I was sad to see Il Sorrento go. Great food and ambiance.

Trail Dust was good before they moved to Sanger

Judge Roy Beans

Worked my way through college at the Dallas Steak and Ale as a waiter and bartender. Was a great learning experience and great place to work.

The Golden Eagle, Richardson
Bedford`s Steak House, Garland Road
Shotgun Sam's and Bob White's BBQ. Both Garland Rd/East Grand and Gaston Ave.
And speaking of Gaston, just remembered a Gaston's cafeteria in the A Harris shopping center in South Oak Cliff after church.

I thought the topic was "fancy". Bonanza, Panchos, Wyatt’s are far from that.

There were two Trail Dusts and they were only common in name. The one in remote (then) Denton County is where you went looking for a bar fight on Saturday night. The one on restaurant row was a nicer family atmosphere.

My vote is all of Stemmons Restaurant Row.

Magic Time Machine comes to mind. Not fancy but expensive and weird.

The Shakey's Pizza in San Angelo was amazing, as was the one in Wichita Falls.

Magic Time Machine is still open.

JR

Zider Zee was good.

That's the one! I remember going to both of those places multiple times as a kid. Not trail Dust in Aubrey though. I believe the one we went to was in Mesquite maybe?

Not fancy but Highland Park Cafeteria recently closed.

Farmers Daughter in Fort Worth over by TCU was a very fancy restaurant.

YUUUP!!

Wait, the Bonanza restaurants were fancy?

Wasted way too much time watching the video….

Most were marginal crap to begin with….no wonder they’re gone!

Not fancy but liked Sambos as a young man.

Rolltide, there were several Dixie Houses. First was the very small menu Blackeyed Pea. Then came the bigger menu at Dixie House. Then we basically took the Dixie House menu for all new Blackeyed Peas and opened a whole bunch of em. My good friend owned the Lakewook Yacht Club across from Dixie Lakewood-go in that one Roll??

Someone mentioned Majic Time Machine. Very well ran place. We got one of their waiters from there in our early days(while we were winging it) and he taught me their "7 steps of service" which I parlayed into our original training system and later adapted in all our places. We were good.

Tlk mentioned he worked at Steak and Ale. Extremely well ran. They really set the tone for all the organized full service restaurant chains that were able to mass produce a quality product. I didnt realize he worked there and it explains some of the similarities he and I have.

FANCY. As Gas said, not many of yalls examples are fancy. One that comes to mind for me is The Grape which was great forever, and fancy, and finally it went away. St Martins was fancy and there at least forty years and they recently lost their lease but just relocated. Tried to get a reservation this weekend but all booked. My very good friend used to own it. Same guy managed The Palm back in the day and it was definitely fancy and gone now.
Shannon Wynne had a fancy place or two back then that are long since gone but he and another ex employee of mine are killing it now with many Rodeo Goats(not fancy.)
Heck I forgot one of ours. The Wine Press was "fancy" and we did well there for a long time. That building is where Al Biernats is now and originally it was our very first "bar", J Alfreds. J Alfreds was my very first restaurant job exactly 50 years ago this past Sunday.
Yall really got me going on the restaurant scene from the 70s and 80s. .......

Man, Freerange….you are like a time warp for me…J. Alfreds, and taking a date to the Wine Press…..Gene and Phil had it going back in those days! That original Pea on Cedar Springs had the best CFS you could put in your mouth!

And, a couple of other go to’s….The Old Church and Chelsea Corner.

Miss those days!

We may know each other. Of course, hanging out at those places didnt do much for the memory. If you were actually in J Alfreds on a weekend night then we may need to talk.....
You got me started again..... I started parttime while going to school. I started at J Alfreds then The Old Church then Pea on Cedar Springs when it first opened. Bartender at all those. My first night bartending at Cedar Springs a waitress started helpin me clean up after close. I ask her why. She said "if youre coming home with me you need to hurry." Fun times.
After that I opened Blues Lakefront Bar and Grill at Bachman Lake as manager. Then opened Dixie House Mckinney and on to Dixie Lakewood. Then to Tamales off Cedar Springs on Oaklawn. Then promoted to upper management. After that it was full speed ahead opening a ton of Blackeyed Peas. Gene and Phil finally got out and made a killing. I bailed when they did and those places were never the same again.

Was Chelsea Corner the one down from Old Church with the fireplace in the middle??? You probably went to San Fransisco Rose as well. Mother Blues maybe... I could go on and on....

Free -

Chelsea Corner was at the corner of McKinney and Monticello….across from Javiers. Did have the fireplace in the middle. Was Blues the place at te corner of NW Hwy and Webb Chapel?

Cedar Springs was great in those days….hookers everywhere….You could get in some trouble at Adairs! And the Spanish Village had some Mexican food!

Mother Blues was one of the all-time great music venues.

You had to mention Javiers. Maybe my all time favorite place. Went there first in about 83. Javier still works the door, and the room, sometimes. I just canceled my reservation for there for this Sat night a couple hours ago(not going to the big city after all.)
Adairs, yes. Loved playing shuffleboard and darts at Milo Butterfingers(still there I think.) Youre correct on the Blues location. Not one of our better concepts. Phil got to chose one....
Hollywood and Vine(old Old Church) and SRO were a couple more concepts that were short lived.

For a Grove Rat, Bonanza was fancy.

This place wasn't fancy but it was good , El Fenix Buffet on Forest Lane and Webb Chapel , 70's

Trail Dust in Aubrey was called the South 40, first , before it came a steakhouse . South 40 was rough , bouncers killed a guy once