oakcliff.advocatemag.com FEBRUARY 2024

FEBRUARY 2024 oakcliff.advocatemag.com

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A HEART FOR SERVICE Jacob Locke is Methodist Dallas’ oldest, longest-serving volunteer Story by EMMA RUBY Photography by LAUREN ALLEN

An engraved glass trophy recognizes Oak Cliff resident Jacob Locke for Outstanding Service.

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p ro f i l e

AFTER 25 YEARS AND 8,400 HOURS OF VOLUNTEER SERVICE AT METHODIST DALLAS M E D I CA L C E N T E R , 93-YEAR-OLD JACOB LOCKE FOUND HIMSELF RECEIVING A STANDING OVATION at the 2023 D Magazine Excellence in Healthcare Awards where he was named Dallas’ Outstanding Volunteer.

The audience’s thunderous applause left him “quite overwhelmed.”

“When they called my name, I'm thinking all the way up to the podium, ‘What do I say?

What do I say?” says Jacob. “I didn’t see myself as being all that great.”

At 93-years-old, Jacob is the oldest and longest-serving volunteer at Methodist Dallas.

He spends his Tuesdays and Thursdays at Generations, the hospital’s senior service program office, where he started working several years after it opened in 1991.

He’s a people person and has made “so many friends” in the last quarter-century spent at the hospital. And, his efforts are a continuation of his late wife’s legacy.

Joyce and Jacob Locke were married for 70 years, and volunteered together at Methodist Dallas for 20 years before Joyce’s death in 2019.

“Never were two people so in love,” Jacob says.

Before joining the Generations office, he spent time volunteering in the surgical waiting room (Joyce’s favorite place to work), the hospital gift shop, the volunteer office, the staff store and the emergency room. He’s even been put to work as a handyman, tasked

with fixing odds and ends like a stamp machine that “came over on the Mayflower.”

“I've known so many people and I still see people today that I haven't seen in a long time, and we recognize each other and it all comes back,” Jacob says. “It's just an amazing thing. It's just a happy place to be.”

Locke’s relationship with Methodist Dallas goes “back a ways,” even before his time as a volunteer.

All four of his children were born at the hospital in the ‘50s and early ‘60s, and his daughter, Jerri Locke, now serves as the Director of Healthy Aging. His granddaughter, Grace, works in the Medicare savings office.

The Locke family legacy at Methodist Dallas is the “pinnacle of success,” says Jerri, who grew up two miles from the hospital, revering it as a neighborhood landmark.

Working in the same department that Jacob volunteers in, Jerri says it isn’t uncommon to see someone visit the Generations office just to say hello to her father. It “makes (her) feel good” to witness his impact that has not dimmed, despite his age.

She says his award was “the ultimate” recognition of his years spent serving the Methodist Dallas community.

“As hard as he has worked on doing this, and that he continues to do so ... Because a lot of people give up, you know, they find an excuse,” Jerri says.

“Volunteering has made a huge difference in his life … It's just been so good mentally and physically for him.”

Sandra González, the hospital’s director of guest ser-

vices and volunteers, works closely with “Mr. Jacob.” Seven years after starting with the hospital, she still finds herself surprised when he begins telling a story about a part of the hospital’s history she “hasn’t even heard of.”

González was the one who nominated Jacob for the Outstanding Volunteer award, citing his reliability, hard work and people-oriented attitude.

“He just has so much experience and such a servant h e a r t , I j u s t c a n ' t s t re ss that enough. Every time we see him he has a smile on,” González says. “The amount o f d i ff e re n t ro l e s h e h a s played in our hospital and then the number of years, I don’t know that anyone really comes close to him.”

For Jacob, time spent at the hospital doesn’t feel like work. Memories like setting up Christmas parties and p a ss i n g o u t b re a k f a s t t o seniors on Dallas Zoo trips, or riding a balloon advertising Medicare over the Texas State Fair stand out as some of his most exciting moments in life. “(I’ve learned) that most people are good-hearted, and it makes me feel good. I love my association with them, and I think they feel the same way,” Jacob says.

A s he accepted his engraved, glass award, he was emotional. The day of the Excellence in Healthcare Awards ceremony happened t o f a l l o n Ja c o b’s e l d e s t daughter’s birthday.

It was the 70th anniversary of his first time stepping foot in the Methodist Dallas Medical Center.

FEBRUARY 2024 oakcliff.advocatemag.com

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THE

MEET

CUTE THREE NEIGHBORHOOD COUPLES SHARE THEIR LOVE STORIES Story by EMMA RUBY

For some couples, it was love at first sight. Others started out as friends. And some met in a moment of wild fate ripped straight out of a Nora Ephron movie.

