Post #767659 by tikilongbeach on Sat, Aug 20, 2016 9:18 AM

Great pictures Dusty. They bring back a lot of memories.
I was born in 1971 so my memories of DTB in Dallas are from an observers stand-point. :)
Like Limbo Lizard said Dallas had only designated areas where you could buy alcohol. The area of Vickery Meadows being one of them. It was filled with adults only apartment complexes and was quite the place to live. There was a hospital in the area and I think a lot of the residents were hospital workers. In 1988 a law passed making adults only apartment complexes illegal. Most of the residents are now immigrants from various war-torn countries.
My parents had to drive from the suburbs to Greenville Avenue if they wanted to buy beer and liquor and amazingly enough their go-to spot, Cut-Rate Liquor, is still open, although it looks a bit more rough for the wear.
We always drove past DTB and I remember being entranced by the giant flames rising from the tiki torches and if I remember correctly, the top of the roof. I was always pretty excited to see the tiki torches at Trader Vic's too. Alas, my parents never took me to either spot because they were "not for children".
Limbo Lizard is spot on about the mild cuisine at DTB not being popular for long. Dallasites love spicy food and once Szechuan, Thai and Indian restaurants opened up Cantonese places had a hard time keeping up.
Next door to DTB was another theme style restaurant, Royal Tokyo. It looked like a feudal Japanese house complete with Japanese gardens and koi pond. It is still standing, but goes by the name Kaze Japanese now.
Further down Greenville Avenue off of Northwest Highway were 2 more theme style restaurants. The Black Forest Bakery, which looked like a German country house, and where we always bought my Black Forest cakes for my birthday and a pirate ship restaurant called Spanish Galleon. Both were torn down a long time ago. The Spanish Galleon because the very first Half Price Books location. I was in heaven shopping for books in a place that looked like the inside of a pirate ship.
Now there's some Dallas history for you!