BUSINESS BUZZ

The lowdown on what’s up with neighborhood businesses

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Getting naughty on West Davis

The pop-up restaurant at Trinity Groves, Kitchen LTO, spawned a permanent Oak Cliff restaurant. Pink Magnolia, a southernfood spot from chef Blythe Beck, who is known as the Naughty Chef, and LTO owner Casie Caldwell, is expected to open in the former Driftwood space on West Davis in September.

New digs for chocolate shop

CocoAndré Chocolatier closed its shop on West Davis at Tyler in July with plans to open a new shop closer to the center of Bishop Arts, at 508 W. Seventh at Adams. Chocolatier Andrea Pedraza first opened her shop in 2009. The family business bought the house on Seventh last year and has been converting it to a shop and chocolate production facility since then. The new space is much larger, so Pedraza can offer expanded shop space, coffee and pastries, along with her chocolate. There also will be space for Pedraza to offer hands-on classes and chocolate lectures.

Houndstooth signs on at Sylvan Thirty

Austin-based Houndstooth Coffee signed a lease at Sylvan Thirty, with plans to open its second Dallas location next year. Houndstooth was established on North Lamar in Austin in 2010 and later expanded to Congress Avenue. Its first Dallas location opened on North Henderson at Monarch in August 2014. That Henderson space was vacated by Pearl Cup, which had lost its lease. A little background: Pearl Cup had been announced as a Sylvan Thirty tenant in February 2012, before the mixed-use development had been constructed. The latest Houndstooth also will include a new food concept that is in development, according to a media release from Sylvan Thirty. Houndstooth is expected to open at Sylvan Thirty in the first quarter of 2016.

Common Desk opens

The Common Desk co-working space opened its Oak Cliff location at 633 W. Davis in June. A dedicated space — either a desk or office — costs $400 a month. And a membership with no dedicated space costs $200. The daily drop-in rate is $25. SMU grad Nick Clark started Common Desk in Deep Ellum in 2013. It was so successful that the company will expand its Deep Ellum space by 30 percent. Common Desk hired 44 Build, the design and build-out company whose resume includes the Local Oak and Goodfriend Beer Garden and Burger House, which also designed the Deep Ellum location. Clark says clients in Deep Ellum come from all over Dallas and the suburbs. In Oak Cliff, almost everyone who has leased a space lives in the neighborhood, he says. “Oak Cliff has a very strong sense of community already,” he says. “Community is important to our business. I think it’s going to create an atmosphere that is unmatched.”

People

Some of the The Dallas Morning News’ top writers took voluntary buyouts recently, including Roy Appleton, who covered Oak Cliff.

A film studio bought the rights to the 2014 biography “Blood Aces: The Wild Ride of Benny Binion,” about a Dallas gangster who went on to reinvent Las Vegas casinos. Relativity, the company behind “The Fast and the Furious” and “The Fighter,” among many others, has acquired the rights to the book, according to Deadline. Relativity pegged Cliff Dorfman, the head writer for HBO’s “Entourage,” to adapt Dallas Morning News investigative reporter Doug J. Swanson’s book to a screenplay. Binion, a lifelong racketeer who invented the World Series of Poker, had West Dallas connections.

Obituary

Kipenzi, the giraffe whose birth was broadcast on Animal Planet and over live Internet feed from the Dallas Zoo, died suddenly in an accident in July. She was not quite 4 months old. On July 28, zookeepers were herding the giraffes inside; Kipenzi made a sharp turn while scampering around, “as she loved to do,” they said. She hit a corner, broke three vertebrae in her neck and died instantly. “Our hearts are broken,” the Dallas Zoo stated via Instagram. “Please keep the entire Dallas Zoo family in your thoughts.”

Transportation

The city recently invested $135,000 to improve the Jefferson Viaduct bikeway and create bike lanes between Colorado and the bridges. The money came from general funds set aside for bicycle lanes and bond funding for the Houston Street Viaduct rehab project. The city replaced flimsy yellow pylons with sturdier ones, trade name Tuff Post Flexible Posts, which can withstand an impact of about 45 miles per hour.

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