No matter how it happened, people love to share the stories of the moment they met their significant other. Their eyes light up and their smiles widen when given the opportunity to tell “the moment they knew.”

Here are three couples from our neighborhood proving that the Meet Cute doesn’t just happen in the movies.

16 oakcliff.advocatemag.com FEBRUARY 2024

CARE

CONDUIT Suzan Sprinkle had no interest in joining her friends for after-work drinks on a spring day in 2000. Still, she agreed to show up to La Calle Doce for 10 minutes just to say hello.

She’d be undergoing major surgery the next week and would be knocked off her feet for the next month.

On the other side of town, Phil Sprinkle found himself berated by a coworker — a friend of Suzan’s friend — inviting him to tag along, too. He agreed to show up, wave and head home.

But once Suzan and Phil saw each other, neither was keen on ending the evening.

“I saw him and it was like the universe went ‘you’re supposed to be together,’” Suzan says. “Every 10 minutes my brain would go ‘ding ding ding, you need to turn and talk to other people at this table.’”

Family jokes that at the time of meeting, Suzan had been divorced for 10 minutes while Phil had been divorced for 10 years. While he’d had no prior interest in dating, he was “captivated” by Suzan who talked about “substantive” things like her passion for working with special-needs children.

“I just loved what she was about,” he says.

The next day, Suzan and Phil each asked their respective friends to track down the other’s phone number. They went on three dates in a week.

When Suzan’s surgery rolled around the next week, Phil baked her a pie — now known as the infamous “love pie” — and brought it to the hospital. Word of the pie spread among the hospital nurses who stopped by Suzan’s room for a slice, and to share their approval of the match.

While dating, Suzan and Phil enjoyed “mundane things” like selecting a recipe for dinner, grocery shopping and cooking together.

“We fell in love in the kitchen,” Suzan says.

They were married in 2001. The marriage was a bright spot that “came out of a dark place,” she says. Her former partner had been abusive, and her mother didn’t support Suzan’s second marriage. On the day of their wedding, Suzan warned Phil he “didn’t have to go through” with it.

“I didn’t think twice about it being any other way,” he says.

While Phil says he wishes he’d met Suzan earlier in life, the couple has fit a lifetime of experiences into their 22 years of marriage.

They spent a month in East Africa last summer, and have been to Turkey five times. For several years, they hosted exchange students from around the world in their East Kessler Park home.

Now retired, they are passionate about serving as a “conduit for Oak Cliff giving,” volunteering their time to organizations helping individuals struggling with homelessness and mental health issues.

Just as they cooked throughout their relationship to show their care for each other, they now cook meals to support those in a rough part of life. During the January freeze, Suzan cooked home-made mashed potatoes for 100 individuals sheltering from the cold.

“Love and passion has to have somewhere to go,” Suzan says. “Our love story, I’m deeply appreciative for it because it allows us to take our love and give it to others.”

FEBRUARY 2024 oakcliff.advocatemag.com

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ALL ABOUT THE TIMING

18 oakcliff.advocatemag.com FEBRUARY 2024

As the president of the School for the Talented and Gifted’s 2008 class, Claudia Sandoval was tasked with organizing her 10-year high school reunion.

And while planning the reunion, she’d heard chatter about a guy named Ben Mackey.

“We’d all heard about this new young principal, and we were like, ‘Who is this guy?’” Sandoval says.

“He’s cute,” Mackey adds.

“We did not say that,” Sandoval says.

Mackey was invited to the reunion even though he’d taken the admin role in 2013, years after Sandoval’s class had graduated. But he’d declined the invitation, planning to go to a cousin’s wedding instead.

Several hours before his departure, Mackey’s flight was canceled with no option to rebook until the following week. With his weekend plans down the drain he figured he’d attend the reunion.

That night he met Sandoval, and the two bonded over wanting to develop a stronger alumni network for the school. Mackey was “immediately impressed” by her smarts — at the time, she was serving on the Cockrell Hill City Council and was the youngest person elected to office in Dallas County.

They met the next week for coffee to discuss alumni outreach efforts.

Three hours later, they were talking about the houses they’d each purchased that year. Sandoval’s house was not liveable and needed a lot of work, but she invited Mackey to see it in person. That afternoon, while exploring the house, Mackey asked Sandoval on a date.

She said no. She had a boyfriend.

“Pretty soon afterward,” though, she was single, and reached out to Mackey for “another attempt.” The invitation for dinner fell through, and that seemed like that.

