2025 December Lakewood/East Dallas Advocate

The Best Place To Gather Is Home

“The Non-Alcoholic Beer Drinkin’ Man”

Unrefined Bakery FEATURES

2025 Gift Guide 26 Meet Lakewood Branch Library’s new manager 30 The beautification of Greenville Avenue’s pony walls

Strangeways is keeping its spot on North Fitzhugh Avenue after a legal battle over the property concluded this year. Read more on page 32. Photography by Kathy Tran.

Home For The Holidays: A Gift That Lasts All Year Long

2025 has been a wonderful year of growth and success - a direct testament to the discerning choices by both our buyers and sellers, as well as the tireless commitment of our team to them. It is a true privilege to contribute to this exceptional market; we look forward to continuing to provide unparalleled service and expertise in the coming year.

The Nancy Johnson Group is known for giving the gift of home year-round. Whether you are looking to sell yours or find your dream one, we bring market expertise, reputable experience, and unmatched client loyalty to every partnership.

When Experience Matters, call the Nancy Johnson Group.

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You’re not just picking a school you’re building a LEGACY!

From STEM/STEAM and dual language classes to college credit, Dallas ISD offers more than a traditional classroom education. Find the right school for your child with more than 100 specialty schools to choose from. Don’t miss your chance to apply.

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Elementary9 a.m. - 11 a.m.

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All grades10 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

A FAMILY’S TRIBUTE TO THEIR VERY OWN

MODERN-DAY RENAISSANCE MAN IN THE HEART OF EAST DALLAS…

Meet Randy Brown, who has made East Dallas his home for more than four decades. Randy has taken advantage of all the wonderful places and people that East Dallas offers its community since first moving to Texas in 1985.

Randy will be retiring as a Partner of Haynes Boone at the end of 2025. He has served the legal world with exceptional commitment, dedication, expertise and success in Intellectual Property law for more than 40 years. His legal career began as a clerk at a small boutique firm in Washington, D.C., while attending night law school at George Washington University.

Although his law practice demanded most of his time, he has managed to find ways to support his passions and his family’s passions through the years.

Through nine Christmas seasons, he performed as the butler with his children in the Dallas Ballet Center’s “Nutcracker” performances. Randy participated in musicals and plays with his children through the FUMC Dallas Rotunda Theater productions, and then he decided to join the church choir, where he continues to sing.

Currently Randy takes saxophone lessons from “Eugene”, the popular sax player with Captain and Camille, a Dallas-based smooth 70s tribute band. But in the true sense of a Renaissance man, Randy also enjoys opera! He has served on the Dallas Opera board for eight years; he most recently chaired the auditing committee.

Randy has cycled with Mirage throughout East Dallas and beyond for many years, and then he caught the hiking bug. Randy’s love of hiking at Texas state parks and Big Bend eventually took him to the steeper and longer trails of the Grand Canyon. He has participated in seven river trips on the Colorado River in both dory boats and rafts, as well as dozens of hiking/camping trips with family and friends in the Grand Canyon.

Most memorable was a rim-to-rim trip with his wife and daughter in 2018. This led to a passion for his support of indigenous tribes, trail maintenance and preservation of Desert View and other iconic structures at Grand Canyon.

He is currently in his sixth year of board service to the Grand Canyon Conservancy and currently serves as Board Chair. He is also a member of The White Rock Lake Conservancy and the Big Bend Conservancy.

Randy is a member of the Dallas Bourbon Club. He enjoys tasting and collecting bourbon while also giving philanthropically through the group’s many fundraising events. DBC raises hundreds of thousands of dollars for local and national charities such as Community Partners of Dallas and North Texas Food Bank. Most recently, DBC raised $99,000 for Hill Country flood relief in July 2025.

The Lakewood Growler is Randy’s feel-good spot in the neighborhood where he enjoys finding unique craft beer, attending crawfish boils and meeting and visiting with neighbors … it’s a warm and friendly place “where everybody knows your name.”

We don’t know how Randy managed to squeeze “time” out of the turnip, but we are certainly glad he did. Our lives are more full, vibrant and joy-filled having had this Renaissance Man at the helm of our family ship.

