posted<\/a> on Facebook. By then, the company had already committed to leases and construction projects.\u00a0<\/p>\nArticle continues below this ad<\/p>\n
A second investor agreed to provide financing, which Groves and his partners expected to receive within about 90 days. In the meantime, they used revenue from the downtown restaurant to cover some of the costs from the expansion and asked their landlord for more time to pay rent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They couldn\u2019t reach an agreement with the landlord, and Ellen\u2019s closed its downtown restaurant. The second financing deal later fell through.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Four landlords, two general contractors and several vendors subsequently sued businesses associated with Ellen\u2019s. Some landlords sought payment for leases of up to 10 years for restaurants that never opened, Groves said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was millions and millions of dollars that we were sued for,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was just overwhelming.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Most of those lawsuits have since been settled, Groves said, although one remains pending. Ellen\u2019s also still owes about $500,000 to vendors and former employees.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The owners said they considered bankruptcy but decided against it because they wanted a chance to eventually pay the people and businesses they owe.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Groves said he understands why some people have criticized the decision to spend money reopening Ellen\u2019s while those debts remain.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t resent anyone for feeling upset with us or angry or betrayed. I mean, I get it. I totally get it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re not running. We\u2019re just trying to do what we can to get it right.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said reopening the downtown restaurant is part of the plan to repay those debts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEllen\u2019s downtown was popular. It made money,\u201d Groves said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s the way we\u2019re gonna pay these people back.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Back to downtown\u00a0<\/p>\n
The chance to return came in April, when the building changed owners. Groves said the new landlord offered Ellen\u2019s a lease and is helping pay for some of the work needed to reopen the restaurant.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Owen Hannay, CEO of Five Smooth Stones, the company that bought the building, said Ellen’s return is important for the West End because it will revitalize the area.<\/p>\n
“The very first call I made when we bought the building a few months ago was to Joe, because I wanted to see if we could get him to reopen,”\u00a0Hannay\u00a0said. “And it was a very short conversation because he wanted to reopen as well.”<\/p>\n
His company offered Groves favorable lease terms and is helping him with the renovation and the purchase of equipment so that the restaurant can open as soon as possible.<\/p>\n
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“They got into some trouble. … I trust them implicitly, and I think he’s going to do great,”\u00a0Hannay said about helping Groves and his partners. “We’ve owned buildings in the West End. The first one I bought was in 2000, so for a quarter of a century, we’ve owned buildings down there, and Ellen’s was just an anchor, and it was really disappointing when it went away. So I’m happy to do everything I can to get it back.”<\/p>\n
The space had been mostly untouched since Ellen\u2019s left. Groves initially thought renovations would take about 45 days, but the work grew as they found problems with equipment and systems that had gone without maintenance for two years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Crews have repaired the kitchen and plumbing and replaced the air-conditioning system. The remaining work is mostly cosmetic, including new paint, surfaces and upholstery.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Groves said regular customers will still recognize the restaurant.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to look like the old Ellen\u2019s,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just going to look like a new Ellen\u2019s, an old Ellen\u2019s that somebody took a vacuum cleaner to.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The menu will remain largely the same. Groves is also considering bringing back dinner, which Ellen\u2019s stopped serving after the pandemic as fewer office workers were coming downtown.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One thing the owners aren\u2019t considering is another expansion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no room for expansion until we get back to zero,\u201d Groves said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It is a different approach from the one Ellen\u2019s had before its financial problems. In a letter explaining the closure and plans to reopen, the owners put it this way: \u201cThere was a time when we thought success meant opening more restaurants. Today, success means opening one front door every morning.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ellen\u2019s Southern Kitchen will reopen at 1790 N. Record St., Dallas.\u00a0ellens.com.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ellen\u2019s Southern Kitchen plans to reopen in downtown Dallas in September, two years after its owners closed the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418203,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,88574,89276],"class_list":["post-418202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-tp-downtown-dallas","tag-tp-restaurant-openings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}