After 10 Years, Ten Bells Tavern to move to a new, very nearby space in 2022
Let’s get one thing straight up front: the owner of the Ten Bells Tavern, Meri Dahlke, wants everyone to know that the cats will be fine. She would never let them down. She will make sure that every cat on the patio is safe, happy and professionally moved.
The wild kittens on the porch have been the unofficial staff of the Oak Cliff Bar for years. You could anchor on the wooden benches in the gravelly backyard, a sun-warmed cat who slept nearby for the sake of the mood. It’s always Caturday at Ten Bells.
Dahlke’s 10-year-old bar is relocating addresses – she colloquially calls the new bar Ten Bells 2.0 – directly behind the original location, “a stone’s throw away”. The move comes after the development’s current owner, Alamo Manhattan Corp., expressed “no interest” in extending the lease for their tavern. (The space will be converted into a multi-unit apartment complex that will also displace the popular bar, The Local Oak.) Dahlke assures this is not an open-ended closure. She hopes for a seamless transition to the new premises as soon as her current lease expires on January 31, 2022.
“I don’t want my employees to panic. Our goal is to get the lease out, turn off the lights, and then turn on the lights in the new rooms. ”“ Ten Bells 2.0, ”she says, will capture all kinds of things, colors and cats and everything.
That is good news. Pounding malt vinegar over their fish and chips – loud, crispy-whipped flounder – with a glass of beer is an excellent way to spend your time in Oak Cliff. The same goes for her wings – smoky, cheeky and covered in good blue cheese – a local tavern gem.
The pub’s move is part of a pattern for renting catering space in the city: rising rent demands during contract negotiations have forced other bars to hang up their boots. The gap between forced closings during the pandemic, staff shortages and rising rent payments was big enough to make some owners wonder: should we continue like this? There was little break for Dahlke.
Dahlke was one of the last flights from DFW airport when the pandemic paralyzed the city in early 2020: she found herself stranded with her daughter in London. They attended distance learning sessions as they traversed the Scottish Highlands without knowing what was going to happen next. When she made it back to the States, she held onto the pole with both hands. Ten Bells is her world so she keeps the lights of her own house on and everything else in between.
“I thought about the last day [at the current location]. I don’t even know if I want to be there. I think i might cry I’m proud that I made it through ten years, ”she says.
She is in the final negotiations for the new room. So what’s the plan for the rest of the year at the current Ten Bells?
“We still need you to come. We’ll just keep doing what we’re doing. “
Ten Bells Tavern at 232 W. 7th Street will close on January 31, 2022. Follow facebook.com/tenbellstavern for updates on the new location.
Manager Britt Clardy replenishes supplies at Ten Bells Tavern in the Bishop Arts District of Dallas on Thursday, May 21, 2020. (Lynda M. Gonzalez / photographer)
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