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ABOUT THE COVER
This painting of a seated woman is on the side of a Main Street building, just east of Peak Street. Mural by Haylee Ryan. Photography by Austin Gibbs. FOLLOW US:
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Meet White Rock Lake’s biggest fan
Lake foundation president talks about her work to preserve & improve East Dallas’ natural ‘sanctuary’
Story
by MADELYN EDWARDS | Photography by GABRIEL
CANO
Lakewood neighbor Kathleen Foley may be the best advertisement for White Rock Lake.
Of course, that makes sense because Foley is the White Rock Lake Foundation president. She’s also the epitome of cool, calm and collected. She describes the lake as a place where you can find peace, too.
“It’s like a sanctuary,” Foley says. “You don’t really realize you’re in town in an urban area. So you can go out there and sit; you can sit peacefully. You can watch all the families laughing and carrying on. And you can walk. You can see birds. You can sit by the water and contemplate, meditate,
whatever it is you want to do. Sometimes you just need like a day or two for a vacation to really give you that break; you can go out there and spend a few hours, and it gives you that break that you need to realign yourself.”
Foley grew up in Arlington as the youngest of her siblings, a fact that she regularly used to her advantage.
“I always tell them mom liked me best because I was a little clone of her,” she says. “I looked exactly like my mother, exactly like her. So when they were mean to me, I’d always tell them, ‘You’re just jealous because mom likes me best.’”
Following her sister, Foley moved to Ne -
vada and spent a big chunk of her life there.
“My sister was living out there at first,” Foley says. “I moved out there to ski and just for the summer. And I ended up staying for 40-plus years.”
Foley lived by Lake Tahoe for seven years and then moved to Las Vegas to finish her degree at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She worked in casinos during this time, and when she was ready to do something different, she got her license to do appraisals.
“That’s where I got to where I enjoyed being around people because you see people from all over the world there,” she says.
“Believe it or not, everybody talks about, ‘There’s all this division.’ The majority of people get along, and they’re all pretty nice.”
Foley raised her son in Nevada and returned to Texas about eight years ago after he moved away. Her brother had also been settled in Dallas since about 1970, and her sister came to this area in the ’90s.
“When you get older, family means more. I didn’t have any family out there. I raised my son, and he left, and I thought, I’ve been abandoned,” she laughs.
Foley’s relationship with White Rock Lake began well before her permanent move to Dallas. Her sister moved near White Rock Lake and introduced Foley to it.
“I have been coming here since the ‘90s,” she says. “I had been coming out here and going out to the lake and the Arboretum and going around the trail and just sitting by the water. I was always involved. … They would have functions, and I would always come out and help with the foundation.”
Being at White Rock Lake is also something Foley has prioritized as she’s aged.
“You just realize (you need to) slow down and enjoy what’s around you,” she says. “That’s why I like spending time at the lake because you’re in this Metroplex area here, and you’ve got 1,000 acres out there. It’s just like a whole different world.”
Foley’s involvement with the foundation was inspired by noticing things that needed to be done at the lake and a desire to make improvements. Of course after she came back to Texas, her involvement ramped up.
“When I moved out here, it’s like, OK, now I’m full-time,” she laughs. “Full-time help now, not just part-time.”
Foley started out as a member and then served as treasurer and vice president before becoming president of the foundation. She describes her current role, which she has had for three years, as a point-of-contact or coordinator between the members of the board — described by Foley as creative and devoted people.
“I’m not a boss. There’s no boss in a volunteer organization,” she says. “It’s basically, I guess, just a liaison coordi -
Merrimac Ave.
DENTAL EXCELLENCE IN THE HEART OF LAKEWOOD
nator position. Because you’ve got all adults; they’re there because they want to be there. They’re not there because they want to be ordered around. That’s not happening. We’re all adults. We’re all basically even and equal. Nobody’s really superior to anybody else.”
The White Rock Lake Foundation works on improvement projects, collaborates with the Dallas Park and Recreation Department and works with other lake-related organizations.
“People come and they say, ‘We need this, we need that.’ And the park department says, ‘We need this, we need that,’ and we try and figure out what we can do the most for, the best for, what’s a priority, things like that,” Foley says. “So, we’ve done biking and walking trails. We’ve done monument signage, lighting.”
Yet, there’s a never-ending list of things that still need to be done, the president says. Police at the Northeast Patrol Division need two ATVs to get to inaccessible parts of the lake to provide assistance during emergencies. Surrounding neighbors want solar-powered gates in certain areas to prevent teens from congregating after hours. The lake needs to be dredged again because the silty water is creating an unsafe environment for boaters.
“We know what residents around the lake want done and what some of the groups around the lake want done, and we try to be as helpful and raise money and coordinate things as much as we can to get as much done,” Foley says. “We’ll work with other groups, too. If they’re doing something, we’ll work in conjunction with them.”
Foley reminisces fondly about the environment around White Rock Lake. Sure, there are improvements that need to be made, and there have been vehicular burglaries in the parking lot, though Foley says those are trending downwards. But when she’s at the lake, she sees happy families with members young and old, kids running around outdoors and no arguing.
“Today’s society is so high stress and anxiety and performance-ridden and pressure,” she says. “It’s just nice to be able to know that you can breathe.”
Dr. Ben Alexander and the Lakewood Restorative Dentistry team
HEART OF VICKERY
Heart House provides literacy education and supports emotional well-being for children in Vickery Meadow
Story by AUSTIN WOOD | Photography by VICTORIA GOMEZ
Vickery Meadow hosts one of Dallas’ most robust immigrant and refugee populations within a few square miles of apartment complexes built on apartment complexes.
According to 2022 census survey data, close to 48% of the population in ZIP code 75231 spoke languages other than English at home, and almost a third were born outside of the U.S.
