A band warms up on the opening night for Puzzles in Deep Ellum on July 30. Photo by Madelyn Edwards.
In 2009, the How I Met Your Mother episode “Three Days of Snow” first aired and featured a scene where characters Ted Mosby and Barney Stinson fantasize about owning their own bar.
“The name of our bar (should be) Puzzles,” Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) said. “People will be like, ‘Why is it called Puzzles?’ That’s the puzzle.”
Over 16 years later, Mike Ziemer and Orlando Mendoza of Dallas-based company Third String Entertainment followed through on these fictional characters’ dreams with their new music venue and event space Puzzles. Yes, the name stems from them thinking that the How I Met Your Mother scene was funny, but it also pays tribute to the previous occupant of 2824 Main St. in Deep Ellum — The Quixotic World Event Space.
“This place, in particular, because it has that magic mystery, it is kind of like a puzzle to a lot of people,” Ziemer said. “People would walk by Quixotic World for years and never open the door. They were just like, ‘What is that place?’ If you look on the wall out here on Malcolm X (Boulevard), it’s just this, like, really magical design, but you don’t know if it’s just art or if that has anything to do with this, and it had everything to do with what was in the space before, so kind of just carrying on that theme.”
Ziemer spoke with reverence about The Quixotic World, calling it “a staple of Deep Ellum as an event space for a long time.” Creating their own event space and music venue allows Ziemer and Mendoza to fulfill a longtime goal while also honoring Quixotic’s legacy.
“This gives us an opportunity to keep something alive that’s been down here for over a decade, just rebrand it,” Ziemer said. “I have friends that have been married here. I know people that have had their parents’ wedding anniversaries, or like grandparents’ 80th birthdays here, and it’s been a really special, magical event space.”
Most of the decor in Puzzles was leftover from The Quixotic World, which had a red-and-black Alice in Wonderland motif, Ziemer said. The plan is to incorporate puzzle pieces into the design of the space, including hanging novelty-size, interconnecting puzzle pieces on the wall when an artist sells out the venue with details about the show printed on it.
Most of the decor in Puzzles was leftover from The Quixotic World, which had a red-and-black “Alice in Wonderland” motif. Photo by Madelyn Edwards.
Puzzles hosts private events, but the main focus is on live music and being an essential place for touring bands to play and get their start, Ziemer said.
“We just want to be the place that everyone goes, has a good time,” he said. “The bands want to come back because they had a great time, and then bands want to come here for the first time because they haven’t been able to play here yet. There’s a lot of really legendary venues, like Trees is one of them; Chain Reaction in California is one of them. You just grow up in a band wanting to play those venues, and we want to be one of those spots, and we plan to be here for a long time.”
Ziemer and Mendoza also have a deep connection with Deep Ellum and want to keep live music, events and “positive things” in the entertainment district.
“Deep Ellum to us is like the heart and soul of Dallas,” Ziemer said.
