While I was in The Corner Market the other day the shop’s owner Chuck Cole mentioned that Corner Market recently turned 10 years old. In those 10 years The Corner Market and Cole have been mentioned in several Advocate stories because, if you haven’t met him, he’s one of those great neighbors who always has his ear to the ground, looking out for neighborhood happenings.
In 2013 The Corner Market was included in a photo essay by our head photographer Danny Fulgencio about the secret lives of honeybees. East Dallas neighbors Brandon and Susan Pollard, who are involved in what they call “urban bee-wrangling,” installed a hive on the rooftop of the Greenville Avenue restaurant. The story, also penned by Fulgencio, is as interesting as it is enlightening. The Corner Market still has an urban garden on its rooftop, as you can see in the pictures above.
In 2014 Cole gave us his thoughts about the changes that have been taking place recently on Lower Greenville. Although he thought the changes were overall good, as the owner of a small business he was a bit wary of the stronghold the city has over the bustling shopping strip. Read the full story for context and for more of Cole’s thoughts.
In 10 years The Corner Market been around long enough to see the neighborhood around it change, even though the shop has stayed almost exactly the same. He remembers when there was a Starbucks right across the street, next door to Gloria’s.
“They didn’t make it, but we did,” he points out. “When I opened nobody would come down here (to Lower Greenville) during the daytime. The track record was that daytime places didn’t make it down here. With the changes they’re trying to make it more mixed-use.”
It was a bit of a gamble for him to open a lunch-centric spot at Greenville and McCommas at that time, and most people told him he was crazy for doing it. Somehow he got lucky, though.
“We’re steady,” he says. “Sometimes I’m surprised we’ve stayed so steady. We have really loyal customers.”