Currently in its 25th year of service in the area, Heart House is a nonprofit organization that provides free literacy programs for refugee, immigrant and under-resourced children in Vickery Meadow. The organization recently expanded its operations outside of after-school education to include an in-school tutoring program at Lee A. McShan Jr. Elementary School called McShan Reading Homeroom.
“We’ve historically served them after school, with what started off as a safe place for them to go so they’re not just home alone or in the neighborhood on the streets,” Executive Director Shannon Hendricks says. “They helped with homework and things like that. Now it’s transitioned to be a place where we help them develop their literacy skills, their English language learning.”
Working with refugee and immigrant children in schools requires a certain level of sensitivity and finesse in the current climate. In January, the Department of Homeland
Security rescinded a 2011 directive prohibiting federal enforcement actions in “safe zones” such as elementary and secondary schools, colleges, hospitals and churches. We worked with the schools to understand the processes and the protocols and what would garner ICE coming into a school campus, and served as a conduit to sharing that information with the families,” Hendricks says.
Hendricks says things have settled down since the winter, but the organization is still monitoring changes to federal programs, especially AmeriCorps.
TEACHING THE HEART
The core of Heart House’s mission may be English language education, but it also pursues a more holistic model in reaching its students.
“Heart House provides opportunities to increase a child’s awareness of literacy and English language learning, coupled with development of their social emotional skills, their mental well-being,” Hendricks says.
The organization incorporates breathing exercises, story times and other exercises designed to help children understand, label and process their emotions into most sessions. Past processing their own emotions, Heart House incorporates social-emotional learning (SEL) to help the children learn empathy and healthy interaction.
Serving immigrant and, especially, refugee children can come with its own host of challenges, Hendricks says.
“We know that these kids have been through a lot of traumas, a lot of changes, more so than your typical child, which mental health is important for everybody,” she says. “So we do specific things that help them to really understand their emotions and be able to speak about their emotions.”
CHRISTELLE
Originally from Rwanda, Christelle Agasaro grew up in Malawi before coming to the U.S. with her two sons three years ago. After she arrived, like many in Vickery Meadow, she says she was challenged by finding a job, helping her kids with homework and adapting to an entirely different country.
She saw a flier for Heart House and enrolled her boys as fast as she could. She says one of the most immediate effects she noticed was in her eldest son, who had been experiencing social isolation.
“He would be in the apartment, and he would just be staying indoors,” Agasaro says. “He wasn’t making any friends, he was getting bored. He was a sad kid, but after he joined Heart House, he would come home happy, smiling, and I just had that positive energy. It was more like they were bringing positivity in my life. Because even for me, things were just a bit hectic. But
for him, he started making friends. He was happy. He was always excited to go. And then came the reading.”
When they first arrived, she says both of her children had difficulty reading, but caught on after lessons at Heart House.
Agasaro says she is very involved in the community, rarely missing events, which is why Heart House eventually offered her a job as the organization’s community development director last February.
“I believe in this mission, mostly because it has that perspective of taking care of the kids, other than just families, and I believe it’s a necessity for the kids to be supported in that emotional support and that reading part.”
NOT GOING ANYWHERE
Heart House teachers are supported by AmeriCorps volunteers. It’s an area of concern for the organization, as the Trump Administration recently laid off over 1,000 AmeriCorps employees and slashed funding for thousands of programs. However, a federal district judge ordered the administration to restore AmeriCorps funding in early June, and Hendricks says the agencies that administer Heart House’s volunteer funding have been unaffected.
Regardless of potential challenges and cuts facing the organization ahead of the upcoming school year, Hendricks says the need remains the same.
“These children are here, regardless of how they got here,” Hendricks says. “They’re here and they are human lives, and we can help them now by repairing some of those pathways in their brain that have been damaged by the traumas that they’ve encountered in their lives.”
WHO RUNS THE CITY?
THE WOMEN OF DALLAS PR
Meet 5 of the most influential people in public relations
Story by MADELYN EDWARDS
Photography by KATHY TRAN
HOT TIPS TO STAY COOL
SUMMER IN TEXAS IS NO JOKE. As temperatures rise, it’s important to remember that pets feel the heat even more than we do. Whether you’re heading out for a walk, a trip to the park, or just spending time in the yard, a little awareness can go a long way. Unlike humans, pets can’t rely on sweating to stay cool. While dogs and cats do have sweat glands in their paw pads, it’s not enough to regulate their body temperature. Instead, they depend on panting, shade, and plenty of fresh water to beat the heat. Sometimes, even a quick outing in the middle of the day can put them at risk for overheating or heatstroke.
OUR ADVICE? Stick to early mornings or evenings for outdoor time, always bring water, and check the pavement with your hand before you head out. If it’s too hot for your skin, it’s too hot for their paws. Pets with thick coats or flat faces, like bulldogs or pugs, are even more vulnerable to heat stress and need extra care when temperatures rise. If your pet has bright red gums, is panting excessively, or refusing to walk seek veterinary care immediately.
AT MODERN ANIMAL, we see heat-related illnesses and injuries every summer. Many of them are preventable. Our team is here to help you stay safe this summer with practical advice and personalized care. If you’re unsure what’s safe for your pet, come talk to us!
To book a visit, go to modernanimal.com or download the Modern Animal app. Use code ADVOCATE for a free year of All Access Membership. We’ll help you and your pet have a safe, happy, and cool summer.
— Dr. Dammicci, Lead Doctor at Modern Animal Lakewood
Modern Animal
6465 E. Mockingbird Lane #310 469.373.9338 modernanimal.com
“ADVERTISING IS SAYING YOU’RE GOOD. PR IS GETTING SOMEONE ELSE TO SAY YOU’RE GOOD.” -- JEAN-LOUIS GASSÉE, FORMER APPLE EXECUTIVE
There are a lot of public relations firms in Dallas, and a significant portion seem to be run by women. This might fly under the radar if you’re not in a business/organization that has worked with a public relations agency or an editor sifting through pitches.
