Irish Pub News

Owners of Dallas' Dubliner will open a new Irish pub in Lake Highlands

Group of people drinking beer at a bar cheers

Here's a toast to Irish pubs.

Caiaimage/Paul Bradbury/Getty Images

UPDATE 2-5-2020: Lochland's Food and Spirits will open on February 6.

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Lake Highlands is getting the kind of bar that Dallas loves the most: an Irish pub. And it's from a couple that many would agree are masters of the craft.

Peter and Cheryl Kenny, who own The Dubliner on Greenville Avenue and Capitol Pub on Henderson Avenue, will open a third pub at the intersection of Lake Highlands Drive and Northwest Highway.

Called Lochland's, it will open in January 2020.

"Yes, we are opening a new spot in Lake Highlands in January," Cheryl confirms. "We live in East Dallas and it's such an underserved area — we’re just hoping to make a contribution to this gem of an area in Dallas."

Peter Kenny is a native of Dublin who opened the Dubliner in 1994. It's become a staple of Greenville Avenue and a centerpiece of the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade. It also serves as a headquarters of sorts for Dallas' community of Vespa scooter riders.

He and Cheryl opened the Capitol Pub in 2007, just as Henderson Avenue was transitioning into a buzzy area.

For Lochland's, they've snagged a really cool building at 8518 Plano Rd.

"We’ve been looking for years for a property to purchase," Cheryl says. There’s so little available for small business owners like us — but we persisted with calling on this building that had been sitting unoccupied for some time."

Previous tenants were a veterinary clinic.

"It was in horrific shape," Cheryl says. "We had to completely gut the building & remove part of the rear portion of it for parking. It’s been a long, difficult road, but I think it will be a hit in the long run."

While Capitol Pub and the Dubliner have similar pub DNA, they also both have their own particular DNA, with the Dubliner functioning as a classic Irish pub with a focus on beer, and Capitol Pub serving as a neighborhood hangout with good food and a legendary brunch — a tradition they'll recreate in Lake Highlands.

"We're trying to take favorite bits from every place we've had — The Dubliner, The Gin Mill, & Capitol Pub — and bring them together at Lochland's," Cheryl says. (The Gin Mill was a restaurant-pub they opened on Henderson Avenue which was noted for its great food, but it closed in 2015.)

"Again, so little options in this area, so we feel our Irish Pub hospitality might be a welcome addition to East Dallas," she says.

openings

Ice Cream News

Northeast fave Handel's Ice Cream to open shops in Prosper and Frisco

Photo courtesy of Handel's

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Ice cream to the rescue just in time for summer: Acclaimed ice cream concept Handel's Ice Cream is open two new locations in the Dallas area, in a northward direction:

Prosper at 201 W Frontier Pkwy. #50
Frisco at 13600 Coit Rd.

The Frisco location is from brothers Spencer and Craig Moore and their father, who also own the locations in Little Elm, Plano, and McKinney. The Prosper location is from husband-and-wife Mike and Angela Davis, longtime residents of Prosper, who plan to open the shop on June 26.

"We love Prosper and we love Handel’s," Mike Davis says in a statement. "We are over the moon about the opportunity to bring Handel’s to our hometown."

Handel's Homemade Ice Cream & Yogurt was founded in 1945 and is headquartered in Ohio. The chain began when founder Alice Handel began serving ice cream out of her husband's gas station in Youngstown, Ohio. Her first batches were made using fruit she picked from her own backyard.

Handel's is known for good-quantity ingredients and for making their ice cream daily, starting with a base made by Handel's corporate that's shipped to the store. Ech shop features 48 rotating flavors that are made in-store.

Their flavors include cherry vanilla, black cherry (with whole black cherries), blueberry cheesecake chunk, banana pudding, banana (with fresh bananas), black walnut, praline pecan, and mint chip.

There are Northeast-style flavors such as peppermint stick, black raspberry truffle, and orange pineapple, and eight different vanilla options including vanilla, vanilla raspberry chip, and vanilla with lemon Oreos.

There are seasonal flavors such as egg nog and pumpkin with marshmallow ripple, and offbeat flavors such as grape ice cream and "pizelle," based on the flat stamped cookies, flavored with anise.

They do ice cream, banana splits, and sundaes; milkshakes and malted milkshakes; smoothies; ice cream sandwiches, cakes, and pies; chocolate-covered ice cream bars; and "hurricanes" - soft-serve vanilla with candy bars mixed in.

While some of the locations are walk-up only, the locations in Texas include a sit-down ice cream parlor, with a party room for birthday parties and team events.

They've been in growth mode, and currently have more than 150 stores, both corporate and franchise, in 15 states. Prosper is the 10th location in DFW for the chain which first entered the market in 2019. There are also locations in Flower Mound, Highland Village, Grapevine, Arlington, and Burleson.

desserts ice-cream openings