A homier, and cheaper, Bennigan’s is set to bow in Dallas in early 2008. Things aren’t looking good for the so-called “casual dining” industry, which refers to such eateries as T.G.I. Friday’s, Ruby Tuesday, Chili’s, Bennigan’s and the lot. Reports today’s USA Today, the chains are resorting to offering deep…
For policy and city-planning wonks looking for a way to kill 73 minutes, Theresa O’Donnell, Dallas’ director of Development Services and co-author of the forwardDallas! Comprehensive Plan, was down in Austin on Friday afternoon speaking to the School of Architecture at The University of Texas at Austin. Attending the shindig…
At 11:33 Saturday night, our house in northwest Dallas began to shake — not like earthquake shake, really, more like under-attack shake. The windows rattled; the 4-year-old who lives in our house woke up. I turned down the TV and heard in the near distance what sounded like a mortar…
Formulating Christmas gift lists and pondering what in the world to get the Dallas Mavericks fan who has everything? I mean, in recent times the Mavs have rid themselves of the albatross, made the NBA Finals and finally beaten the Warriors. Short of a time machine that could zap us…
A few items of local interest worth peeking at this a.m., among them some musical highlights — and high notes — from Saturday night’s Bugle Boy GayBINGO at the Lakewood Theater, benefiting the Resource Center of Dallas. Also: some excerpts from Mark Cuban’s address to the Blog World and New…
Carrollton-based Heelys this morning announced a “new national skate team comprised of some of the nation’s top skaters.” The nine skaters range in age from 21 to 7, and the point of their new team is to “further develop the sport of hybrid skating, the combination of walking and running…
OK, color me convinced. And consider the NFC East captured. Barring a complete implosion, possible only should Tony Romo get injured, the Dallas Cowboys won their first division championship since 1998 yesterday in New Jersey. After dominating the New York Giants 31-20, the Cowboys have a three-game lead and the…
Norman Mailer, the man who gave this chain of newspapers its name, died this morning of kidney failure at the age of 84. I had the good fortune to interview him on several occasions during his various visits to Dallas, first in 1991, when he came to promote his CIA…
Well, I think I’m going to miss our Trinity River toll road campaign, though I can’t explain why. As in, why was it so contentious to decide whether to build a road we’re not entirely sure we can build through a park we’re not confident we can have? Somehow, this…
Football wagering ain’t easy. It’s more difficult than trying to make sense of Rick Gosselin’s “From the 50” photo snapped “From the End Zone.” More confounding than the Cowboys yesterday selling out an entire upcoming season — for only the first time in team history. And, let’s face it, even…
Dunham and Miller — actually, from left, Craig Miller and George Dunham If I’ve learned nothing else in the past 20 months of editing Unfair Park, it’s that people love reading about KTCK-AM (1310, The Ticket) and posting comments to items about The Ticket almost as much as they love…
Turns out that John Walls, assistant VP of Public Affairs over at UT Southwestern Medical Center of Dallas, is a pretty good Friend of Unfair Park’s. He called a little while to discuss last night’s and this morning’s items concerning The List — and, yeah, he sounded a little beaten,…
So, I had the bright idea to go out to Carrollton tomorrow for a sportsy column about Dallas’ Blue Angels, the only varsity football team of home-schooled students in the state of Texas. It’s their, um, homecoming? But now I’m not going. Why? Not invited. Not even allowed. “We don’t…
Fears of murder and mayhem keep you up at night? Well, hell (no pun), move to Plano, where — despite lingering memories of a 1990s heroin crisis — there were only four people murdered in 2006, for a rate of 1.6 murders per 100,000 residents. This compares to the national…
Alan Melson of KERA-FM (90.1), home of 12 hours of locally produced programming per week, sends word they’ve got a new Arts + Culture blog. It’s funded in large part by board member Donna Wilhelm, whose $500,000 donation in February jump-started the so-called Arts Alive! project. Anyway, for those so…
Over at Dissident Voice, which is not owned by our parent company, Cindy Sheehan this morning recounts her recent visit to the University of Dallas, where she spoke at the invitation of the chairman of the economics department, Samuel Bostaph. Sounds like a hoot: Surprisingly, my friend Sam, received little…
The Basketball Jones Baron Davis almost killed the Mavs again last night. Musta left the bullets in the fedora. That’s it? That was the Dallas Mavericks’ statement game? Needing desperately to swagger into Oakland and blow out the depleted, winless Golden State Warriors, the Mavs instead turned back the calendar…
KTVT-Channel 11 Wuh-oh. Turns out, The Dallas Morning News wasn’t the only media outlet holding a copy of the VIP list kept over at UT Southwestern. KTVT-Channel 11’s Robert Riggs also had the list, as evidenced by a teaser that appeared on the CBS affiliate’s Web site at 5:11 a.m…
Sorry, can’t help it — love the band, love the song, and now I love “khcarter77” for posting to the YouTubes Polyphonic Spree’s cover of Wings’ “Live and Let Die,” performed Tuesday night during the band’s homecoming at the House of Blues. It’s knock-it-out-o’-the-park perfect, up there with the Foo…
Mazel tov, Harry Hunsicker, you’re one of the 6,400 most powerful people in Dallas! Finishing up some work tonight, and I just checked The Dallas Morning News’ site for any late-breaking. Came across tomorrow’s no-doubt front-page Dallas Morning News piece about UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas’ “detailed list of…
Brian Harkin Local music fixture John Freeman, at bottom far right, was among the 100 or so folks who attended today’s City Plan Commission hearing. So, at least one bar’s safe for the moment: The Amsterdam Bar, among a handful still left on the City Plan Commission’s to-do list this…
Brian Harkin Gerald Stogsdill, owner of the Monkey Bar, moments before the City Plan Commission effectively closed down his bar Quite a scene down at City Hall this very moment, as the council chamber’s filled with Deep Ellum and Exposition Park regulars who jammed into the joint like there was…