The five Dallas public relations moguls interviewed for this article all had unique ways of getting where they are today.
THE SOCIAL MEDIA OG
Cynthia Smoot grew up near the Texas-Oklahoma border in Denison and really had no idea what she wanted to do for her career. She received her degree in clothing and textiles at the University of North Texas but found success in advertising sales at the Dallas Observer
“Really what I realized was all of those years of me being able to talk my dad out of money, I realized I could talk anyone out of their money,” Smoot says.
Smoot worked with the Observer for 12 years and helped D Magazine launch D CEO . She made the jump to working with her husband’s agency, Gangway, in 2008.
It was around this time that Smoot started seeing what some of her peers didn’t — that blogs and social media were the future of the media business.
“I had developed this interest in social media and kept saying to anyone who would listen, ‘I really feel like this is where marketing is going. Why do we not have a blog? We should be doing more online.’ And people are like, ‘Nobody’s ever gonna replace print,’” Smoot says. “It was, at that time, hard to fathom.”
At Gangway, Smoot was pitching ideas to clients about using social media to market their business. Eventually, that path took Gangway from a more traditional agency to one offering full-service marketing and public relations services.
“I kind of had this light bulb moment, and I was like, you know what? It’s so much better for other people to be saying how great you are than for you to say it about yourself all the time, so if we could get more places to talk about how great your happy hour is or how you’re an amazing place for brunch,
then that’s content we can use on social media that gives you credibility,” she says.
THE DIFFERENCE MAKER
Born in Thailand and raised in Northern California, Juliette Coulter graduated from college in the early 1990s, had a job with a state lawmaker and then moved to Washington, D.C.
“I thought I was going to go work on Capitol Hill, like all the young ones, realized the pay was awful, and I pretty much talked my way into a PR job at FleishmanHillard,” she says.
Coulter didn’t know much about public
“I HAD DEVELOPED THIS INTEREST IN SOCIAL MEDIA AND KEPT SAYING TO ANYONE WHO WOULD LISTEN ... AND PEOPLE ARE LIKE, ‘NOBODY’S EVER GONNA REPLACE PRINT.’ IT WAS, AT THAT TIME, HARD TO FATHOM.”
relations but was confident that she could learn — and she did. She worked for FleishmanHillard again when that company opened a Dallas outpost, then moved on to Rita Cox’s company. By 1998, she started her business, The Coulter Group. Her husband joined the company a couple of years later. Coulter originally wanted to do “high tech PR” and worked for some startup firms, but she became more interested in partnering with clients who want to make the world better.
“I realized that the type of PR I liked was working with people and amplifying their mission,” she says. “I like to work with clients, with organizations, with nonprofits that make a difference, that there is a tangible difference in the community because of what they do.” She points out clients like Texas Women’s Foundation and Texas Woman’s University as examples.
For better or worse, Coulter’s work usually never slows down, and when it has, it hasn’t been for a good reason. She recalled having
to cancel a work trip to New York after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Then, of course there was the COVID-19 pandemic when the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden, a big part of her business at the time, paused her services.
“I realized, OK, I need to make sure I have some other clients, and not just one where it’s just my sole business because that is not good,” Coulter says. “They definitely then came back around June 1 when they opened their doors, but for a while, I thought, OK, I’m twiddling my thumbs. I’m not good at that.”
THE FEMALE EMPOWERMENT MENTOR
Atlanta-native Amy Power came to Dallas to take an internship at an environmental public relations firm, and she picked up on the entrepreneurial nature of our city that, through her eyes, has been supportive to her as a woman.
After years of working for various firms, Power started The Power Group in 1999 and has a specific goal, aside from working with clients.
“My mission here is creating business women,” Power says. “I love that I have an all-female team. I just love watching them thrive. I love watching younger people sitting down with a CEO with confidence and being able to hold their own and advise and consult and let a CMO or a CEO know that, ‘Yeah, I’ve got you, I know what I’m doing, and I’m going to help you fix whatever problem you’re having.’”
The Power Group started after Power had the displeasure of working for a toxic boss. She was pregnant at the time and left her job after realizing that the environment was not sustainable or healthy enough to stay.
Power received a tip from a colleague about a new car dealership, what would become Boardwalk Auto Group in Plano. She set up a meeting with the dealership’s leaders on the phone while she was in the hospital about to give birth. Her child and company were born that day.
When asked what her biggest challenge has been, Power points to the future of the media business — artificial intelligence. The Power Group team has embraced A.I. and is working on using it in a “smart and strategic way.”
“I know every white collar worker in America is ... They may not admit it, but they’re scared. They feel threatened,” she says. “I’m curious and excited and measured.
I think the biggest challenge is figuring out, what do we evolve into, what do we become? Fundamentally, the purpose of this company is not going to change. We’re still going to be creating business women, but maybe these business women are going to be having different types of conversations or working in different areas.”
THE STRATEGIC LISTENER
Dallas native Jennifer Pascal, co-owner and chief operating officer of Allyn Media, studied political science at Texas A&M University, had a job at an advertising agency, attended the University of Texas at Dallas for a master’s degree in public affairs, worked as a teaching and research assistant and has conducted research about tobacco products.
But one of her most defining experiences was working in Methodist Health System’s billing and collections department in Dallas and witnessing some folks’ meltdowns about paying hospital bills. Though it could be unpleasant to hear a caller screaming curse words at her, that job taught Pascal to lend a sympathetic ear and then look for a solution.
