Caven's bars redefine night life on Cedar Springs

05/30/2000

By Charlene Oldham / The Dallas Morning News
Reprinted by permission

When former used car salesman Frank Caven opened The Candy Store near the corner of Throckmorton Street and Cedar Springs Road in 1971, it seemed a bit out of place and ahead of its time.  

It was the first gay bar along a street known for its honky-tonks and streetwalkers. And it was a time when gay life was more subculture than mainstream.

"Prostitutes in fake furs and high heels strutted up and down the street. They openly worked the corner of Cedar Springs and Throckmorton," said Hector Garcia, chairman of the Dallas City Plan Commission. " ... It was kind of a scary place."

Today, the old Candy Store location is straddled by steel girders and abuzz with the sounds of construction.

The bar - long since renamed the Throckmorton Mining Company but still owned by the company that Mr. Caven founded - is doubling its space and adding a second floor.  

The $600,000 project, set to be finished in August, is an example of how far Caven Enterprises Inc. has come in three decades: From operators of small bars in Dallas fringe neighborhoods to a major nightlife-oriented company that has helped redefine the Cedar Springs neighborhood.

In its other big project this year, on the north side of Cedar Springs Road near Knight Street, Caven has leased a dilapidated strip center that it is renovating for use by high-end clothing stores, a New York-style jazz club and a restaurant.

"I felt that there was a complement of nightclubs on the strip that offered enough venues," said Caven's chief executive Jack Polachek, who took over in 1996. "And I also wanted to diversify the company."

Caven Enterprises now owns about four acres near the corner of Cedar Springs and Throckmorton Street.

Pioneering success

Its flagship holding - JR's Bar & Grill, next door to the Throckmorton Mining Company - doubled in size twice during the 1990s and added a second floor in 1997.

JR's is now one of the state's busiest bars, selling about $300,000 worth of liquor a month, according to tax collections records from the state comptroller's office. And that total doesn't count beer and wine sales.

JR's anchors the Throckmorton Street end of a Caven-owned city block that is bounded by Cedar Springs and Dickason Avenue on the north and south and Reagan Street and Throckmorton on the east and west.

Sue Ellen's, one of the state's largest lesbian bars, sits on the Reagan Street end. (And, yes, both are named after the popular characters from the TV show Dallas.)

In between the two is the Village Station disco, which attracts a large crowd of straights and gays every night it's open.

"I've been with this company since 1978, and from the time I've been here, we've done nothing but improve this property value," Mr. Polachek said.

Mr. Polachek has built on the successes of the company's founder, Mr. Caven, who died in 1988.

Over the years, Caven Enterprises has owned and operated more than 40 clubs in Dallas, Houston, Washington and Tampa, Fla., although its holdings are now concentrated in Dallas.

A destination is born

The corner of Cedar Springs Road and Throckmorton Street is the undisputed center of Dallas gay life, home to more than a dozen gay-owned businesses and half a dozen successful bars that aren't owned by Caven.

But when Mr. Caven opened The Candy Store, there was no hint the area would evolve into the "Gay Crossroads."

In fact, Mr. Caven's first big success, a disco called the Old Plantation, was nowhere near Cedar Springs. It was on Harwood Street, on a site now occupied by the Dallas Museum of Art.

Cedar Springs "was a pretty rough neighborhood [in the 1970s]," said Ed Oakley, Caven Enterprises' property manager and a member of the Dallas planning commission.

"All the nightlife that is on Harry Hines [Boulevard] right now was on Cedar Springs," he said.

Neighborhood values declined even more when nearby Dallas Love Field lost all but Southwest Airlines to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in January 1974.

Neighborhood stores closed and apartments emptied out, leaving the area ripe for development and open to people who might not have been welcome elsewhere in the city.

"There was a concentration of gays in the neighborhood already," Mr. Polachek said. "Frank wanted to bring the clubs closer to the neighborhood. ... [It] was not only smart business, but good for the customer."

Caven Enterprises' success is not without its critics.

"It's a mixed blessing over there," said Sharon Boyd, a member of the Oak Lawn Committee homeowners' group.

On weekends, the residential side streets are crammed with cars until the bars close at 2 a.m.

And the popularity of the Gay Crossroads - as a destination akin to McKinney Avenue, Greenville Avenue and Deep Ellum - has helped drive up real estate prices and rents north of Cedar Springs.

Prices of a new townhome development at Hall and Throckmorton streets, a block from JR's, start around $300,000.

"I think it's just part of the explosion of the inner city," said Mike Grossman, president of Uptown Realtors.

"That's just the personality of the inner cities as they grow and expand.

"And if the residential becomes more upscale, retail rents are higher."

But that prosperity can take a toll on small-business owners who can't afford the higher rents, said Yolanda Retter, co-author of the book Queers in Space: Communities, Public Places, Sites of Resistance.

"In my perception of gentrification, it's not always a positive thing," she said.

Focus on small business

Dave Richardson, co-owner of Out Lines clothing store, said retail rents on Cedar Springs have soared from $10 to $12 a square foot to $22 to $29 in recent years.

Out Lines was recently forced to move from a storefront at 4008 Cedar Springs Road when a national drugstore chain offered to pay double the rent.

"We weren't even given the option to negotiate," Mr. Richardson said. "So it kind of put us out on the street."

Caven came to the rescue, offering prime space in a newly renovated center down the block.

"Had it not been for Caven Enterprises renovating this building, we would have had difficulty finding a place to move," Mr. Richardson said.

"And they [Caven] have actually contributed greatly to the success of the neighborhood."

Out Lines' old space went to the CVS Corp., which opened a CVS ProCare pharmacy that specializes in high-cost drugs used to treat infertility and HIV. CVS is one of the handful of national retailers to open up shop at the Gay Crossroads.

Mr. Polachek said he wants Caven to continue expanding its focus to help the small businesses that made Cedar Springs and Throckmorton such a popular destination.

"We're a very diversified community down here, and I think it's appreciation of small business that draws people to this area," he said.

"I don't think anyone wants to see a huge conglomerate come in here, buy up a strip center and put in a Kmart."