Until February 2019, when they saw each other twice in a week at a women’s march and the Annual Point-in-Time Count. Each event had thousands of people in attendance, but Sandoval and Mackey found themselves standing right next to

UP EACH OTHER’S ALLEY

each other.

“It took a lot of work to find her and plant myself in front of her,” Mackey jokes.

With the timing finally right, they started dating soon after. They were long distance for several months after Sandoval moved to Austin for graduate school that fall, but when the pandemic started during her spring break in 2020, she moved back to Dallas for good.

During that time they enjoyed athome date nights and virtual dates with friends. In June 2020, Mackey proposed to Sandoval on the porch of her Cockrell Hill home — the same place he’d first asked her on a date the year before.

“When she had finally texted me to go on a date in January, I knew I was going to marry her if she was into it,” Mackey says.

Wanting to avoid the chaos and uncertainty of a pandemic-era wedding, Mackey and Sandoval got married in November 2020 at the Catholic church she grew up attending. Less than a dozen immediate family members were in attendance, and over 100 friends watched the ceremony via Zoom.

That night, they ate tacos at Sandoval’s sister’s house.

“I never understood when people say, ‘When you know, you know.’ And now I get it,” Sandoval says. “By the second date, it was very clear.”

In their first three years of marriage, Sandoval and Mackey have prioritized traveling and fixing up Sandoval’s house, “a 1912 craftsman that hasn’t been touched since 1912,” which they hope to move into soon. They delight in antique shopping and rummaging through estate sales. And their fur child, a 2-yearold chow/pit mix named Chuy, accompanies them on many of their adventures.

Sandoval now works in government consulting while Mackey is a Dallas ISD trustee. In 2023 Sandoval’s high school class celebrated their 15-year reunion, and once again, Mackey was in attendance.

This time, as the class president’s husband.

pregnant with a son.

They were married in their Kidd Springs home that November, and a week later she gave birth.

Theresa’s lifelong priest declined to officiate the wedding, saying she had a habit of being impulsive. But a few years later, after giving birth to their daughter, Theresa and Nazario had shown it was the real deal.

They had a second wedding at Theresa's childhood church.

“It meant a lot to me that I had finally met someone I could share my faith with,” Theresa says.

Thirty-four years later, Theresa describes their relationship as full of laughter. But they “fought like cats and dogs” in the beginning.

“You have to give up some and adapt to a new life,” Theresa says.

“I’ve learned not to be so selfish. I was pretty bad, but I think we both have learned to compromise.”

Theresa is the talkative, strongwilled one in the relationship, but Nazario likes it that way.

“She’s always the one to say ‘Let’s do this,’ and I follow,” he says. “She has a good heart.”

T h e re s a a n d N a z a r i o a re semi-retired, and spend their time with their grandchildren who live nearby, traveling with family or driving around in Theresa’s cherry red Mustang convertible. They’ve been on trips to Canada, Mount Rushmore, Disney World and Hot Springs, and hope to continue their expeditions as they near retirement.

“We just enjoy life,” Theresa says. “I love him, and he loves me.”

FEBRUARY 2024 oakcliff.advocatemag.com 19

Back in 1988, Theresa Ruiz spent her Friday nights at the Bronco Bowl. She’d pop in her striking blue colored contacts, throw on some lipstick, and hit the lanes with her 11-year-old daughter in tow.

And it was her daughter, Julie, who came up to her one night and said “that guy over there thinks you’re cute,” before pointing at Nazario Ruiz.

“We were bowling in the same area and I noticed her eyes,” he says.

Every Friday night after that, Theresa would find herself more excited than usual for her weekly bowling.

“I think he’d get excited too, that we would be seeing each other. I looked forward to it, and then I started kind of fixing myself up a little bit,” Theresa says.

One night, Theresa asked Nazario to give her a ride home and was surprised when he declined.

She persisted, even after he confessed he was ashamed of his car — a cherry red, 1977 Monte Carlo that was so beat up friends called it “the piñata.” Theresa was won over by Nazario’s humility.

“That was it. When he told me about his car, I just fell in love with him,” she says.

They began dating in November, and moved in together in January 1989, blending their families.

Nazario had three sons from a previous marriage, and Theresa had a son and daughter. Theresa and Nazario decided to get married that fall, after she became

A

Story by JEHADU ABSHIRO Illustration by LAUREN ALLEN

20 oakcliff.advocatemag.com FEBRUARY 2024

t some point in the 1400s, Stephanie Houston’s great-great grand somethings were trading sugar cane for rum on the Canary Islands. Then sugar cane and Houston’s ancestors made their way to the Caribbean. In 1732, 16 farming families from the Spanish Canary Islands arrived at San Antonio de Béxar and created the foundation for modern-day San Antonio. About 240 years later, Houston was born in San Antonio.

