Oak Cliff Restaurant Casualty
Meaty restaurant-bar in Dallas' Bishop Arts stops making the sausage
Bishop Arts has lost its game, with the demise of Waldron Lodge, a meat-centric restaurant-bar that closed abruptly on March 4.
Owner Kenneth Cross was unavailable for comment, but the restaurant is boarded up, its signage is removed, its website is down, and the phone number was disconnected on March 9. Updates to its Facebook page ceased on February 28; that's always sad. Oh, and the Yelp listing is marked as closed, so you know it's true.
Employees said they were informed on Friday morning that they wouldn't have to come in.
Cross opened the restaurant in 2013 on a prime piece of real estate in the center of Bishop Arts as an homage to his father, who grew up in Waldron, Arkansas, and liked to hunt. The menu specialized in wild game such as pheasant, quail, and wild boar.
Cross, who grew up in the neighborhood, transformed the 1930s residence into a de facto hunting cabin, with lots of wood: wood floors, wood tables, wood bar, and what some described as "Paul Bunyan-esque wall decoration."
The restaurant opened with chef Beau Johnson, who had appeared on Iron Chef, but Johnson left in 2014. On the menu, diners seemed to like the duck tacos and bison burger. But the place was perhaps more popular as a bar, featuring live music from singer-songwriters such as Colin Boyd.