HOLD MY NON-ALCOHOLIC BEER

Lakewood rocker

Ward Richmond chooses peace & writes songs about chaos

Story

by

MADELYN EDWARDS

Photography by STEVEN MUNS

When an injury prematurely ended Ward Richmond’s college football career, he turned to music — but also — to alcohol.

The Lakewood native’s relationship to both coping mechanisms inspired his latest album Big Addict Energy , which came out last month on his two-year sobriety date. Richmond, who has been making music and performing since his teen years, has explored addiction in his music before, but the new album and its lead single “The Non-Alcoholic Beer Drinkin’ Man” delves into the chaos.

A lot of what informs Richmond’s music career started in East Dallas. In addition to playing football, he was also involved in musicals and show choir at Woodrow Wilson High School (Class of 1996). Being in theater arts led Richmond to writing his first song as a sophomore and meeting classmate John Pedigo, who also went into music and produced Big Addict Energy.

Around age 17 or older, Richmond remembers seeing Lone Star Trio play at Trees, which inspired him to perform. The band’s members are a couple years older than him, and watching them on stage playing rockabilly music, along with discovering Deep Ellum, was “mind blowing.”

“Even though I grew up 10 minutes from Deep Ellum, I’d never been there before, and I didn’t really know it existed until I went down there that first time,” Richmond says. “Walking the streets of Deep Ellum and just seeing all these different types of people out on the street, all the different creative genres you can think of are all walking down the street, and music is blaring from the clubs, and there’s all the little shops down there, and I felt like I just entered another dimension.”

Richmond, on bass, started bands together with Pedigo, who plays guitar and sings. Richmond was in his late teens during his first performance in Deep Ellum.

After high school, Richmond was recruited to play football at Brown University in Rhode Island, but that didn’t pan out when he got hurt in his freshman year.

“I was a football player, and I had played since I was in fifth grade, and in my mind, I was going to play all four years of college, and that was going to be my college experi ence,” he says. “And then it ended, and I had to kind of reinvent myself. As a 47-year-old, that sounds exciting. As an 18-year-old, it can be pretty overwhelming, especially when you’re in a different environment. And I didn’t really know anyone. I didn’t have any friends there that I grew up with or anything.”

After that, music shifted from “side project to (his) main hobby.” Being the rocker at the bar became his new persona. Around 1998, Richmond joined Pedigo as a member of Slick 57, what he called his first “real band” — meaning they were recording and releasing CDs.

“When we came home for winter break and summer break, John and I would play shows constantly,” Richmond says. “I started writing songs a lot more and pouring myself into music. My new album is called Addict Energy , and that’s definitely when I started using alcohol as social capital beginning at that point in time when I stopped playing football because I could find common ground very quickly and found it really easy to get into that whole scene of drinking excessively in college.”

Richmond returned to Dallas after graduating with his degree in urban stud ies and business management. He found work in commercial real estate but two years later, stepped away to tour with Slick 57, doing close to 200 shows a year for four years. After that ended, he returned to real estate around age 27 and hasn’t toured since.

“I think if we were on tour, and our crowds were doubling in size each year, and we went from a van and sleeping on couches to a bus and hotel rooms, we prob ably would have kept going, but that just wasn’t the reality,” Richmond says. “So that was enough vans and couches as my bed for four years and not really making money. We were breaking even on the road.”

Also after college, Richmond, Pedigo and some others started up the band Boys Named Sue as a way to keep performing without oversaturating Slick 57 with shows. The Johnny Cash tune the group is named after is meant to be funny, and the band capitalized on the joke by never performing that song.

“We played all kinds of Johnny Cash

covers, and people would request that song,” Richmond says. “We’d say, ‘What song are you talking about?’”

Boys Named Sue regularly performed locally and regionally until the 2010s when the band’s drummer moved away and Richmond’s daughter was born. It was around this time that he also switched to recording albums solo. Now, shows — both for Richmond and with Boys Named Sue — are few.

“When I was in my 20s and we were touring, I did not like to be in the studio. I liked to be on the road,” he says. “Now, it’s flipped. I think I picked the right times of my life to be doing those two different things as a musician and songwriter.”

Richmond’s journey to sobriety started when a marriage counselor called him a “high-functioning alcoholic.”

“I was kind of taken aback by it,” he says. “No one had ever told me that before. I knew I drank a lot, but it seemed pretty normal because everyone I hung out with drank a lot.”