“That’s really something that we all need to do more of, obviously, is just listening to other people,” she says. “The root of most problems is a communication challenge, so if we can listen and process and then act, it’s always better.”
When she was looking for a job around 1999, she got connected with Mari Woodlief, the current co-owner and CEO of Allyn.
They first met at the now-closed TexMex restaurant Primo’s on McKinney Avenue, and then Woodlief introduced
her to Rob Allyn of the then-named firm Allyn and Company, who hired Pascal. Her first assignment at Allyn was writing for former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk’s re-election campaign. Allyn also worked for former Mayor Mike Rawlings.
Woodlief and Pascal eventually bought Allyn in 2009.
Pascal did survey research for the Friends of Dallas Love Field about repealing the now dissolved-Wright Amendment that prevented the airport from providing flights to more than a handful of states. Recently, Allyn also worked with the City of Dallas on the 2024 bond election.
“While politics is probably in any given year 1% of our business, it’s still a way to exercise a muscle that’s about all the same things that we would use for Walmart or (the YMCA) or the Resource Center or any corporate client,” Pascal says. “Are we listening to people? Because that’s what the research is about. Are we using the right tools? How do we reach them, and are we giving them information, educating them about something so that we can motivate them to take some step?”
THE CULINARY QUEEN
Lindsey Miller graduated from Texas Christian University with a double major in French and design, fashion merchandising, textiles by accident because she took so many French courses.
The Dallas native worked for Henry S. Miller in the ‘90’s during college as an intern and after she graduated. Then, she started her own firm in 1999 when she realized that would give her more opportunities and fewer limitations.
“You can only go so far in a smaller company like that, and I was already the director of marketing,” Miller says. “And I really needed to do something that made more money and that gave me more flexible hours because I wanted to have more kids, but I also wanted to be able to go to their sports games. That was important to me.”
When she launched her own company, Miller’s clients included some retail stores as well as a home building company and a catering business. Then her husband,who left the film
industry for restaurant real estate, got her into public relations for food and drink establishments in 2008. It all started with Bolsa, the Oak Cliff farmto-table eatery that brought something special to Dallas, Miller says.
“I always joked that I never wanted to be in restaurant PR,” Miller says.
“I
FOUGHT FOR THAT
Dear Neighbors,
For the 37th consecutive year, we proudly present you with this Fourth of July American flag — a symbol to unite our Lakewood community.
I hope that you will honor our great nation by proudly displaying the American flag as we celebrate this wonderful holiday.
Almost 15 years later, one of Dallas’s OG food trucks is changing things up
Story by JEHADU ABSHIRO
Photography by KATHY TRAN
It took two events before Easy Slider owners Miley Holmes and Caroline Perini quit their full-time jobs.
“Hundreds of people are already in line. It’s loud on the truck. We’re still getting our sea legs,” Perini says.
“Someone knocked on the window where I was cooking, and they [news crew] were asking me a question, and I couldn’t even hear what they were saying. I just nodded my head, ‘Yes,’” she says. “I did not know that I had agreed to let them onto the food truck with their cameras and microphones.”
“And I turn around and they’re micing up Miley, and there’s a camera in my face. And I think both of us, our first thought was, ‘Well, guess we have to tell our parents that we quit our jobs to run a food truck.’”
They met in the mid-2000s at the House of Blues, back when Deep Purple, Keyshia Cole and Doobie Brothers were on the concert lineup within a month. Holmes was an operations manager in the concert space, and Perini was the logistics manager for special events.
“I think when we first started talking about opening a bar but had no money, no resources, and about that time, food trucks were really popping off in Dallas,” Holmes says.
Food trucks, which had been all the rage in other cities for some time, were a fairly new
concept in Dallas. It’s a city that’s not used to ordering street food.
And Klyde Warren Park, a now mainstay location for food trucks, had been completed in 2009, and the Dallas Arts District was growing. One could argue that’s what propelled the now-thriving Dallas food truck scene.
The all-natural, healthy bites Green House Truck, which utilized an electric car, opened in 2009. Ruthie’s For Good, focused on gourmet grilled cheese with a social-good bent from oil heiress Ashlee Kleinert, opened in 2010. And the now-defunct So-Cal tacos launched in 2010.
“The quality that I saw coming off trucks and the local, independent idea of this business was very attractive and fun,” Perini says. “And really what hooked me was that these operations were a couple of people, and just the all-around experience of, you can walk out of a bar, and there’s a food truck, and you can have one of the best hamburgers of your life. You go have lunch downtown, and it’s one of the best steak sandwiches you’ve had in your life, and that was neat.”
Holmes and Perini started visiting food trucks in Dallas and other cities, asking questions.
“We understood the catering off a food truck, we just had to figure out the other side of it. Where do we find the truck? How do we get this launched?” Holmes says.
They happened upon United Caterers in Grand Prairie, which had a food truck they could buy, and then settled on a gourmet burger concept with good beef and perfect bites.
In 2011, Easy Slider launched as Dallas’s first gourmet burger food truck. Holmes and Perini were both in their early 30s.
Perini would handle cooking, and Holmes would handle operations.
“I love food. I love to eat food. I love to cook food. I love the idea of community around food,” Perini says. “I didn’t go to culinary school. I always joked that I went to culinary school with Dad.”
Perini is from a restaurant family. Her family owns a 640-ish-acre ranch in Buffalo Gap, Texas, population 532, just south of Abilene. A 40-year-old chuck wagon-style steakhouse in a converted barn sits on the property. Ironically, the common consensus is that West Texas born-chuck wagons are considered the original modern food truck.
“I mean for the longest time, we didn’t even have air conditioners,” Perini says.
