Coffee Culture and a Comeback: South Dallas’ Next Chapter

For years, South Dallas residents have driven outside the neighborhood for a good cup of coffee, to meet for business, grab dinner with friends, or find a comfortable place to unwind. That may finally be starting to change.

Shipley Do-Nuts is coming. Starbucks is on the way. Kingdom Café has opened its doors. Aranda’s is bringing new life to Second Avenue. And the Green Parrot—once one of South Dallas’ most celebrated destinations—is preparing for a return. Taken separately, these may look like a handful of new places to eat and grab coffee. Together, they point to something larger: South Dallas is gaining more of the everyday spots that make a neighborhood feel active, connected and complete.

Shipley Do-Nuts: A nonprofit partnership model

The new Shipley Do-Nuts planned for 2807 Al Lipscomb Way offers one example. The location will be part of SouthFair Community Development Corporation’s Malcolm’s Point retail project and is expected to open by the end of 2026.

As a Houston native, I’m excited to see Shipley’s—an iconic Houston staple—expand into South Dallas.

SouthFair will serve as landlord, tenant and franchisee, making this the first nonprofit franchise partnership in Shipley’s history. That structure gives SouthFair another way to create jobs, generate revenue and support its larger mission. It also offers a meaningful model for bringing a national brand into South Dallas while keeping more of the economic benefit rooted in the community.

Starbucks at Forest Theater

Starbucks is expected to open as part of the Forest Theater redevelopment. The historic theater has long been one of South Dallas’ most recognizable landmarks.

The Forest Forward restoration will bring performance space, recording studios, educational opportunities and new activity back to the property. The Starbucks will operate through a local licensing agreement, giving Forest Forward greater control over how the coffee shop serves the neighborhood.

South Dallas doesn’t need a national company to prove its value—we already know what this community is worth. Still, a well-run coffee shop can serve a practical purpose. It can become an informal meeting space, a workspace for entrepreneurs, or a study spot for students. Residents deserve access to those places without having to leave the neighborhood.

Kingdom Café and the MLK Wellness Center

Kingdom Café and the MLK Wellness Center provide a locally created example. Located at 3101 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, the center was founded by Nick and Ferrell Fellows, a South Dallas husband-and-wife team.

They are business owners who have also spent years advocating for the community. Their work reflects the kind of investment South Dallas needs—grounded in local knowledge, designed to serve residents, and built to meet real needs. The center provides multiple wellness services under one roof, while Kingdom Café offers affordable meals, coffee, breakfast and smoothies.

As Ferrell Fellows explained, “You’re greeted at the counter with one question: ‘Are you well?’” The question invites customers to think about physical, mental and nutritional health. It also captures the center’s purpose: this is a place designed to care for the whole person.

That care extends to teenagers as well. Fellows said students often arrive as early as 7:30 a.m., waiting for the doors to open before school. Their presence revealed a need that had gone largely unseen: young people needed a safe place to wait, access to affordable meals, and positive adults around them. In response, the center developed a before- and after-school wellness program with input from the Dallas Police Department’s gang unit. Business leaders, neighbors and other community members help create a supportive environment for students. “Neighbors have come in to sponsor meals for students who have been unable to pay,” Fellows said. That support helps address hunger in an area long recognized as a food desert.

The building once housed the Dallas Weekly, making this new use especially meaningful. A place that helped tell the stories of Black Dallas is now supporting healthier lives, local ownership and new neighborhood activity.

Aranda’s: More than a restaurant

Aranda’s also carries a story larger than a restaurant opening. It is a new take on an old South Dallas eatery led by Tabitha Wheeler, a City Plan Commissioner and community advocate.

Wheeler said Aranda’s was part of Dallas’ historic Black entertainment scene—a network of venues that gave Black musicians and entertainers places to perform when opportunities elsewhere were limited. It remained a South Dallas staple for more than five decades before closing in the early 2000s.

For many longtime patrons, Wheeler said, Aranda’s was more than just entertainment. “It was a place to gather, celebrate, eat, dance and create memories.” People still recall Tuesday ladies’ nights, free Sunday buffets, music and the distinct atmosphere that made the venue special. The new vision is designed to bridge generations. During the day, Aranda’s will welcome families, professionals and longtime residents for a restaurant experience. On weekends, live music and entertainment will take over after 8 p.m., bringing back some of the energy people remember.

