Pool News

Revered Dallas bar Lee Harvey's launches splashy pool club next door

Get ready for some pool action.

Courtesy rendering

Revered Dallas bar Lee Harvey's is often affectionately dubbed the best dive bar and now they're taking that literally: This popular destination in the Cedars neighborhood south of downtown is spinning off a new sibling right next door called Lee Harvey's Dive In featuring a pool, cabanas, and outdoor oasis.

It's a new swim club opening directly across the street, in an unoccupied corner lot at 1315 Beaumont St. that's been empty for nearly 20 years.

It'll be an outdoor bar, open summer and fall, centered on a pool which sharp-eyed Lee Harvey's patrons have witnessed being dug. It'll be a lounging pool, five feet at its deepest, with 30 X 60 feet of surround seating in the water.

"There'll be an open sunning lawn, with patches of shade from surrounding trees," says Lee Harvey's owner Seth Smith. "Members can reserve furnished cabanas and chaise-lounges with umbrellas."

It'll come with a full bar with cocktails, beer on ice, and food: "fresh summer eats from the kitchen," he says.

Table service will available throughout the club.

Smith, an early settler in the increasingly buzzy Cedars District who opened Lee Harvey's in 2003, has been visioning this concept since at least 2014.

"It gets so hot in the summers, and our summer crowd at Lee Harvey's atrophies a little bit," he says. "We're hoping there'll be a synergistic effect between the two."

"We've tried a number of times, we've been playing around with the idea for years, and went back and forth with the city," he says. "We finally got it done, and got our permit in October."

Dallas has places with pools where you can hang out and drink, but most are hotel pool bars such as Waterproof at the Statler Dallas hotel, and many allow only hotel guests. A closer parallel is the Fraternal Order of Eagles, aka F.O.E., a laid-back venue with pool that's been an East Dallas staple for decades. Except this will maybe be nicer.

"It'll be a really nice place — not a dive like Lee Harvey's," Smith says. "You won't be getting any splinters from the benches."

The 2022 season will begin in May and last through mid October, with both seasonal memberships and daily passes available. Passes will get you entry, but this isn't a deluxe kind of deal. You'll still need to bring your own towel.

openings

Flour power couple

Oprah-endorsed Cookie Society rolls out 3 new Dallas-area locations

Photo courtesy of Cookie Society

Stuffed banana pudding cookies are among the rotating seasonal offerings.

There are secret societies and honor societies, but the sweetest sort of society will soon boast several new Dallas-area storefronts: Cookie Society, the wife-and-husband-owned gourmet bakery, will open at 232 W. Campbell Rd. in Richardson on November 21, and at 906 W. McDermott Dr. in Allen on December 4, a spokesperson says.

An Inwood Village store will open next year at 5560 W Lovers Ln., the website says. No date has been announced.

When Jeff and Marissa Allen opened their second Cookie Society in Addison in 2022, they spoke of plans to expand across North Texas. With Addison and the original Cookie Society in Frisco — plus Mansfield, Prosper, and Southlake — the three new stores will make eight, and the Allens do not intend to stop there. In a release, they say they are preparing to announce another location inside Dallas proper, besides Inwood Village, "very soon." (It is not yet listed on the website.)

The expansion plan may seem ambitious, but there is reason for their confidence. Back in 2020, when they had just one store struggling in the face of a global pandemic, Oprah featured their cookie Gift Crate on her famous "Oprah's Favorite Things" holiday gift list, published in the December issue of O, The Oprah Magazine.

That gave them a jumpstart, and the rest ... involved no rest but relied on the couple’s hard work and consistent production of an irresistible product.

“Before there were storefronts, there were pop ups and markets and a whole lot of hustle,” Marissa says on Instagram.

cookie society Marissa and Jeff Allen, both retired athletes, began testing recipes in their home kitchen before building their doughy empire.Courtesy photo

It started small, with Marissa, a former college soccer star, baking at home. She experimented with nostalgic flavors like banana pudding, apple pie, and frosted oatmeal. Jeff — a former NFL player with a Super Bowl ring — and his teammates tested her output.

The menu includes six year-round classic cookies — chocolate chip, salted caramel, frosted oatmeal, banana pudding, snickerdoodle, sugar — and an array of featured flavors (pumpkin white chocolate, cookie butter milkshake in November) that keep things interesting. All are described as Texas-sized (big) with a crisp edge, soft chewy insides, and bold flavors.

The couple adds on their Story page that Cookie Society is the largest Black-owned cookie brand in Texas. In addition to the numerous storefronts, they offer nationwide shipping and a monthly subscription program.

"The company has grown, but the soul of the kitchen stays the same," they add, "real butter, uncompromising ingredients, and a relentless drive to make the perfect cookie."

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