“I have 600 years of rum DNA in my body,” she says.

Houston, an Oak Cliff native who swears Gonzalez on Jefferson has the best flour tortillas, is the co-owner of Island Getaway Rum and the first Latina to own a distillery in Texas.

This is also a good time to mention she was a history major at the University of Texas.

Before she lived in Austin for the first time, she grew up living with her single mom and sister in an apartment located between Wynnewood and Kiest Park. Houston remembers going to Kidd Springs as a child.

“I love to go back there and kind of walk around that little lake and just reminisce about those days when I wasn't thinking about payroll and property taxes,” she says.

She went to St. Elizabeth Elementary School — where she still goes to light a candle every time she’s back home — and graduated from Skyline High School before heading off to UT. When she came back to Dallas, she started working in student services for ITT Tech. She left to work at an ad agency. Then one of her clients recruited her to work for his medical staffing company.

“My first day of work, I really wasn't even sure what I was going to be doing,” she says. “I didn't understand what he was even saying to me about what the job was.”

Houston was 27 years old when she and four colleagues left that company to found Platinum Select Healthcare Staffing in 2001. According to a 2004 Dallas Business Journal article, the company grew fast — $10 million in revenue in 2002, $15.1 million in 2003 and more than $24 million in 2004. In less than seven years, the company was worth $52 million with over 700 employees across the nation. The five sold the company in 2008 to MN Allied Services — right before the economy tumbled.

What do you do when you walk away with a bundle of cash from selling a medical staffing company?

Well, you take a repair shop and convert it into music-venue -and-bar LaGrange in Deep Ellum.

“It was a passion project for me. I loved doing every single second of it,” Houston says.

The project was losing money. It didn’t matter that it was winning “Best of ” awards or that even The New York Times noticed its popularity. In a 2010 article, LaGrange was highlighted as one of the places bringing “the groove back” to Deep Ellum with its indie rock lineup.

“But I hated losing all the money that I had,” Houston says. “I think one day somebody said, ‘You know, Stephanie, you can't just keep throwing money at stuff.’ I was thinking, ‘A h, I hadn't really thought of that.’”

She decided to move on in 2013. LaGrange transformed into Three Links. Houston decided to move back to Austin.

“I'll be honest, when I came back to Austin, I was really in a

complete crisis,” she says. “I just didn't know what I was gonna do. I was running out of money. I was just lost.”

An old friend from Dallas she knew from working in Deep Ellum was starting a winery in the Hill Country.

After they connected on Facebook, she went to the winery for a day to work.

He mentioned a rum project he had been working on with someone else.

“I said, ‘Hey, if y'all are serious about doing this, and you need an investor, you need a business person, tell me about it,” Houston says. “Please include me."

But he and his business partner had it covered. They were good.

He called a few months later. She immediately asked if it was “Rum time?” No, he needed a dog sitter.

Then he called again. She immediately asked if it was “Rum time?” No, he needed someone to watch the winery while he was on a ski trip.

He called a few months later. It was rum time.

Houston cut an investment check $30,000. With a total of $61,000 (according to a 2018 Forbes article, you need about $200,000 to start a distillery), the three partners started filing the paperwork, finding a property and working on their recipes in 2016.

It took 18 months to be licensed federally and at the state level.

They were down to their last dollars by the time they opened the distillery and tasting room in Hye, Texas, located east of Fredericksburg, near the Garrison Brothers distillery.

“It’s not a cheap business,” she says.

The company started as Hye Rum, using Louisiana molasses to produce the white rum that serves as the foundation for their spirits. It’s also available in its own bottle.

“It is just this big, bold, fiery rum, as rum is supposed to be,” she says.

“You can taste the rum, but it also just balances all of the other flavors in the cocktails.”

Island Getaway was the first cocktail on their tasting menu and it inspired their eponymous line of flavored rums.

By 2019, Houston and partner/dis-

tiller James Davidson bought out the project's originator. They brought in a small group of friends, a few from Oak Cliff, to invest. Then Houston In this neighborhood, you need a and Davidson bought them out. proven professional to help you Then like everyone else, the panfind what you’re looking for. As demic brought them to a standstill.

Dallas’ experts on our city’s close-in Their product was sitting on shelves communities, no one gets Oak Cliff and they weren’t seeing any foot trafquite like the pros at David Griffin fic in their tasting room. And like & Company. Buying? Selling? every bar and booze-producing comCall us at 214.526.5626 or visit pany, they were going to get hit with davidgriffin.com. the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission’s mixed beverage gross and sales taxes on March 20, 2020. Houston launched a Change.org petition to suspend the tax during the pandemic, according to an Eater Austin article. The petition garnered more than 99,000 signatures.

