Rumors of the Death of Deep Ellum Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

Combo Platter has strong ties to and an abiding love for the downtown Dallas district called Deep Ellum. In recent years the neighborhood, famed as a bohemian, music-lover’s enclave in an otherwise rather cookie-cutter city, has suffered greatly with the loss of several seminal live music venues and just general downtrodden-ness that started long before the current recession. A few stalwarts have hung in there through the tough times and managed to offer a few good reasons to still go there, and now it’s looking like their perseverance is starting to pay off. One of the aforementioned venues, Trees, was recently resurrected under new ownership that has done a great job of keeping the club the same yet better – a great face lift in all the right ways. And today news broke that two other Deep Ellum institutions, live music venue Club Dada and 5-star restaurant the Green Room, are set to make their comeback as well. It should prove a boon to the several great restaurants in the area that managed to weather the long storm, as well as the flourishing art scene helmed by Combo Platter’s dear friend Frank Campagna and his gallery Kettle Art (a Combo Platter Favorite).

This is long-awaited great news for a legendary neighborhood whose claims to musical fame range from Blind Lemon Jefferson and Leadbelly to the Toadies, Old 97s, and Polyphonic Spree.

In the vacuum left by Deep Ellum’s most recent slump, Denton and Fort Worth venues filled the bill admirably for seekers of great local music, as did one or two places elsewhere in Dallas. Hopefully their great work will continue and if Deep Ellum reclaims its former glory then it will merely add strength to the music scene in North Texas.