Say goodbye to Vern's

Vern's, the Dallas soul food institution, apparently doesn't have long for the world. As first noted here at the beginning of August, the land it sits on is being sold, which will almost certainly force the restaurant to close. If it's lucky, it might find a new location, but I'm not counting on luck when it comes to Dallas' real estate market. After all, it's all about maximizing market value, the property's current owner told Dallas' Only Daily Newspaper.

How desperate is Vern's plight? The family that owns it is holding a fund-raiser, which is usually the sign of last resort. Stop by at 3 p.m. Sept. 16 (on Main just east of Baylor), share some memories, try the food if you haven't eaten there before, and shake your head at how we can have 27 trillion soulless, plastic, meaningless chain restaurants in town and we can't hold on to this.

Am I angry? You bet. This is just so Dallas -- forget about quality or people's livelihoods or what something means to the community. Just figure out how to make a buck on it, because you can never be too rich.

Comments

[Kyle]

Strange how Sunnyvale Steve writes about a business a few blocks away today: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/localnews/columnists/sblow/stories/DN-blow_07met.ART0.West.Edition1.4206ac6.html

The juxtaposition of the Vern's story on the same page makes you wonder why they don't seem to have any crime problems and why a couple of blocks over people are barely hanging on and this property is getting too expensive to have a food operation. (Uh they keep saying Deep Ellum is dead and dangerous -- all the better for suburban parents trying to keep their kids out of Dallas). Also he doesn't distinguish much between Haskell Avenue and a generic "Lakewood".

The most grating part of Blow-hard's article: His presumptious use of "OUR city".

[Norman Alston]

Hey, I know where there is an empty, hard-to-lease restaurant space in Lakewood.

[Kyle]

sp * presumptuous.

I'm wearing my new 'triple vision' glasses today...

[Aren Cambre]

"Am I angry? You bet. This is just so Dallas -- forget about quality or people's livelihoods or what something means to the community. Just figure out how to make a buck on it, because you can never be too rich."

Oh, I see, so property owners who want economic return on their investments--they're just capitalist pigs, right?

[Matt Wood]

Great idea Norm. I rather like the idea of Verns across from LCC. Plus, Vern's regulars are used to limited and creative parking.

[Rick Casner]

Jeff would be the greatest landlord ever. He would not raise the rent (even if his property taxes/utilities go up) so the quality of life of the community remains the same. When his Property and Casualty Insurance rates increases, he absorbs them so the community will feel better. When someone comes along and offers his a ginormous amount of money for his land, he will tell them "no thanks..I am OK with my monthly loss on this property. I am a good neighbor and the community will thank me" WRONG.

The owner is sitting on something of value. I would assume there is a number where the property owner would sell. Everyone has a price. I would assume there is a monthly rent that would preclude that and allow the property owner to keep the current tenant. I would assume Vern's cannot pay that. Seems pretty simple and extremely logical to me. The contrary is thus extremely illogical and in no way prudent.

In your fairy-tale world, this would not happen. But reality is not always as pretty as Cinderella. People make investments. At some point the investment is wanted or maybe even needed to pay a return. Heck, in some cases it could be required. I am sad to see Vern's go. From rose colored glasses, it stinks to lose Vern's. Past that, it's just simple business.

[Norman Alston]

Way back, I blogged about the problem of dealing with iconic businesses.
http://alstonarchitects.typepad.com/norman_alston_architects/2006/10/iconic_business.html
It's almost the same problem we have with the McMansion issue, namely that a quality neighborhood, a place where you want to live, work or play, requires a lot more that increasing property values. The iconic business issue doesn't apply to every piece of develop-able real estate, but it certainly applies to some. I don't know the facts with this property, but if you buy a piece of property with a known issue like an iconic business, or even an historic structure, things that mean something to the neighborhood overall and contribute to the uniqueness or quality of the neighborhood, then you've bought something in which adjacent property owners also have an interest. Cities are a complex collaboration between lots and lots of people who share many interests. Vern's value beyond the price of the dirt beneath it is the reason we're even talking about it.

[Jeff Siegel]

Rick Casner and Aren are right. I don't believe money is the most important thing in life, or that the only way to measure the highest and best use for a property is by its rate of return. I think community matters, and I think there should be a tradeoff between money and utility: How does the use affect the people who use the property? As the writer Robert Persig noted, if getting rich is the only thing that mattered, we'd all sell insurance. But we don't, so there must be something else to the equation.

Having said that, I also also understand that it's not my property, and that the owner can pretty much do what they want with it. But I also have a right to comment on that use -- and without being called names for it, Aren. You know we don't do that here, and I hope you know that I would never, ever do that.

[DK]

Sorry, I'm going to pick on the "this is just so Dallas" comment (without name calling). The Midwest has been ravaged by the collapse of the domestic automotive manufacturing. I lived in Bethlehem, PA for years and it's now a ghost town. (Does anyone remember a little company called Bethlehem Steel? It's about the size of Vern's now.) As a Silicon Valley refugee, I could go on for days about the ups and downs of the tech/telecommunications industry. So maybe a little perspective is in order.

[East Sider]

I don't know about all you damn Marxists, but I think this will be great for that intersection. Who knows, maybe we'll even get a drive-through bank! (crosses fingers, bites lower lip)