“This isn’t simply about reopening a familiar name,” Wheeler said. “It’s about preserving a piece of South Dallas history while creating something that speaks to where the community is going.”

Its planned location on Second Avenue can also bring activity to a corridor where properties have remained vacant or underused. Restaurants bring light, movement and people to the street. They give families another dining option. They create places where neighbors can see one another. And when an opening succeeds, it can encourage the next business owner to take a chance on nearby property.

The Green Parrot: A responsibility to preserve

The return of the Green Parrot carries an even deeper meaning for me. I’m personally involved in the effort to bring it back, so I want to be clear about that connection. This is a piece of South Dallas history that deserves care.

Opened in the 1950s by George Parker, the Green Parrot Supper Club became one of Dallas’ best-known Black-owned businesses. It earned a reputation for food, music and nightlife. The University of North Texas’ Black Living Legends collection notes that Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Louis Jordan, James Brown, B.B. King, Ike Turner and Tina Turner performed there.

During segregation, Black performers could entertain crowds across Dallas yet still be denied lodging at the city’s hotels. The Green Parrot provided a welcoming space for artists. It also gave Black Dallas a venue where people could enjoy great food, hear exceptional music and experience first-class entertainment within their own community.

Bringing the name back comes with responsibility. Its history can’t become decoration. A new Green Parrot should carry forward the spirit that made the original special: excellent food, live entertainment that matters, and respect for Black culture. Most of all, the experience should feel connected to South Dallas.

What neighborhood business can—and can’t—do

Restaurants, cafés and lounges will not solve every challenge facing South Dallas. They can’t repair streets, lower housing costs, or erase decades of disinvestment. They also can’t replace policy or public investment.

But they still matter. These businesses create jobs, reactivate vacant properties and keep more local spending inside the community. They also give new residents places to go as housing development moves forward.

People don’t experience a neighborhood through zoning maps or development plans. They experience it through daily life—whether sidewalks feel safe, whether streets are well lit, and whether there’s somewhere nearby to meet a friend. Those details shape how people feel about where they live.

Planning and accountability

That’s why the South Dallas/Fair Park Area Plan, the update of PD 595, housing development and commercial investment must support the same vision. The area plan adopted by the Dallas City Council in 2025 was shaped through more than 100 community meetings and events. Residents called for better housing, safer streets, stronger businesses and more useful neighborhood services.

The changes to PD 595 created clearer rules for development while removing some outdated barriers that have held properties back.

I see this connection in my work on Thirty21, a mixed-income, technology-centered development planned for Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Housing brings residents and customers. Neighborhood businesses give those residents places to spend time. Better public spaces help connect it all. Each part strengthens the others.

Still, new investment requires close attention. A national logo on a building doesn’t automatically equal progress. We should examine who owns each business, who gets hired, where contracts are awarded and whether longtime residents can afford to remain. Local entrepreneurs also need access to financing, technical assistance and real development opportunities.

A comeback shaped by locals

South Dallas has room for national brands and homegrown businesses—but local neighbors and community leaders must be the primary contributors to these additions. The goal isn’t to choose one type over another. The goal is to recognize and support the residents, entrepreneurs, organizations and advocates whose vision, work and investment are creating new activity in the neighborhood. National brands can add value, but they should complement—not overshadow—the local people building the foundation for South Dallas’ next chapter.

No outside company has “discovered” South Dallas. The culture was already here. So was the talent, the history and the people willing to invest.

Nick and Ferrell Fellows, Tabitha Wheeler, South Fair and the team behind Forest Theater are showing what that investment can look like. For too long, good ideas have faced limited capital, weak infrastructure and slow-moving systems. Now, more doors are beginning to open. We should support the people walking through them while holding every new business accountable to the community it serves.

South Dallas doesn’t need to become somewhere else to make a comeback. Its next chapter should give residents more reasons to stay, more opportunities to build and more places to enjoy the neighborhood they already call home.