Arthur's Prime Steaks and Seafood - Dallas, TX Top Restaurant, Dallas Morning News Review 1996B

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).