Strangeways survived an ‘expensively sad situation’ & came out on top

A $1.6 million misunderstanding.

That’s what an over-year long fight for ownership of the property near Belmont and north Fitzhugh Avenues, where Strangeways is, boiled down to. 

Strangeways owners and siblings Eric Sanchez and Rosie Ildemaro opened the bar in August 2011. Strangeways, named after The Smiths’ last studio album Strangeways, Here We Come, was inspired by a joke.

“The joke, which kind of isn’t a joke, is (Sanchez) was bartending, and there weren’t that many bars in Dallas back then, and he was in between bartending gigs, and he jokingly one day said, ‘I guess if I can’t find a job, I’ll just open up my own bar so I can hire myself,’ or something to that effect,” Ildemaro says.

After taking that sentiment more seriously, Sanchez opened Strangeways, the dive bar with an eclectic menu. Ildemaro, who is also known for her shoe brand and has bartended with her brother before, joined him.

“We work very well together,” she says, explaining that there wasn’t a formal conversation to bring her to Strangeways. “We just kind of all jump in as a family. We all do things like, ‘Oh, you’re sweeping, let me get the dust pan.’ We are each other’s extra set of hands without having to ask for it.”

The Heidari brothers, Pasha and Sina, sought to buy the property from landlord Ana M. Martinez in 2023 for $1.6 million, according to their commercial contract. The Heidaris are known locally for preserving East Dallas mainstays St. Martin’s and Urbano Cafe, but it’s unclear what they would’ve done to the Strangeways property.

The original lease states that if Martinez planned to accept a “bona fide written offer” from someone trying to buy the property, there needs to be a first right of refusal on the same terms and conditions as in the prospective buyer’s offer. The lease goes on to say that the Strangeways owners would have 90 days to make a decision in writing.

Ildemaro says they weren’t given a proper chance to buy the building before it was sold. At first, Sanchez and Ildemaro thought they’d have to shut down. Ildemaro says patrons coming in for what they thought would be their last drink at Strangeways encouraged Sanchez to fight the sale.

through of the building, so (Sanchez) lets them in and she, our landlord, runs into my brother, and she says in a very sweet way, because we have a really good relationship, ‘Why didn’t you want to buy the building?’ And that’s when Eric’s jaw dropped,” Ildemaro says. “He’s like, ‘But you decided not to sell to us. We wanted to. Rosie has all the text messages.’ And that’s when her jaw drops, too, and she’s like, ‘No, no, no, this is what I was told.’”

After talking with Martinez and realizing there had been miscommunication, Sanchez felt more comfortable with pursuing legal action, and they proceeded to get a lawyer.

But they didn’t start the lawsuit — that would be the Heidaris’ doing. In their October 2023 original petition, Sanchez and Ildemaro said the Heidaris were still pushing for the sale of the property, despite the terms of Strangeways’ lease. They accused Martinez of breach of contract and fraud.

Before Martinez answered the Heidaris’ petition with a blanket denial, Sanchez and Ildemaro intervened in the lawsuit against the Heidaris and their landlord. Their petition claimed that they weren’t notified of the sale until after it had happened via a text message from Martinez’s broker, who they said misrepresented the situation to Martinez, who was willing to comply with the lease.

“We always knew that we had a right of first refusal,” Ildemaro says. “My landlord always knew that we wanted to buy the building. Her realtor lied to our landlord and said they’re not interested and pushed my landlord to sell to (the buyers).”

The broker declined to discuss the lawsuit with the Lakewood/East Dallas Advocate over the phone. We reached out to Martinez’s lawyer but didn’t hear back.

A long legal fight, what Ildemaro calls an “expensively sad situation,” ensued that resulted in upwards of 60 documents filed.

In court filings, Sanchez and Ildemaro took aim at the Heidaris, saying they were still pushing for the sale of the property that rightfully belonged to Strangeways.

In an amended petition filed on Nov. 16, 2023, the Heidaris claimed that the owners were financially unable to buy the property when they were notified of the offer in August 2023. They also alleged Strangeways no longer wanted to occupy the property and declined proposals to remain at the property for a limited time before turning heel to say that the landlord didn’t honor the right of first refusal.

In Martinez’s amended answer filed on Sept. 6, 2024, she says the Heidaris previously repudiated the contract, thus releasing her from the agreement. She says they requested a $300,000 price drop to cover for the Strangeways owners’ plan to move out their equipment and fixtures upon leaving the property. Sanchez and Ildemaro also said in their Nov. 11, 2024 filing that the Heidaris were requesting that the amount be put in an escrow account “to cover the cost of replacing personal property owned by Strangeways if Strangeways were to leave the property with such personal property.”

Strangeways’ third amended petition filed on Dec. 2, 2024 was specific on what Sanchez and Ildemaro wanted – for the right of first refusal to be honored and for them to be given a proper chance to buy the property.

All the while, Strangeways continued to operate, though Ildemaro says it was quiet around the bar during the lawsuit because patrons thought it was closed.

“We thought, ‘Oh well, we’ll see the judge in a couple of weeks,’ and a couple of weeks turned to what feels like almost two years,” Ildemaro says. “It was a lot of people coming in saying, ‘Oh, my God, I thought you closed,’ or, ‘Oh, did you reopen?’ And thank goodness for birthdays and happy hours, the neighborhood people just kind of keeping faith up.”

All parties were gearing up for trial by submitting witness exhibit lists (and objecting to each other’s lists), but then they agreed to settle the matter instead of going to trial in January of this year. They requested that the case be dismissed with prejudice, meaning the same claim cannot be refiled.

“Strangeways currently has the bar property on Fitzhugh under contract and expects to close the purchase no later than this fall,” Sanchez and Ildemaro’s attorney Rudy Beuttenmuller said to D Magazine earlier this year. “If all goes as planned, Strangeways will stay open and serve its loyal customers indefinitely.”

The win felt like a “big sigh of relief” for Ildemaro, and it feels good to be able to plan for the future without the uncertainty, she says. If they had lost the case, there would have been no way to operate Strangeways anywhere else.

“It’s got its own personality, and I think the building gives it that personality,” Ildemaro says.

J.D. Reed, an attorney for the Heidaris, says his clients are not permitted to comment on the settlement but says they are pleased with the outcome.

“Prior to the lawsuit and even today, Pasha & Sina, Inc. always wanted Strangeways to remain and operate in the Fitzhugh property,” Reed says in an emailed statement. “Pasha & Sina, Inc. is delighted that the settlement has allowed Strangeways to continue to operate in its original location. The complicated nature of the purchase transaction along with Strangeways’ and the property owner’s confusing and conflicting messages in the late summer of 2023 unfortunately led to a dispute between all the parties. Nevertheless, Pasha & Sina, Inc. is happy/satisfied with how this matter was resolved and wishes Strangeways the best of luck in its continued service of its loyal patrons and local neighborhood.”

The outcome of this case is a victory for the status quo.

The Heidaris appear to be operating business as usual and recently opened a new cocktail bar by Urbano Cafe. Strangeways’ owners retained their bar. And that property still sold for $1.6 million.