Dallas, Don The Beachcomber - General Tiki

H Humuhumu Member San Francisco Joined: Aug 22, 2002 Posts: 3691	H Humuhumu Posted posted on Tue, Apr 3, 2007 1:10 PM Ah! I got all confused... when I read you were looking for a location you went to before you moved to Dallas, I thought it was a location somewhere else -- should have noticed the Dallas in your subject line! Thanks for the tip-off, Psycho, I've now added this location to Critiki. A bit of homework turned up these additional details (but no pictures, I'm afraid): Don the Beachcomber's was on Meadow, just east of the first, original Chili's, corner of Greenville and Meadow. I think there might have been one other small business between the two restaurants. Chili's kept expanding by tacking on another room, in a ramshackle-looking way (Terlingua Pride burger was $1.10). Parking was getting cramped. Finally, after Chili's had become a chain, they tore down the original restaurant and that other business, and rebuilt with expanded parking. I may be blurring the chronology in my memory, but I'm pretty sure Don the BC's building survived that expansion of Chili's, though the restaurant was probably closed by then. I do remember several years of driving by, hoping I'd see signs of it re-opening. Finally, it was torn down for a gas station / mini-mart that I believe is still there. Don's didn't have a particularly lofty interior, though it may have been high in the middle. It was shaped sort of like a big, shingled, peaked mushroom cap. The entry looked like a wooden foot-bridge with a little brook beside it. The brook continued on inside the restaurant, where it wound through, with a couple of little bridges across it. Big goldfish in the water. One wall had a tropical forest scene, and every so often, thunder would sound and "rain" would fall. Loved their Sunday Champagne Brunch Buffet. That's from this web page. Another post on that same site describes the restaurant as being one of the round, UFO-looking ones they were doing in the '70s. Did a bit of searching and a bit of poring over maps, and came up with a likely address: 8380 Meadow Rd. That location is a Stop N' Go gas station now. The address may not be the one that was used when the restaurant was open, it may have been changed when it was bulldozed & rebuilt into the gas station.

Ah! I got all confused... when I read you were looking for a location you went to before you moved to Dallas, I thought it was a location somewhere else -- should have noticed the Dallas in your subject line!

Thanks for the tip-off, Psycho, I've now added this location to Critiki.

A bit of homework turned up these additional details (but no pictures, I'm afraid):

Don the Beachcomber's was on Meadow, just east of the first, original Chili's, corner of Greenville and Meadow. I think there might have been one other small business between the two restaurants. Chili's kept expanding by tacking on another room, in a ramshackle-looking way (Terlingua Pride burger was $1.10). Parking was getting cramped. Finally, after Chili's had become a chain, they tore down the original restaurant and that other business, and rebuilt with expanded parking.
I may be blurring the chronology in my memory, but I'm pretty sure Don the BC's building survived that expansion of Chili's, though the restaurant was probably closed by then. I do remember several years of driving by, hoping I'd see signs of it re-opening.
Finally, it was torn down for a gas station / mini-mart that I believe is still there.
Don's didn't have a particularly lofty interior, though it may have been high in the middle. It was shaped sort of like a big, shingled, peaked mushroom cap. The entry looked like a wooden foot-bridge with a little brook beside it. The brook continued on inside the restaurant, where it wound through, with a couple of little bridges across it. Big goldfish in the water. One wall had a tropical forest scene, and every so often, thunder would sound and "rain" would fall. Loved their Sunday Champagne Brunch Buffet.

That's from this web page. Another post on that same site describes the restaurant as being one of the round, UFO-looking ones they were doing in the '70s. Did a bit of searching and a bit of poring over maps, and came up with a likely address: 8380 Meadow Rd. That location is a Stop N' Go gas station now. The address may not be the one that was used when the restaurant was open, it may have been changed when it was bulldozed & rebuilt into the gas station.

Post #296588 by Humuhumu on Tue, Apr 3, 2007 1:10 PM