A lightbulb went off for Richmond when he talked with a friend who had gotten sober around that time.

“Really, we had a lot of commonalities in the amounts that we drank and also just like how we worked and drank,” he says. “It was part of our jobs kind of, because it’s a lot of dinners and happy hours and entertaining people.”

After those conversations with the marriage counselor and his friend about 10 years ago, Richmond got a therapist, went to rehab and stayed sober for six and a half years. Then, he drank again for a year in an intentional experiment to see if he could handle alcohol again while still maintaining his standards. He couldn’t. He quit again, relapsed again and now Richmond has been sober (from alcohol and psychedelics, which he used for healing purposes) for the past two years.

“I just had a change of perspective on what I thought was cool,” he says. “I used to want to be the human being who was the guy that was a good-time guy that drank and had fun and laughed and hung out at bars, and then one day, I just woke up and decided I don’t want to be that person anymore. That persona or identity served me really well when I was younger, but I don’t want that to be my identity as a father and as a grown man.”

During one of his relapses, Richmond

remembers his daughter questioning him on his drinking, and while he was trying to justify it to her, he realized he needed to sober up.

“In mid-explanation to my daughter, I was like, ‘Dude, just quit drinking again,’” he says.

The relationship between peace and chaos, particularly with how it relates to his sobriety, has played a big role in Richmond’s songwriting today.

“I think I lived in a state of chaos for a long period of time leading up to my eventual sobriety,” he says.

Richmond wants his music to reflect that those who live in chaos, including his past self, are still human and deserve compassion. He’s adamant that sobriety is a vote for peace while heavy drinking is that for chaos, but he also says he’s not trying to judge anyone.

“For this album in particular, it is reflecting self work that I was doing,” he says. “You have to go back and forgive that younger version of yourself and find that empathy and compassion and forgiveness and look at that instead of just writing it off like, ‘Oh, I was crazy. Now, I’m good.’ That’s not true. I was just a human being trying to figure out life.”

“The Non-Alcoholic Beer Drinkin’ Man,” which sounds like a successor to songs like “The Joker” by Steve Miller Band and “Santa Monica” by Everclear, was born out of a meme. It had a picture of a man drinking non-alcoholic beer and said, “If you see someone drinking non-alcoholic beer, you know they’ve been through some shit.”

Richmond’s song aims to dig into that.

“I’ve been there. I get what’s going on, and I’ve done some serious work to try to make sense of it all and to try to stay sober,” he says. “That’s a pure game of consciousness that I have to play every day, and it’s always a choice.”

The song also features what Richmond calls “drunk dreaming,” when a person in recovery envisions that they’ve fallen off the wagon. This was inspired by Richmond’s real dream of clinking glasses with Anthony Bourdain. Of course, he feels relieved when he wakes up from those dreams and realizes that it was all an illusion.

“I thank God every day that I’m sober for being sober.”

A release show for Big Addict Energy will take place at 7 p.m. Dec. 20 at the AllGood Cafe in Deep Ellum.

Merry Medallion!

America’s Best Contacts & Eyeglasses

Applebee’s

BackMenders Chiropractic with Care

Bliss Nail Salon

Christian Science Reading Room

CVS

Down to Play

Ingram’s Donuts

Kohl’s

Mattress Firm

Medallion Barbers

Milan Laser

Planet Fitness

Pet Supplies Plus

RDA Pro-Mart Beauty Supply

Salata

Satya Yoga

Scrubs & Beyond

Smiley Dental

Subway

Summit Salon Studios

Supercuts

Target

The Skin and Body Co.

Unrefined Bakery

Yardstick

7-11

Northwest Highway Between Skillman & Abrams

medallioncenterdallas.com

THE GIFT GUIDE

It’s that time of year again when we compile a few of our favorite things from our neighborhood stores. Find something for every type of somebody in your life.