Her family’s steakhouse is about a good cut of meat, potatoes and something green on the plate. And the ranch cows are pets, not the steaks served in the restaurant. It’s not a Dallas-esque white-tablecloth establishment, but it has a James Beard Award, and President George W. Bush has eaten a steak or two there.
Perini eventually moved to Preston Hollow with her mom, and she remembers the heydays of Dallas dining, where there were delis, diners, and keeping a running tab at a restaurant was normal. Holmes, on the other hand, doesn’t enjoy cooking. Her parents were teachers. She grew up in McComb, Mississippi, a small town about 25 miles north of far southeast Louisiana and the birthplace of Britney Spears. In fact, Holmes was a freshman when Spears was a senior in high school. It’s Holmes’ icebreaker fact.
She majored in English at Louisiana State University and had stints at Abercrombie & Fitch and Fossil. She ended up in Texas in the mid-2000s, leaving retail to work in entertainment and hospitality.
After five years at the House of Blues, Holmes and Perini found themselves in front of Deep Ellum’s Double Wide in their teal blue food truck serving up sliders for the first time.
“It was great and so awesome because a lot of our friends came out to support, but someone came back to the truck twice in the same night to order another round of sliders, and we both were like, ‘Do you know that person?’” Perini says. “And we were so excited because (that was) a total stranger, not once, but twice in the first night we were ever open for business.”
The food truck’s name is a play on the 1969 low-budget, cult classic film Easy Rider that follows two motorcyclists smuggling cocaine from Mexico into Los Angeles before taking a 2,700-mile trip to New Orleans’s Mardi Gras that served as breakout roles for Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson and writer/ director Peter Fonda.
Within 11 months, the duo realized they could add a second truck.
“Which I think surprised us both because we had kept saying, ‘We’re a boutique food truck,’ and we’re using the best beef that we can buy and bacon and jam and bread and bottled drinks and potato chips that are were maybe too expensive at the time,”
Perini says
One of their original sliders they launched, the Sweet and Lowdown with Angus beef, goat cheese, strawberry jam and bacon, is still one of the bestsellers. They encourage customers to mix and match sliders to get different flavor profiles. There are seasonal additions, but there’s a core set of sliders that have been on the menu since Easy Sliders’ inception. They expanded into a third truck and had a shaved ice truck side quest before opening a storefront in Deep Ellum in a 100-year-old building.
“It just wasn’t feasible when we first started,” Holmes says. “But that was always our goal with the food truck, let’s fund a restaurant.”
In 2022, they opened a booth in AT&T’s Exchange Hall. They recently flipped their Exchange Hall space into a new concept, In Good Company, featuring all types of sandwiches (including hot dogs) in just 11 days in June.
In 2023, they closed shop in Deep Ellum after seven years. They stumbled across a property on East Side Drive in Old East Dallas, just a mile away from their former space. They tore it down to the studs.
“It was just a conversation of, ‘Are we ready to hang up the towel?’ We still have a liquor license. We have the equipment. We have the furniture. Let’s do it,” Perini says. “And so we took some of our favorite things from that location and plugged it in here. And it’s a different feeling now, owning the space.”
It’s Americana. There’s a gallery wall of framed Coors Light, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Colt 45 and Miller Lite vintage mirrors. A collection of bronze eagles hangs over the door. Dark wood, brick walls and green bar stools are surrounded by plenty of navy accents.
The East Side location includes a restaurant space that seats 25 people, a large wraparound commercial kitchen, the Easy Slider’s offices and a commissary for the three food trucks. There’s a plan to add a patio to the building. It’s the first time that all aspects of their operations are under one roof.
The core of the menu is still sliders, but it includes a full-size version of their burger, wedge salads, grilled cheese and banana pudding. You can add bacon to anything for a dollar.
There’s a short list of specialty cocktails like the Vacation on Neptune – Dripping Springs vodka, Midori, pistachio and pineapple concoctions garnished by lime slice and Luxor cherry. Most of the cocktail menu is the brainchild of Blake, their bartender and Perini’s nephew. A Vieuz Carre is made with rye, cognac, sweet vermouth, Peychaud’s bitters and angostura bitters.
It’s a martini forward-establishment, highlighted by a speciality combo of tendies & a ‘tini ($22).
There’s a weekly wine Wednesday featuring Scardello’s cheeses. Monthly pop-up dinner nights, like June’s “Pop your Pupusa” with chef Diana Zamora, are part of the dinner rotation. There’s an Italian night with Negroni specials and chicken Parmesan. Their next event, steak night on July 6, is reminiscent of Perini’s family steakhouse dinners.
“And so that’s the idea — it’s not just sliders all the time, which we love, and we want that to always happen, but we also want you to be hanging out here,” Perini says.
Dallas has become a city where we have a slew of high-end concepts with velvet booths and massive bars and at least four dollar sign menus. Easy Slider-East Side is where the most expensive item is the $16 Martinez, a riff on a margarita with pickled jalapeño brine and seven ounces of Dos Equis. All the food is less than $13.
“Nearly 15 years later, the division of labor is pretty similar. Instead of Perini flipping burgers and Holmes taking orders, the team has expanded to about 30 people. A lot of the original team members from the early days are still around. They knew their marketing manager Tamara Everheart from their House of Blues era. All three of them are East Dallas neighbors.
It’s an early summer Friday night, Perini is sitting at the corner of the bar near the kitchen doors sipping a Vespar made with Kina and snacking on leftover cheese from wine Wednesday. More than half the people who walked in already are on a first-name basis with Blake.
Sometimes, the next neighborhood spot is the one that doesn’t claim to be the next Cheers.
the fore front
Photography by ETHAN GOOD Neighborhood women making a difference
women’s advocate
Stop being surprised.
That’s what Amy Jones wants at the moment.
“I have so many conversations with people, and they’re like, ‘What?! I had no idea,’” she says. “I need people to stop being surprised so that we can all get to work together changing this and supporting survivors.”
