{"id":468090,"date":"2026-10-16T19:02:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T19:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/468090\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T19:02:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T19:02:18","slug":"is-bishop-arts-swallowing-oak-cliffs-jefferson-blvd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/468090\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Bishop Arts swallowing Oak Cliff\u2019s Jefferson Blvd?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tEl Padrino will close at the end of the year.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Lauren Drewes Daniels<\/p>\n

On a recent Sunday afternoon, families lingered in front of the beloved restaurant Gonzales on Jefferson Boulevard, waiting for bowls of its famous cure-all menudo. Some families sat in their cars as the wait time reached 30 minutes.<\/p>\n

Families also shuffled into Charco Broiler<\/a> across the street, the steak restaurant with the giant cow on the roof. A small line also formed at the 37-year-old family-owned El Pandrino after word spread via social media that it would close at the end of the year due to a rent increase. The squat green building is small compared to its neighbors, seemingly an afterthought as the neighborhood grew after World War II.<\/p>\n

Jefferson Boulevard was a thriving commercial strip in the \u201940s, \u201950s and \u201960s with a theater, restaurants, diners, shops and pharmacies. It has long been the heart of Oak Cliff.<\/p>\n

\"TheCharco Brolier has a strong following for a reason.<\/p>\n

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CLOSE\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

But in a city that loves shiny new things \u2014\u00a0even if it means tearing down beautiful older things \u2014 lease signs in windows and local businesses closing feel ominous. Especially with the Bishop Arts District just an easy walk down the street.<\/p>\n

Broc Cordova\u2019s family has owned Charco Broiler since 1963. They actually own the building, so he has no problem talking about rent and landlords, which is refreshing. We recently reviewed their offerings for an article about the best cheap steaks in Dallas<\/a> and writer Lisa Petty loved it here. People come back for the 8-ounce strip, which comes with a salad, loaded baked potato and Texas Toast all for about $15. Cordova says they also own two adjacent parking lots.<\/p>\n

He says local real estate firms leave notes on his door trying to buy his restaurant \u201cfor pennies on the dollar.\u201d He sees how many local businesses have been outpriced over the years. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo everyone who doesn\u2019t fit the idea of what they want Jefferson to be, which is basically Bishop Arts \u2014\u00a0which is fine \u2014\u00a0want the old blood out instead of making it more of a traditional area,\u201d says Cordova.<\/p>\n

Cordova has noticed that many of his contemporaries, the kids he grew up with who are now supposed to run their family restaurants on Jefferson, aren\u2019t doing so. \u201cI\u2019ve seen a lot of them have to [close] because the ones that don\u2019t own their land don\u2019t have a chance because they don\u2019t want Quincea\u00f1era shops; they want bars and grills everywhere,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

\"ChaseChase Hollingsworth is the fourth generation to run his family\u2019s pawn shop.<\/p>\n

Next door to Charco Brioler, Chase Hollingsworth sits behind the counter at LG\u2019s Million Dollar Pawn and Gun on Tuesday, chatting with customers like they\u2019re friends in his living room. The old building provides a steady stream of jazz to the sidewalk out front. His parents started this business almost 50 years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m the owner, operator, manager, janitor and everything else,\u201d he says with a laugh. The place smells good. <\/p>\n

Unfortunately, his family doesn\u2019t own the property, and they\u2019ve moved up and down the street multiple times to avoid big rent hikes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe actually started out across the street and then moved down here one block over and Jim Lake bought all those buildings and they jacked up the rent, priced us out.\u201d His grandfather moved them to a spot in a building his friend Victor Ballas owned. <\/p>\n

That put them in their current building, where they were able to expand into another section.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo our rent was like $10,000 a month for the whole space,\u201d Hollingsworth explains. \u201cThen Victor Ballas dies. His son takes over, sells most of the properties to an investment group or to different investment groups, one of which is called Nayeb.\u201d <\/p>\n

When their lease was up, they wanted to renew the location, but Nayeb wanted $21,000. <\/p>\n

\u201cWell, we can\u2019t do that. Almost nobody can do that,\u201d he says. So they went back to a smaller space. Nayeb fixed up the neighboring, now-vacant property for potential new tenants. It\u2019s sat empty since. <\/p>\n

For El Pandrino, the clock is ticking. Their son, Juan Contreras, posted recently that \u201cafter a change in management, we were given until the end of the year. This was my dad\u2019s first restaurant. His dream. He\u2019s been feeding this neighborhood since 1989, almost 37 years.\u201d <\/p>\n

Contreras told The Dallas Morning News that in addition to the rent increase, they also needed to carry expanded insurance. <\/p>\n

He brings up a more searing point in his post<\/a>: <\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 This has been building for years. Elected officials and interest groups sell you a beautiful picture of what a neighborhood can become. What they leave out is that the people who stayed and kept these neighborhoods alive when nobody else wanted them are usually the ones priced our pushed aside for \u201cbetter\u201d tenants.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, aside from a few banks and mobile phone stores, a few locally owned restaurants and stores remain. But perhaps it\u2019s on us to keep visiting these spots \u2014 or heading over more often \u2014 before they too announce they\u2019ve been priced out of their home of so many decades. <\/p>\n

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