Compiled by Madelyn Edwards, Katharine Bales & Elizabeth Truelove

FOR THE FAM

FAVOR THE KIND

Taylor Its Me Hi Puzzle

$22

FROGGIE’S 5 & 10

Selection of toys and games $15 - 45

HOLLYWOOD FEED

DoyenWorld Cat Puzzle - Marble Box

$9.99

ADVOCATE MEDIA

Hand-painted White Rock ornament

$85 + donation to Advocate Media

URBAN PAWS

Ware of the Dog

dog toys

$20 each

FOODIE

SMOKY ROSE

House BBQ Sauce - 8oz. $6

CENTRAL MARKET

Thai Food and Travel with Chef Nikky $42

JIMMY’S

FOOD STORE

II Borro Toscana Olive Oil $30

TIMES

TEN CELLARS

2023 Sonoma Time Cabernet Franc $30 2024 Times Ten Sauvignon Blanc $24

EARNEST JOHN HONEST GOODS

Heart Handle Mango Wood Cheese Cutting Board $30

THE PLANTING HAND

Terrarium Planting Party $72

THE T SHOP

The Statement Arrangement $150

WALTON’S GARDEN CENTER Pathway Pot $54.99

REDENTA’S

Selection of handmade goods, plants and natural

GOOD RECORDS

Erykah Badu - Mama’s Gun (Motown Edition) $40.99

SPIN™ Bamboo Interchangeable Complete Set 4” (10 cm) Tips $268

DALLAS BIKE WORKS

FOX Speedframe 5050

$119.95

BODY

BULLZERK

White Rock Art Print

$20

PLAYTRI

Orange Mud Soft Flask Handheld, 500ml

$44.95

WHITE ROCK SOAP GALLERY

Handcrafted Cobalt Soap No. 20 Mahogany Teakwood

$7

WALTON’S GARDEN CENTER

Poolside Gossip - Slim Aarons Collab - 1,000 Piece Puzzle $40

SCENTS AND SUCCULENTS

Selection of scented candles $24

East Dallas Vintage WhataburgerInspired Ceramic Coffee Mug $18

UNREFINED INGREDIENTS, REFINED FLAVOR

Unrefined Bakery shows that you’re wrong about gluten-free food being bad

Story by MADELYN EDWARDS | Photography by JUSTIN SCHWARTZ

EARLIER THIS YEAR,

USA TODAY’s 10 Best 2025 Readers’ Choice Awards confirmed something neighbors likely already know — Unrefined Bakery, founded by Anne Hoyt and her daughter Taylor Nicholson, has top-notch gluten-free treats.

Unrefined, which has a location in the Medallion Center, was nominated by an expert panel for best gluten-free bakery along with 17 others from across the country. It had never been nominated in this contest before and was the only nominee from Texas.

And yet, it still claimed the No. 1 spot.

Unrefined Bakery, formerly named Wholesome Foods Bakery in its early days, started up in Lake Highlands back in 2010, but Hoyt and Nicholson aren’t native Texans. They hail from northern Oklahoma, and Nicholson came to Dallas for work after finishing school at the University of Oklahoma. Her sister then came to our state to study at the University of North Texas Health Science Center, and their mother eventually followed. Now, Nicholson lives in Lakewood while her mother is in Old Lake Highlands.

As a child, Nicholson recalled that her mother had always been a champion of healthy foods. When she and her mother discovered they

couldn’t have gluten anymore because of celiac disease — an ailment in which consumption negatively affects a person’s small intestine — recipes had to change. Unrefined Bakery was born out of this necessity.

“In 2010, the marketplace was so different than it is today,” Nicholson says. “I mean, people hadn’t even heard of gluten in 2010, a lot of people. If you said ‘gluten-free’ at a restaurant, they’d be like, ‘What?’ They had no idea. It’s so, so, so different, and now, you have all the snack bars and things that are available.”

Case in point, Nicholson remembers one of the options at the time being packaged bread with a one-year shelf life.

“We were just sick and tired of not finding what we needed and wanted, and we weren’t going to eat the very few things you could find,” she says. “So we created our own food that we knew we needed, and so certainly other people did, too.”

Unrefined has always been gluten-free, but the bakery evolved to eliminate soy as well after listening to what their customers needed. Products also don’t include genetically modified organisms or food dyes, and there are vegan, keto and paleo options available. Unrefined Bakery’s food is for all — adults and children who may have

allergies but still want to eat birthday cake as well as people without allergies who think that gluten-free food is gross and get proven wrong.

“We’re trying to change people’s minds,” Nicholson says.

The journey to finding successful recipes wasn’t easy, though, especially since gluten helps bind ingredients in the baking process.

