So Long Snookie's
Days are numbered for longtime Oak Lawn restaurant Snookie's
Oak Lawn hangout Snookie's will serve its final nachos when it closes on May 30. After 26 years, the restaurant-bar lost its lease, according to co-owner Gene Street Jr.
"The lease is up, and at the last meeting with the landlord, he said he was unprepared to negotiate," says Street, who speculates that the landlord has bigger plans for the center.
"Looking around, the liquor store next door closed, and the salon behind us is supposed to have a dozen stylists, and there's only two," he says. "I imagine he's going to sell the property or redevelop. He's not returned phone calls emails or texts."
Street says he and his brother Dace fought it as long as he could.
"I’m very sad about it, and maybe about to slip off into a state of depression," he says. "Dace and I, we had a wonderful formula there, with a good location, great employees over the years and the clientele. It had its own little personality and that gets down to the usual suspects: What made it is the people."
At one time, they had five branches, stretching from Keller Springs (which is now a branch of sister Mariel's Liberty Burger chain) to Southlake to Fort Worth.
They gave a thought to relocating but decided against it.
"We thought about freshening up the menu, but I'm afraid it would just become the latest sports bar," he says. "Really, it was a neighborhood bar and grill. And I think a lot of it had to do with the magic of that space and that corner."
Sunday is the official last day, but fans won't want to miss the night before.
"We expect an unofficial wake on Saturday night," he says.