In Texas, two in five women have been sexually assaulted and one in five men have been sexually assaulted. It’s one of the most underreported crimes.
“I would really love for people to open their eyes and realize that there are people very close to them who are hurting and who have been harmed,” says Jones, the CEO of Dallas Area Rape Crisis Center (DARCC).
She always knew that she wanted to do something in human rights, especially in the area of violence against women and children.
“I can’t not see the power imbalances. I have a really hard time ignoring when people who are in positions of power abuse their power, which is at the very heart of violence against women and children,” she says. “I think, like a lot of people in this work, we do it because we’re wired that way, and once we see it, we can’t unsee it.“
Jones has spent more than 20 years working in nonprofits focused on support for survivors of domestic and sexual abuse. A Texas native, she was born in Corsicana, lived in a Houston suburb during high school, went to Austin to study cultural anthropology at the University of Texas, then to Waco before spending a year teaching English in Ukraine in 2000 and then landed in East Dallas 24 years ago.
She worked at the now-defunct Victims Outreach, which served survivors of sexual violence, while working on her master’s degree in counseling at the Dallas Theological Seminary in the early 2000s. Her next stop was at the Turning Point Rape Crisis Center in Collin County as a therapist and clinical director before working at Salvation Army’s domestic violence program. Then a stint at Homeless Outreach Center of Hope, then back to Turning Point and to Genesis Women’s Shelter before joining DARCC in 2018.
In 2007, the Dallas County Sexual Assault Services started and then in 2009 became a 501(c)(3) as DARCC. The organization launched their 24hour sexual assault hotline. The hotline gets anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 calls yearly, with spikes during holidays and hot weather. Walk-in crisis intervention, case management, legal help, hospital accompaniment and counseling are provided for anyone 13 years old and older. Clients who have experienced any type of sexual assault, whether it happened 20 years ago or presently, can utilize DARCC’s services.
Story by JEHADU ABSHIRO
“Dallas was a little late to the game and getting a formalized response together before it existed,” Jones says. “There were a lot of people who were doing the best they could … The fact that there’s one organization that’s committed to doing this work communicates to people that this matters, that we see it, that we know it’s an issue, that we are here to support you. And as an organization, we’re going to be at all the tables that we can be at to try to address those underlying social norms that allow this violence to continue to be perpetrated.”
Success and impact in an organization like DARCC is measured in so many different ways. It might be that a client is able to sleep without nightmares or able to have a healthy relationship.
“I think it’s a lot of little successes along the way,” Jones says. “At the end of the day, the survivor is the one who defines that for themselves, and that may change over time for them too. I think for me, leading this organization, success is we have the sustainability to continue to show up as long as survivors need us.”
Their staff of 25 full-time employees and about 100 volunteers ranges from college students to retired folks. For those monitoring the hotline, there’s layered staffing, so that volunteers aren’t overwhelmed.
“We have so many amazing volunteers,” Jones says. “The common thread is just a passion and a commitment. You can’t do this if you’re not deeply passionate, deeply committed. It’s just not the kind of work that anybody could sustain.”
She’s not the type of CEO who’s up and at’em at 4:30 a.m. Her days usually start about 6 a.m., getting herself and her 5-year-old ready for the day. There’s the typical slew of meetings and computer time.
“I don’t want an organization that is shaped like me. And I think that any leader in an organization has to be mindful of that dynamic,” Jones says. “So for me, that requires a lot of personal reflection and a lot of growth and a lot of humility trying to make sure that I’m not coming here doing what Amy wants to do. That I am coming in and paying attention to what does this organization needs.”
There’s a treadmill in her office she uses throughout the day, there’s most likely a podcast playing, and if she needs a slower moment, she practices Kripalu yoga.
“My mind never stops,” she says. “I know what I need to do to find a place where things are a little bit quieter. I don’t have an expectation of silence or total peace in my brain. Somewhere in the middle is always good for me, where it doesn’t feel like a tornado in there. I’m good with some level of noise and movement and energy. That’s what keeps me moving forward.”
playful artist
Story by MADELYN EDWARDS
“Do you want to paint?”
Lakewood artist Melanie Brannan asked the baffled reporter this question. The Shreveport-native in her 60s dipped a wide brush in water and laid down a wet strip on the thick paper in an open sketchbook.
“This is super fun,” she says as Harry Styles’ “Sign of the Times” plays in the background at her studio. “You’re going to take a little brush. Here are the watercolors. And then just let it bleed.”
The paint color rippled through the water, and she encouraged the reporter to repeat the process, creating more hues in the abstract picture.
“Play,” Brannan instructs.
Art feels the way it must have felt to Brannan decades ago when she first picked up a paintbrush — easy and comfortable.
Brannan studied advertising and graphic design in college, but wanted to major in painting. Her professor pushed her to stick with advertising design and to come back to painting later.
She did.
Brannan ran her own firm for 26 years and returned to painting in her 50s during the Great Recession when her clients, like Neiman Marcus, took the projects she worked on in-house.
“So, I just started painting,” Brannan says. “Best thing that ever happened.”
In 2009, a man building a house in Highland Park commissioned Brannan to create an impasto painting, a technique that uses thick layers of paint to create a textured and 3D effect. She still works with him today, but she also has other clients in Dallas, Santa Fe and beyond.
Once finished, the watercolor rectangle on the page resembled tie-dye, and Brannan dried it off with a hair dryer. She grabbed a pen to draw on top of it and used a charcoal pencil to create a border. Brannan doodled alongside the reporter and sketched little trees onto some of the paintings.
“I’m always making landscapes,” she says while drawing.