“I had loved to bake, and when I realized I could no longer have gluten, I sort of went into mourning,” Hoyt said in a previous Lake Highlands Advocate article.

Meanwhile, Nicholson was less upset and doesn’t truly consider herself a baker, so she didn’t mourn like her mother did. Still, she says gluten-free baking is such a big challenge because it’s antithetical to typical methods.

“You kind of have to forget what you know about traditional baking,” Nicholson says. “A lot of the principles don’t really carry over. It performs so very differently that you kind of have to start from scratch.”

Unrefined’s other gluten-free baked goods include cupcakes, pies and bread. The bakery also has vegan, paleo and keto options.

Nicholson was 25 years old, and Hoyt was 52 when they started their bakery, first as a pop-up shop that was open about six days a month at Walnut Hill Lane and Audelia Road in Lake Highlands. After a few months there, they moved into their first permanent space at North Buckner Boulevard and Northcliff Drive in Old Lake Highlands.

Since then, Hoyt and Nicholson stopped operating in Old Lake Highlands years ago and have grown to five locations, including the Medallion Center on Northwest Highway in 2017, Frisco in 2012, Preston Center in 2015, Fort Worth in 2016 and Richardson in 2022. In addition, Unrefined Bakery provides goods (buns, pizza crusts, bakery items, etc.) to restaurants, cafes and farmers markets for wholesale or retail, including some in East Dallas, like El Porton Coffee, Son of a Butcher, Sundown at Granada and Well Grounded Coffee Community.

“We just don’t have any quit in us,” she says. “We have had many, many, many very hard years, and our growth

has been hard. And I think people think, ‘Oh, you have all these locations. You’re so successful.’ And, yes, but at a cost. It’s incredibly challenging to grow, especially as a small business, when we don’t have any outside investment. It’s just my mom and I. And that’s really unique in the area we’re in.”

Not everyone could work with their family members, but Nicholson says she and Hoyt complement each other well. Hoyt oversees production and operations, plus she develops recipes. Nicholson runs the business side of Unrefined while also coming up with flavor profiles, cake of the month and cupcake of the week, the latter of which she is especially proud of.

“I think it was like three, three and a half years in, I said to my mom, ‘I want to do something called a cupcake of the week, and I want to make sure that every week we do a new cupcake flavor,’” she says.

“And she looked at me, and she’s like, ‘You’re literally crazy. How would

we ever do that?’ And I was like, ‘Well, I think it’s going to be really good and exciting for business. Customers want something new, and I will have fun with that.’ And she’s like, ‘This would never work.’”

Now, cupcake of the week (which tends to include seasonal flavors) is a mainstay of Unrefined’s business and attracts the attention of customers on social media when the new ones are announced, Nicholson says.

“Bakeries are fun,” she says. “It is a joyful experience to be in my stores and help customers and see them be excited about having to pick up cookies or a cupcake or sandwich bread so their kids can have a typical, normal sandwich. It’s truly a privilege to be able to help our customers enjoy food again, especially when you’ve been in a situation where you’ve had to go without.”

MEET LAKEWOOD BRANCH LIBRARY’S NEW MANAGER

Career librarian brings her talents to our branch Story by

MADELYN EDWARDS | Photography

by

AMANI SODIQ

Lakewood Branch Library manager Lynn Lewis is ready to move on from her past heading up the Skillman Southwestern Branch.

Lewis, an East Dallas neighbor, worked at Skillman Southwestern from March 2016 to when it closed in late September. Thanks to community advocacy, that branch was saved from closure last year, but despite similar efforts this year, the Dallas City Council decided not to fund it in the 2025-26 budget. After Skillman Southwestern closed, Lewis was transferred to our Lakewood Branch Library. The former Lakewood branch manager went to the Bachman Lake Branch Library.

“It was just hard because there was all this stuff last year, and then it just kept going, and I was kind of glad that it’s over now,” Lewis says about her former branch closing. “Now, I feel like we can kind of concentrate on Lakewood, and then also the Skillman patrons are going to become Lakewood patrons, hopefully, a lot of them, or they’ll go to Vickery. They’ll spread out.”

What happened with Skillman Southwestern could be seen as a reminder for neighbors to join their local friends groups (people who raise money to support libraries) and use services more often.