1234 Street Address 1234 Street Address $000,000 $000,000 They pivoted to making sanitizer — Name Here 000.000.0000 1234 Street Address Name Here 000.000.00 1234 Str $000,000 $000,00 their rum is 69% alcohol by volume —1234 Street Address 1234 Street Address Name Here 000.000.0000 Name H $000,000 after the federal government gave distill-$000,000 Name Here 000.000.0000 Name Here 000.000.0000 eries clearance. Houston says they made 52 tons of hand sanitizer to donate.

Then in 2021, they moved the distillery to Dripping Springs, closer 1202 N. Clinton Ave. $1,850,000 to Austin, since they were burning Robert Kucharski 214.356.5802 through gas and wearing themselves 1234 St 1234 Street Address Street Address 1234 Street Address out in the more-than-hour-long com- 1234 $000,000 $000,00 $000,000 1234 Street Address$000,000Name Here 000.000.0000 1234 Street Address Name H Name Here 000.000.0000 mute. It wasn’t efficient to have two Name Here 000.000.0000 $000,000 $000,000 Name Here 000.000.0 Name Here 000.000.0000 rum brands, so they merged the Hye Rum into Island Getaway Rum. “For me, rum reminds me of getting away,” Houston says. “So we wanted to inspire people with the kind of feeling that you get when you hit an island and 1234 Street Address 1234 Street Address you see that sunset and you're sitting $000,000 $000,000 Name Here 000.000.0000 Name Here 000.000.0000 on that beach with your frozen drink.”

It’s eight years in. This might be 1219 N. Windomere Ave. 1234 Street Address $1,185,000 the first year Island Getaway Rum is $000,000 Robert Kucharski 214.356.5802 Name Here 000.000.0000 in the black. It’s a family affair at this point. Houston’s sister and son work at the distillery. Island Getaway Rum is available at Spec’s. They have plans for exporting internationally with the first stop in Tokyo.

“I think it’s some of that survivor mentality. It allows me to look at ways outside of the box on how to do a lot with a little,” she says. “I would love for us to have the right investment dollars to be able to really just take 1101 Kensington Dr. SOLD our gloves off and go. But that hasn't Robert Kucharski 214.356.5802 been our experience. We've had to be as scrappy as possible.”

FEBRUARY 2024 oakcliff.advocatemag.com

21

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RESPONSIBLE TREE CARE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

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An End to End Real Estate Experience Price and availability subject to change. Information deemed reliable, but not guaranteed.

406ravinia.dpmre.com

510monssen.dpmre.com

SOLD, Represented Buyer

406 S. Ravinia Drive

510 Monssen Drive

318 N. Montclair Avenue

3 BED | 2.1 BATH | $799,000/$3,875 MO LEASE

3 BED | 2 BATH | 2,165 SQ. FT. | $729,000

3 BED | 2 BATH | 2,208 SQ. FT. | $675,000

Michael Mahon

Ged Dipprey | Sandra Bussey

Ann Andrews

214.914.5410 mmahon@dpmre.com

214.225.4663 gdregroup@dpmre.com

281.639.4254 annandrews@dpmre.com

SOLD, Represented Seller

PENDING

SOLD, Represented Seller

1414 Kings Highway

827 Salmon Drive

2218 Lawndale Drive

3 BED | 2 BATH | 1,878 SQ. FT. | $649,999

2 BED | 1 BATH | 1,359 SQ. FT. | $599,999

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

Ann Andrews

Ged Dipprey | Sandra Bussey

Diane Sherman

Vinnie Sherman

281.639.4254 annandrews@dpmre.com

214.225.4663 gdregroup@dpmre.com

469.767.1823 dsherman@dpmre.com

214.562.6388 vsherman@dpmre.com

PENDING

802salmon.dpmre.com

2010elmwood.dpmre.com

2811 Bonnywood Lane

802 Salmon Drive

2010 Elmwood Boulevard

3 BED | 2 BATH | 1,745 SQ. FT. | $330,000

2 BED | 2 BATH | 1,408 SQ. FT. | $3,400/MO.

2 BED | 1 BATH | 1,300 SQ. FT. | $2,300/MO.

Susan Melnick

Michael Mahon

Bart Thrasher

214.460.5565 susanmelnick@dpmre.com

214.914.5410 mmahon@dpmre.com

469.583.4819 bartthrasher@dpmre.com