Brannan says she can paint anything, but nature seems to be a common theme in her work. A look around her studio provides examples — an abstract depiction of a landscape with wavy, horizontal lines; profiles of a jackrabbit, raven and coyote near an apple tree; a painting of a cat with its paws stretched downwards; a parametric art piece with earth and sky-toned colors.
Brannan’s work has been in many exhibitions locally and in other states. Her solo shows can double as fundraisers, like last year’s benefit for children with cancer’s Camp Esperanza. She and her artist friend who works with the camp raised thousands of dollars.
“We sold 11 paintings that first opening night, which is unheard of,” Brannan says.
Previously, Brannan also fundraised for AIM at Melanoma Foundation to memorialize her friend.
“Painting is my gift, and I like to give back,” she says.
The reporter outlined the contours of the colors on the small watercolor painting instead of drawing trees like Brannan did. The artist didn’t judge.
“You should (do it differently) because you have different DNA than me,” she says.
It’s no surprise that Brannan has taught art to children and adults.
“The kids are great because they’re fearless,” she says. “I watch their techniques, and it brings a lot to my work, and it makes me have to explain things. I have to watch how I paint so I can explain to other people how to do it.”
Brannan had just returned from teaching at a retreat in Santa Fe for adults, where she was also doodling on top of small watercolor paintings.
“My friend saw me doing this in Santa Fe when we were doing that retreat,” she says. “Three of them came over and said, ‘Here, I want to do that, too.’ I’m like, ‘They’re just stupid little doodles.’ And then another friend came over Sunday, and he goes, ‘I want you to show me how to do those little doodles.’ So he came over. (Chris Miller is his name. He’s a cool guy, artist.) Then he said, ‘Well, what if we have a little art party at (my) house and everybody’s just going to come over and do your little doodles?’”
Brannan raises her voice with excitement and a hint of disbelief. “So, 12 people are coming over to his house to do these silly little doodles!”
Creating art can bring out profound emotions in people. Brannan knows this reaction well.
“I was teaching another class. It was a private party, and a guy came up to me afterwards, bawling, crying, and he wouldn’t let go of me,” Brannan says. “And I said, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’ And he goes, ‘Well, my niece was here tonight.’ And I go, ‘It’s an all-adult party.’ He goes, ‘No, my niece was here, and I finally understand why she loved art so much.’”
Brannan points to a picture in her studio of the niece, 6-year-old Emilie Parker, a victim of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary massacre. After that night, Brannan dedicated a show in honor of Emilie and included her picture and story in the exhibition.
“Emilie wanted to have an art gallery one day, and she died when she was 6, and I asked the family … if I could have her in the gallery. And they were absolutely thrilled,” Brannan says.
She continues, “That’s the most worthwhile thing, better than selling paintings, better than creating paintings. It’s just to be able to be in a career that touches people’s lives like that, it’s pretty amazing.”
As for Brannan’s final piece of watercolor doodle instruction?
Don’t forget to sign your work.
natural born educator
Story by MADELYN EDWARDS
Lochwood neighbor Heather Kolodziej has always wanted to be a teacher to young children, even when she was a young child.
“I’m that girl that would, during the summer, pretend to be a teacher at home, and I would have my school set up inside my house,” the 45-year-old Houston native says.
Kolodziej has a degree in early childhood education from Texas A&M University, and she previously taught second grade in Plano. About nine years ago, after taking a break from teaching to have her two children, she found the Northridge Child Development Center through a friend and started bringing her youngest son there while also teaching Pre-K 4.
“I found this wonderful space,” Kolodziej says. “I got to bring him, and so he got to be with his friends and be social. But then I got to do something that I missed and that I love doing, which is teaching.”
The center, which serves children ages 2-5, was immediately a perfect fit for Kolodziej. Her plan was to return to full-time teaching, but the center’s former director moved away, leaving that position up for grabs. Since she had invested in the center and didn’t want to leave, Kolodziej interviewed for the job and won the role. She just finished her fourth year as the center’s director.
Of course, being director allowed Kolodziej to continue working in a field that she’s passionate about. But it also allowed her to do something different by interacting with all families, while as a teacher, she would mostly only get to know the ones with kids in her classroom.
Kolodziej sees Northridge Child Development Center as not just a preschool but also a small, tight-knit community. Parents have the chance to get involved with the school and participate in social or family activities.
“It’s a great way for the parents themselves to get to know each other, too,” Kolodziej says. “The hustle and bustle of drop-off and pick-up is busier. You’re always thinking, ‘Oh, I need to get to work,’ or ‘I need to do this,’ so I like to give opportunities where everyone can just … breathe and just be there for each other because I know, especially when my kids were young, I needed that community. I needed people that were in the same trenches as me.”
In addition to connecting with families, Kolodziej ensures the curriculum is developmentally appropriate and that the teachers have the training, support and supplies they
need. She also handles finances, marketing and plenty of paperwork, but she points out that the center’s board and a new operations manager have been there to help her.
“I had to learn quickly that you don’t have to do it all on your own and that they’re there to help you,” Kolodziej says. “The first year was the struggle bus of trying to just figure out (A) everything I needed to accomplish and then (B) what are the things I’m good at and what are the things that I’m not great at that I need to get help for.”
Throughout the transition from teacher to director, Kolodziej’s husband and children cheered her on. She also wants to be there for her family, not solely concerned with other people’s children, and feels like her job gives her that opportunity.
“I always tell all my teachers and myself that as much as we love our job and we love these kids and we love these families, we also owe it to ourselves to be ourselves, too, and pour into our own families as much as we pour into these families,” she says.
Kolodziej dedicates some of her free time to PTA activities at her children’s schools. She also reached out to volunteer to be a “buddy reader” at Dallas ISD’s Martha Turner Reilly Elementary School. A buddy reader is a community member who reads with a student who “is behind or that just needs that extra encouragement or that just needs someone else to talk to or to connect with,” she says.