“Come to the library, come to programs, all that sort of stuff, and not just worry about your library during the budget time but all the time,” Lewis says.

Lewis brings a confident energy to her role in Lakewood, saying she’s the “same Lynn, different building.” She has spent most of her career as a librarian, starting in her home state of Kansas via the Lawrence Public Library system and the University of Kansas Spahr Engineering Library. When she and her family moved to Texas in 2013, she became a librarian at the Hurst Public Library.

“It was hotter than heck, too,” Lewis says about her August move down south. “I was like, ‘What have we done?’ I did not quite realize how hot it was until you have a moving truck.”

But she’s come to like Texas and appreciates that she made that decision.

“I wanted to go somewhere else,” Lewis says. “I know a lot of people grow up in the same place their whole life, but to me, I feel like this is a good thing I did for the kids and for myself.”

Lewis interviewed for her job at the Hurst Public Library over the phone, including one where she was literally in the dark.

“My boss in Lawrence knew I was interviewing because I was moving,” she says. “Well, I was in my office doing the interview with the boss I had in Hurst, and the power went out, so everyone is leaving the building, and I’m still in there trying to talk to her. She’s asking me all these questions about books. I’m sitting in the dark, but I still got the job.”

Looking for advancement opportunities, Lewis eventually got hired by the Dallas Public Library.

Lewis says she’s aspired to be a librarian since she was 10 years

old. She remembers growing up in her local library, talking to librarians and watching them help people. The latter is something she wanted to do, but she knew she wouldn’t go the traditional route of being in the medical field. After getting her journalism degree and working at a TV station, she thought of her work there as helping people but was still drawn to libraries.

“When I first got my first library job, I was just like a gopher in the magazine section,” Lewis says. “People would fill up this little form. They would say, ‘I want this Newsweek for this date,’ and I would run, get it and bring it to them, and they would make copies. This is like in the ’90s.”

After that, Lewis enrolled at Emporia State for her master’s degree and graduated in 2003.

These days, libraries are community gathering spaces with programming for children, teenagers and adults. There’s also resources that can be accessed outside of the physical library through the Libby app, like e-books and homework help.

“At any branch library in Dallas, I think the main idea is to get people in the building to see what else libraries can do besides just checking out a book or newspaper,” she says.

As branch manager in Lakewood, Lewis’ overall job is to ensure everything is running smoothly. At this point, specifically, building strong working relationships with the Lakewood Library Friends, the Dallas Municipal Library Board and patrons is paramount. So far, Lewis says the Lakewood community has been welcoming.

“Here, I’m still getting to know people, but I get to a point where I’ll know them by their first name because it’s their neighborhood branch, and they’re going to be used to seeing us all, including me,” she says. “Even if I have a negative interaction, I think that I can handle it in a very firm but yet friendly way, without getting it into any kind of big argument or whatever.”

Lakewood Library Friends President Mary Kay Henley has her own ideas of what the branch’s needs are, but she’s careful to not overshadow Lewis’ vision.

“I hope that what we do is support what she wants,” Henley says.

Dallas is moving toward a regional library model by having full-service libraries open seven days a week in key areas. However, a handful of branch libraries are expected to close because of this. Henley has not heard anything about the possibility of the Lakewood Branch closing, but she says she fears for all libraries.

“I think it is absolutely appalling that in the city this rich, this size, this educated, doesn’t care more about spending more for their libraries,” Henley says.

In general, Lewis wants to move the Lakewood Branch Library forward so that it responds to local needs and is a “well-run machine.”

“We definitely want community feedback, too,” she says. “I think a lot of times people think they can’t tell us what they need, but they can.”

FROM DRAB TO FAB

How the pony walls on Lower Greenville got their groove back

On sidewalks from Ross to Belmont Avenues on Lower Greenville, the pony walls that are sometimes sitting next to plants were mostly nondescript or, in Lower Greenville Neighborhood Association President Jean McAulay’s words, “ugly.”

“We just felt like we could do better,” McAulay says. “They would get graffitied at times. They were just sort of various shades of beige and just ugly and sort of a big presence on the street that we felt could be a whole lot nicer.”

And now, they are.

These walls are decked out in murals depicting dark green leaves, purple flowers and the orange wings of a monarch butterfly.

