No More Chowder

Greenville Avenue seafood institution pulls up anchor

You have until May to enjoy Daddy Jack's.

Photo courtesy of Daddy Jack's

In what can only be called the end of an era, the original Daddy Jack's on Greenville Avenue is closing. Its closure comes on the heels of similar news about the Crown & the Harp next door, which is also closing, due to the building they're in being sold.

A spokesperson for Daddy Jack's confirmed that it would close on May 6.

The restaurant has been serving New England-style seafood since 1993. Owner Jack Chaplin, who'd been chef at the Fairmont Hotel, re-created the kind of New England chowder house he'd grown up around as a native of Connecticut. "As a boy, I spent my summers helping my grandmother prepare the lobsters and other seafood we caught off the family's homeplace in Nova Scotia," Chaplin says.

The restaurant was not only an early Greenville Avenue settler, it also provided a culinary counterpoint to the Cajun-style seafood joints that dominate the local dining landscape. It was among the first to make lobster a common thing, decades before the current lobster roll trend.

Most Daddy Jack's entrees feature a bountiful piece of fish, sided with a baked potato and steamed vegetables — a nothing-fancy simplicity that's old-school New England. The signature dish is fish topped with a "stuffing" made from Ritz cracker crumbs bound with butter. In Boston, the fish of choice would be cod, but it works on any fish.

In the '90s, the concept underwent expansion, with branches in Deep Ellum, Coppell, Frisco, and Southlake. Those closed, but there's a branch in Fort Worth with different owners, which will remain open.

Chaplin moved back to New England, where he opened a branch in his hometown of New London, Connecticut, which earned a review from The New York Times. But he still owned a piece of the restaurant on Greenville Avenue, as well as the property where it was located, along with the building that was Crown and Harp.

Given what's happening on Greenville Avenue, he decided it was time to sell.

"That whole area has changed so much," he says. "Real estate in that area is going out of sight. You can make a living owning a restaurant, but you don't have a retirement plan."

Times have also changed in the restaurant world. "Daddy Jack's had the surf and turf, the crab legs, and a great wait staff, but with rents the way they are, you couldn't open something like that now," he says. "It was awesome to be a part of something successful."

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Closure News

Sylvan Avenue Tavern in West Dallas closes but a new bar's on the way

They're known for their pizza and chill vibe.

Courtesy of BST

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A West Dallas tavern is closing, but that's not the end of the story: Sylvan Avenue Tavern, located at Sylvan Thirty at at 1888 Sylvan Ave. #F250, closed for good on November 3, after three years at the address.

The restaurant-bar opened in the complex in 2021, a spinoff of Bryan Street Tavern, a longtime bar in East Dallas, serving pizza, beer on tap, and a laid-back atmosphere with pool tables and outdoor space.

The bar had been closed for much of August, which owner Joe Hinkson attributed to issues with the landlord. It reopened in at the end of August, only to close these two months later.

"We reopened for football season, but we didn't get the boost like we hoped," Hinkson says. "It was becoming the definition of insanity.."

"It's official this time," he said. "The shopping center is dying. Coopers gone, Craft & Co. gone, Shayna's gone and there's been nothing new since we moved in."

In a Facebook post, he stated that "the complex is dying and we've lost four other businesses prior to us making our decision to close. And now we’ve become the fifth one to leave. We've enjoyed our time there, but without support from the property owners we had call it a day."

Some of the bar's neighbors said that the bar "trashed" the suite, leaving broken glass as well as one of the gas burners open, requiring the fire department to come out because of complaints about the smell gas.

But Hinkson said that wasn't true. "We removed equipment," he said. "Not sure what the spray paint was. It was just residual trash. No vandalism. We left most of the furniture and the beautiful bartop."

Hinkson's attention is on a new sibling, called Fate Village Tavern, opening in the city of Fate at 4970 East I-30, #130 — a center so new, it barely shows up on the map.

Fate Village is set to open in November, with a similar menu, spirit and beer selection, TVs galore, and a large outdoor patio with a pet-friendly area.

"This has been in the works for about a year — we started construction back in June," he says. "We're excited about it. It's going to be a truly polished version of BST, and we will be the only bar in Fate city limits."

They're finishing up construction with includes touches like a pressed tin ceiling and shiplap on the walls, to give the new build space some lived-in character.

"Adam Navan, my partner in Sylvan Avenue, moved to Fate a few years ago, and that gave us an awareness of the town's growth," Hinkson says. "We watched them build out the retail center, called Fate Village, which was an instant success. We approached the developer and one year later, they reached out to us a year later and we signed up."

It's bigger than Bryan Street and they've given it a huge patio.

"We are soooo close — we're just waiting on last bit of furniture and final inspections," he says.

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