The steak house place?? I can picture it but can't remember the name.

Brennan's in downtown Dallas was a favorite for my family.
The Old Warsaw.
The Chimney, not too fancy but a small, nice, place.
Dakota's in downtown Dallas.
By George's on Greenville Ave
The Grape on Greenville Ave, my Mom was friends with the owners.

Crystals Palace?

Believe when national chain, Crystal Confectionary, Crystal Palace was a surviving business upon that chain's closure....

Yep, that was it. Hunt Dog almost got it too. They served toast or bread or something with special butter or something.....? It was a special place back then.

Outstanding Stub. Really good article. Anyone following this thread should click on that.

Good article. Brought back a lot of memories. Ate at a lot of those places and knew, or worked with, several of the Chefs.

Stub, if you are confused or curious about anything to do with Dixie House or Blackeyed Pea just give me a shout.
Gene Street and Phil Cobb started the company "Prufrock" in about 72 with J Alfreds, Old Church and Bullys Pub. Then they struck gold with the small place, small menu Blackeyed Pea on Cedar Springs in 74ish. I was a parttime bartender at all those while going to school. I saw Streets genius and anticipated the growth and went fulltime as they begged me to do. They tried various other concepts through the years but the Pea and Dixie were the keepers for growth.

Another very small Pea in Snider Plaza and converted Bullys to a Pea. Dixie House on Mckinney was next and I opened it as manager. Then Dixie Lakewood was next and they moved me there. These Dixie's had a much bigger menu than the early Peas. Blackeyed Pea on Camp Bowie in FW was next. This was the first Pea which was basically a Dixie House menu with the BEPea name. All future Peas would have this morphed Dixie/Pea menu.

It was next that I went into the corporate office and became VP Operations. We grew like crazy. A few more Dixies opened up(like Bachman and Addison) but all the major growth across Texas and to a smaller degree, the country, was The Blackeyed Pea.
Eventually Street and Cobb sold out to an English conglomerate, and I got out too. The company that bought it had many other interests so its no surprise they lost what made us great. It changed hands a time or two more with similar results. Things started spiraling downhill and a once great chain went by the wayside. It was sad for me to see a lifetime of work go down the tubes but I was watching from the sidelines by then.

freerange appreciate your insight. two questions.

1. About when did the Dixie House location on NW Hwy/Bachman lake open?
2. As high lighted in Bold above. Were there two separate Dixie house owners/companies? I know Gene Street and Phil Cobb owned the Dixie House & Black eye-Peas.

There is a lot of write ups about these other owners and their Dixie House Cafe's.

http://www.dixiehousecafes.com/index.php/about-us

Dixie House Cafe originally opened in 1983 as Theresa’s, named after the owner’s wife.

http://www.dixiehousecafes.com/index.php/about-us

We opened our first restaurant in January 1983. At that time the restaurant’s name was Theresa’s Cafe, named after my wife Theresa.

Your friends Dale and Theresa

BTW it was obvious when Gene & Phil sold out. It went from generous portion of the main entrée with 3 sides, down to smaller portions and only two sides.

Stub, I’ve never heard of Theresa’s or any other Dixie House except ours. I just glanced at your link but it seems like a similar menu. If they had same name and menu I’m sure we would of been in court over that.
Cotton Patch, literally, blocked off our Blackeyed Pea name off menu and literally made photo copies for their original menu. Strange but 100% true. We went to court over that so I’m sure Theresa would be same and that didn’t happen.
Bachman Dixie was after McKinney Ave and Lakewood but before Addison so maybe 77/78…?

I always enjoyed the Blackeyed Pea the food was good and the portions were generous. I remember when the one in Mesquite opened up in the 80’s and there was always a wait to get in. When I started working in HVAC in the early 2000’s with the company that I’m now with we handled some of the Blackeysd Peas and Dixie Houses. I can tell you they weren’t spending money on the HVAC equipment. The one in Lakewood was something else!

Lakhota, that Dixie House in Lakewoods ceilings must have been 30'+ tall and went almost all the way back. It was hard to cool. I kept it together with duct tape and bailing wire as much as I could...... Of course, I was long gone by the 2000s.

My wife and I lived in Lakewood before we got married. We ate at DH quite a bit.

Found this picture -- Austin Texas - Magic Time Machine 1980's

We had a restaurant in Denton on 35 between Denton and Sanger , was like a Black Eyed Pea . Guy that owned it came from Black Eyed Pea 's
Can't remember the name , any body know the name of the restaurant

Also, in Lewisville, at 35 and 1171, was the first Grandy’s. Ate a lot of chicken and CFS there after water skiing all day on Grapevine. In the 70’s, when it opened, it was Granny’s. The “d” came when a trademark dispute with Granny’s Dinner Theater in Dallas arose. It was pretty good back in those days. I guess some are still around.

Po Folks. great food.

We loved the one in Carrollton in the 80's Our first time to have cheese fries.

Herrera's on Maple...Crazy nachos were great.

World's biggest salad bar, Bedford's Steakhouse. Was really, really good! It burned and the family decided to retire and not rebuild it. Sad day for the East Dallas folks.