“I always thought to myself, ‘Well, when I get older and I have the time and availability to, I want to do that as well’ because I’m always going to be in education,” Kolodziej says.
“Some of these ladies that I’m friends with that are in their 60s and 70s and have been doing these things for 20-30 years, I’m like, ‘Yeah, that’s probably going to be me,’ just because I feel like I can’t not be involved. But I love it, and I feel like it’s what drives me, and it makes me feel purposeful.”
Kolodziej’s children have since graduated from Reilly Elementary and advanced to the secondary level, but that doesn’t seem to deter her from wanting to volunteer, especially knowing that public school teachers need support.
“I feel like I have something that I can help with, so why would I not?” she says. “I feel like if we all just did a little bit, a little bit of help would go a long way.”
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD
By PATTI VINSON
‘Being
disabled isn’t a bad thing —
it’s just a thing’
Francis Zalace keeps smiling in spite of her disability
Stoicism: an ancient philosophy that teaches how to live well in the face of adversity and uncertainty. Neighbor Francis Zalace, who lost her limbs due to a catastrophic illness, can teach you something about this approach to life. Her story is a master class in resilience, happiness and wisdom.
It was toward the end of February 2024 when 41-year-old Francis began to feel a bit “off,” as she recalls, “a little tired.” She chalked it up to her busy lifestyle juggling a full-time elementary school music teaching position, being a single mom to her three kids and doing gigs as an in-demand balloon artist.
The day before her life changed, she had pushed through the fatigue and done a couple of balloon gigs, then attended a standup comedy show with her boyfriend. But she was feeling worse the following day and went to an urgent care facility for flu symptoms and breathing difficulties. Diagnosed with viral and bacterial pneumonia and a
dangerously low oxygen level, she was sent by ambulance to a hospital emergency room where she took a turn.
“I fell into a 10-day coma,” Francis recounts, “and when I woke up, my extremities had suffered necrosis as a side effect of the vasopressors that were keeping me alive.” A quadruple amputation was necessary to clear away the necrotic tissue: her legs below the thigh, her arms just above the wrist. It was the only choice to save her life.
Over the next four months, she had two to three surgeries per week, plus ongoing physical therapy. Eight months total passed before she was finally discharged from the hospital and went home to be cared for primarily by family. “I’m still in the process of regaining my full autonomy so in the meantime my current new normal is being attended to by my daughter as my mother continues to handle logistics and bureaucracy related to my care.”
Over time, through physical therapy and
an amazingly positive attitude, Francis has made progress adjusting to her new life. She lists milestones such as coming off her feeding tube and tracheotomy, feeding herself, rolling over and sitting up, getting out of bed and sitting in a wheelchair, driving her motorized wheelchair and transferring into a car to ride in a regular car seat.
No, it hasn’t been easy. But Francis was strong mentally to begin with. “I’ve always been a relatively optimistic person, but I think an interest I took up in stoicism not long before I ended up in the hospital helped with my mindset during the more challenging moments,” she says, and explains the basic tenet. “We may not have control over what happens to us but we can control our response.”
Francis has resumed many of her pre-illness activities: dates with her boyfriend, movies, visiting the mall. During the holidays, she visited the Arboretum to take a festive photo with Santa.
Music, too, is back in her life. Though not
Photography by Tanner Garza.
yet back in her music classroom, she has been doggedly determined to make music again and experiments with various percussive instruments. “It’s definitely my priority to play again” So far, she has found success with the steel tongue drum, which is played with mallets. Francis discovered that she could strap the mallets onto her arms and play the drum, and she also discovered that she could play the black keys of the piano with mallets.
And, of course, she has her voice. Shortly after being released from the hospital, Francis returned to her church, First Unitarian Church of Dallas, to attend Sunday services and sing in the choir. Her routine now includes weekly choir practice
Ever the optimist, Francis has an eye to the future. She is in the process of preparing for arm and leg prosthetics. She hopes to return to her classroom at Clinton P Russell Elementary School. She dreams of being a motivational speaker, especially for children, with abilities as a focus.
And she wants to educate anyone and everyone about her situation, inspiring her to start a YouTube channel on the first anniversary of her hospitalization (youtube. com/@zombieeteddybear). “I’m grateful for the opportunity to educate others and help normalize people with disabilities living life to the fullest,” she says. “I like to encourage dialogue. I welcome questions from strangers ” She has received questions and comments from as far away as Canada and South Africa, and embraces her growing “global community.”
In her various videos and shorts, Francis describes how she ended up in the hospital, the day she woke up from the coma, and what she remembers from her coma: vivid, bizarre dreams that reflected her reality
She also addresses her day to day life and demonstrates how she gets into and out of bed, how she transfers into her wheelchair and how she feeds herself with specialized utensils.
In these videos, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find plenty of levity. “I have a tendency to find the humor in things, so there’s plenty of joking around” She titled one of her videos “Look Ma, No Hands!” In the video, a split screen has Francis eating chocolate, breaking up an orange into sections, uncapping and drinking from a bottle, picking up her phone and sending a text. Meanwhile, her mom gamely tries, with much difficulty, to approximate the same action without using her hands.
Francis has a message for the world: “Being disabled isn’t a bad thing — it’s just a thing,” she smiles. “Stay focused on what you can do and you’ll find a way to do what you want to do. Use everything you’re given as fuel, no matter what it is ”
To read updates and to help with ongoing expenses: GoFundMe Francis zalace
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TUTOR/LESSONS
WANTED: OBOE TEACHER needed for 14 year old student. Call 214–235-7429
PIANO LESSONS 30 years exp. Also voice & composition. Text (469) 708-6151
