Lakeside resort - a ground-breaking ground-breaking

It's about dang time! As first reported on RoundTheMound.com, Town bigwigs will head over to Lakeside on February 14th for the official ground-breaking of the new Lakeside Resort and Residences.

Finally, something to talk about in Lakeside except for all those fancy (and lonely) roads and traffic circles.

Those of you who think 2 acres should be the minimum size for a new home in Flower Mound may get all wrangled up over the fact that people will be LIVING in this high-rise tower, and they'll all be really close together. I realize density is a difficult word for some folks in this town, but I personally think a project like this with residential will be a more vibrant part of our community, moreso than a standalone hotel. Feel free to flame me now.

By the way, if you're interested in moving here, keep this link handy: LakesideDallas.com. This is the developer's website. It's just a splash page for now, but you can add your name and contact information to be kept up to date.

Ode to a Cubmaster, a Yoda and a great Flower Mound neighbor

One of the great things about Cub Scouts is getting to work with, and learn from, some great neighbors. For years, Jim Fields (pictured above with my son, Andrew) has been the leader of Pack 295. He and his wife Patty have had three boys go through the pack; the youngest will bridge to Boy Scouts this year. Also for years, Jim Fields has been the man to beat in the pack's annual Pinewood Derby competition. He and his boys build great cars, and he knows how to get them to roll fast.

For years, at the other end of the leader board on Pinewood Derby day, has been the Mahaneys. We never had much luck getting our wheels perfect. Some years we tried hard; others not so much. In 4 previous Pinewood Derbys, the best we could finish was 6th (out of about 16 entries in our age group). One year, maybe two, we finished last.

This year, we asked Jim if we could visit him in his garage while he worked on his car. He gave us 15 minutes of his time and his advice, and we went back home to continue the work. We spent at least three hours working on the wheels, using the advice Jim gave us. The result? My son's car finished first in our division, barely ahead of Jim's son's car. Perhaps the teacher (our Cub Scout Yoda, I suppose) taught us too well, but that's the mark of a great teacher, a great leader, and a great neighbor. Thank you Jim!

PS: In fairness, I'll tell you the rest of the story. Because of our 1-2 finish, both our car and the Fields car advanced to the all-Pack finals, against winners from the other age groups. Neither of our cars won, but the Fields car ran better than the Mahaney car. It was a great day for us all.

The Market Street controversy and what it means for the future

I've been tardy in writing about the Market Street fight that's consumed Town Hall the past couple of weeks. For those of you who need to catch up, here are a couple of good links: Flower Mound Messenger recap (reg. required), and more background from the Leader. Also check out The News Connection online. But do it quick - I'm not sure they archive previous week's articles.

Now that you're caught up, here are my questions and thoughts.

• Was this an issue about trees, or was this an issue about a few neighbors (who perhaps live too close to 1171 for their own comfort) worried about backing up to a grocery store? It's not that I don't sympathize with the neighbors who like having trees (and not a grocery store) behind their backyards, but they all know where they live. Unless they want to buy the land behind them, they don't get to control it. Eventually, something will be built there.
  
• Does this hurt Flower Mound's business prospects? It won't help, but it won't stop developers from seeking us out. We've got great land and a lot of rooftops. Besides, somehow the Pines got built, despite an active resistance from the neighbors to the south and west.
  
• Did we need another grocery store? Not in my opinion, but who am I to decide who should build here? That's a decision for an open market to decide.
  
• If council elections weren't coming so soon, would the vote have been different? I like all the council members we have, and I think it's the best council we've had in the 10 years I've been here. They're a functional group of very smart and caring people. I believe they each have the best interest of the Town in their hearts, and I know they all worked hard to understand the very peculiar issues surrounding this project. But the only council member who voted against the project was Laurie Long, and she's not up for election until next year. Jeff Tasker, Joel Lindsey and Tim Trotter all voted "no". So did Paul Stone, by the way, who (like Laurie) doesn't run this year. It will be interesting to see how this plays out when all the issues get aired in the upcoming campaign season, assuming we have contested races.
  

What other questions should we be asking, and what are your answers?

I repeat, I'm no real estate expert, but...