McAulay says the year-long process involved getting the support of the commercial property owners and some business owners, finding muralist Chera Brooker (aka Chera Creative) via East Dallas Arts District and working with the City. The latter step involved having a wordless design that didn’t act as promotion as well as a maintenance plan.

“(The City) saw it as a really positive improvement as long as we could adhere to their regulations,” McAulay says.

Without the support of the two biggest commercial property owners on Greenville Avenue — Andres Properties and Madison Partners — McAulay said this project wouldn’t have happened. Jon Hetzel, managing partner at Madison Partners, says the pony walls were added in the early 2010s for “visual character” and, in some areas, to hide grade changes on the street.

on them, but they are made to still look good in spite of that.

The pony walls on Greenville Avenue may be shorter than the average mural-sized wall, but there were over 30 of them. Since they are double-sided, that meant adding murals to just under 70 surfaces. She and her team completed the project in about 17 days.

“It was a little deceiving because the wall seems so small, but once you start painting them because you wrap it around, it’s actually quite a lot of square footage,” Brooker says.

Brooker rose to the challenge, all while pregnant with her first child. Luckily, she had her father and a couple other painters helping her complete the project.

Murals, which are prevalent throughout Greenville Avenue, act as a graffiti deterrent and are less likely to get tagged as opposed to if they were left blank, McAulay says.

“Over time, they started to chip and get graffitied and graffiti painted over, and they’re starting to look a little junky,” Hetzel says. “We’re happy to support a refresh of them.”

The murals had to walk the line between being attractive but also not distracting, McAulay says. With Brooker, the team was able to use nature to strike that balance.

“We also didn’t want to do something that overly added to the visual clutter on the street,” Hetzel says. “You already got a lot of different storefronts, signage, a lot of interesting visual activity, so we wanted them to look nicer, have a creative flare, add some color, but we didn’t want it to go too overboard.”

With that in mind, it makes sense why Brooker was hired. Her previous projects depict plants and butterflies, with a special focus on flowers. She also created the murals knowing the short, bench-like walls would get some wear and tear by people sitting

“Graffiti artists are artists as well,” Brooker says. “I think if they already see art there and maybe the hard work that went behind it, they’re less likely to tag it because they’re like, ‘Oh, they probably worked hard on that.’ But I also know it’s going to happen. That’s part of the job, and it can be covered up if needed.”

This project cost $25,500 and was funded by commercial property owners, local residents, the Lower Greenville Neighborhood Association, Belmont Addition Conservation District and local business owners, McAulay says. The neighborhood association is also planning to replace lamppost banners, which will feature the mural design, on the same stretch of Greenville Avenue.

“While the artist Chera was out painting, people would always stop and talk to her and just say how pleased they are, how beautiful (the murals) are,” McAulay says. “We had a GoFundMe campaign throughout this … and we had signs up where she was painting, and all of a sudden someone would send us a $200 donation because they were walking down the street and saw how nice the murals look.”

The pony walls now match the vibrancy of Greenville Avenue, Brooker says, and she is grateful to have her art featured in our cool neighborhood.

“As an artist, when you’re painting it, you’re just so close to it that it’s hard to see it from an outsider’s perspective. But the last couple weeks, I’ve been able to drive by, and I just see it as an outsider, and I’m like, ‘Oh, wow, that really does look good,’” Brooker says. “It makes such a difference having that colorful artwork.”

A rush & a push & the bar is ours

How Strangeways survived an “expensively sad situation” & came out on top

Story by MADELYN EDWARDS | Photography by KATHY TRAN

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.

“Our landlord had to come up here to let the buyer’s bank in to do a walk 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.

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OUR NEIGHBORHOOD

By PATTI VINSON

A retro Christmas

Local family shares joy with neighborhood through campy holiday decor

Super Mario. E.T. Evel Knievel. Minigolf. All conjure images of a festive holiday season, right? They do if you’re driving down Belmont Avenue in December and pass a certain house decked out in the most creative way. Welcome to the minds of the Milam family and their take on holiday decorating.

In the spirit of Electric Lizzyland and Gary Isett’s quirky yard art, let’s add the Milam family’s decorations to the list of East Dallas treasures and must-sees. In fact, it was Liz Simmons’ holiday display at her Hollywood/Santa Monica neighborhood home that inspired Mike Milam, a firefighter for the City of Dallas for almost 20 years, to expand beyond the traditional string of lights along his roof.

