 |
| Fifty-year-old
restaurants are about as rare in Dallas as winning lottery tickets. |
| Ones
that come to mind included Brownies which had its golden anniversary
a couple of years ago; the S&S, now in its seventh decade; El
Fenix, in its eighth and a chain; and the Blue Front, which was well
into its second century when it closed a couple of years ago. |
| Those
pushing 50 include Campisi's and Old Warsaw, both started in 1950,
and the Mecca, born in 1948. |
Arthur's
has just 23 months to go.
It opened July 3, 1948, at 3701 McKinney Avenue, in a Charles Dilbeck-designed
building that now houses Raphael's Mexican restaurant.
An ad that appeared in that day's Dallas Morning News said
the restaurant was "under the personal supervision of Arthur
Bates."
The paid announcement also described Arthur's as "a beautiful
restaurant, conceived with exacting care . . . dedicated to people
who appreciate fine food graciously served in an atmosphere of luxury
and beauty." |
| Since
it opened, Arthur's has changed owners three times. It also has moved,
to a freestanding building in the glittery Campbell Center on North
Central Expressway. |
| There
are few witnesses to the restaurant's early days left. Arthur Bates
died in 1975; his wife, Hetty, died in 1992. But old city directories
and other records tell part of the story; acquaintances and Mrs. Bates
nephew, Glen Denton, fill in some of the gaps. |
| Mr.
Bates, a native of Kentucky, came to Dallas in the mid-30's. He found
work as food controller for the Baker Hotel, where he also lived.
The 1937 and 1938 city directories list him as resident manager of
the Hotel Whitmore downtown. A wife, Valerie, also was listed in the
1937 book but not in the 1938. Mr. Denton says his uncle had been
married before his union with Hetty, and had a daughter. However,
he says that the wife's name was Marie. |
In
1939, Arthur Bates drops out of the Dallas directory. Mr. Denton says
he went to Galveston to try a restaurant there, and he also served
as a mess officer in the Marines during World War II.
He reportedly returned to Dallas in 1946 to manage the new Cipango
Club. Some sources said members of that legendary club backed Arthur's
restaurant; Mr. Denton says the backers were Chicago meat packers.
|
| Hetty
Denton was a native of West Texas who met Mr. Bates while working
as a waitress at Cipango. They married about three months before Arthur's
opened and during the years they owned Arthur's, she served as its
cashier. |
| In
Nov. 10, 1960, a book called Great Restaurants of America featured
Mr. Bates and Arthur's along with Helen Corbitt of Neiman Marcus'
Zodiac, Christine Vaccaro of Mario's and Stanislaw Slawik of the Old
Warsaw. |
| The
Bates sold Arthur's to Universal Restaurants in 1972. It was moved
to Campbell Center in 1973. Metro Hotels took over the restaurant
in the early '80's, running it for about five years before it was
purchased in 1988 by Mohsen Heidari (whose brother, Al, owns Old Warsaw). |