From Interstate 345 to Lower Greenville, Ross Avenue was a crucial part of early Dallas development from prominent family mansions to established churches.
Today, however, nightlife and polished dining concepts look to redefine the area as a burgeoning hospitality scene.
But in order to understand how we got here, we have to take a look at where we came from.
More than a century ago, Ross Avenue was a street lined with some of Dallas’ wealthiest neighbors and most opulent mansions. Historic Dallas names like John C. Conway, the founder of Highland Park and William Henry Gaston, one of the city’s first millionaires, built their homes on Ross Avenue.
The mansions have since been demolished or used in more creative ways to house organizations and events. The Belo Mansion and The Alexander Mansion of Dallas, now the Arts District Mansion and the home for The Dallas Woman’s Forum, serve as living testaments to the transformation of Ross Avenue.
Through the rest of the 21st century, office buildings spread from Downtown into the East Dallas neighborhoods. But when office buildings began flocking to the suburbs in the ‘80s and ‘90s, they left the area empty and car repair shops abounded in their place.
A 1988 Planned Development District created by the Planning and Zoning Commission established that Ross Avenue would focus on very specific types of businesses: retail, restaurants and commercial services.
Though the PD was met with mixed reviews – causing some long-standing small businesses to close to make way for the “progress” that it urged – the plan was accepted by neighborhood groups like the Bryan Place Neighborhood Association.
In came a slew of restaurants that had trouble staying in the area. Toad in the Hole is now XOXO Dining Room. Method Coffee is now Black Swan. Little Woodrow’s became Ross and Hall Beer Garden and Kitchen which became Dahlia Bar and Bistro which is now Bocado. Passport Nightclub became Sunset Lounge which became The Pretty Diver which became Bison Bar and Grill which is now Southern Classic Daiquiri Factory.
For decades, the strip had been overlooked as a hospitality destination– compared to its neighboring competitors like Greenville Avenue, Elm Street, Henderson Avenue and Main Street.
“[The neighborhood president believes that the PD in the area of Ross Avenue] has not produced the walkable friendly Ross Avenue that residents were hoping for,” the neighborhood association posted in 2018, when they attempted to amend the PD to push for more restaurant and mixed-use development. “While there has been some turnover of properties, most of the development has been ,apartment with no mixed use on the first floor, and the setbacks on Ross have not been such to produce a parkway like avenue.”
The amendment/overlay never came to fruition. In 2018, hospitality veterans Justin Kallhoff and Brian Rutt, collaborating on the Instagrammable pan-Asian restaurant Alice, aimed to change that. Alice is a conglomeration of Chinese, Japanese and Thai dishes, artisanal cocktails, ‘80s music and karaoke.
Rutt has been credited as a co-founder of restaurants and bars like The Standard Pour and has worked with This and That concepts like High Fives and Tiny Victories. Kallhoff has partnered with him on concepts like Columbian Country Club, Alice, Bad Chicken and Black Swan.
Back in 2018, when there weren’t a lot of dining options in the area, a new wave of multifamily development swept through and left the street with a plethora of “luxury” apartment complexes and townhomes.
“There was a small sports bar across the street that kind of was open and closed, but it was really just us on the block and that was it,” Kallhoff says. “There was a coffee shop right next door that was open during the morning time. The great thing is that the whole corridor, as a general, just has incredible accessibility.”
As Alice gained popularity, Kallhoff and Rutt started thinking about opening an upscale cocktail lounge. By the end of 2023, Columbian Country Club opened a few doors down with a swanky atmosphere adorned in vintage décor.
“Anytime something opens in this area, we get busier. Like when XOXO opened down the street on Ross we started getting busier … and then when Dahlia opened up across the street people would go over there and have a drink then come have dinner at Alice and vice versa,” Kallhoff says. “So we thought adding a couple of more things to the block would just help synergize and give people a reason to never leave.”
And it’s true, sometimes people never want to leave, Bocado co-owner Jesus Almazan confirms.
Bocado opened in the former Dahlia Bar & Bistro in late December, offering an eclectic cocktail and food menu that pays homage to Mexican culture. Bocado’s owners purchased the Dahlia’s LLC, enabling a three-week turnaround. Though the turnover was quick, frequent openings and closings aren’t unusual on Ross Avenue.
After 10 years of operation, Deep Ellum’s Black Swan Saloon closed in 2020 with no intention of reopening, owner Gabe Sanchez says.
Three years later, Fiction Coffee on Ross Avenue closed.
That’s where Rutt came in, encouraging Sanchez to consider reopening on Ross Avenue. After touring the former Fiction Coffee space with Rutt, he was convinced to reopen.
From day one, customers included new faces welcoming the bar to the neighborhood and old regulars, sporting decade-old T-shirts, Sanchez shares.
“All of the new apartments and townhomes that have popped up [are] excited about having a place that is their own, which is rad because we want to be their own bar,” Sanchez says.
That 1988 PD aimed to preserve the historical facade of Ross Avenue while strengthening neighborhood identity and accommodating mixes of uses and growth. Perhaps the newest restaurants and bars lining the area are a step toward just that.