Mike, wife Katie and kids Merrick and Nash were awestruck each time they visited Liz’s yard at holiday time.

“I saw all the joy it brought to people,” Mike says. “Really, after seeing her decoration, I wanted to be part of that scene. It just took me a while to figure out how to do it.”

And, he admits, timing was everything. “We began creating larger and more elaborate decorations in 2020. The genesis of these efforts was partly due to COVID.” Like many families, they had a little more time on their hands during lockdown. “We were doing more crafts at the house with the kids and spending more time together.”

When family talk turned to the holidays, there was a lightbulb moment. “We had purchased a retro (Nintendo Entertainment System) game system, and my son and I were sharing that experience together. He came up with the theme.”

Thus, the family’s first over-the-top display was born, with a theme of Super Mario. “It was a way of having a family project and creating a new family tradition.”

How’s this for creativity?

“We transformed the front of our house

into a 16-foot TV displaying a scene from Super Mario 3. We included two controllers and the gaming system scaled to the size of the TV. To tie it together, we put a note to Santa requesting Super Mario for Christmas,” Mike smiles.

He explains that they usually settle on a theme during the summer.

“From there, we start drawing it out, figure out what we can make versus purchase and set up a game plan for the build-out.” Then the work begins. Over the years, they’ve created magic with wood, foam board, bikes, motorcycles, astroturf, mannequins, costumes and other bits and pieces.

Following Super Mario, the family decided to honor a favorite movie, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Inspired by the iconic scene in which the alien and the kids fly through the air on bicycles, the Milam crew got busy.

“We built a life-sized sleigh with Santa being pulled by five bikes, with each kid dressed as they were in the movie. E.T was in Elliott’s basket, lighting up his finger, playing off on the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer concept.”

Year No. 3 was something completely different. Are you old enough to remember stunt performer Evel Knievel and his daredevil jump at Caesar’s Palace Las Vegas?

“We built a ramp and found a motorcycle of a similar type and year to the one Evel jumped. We painted a helmet and made an outfit similar to the original jump. The bike appears to be mid-jump about 3/4 off the ramp. In his hand, he has a Christmas tree star. On the other side of the yard, we built a 20-foot Christmas tree. So we were attempting to portray Evel jumping a ramp to put the star on the Christmas tree.”

The theme the following year was an homage to firefighting.

“Through a combination of wood cutouts and flame-colored light bulbs, we made it appear our house was on fire, and Santa was stuck in the chimney. I rented an old fire truck from the Hispanic Firefighter Association and

parked it in front of the house. We had four firefighters squirting water (Christmas lights), attempting to put out the fire.”

And then there was last year, the very popular Putt Putt golf course right on the Milams’ front lawn. Each of the six holes, to the delight of folks who stopped by to play, displayed a different holiday theme.

So, Milam family, what’s in store for this year? Indiana Jones. Borrowing iconic scenes from three of the action-adventure movies, Indy will be running away from the giant boulder in Raiders of the Lost Ark. In the Milams’ yard, it could be an 8-foot-tall Christmas ornament.

Expect a punny take on the Temple of Doom scene when the villain removes a still-beating heart during a ritual. And from The Last Crusade, the storyline of choosing the wrong grail becomes, in the Milams’ scene, a white elephant exchange.

As much work as it is each year, the Milams wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Honestly, one of the best things about building these decorations is being able to bring a smile to someone’s face,” Mike reflects. “In my career, I have to manage some of the most difficult and daunting situations imaginable. I don’t have the luxury of joy on a day-to-day basis. This gives me an opportunity to bring joy.”

Mike and his family feel a responsibility to support and give back to their neighborhood and community.

“Last year, when we had the golf course each day, we would have children, old and young adults, playing golf in our front yard. I met neighbors, shared hot cocoa with strangers and watched families spend time together during the holiday season. We witnessed laughter, singing and togetherness. It might be silly, but I think our decorations are our act of kindness to the neighborhood we love so much.”

PATTI VINSON is a guest writer who has lived in East Dallas for more than 20 years. She’s written for the Advocate and Real Simple magazine.

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