Stan’s Blue Note. Photo by Renee Umsted.
Stan’s Blue Note on Lower Greenville, the oldest continuously open bar in Dallas, is turning 70.
To celebrate, Stan’s is having a party. All proceeds from the event — complete with food, drinks and live music — will go to BvB Dallas, a nonprofit that works to raise funds and awareness for Alzheimer’s disease research and care organizations in Dallas-Fort Worth.
There will be cocktails and beer, carving stations, a mac and cheese bar, cake, door prizes, swag bags and commemorative merch for guests. Also, Texas blues rocker Griffin Holtby and Dallas-based cover band Booty and the Hoefish will be performing.
Tickets are available here.
Photo cred: Danny Fulgencio
Here’s some history about the bar, compiled from this Advocate story published in 2019.
E. E. Stanley opened the bar in 1952, and it was a great spot to hear live music. Stanley wanted to have the bar so his band would always have a place to practice and play.
He sold the bar to Dorothy Shipley, known for her house rules (no cursing) and fashion — a beehive hairdo and cowboy boots.
Visitors could choose from one draft beer and about five canned beers, and the food options were limited, too; a few items were pickled pig feet, hardboiled eggs, chips and Slim Jims. Shipley befriended John Caulfield, who owned the restaurant next door, and they cut a hole in the wall so bar patrons could order food from the restaurant.
Shipley later sold Stan’s to Caulfield in 1987, and he remodeled the place, replacing the ceiling and expanding the space to 1,700 square feet.
In the following decades, Stan’s (apparently a popular hangout for Woodrow Wilson alumni) changed hands. There was a fire in the 1990s, and it was rebuilt, this time spanning 5,700 square feet. Mike McRae and Gabe Nicolella became owners in 2016, and Bob Myers is the general manager.