... it seems to me that if you're going to start a retail business in Flower Mound, you're going to want to that business along FM2499. This goes doubly true for restaurants (see LaNella post below). There are other corners in town where you have a fighting chance (Morriss and 407, and perhaps soon Morriss and 3040), but if I were trying to be seen, I'd want to be on FM2499. Nothing else would come close.

LaNella - good food, but will it be here long?

You know by now if there's a new pizza/Italian place in town, you're going to read about it here. Like I've written before, our family is not very adventerous on the menu. My wife will order spaghetti and meat sauce, the kids will get cheese pizza, and I'll either get a pizza or a stromboli. Nothing fancy. We've visited many times to old favorites Pazzo (still my favorite), Bari's, Alforno's (the definition of "comfort food"), Nick & Willy's take-and-bake, and more recently the venerable Salerno's. We also like Roma in Highland Village (cheap prices, great food, and a big-screen TV) and Parma in Lewisville (crowded and tight, but the food is a cut above).

Now comes LaNella, which is oddly hard to find even though it's in the center of Town. LaNella occupies sits right behind (or to the side of) the Z Grill on 1171. If you're coming out of Sprouts, look to your left. It's in the satellite building right in front of Sprouts. You'd think this would be a good location, but at least two other restaurants I can think of (one a hamburger joint, the other some sort of Mexican variation) have both come and gone in that spot. It's right on 1171, but you can't see it unless you're coming in from the east. It's close to Morriss, but you can't see it well from Morriss. I'm no real estate expert, but I think the location will make it difficult for LaNella to build business quickly.

LaNella occupies a couple of smaller stalls in the shopping-center, and there are about 20 tables in the one-room dining area. I've been there twice now, once with the family and once for pickup. In both visits (one a cold/rainy Sunday night, the other Sunday after-church lunch), I've seen only one other customer. The food is very comparable in quality and taste to Bari's -- the New York-style pizza is quite similar, in fact. It's very good, and we'll go back. The question is, will enough of you get there soon enough, or are LaNella's owner's pockets deep enough, to keep this new restaurant open? There are coupons in the Clipper magazine. Check it out.

China Palace - gone!

You read it here first, unless like me you read the news on the front door of what used to be China Palace. Effective January 8, the mainstay of Cross Timbers Road is no longer in business. The owners are taking a couple of months off to retool and redesign. When they reopen in the spring, they'll be a Japanese restaurant, "Asahi Teppenyaki" if I recall the name correctly. It's a shame for us. My 11-year-old son loved some of the buffet items at China Palace. They had a wide variety of foods on the buffet, which gave all the picky eaters at our table the chance to go home happy.

With the closing of Beijing Wok a few months ago, this leaves Flower Mound with only two Chinese restaurants. One is Panda Express fast food on FM3040 across from the southside Tom Thumb. Not bad food, but the menu is very limited. Your other choice is the Empress of China, an upscale Chinese eatery on FM407 just east of the Albertsons, just east of Morriss. Empress is very good, but alas there's no buffet.

There's no problem finding Thai food in this town, but unless you live up near Highland Village, you're going to have to hoof it to get traditional sit-down Chinese. This is not a good development.

FlowerMound.com -- this is sad!

OK, so we know the official town website is flower-mound.com. With the dash. Well what about good old "no dash" flowermound.com? I'm not even going to link you to it because I'm so bummed.

If I recall correctly, flowermound.com used to be owned by some individual in Carrollton or Lewisville or somewhere else close. I don't think it ever was a real site, but at least it was locally owned. Now, the flowermound.com domain name is registered to some chap named Brian Wick in Denver Colorado, who's associated with some outfit called CheapYellowPages. Geez.

I promise never to sully the name of our Town by selling the flowermoundroad.com domain name to something like CheapYellowPages. I'm not promising I won't lose it in a poker game, but I'll do my best. :)

Scared me there... "closed?" turns off FM2499

A Road reader posted this comment a few days ago and had me scared...

It looks to me like the closures are permanent. Which means to get into Chili's from NB 2499 will require turning left onto WB 3040, then turning left again at the car wash and winding back through the shopping center. And to get to Tom Thumb from SB 2499 will require a turn onto EB 3040 then left again into the TT parking lot. Kind of a pain, though we may get an extended left turn lane onto 3040 out of it which would be good.

So I called the Town and found out that the reader's fears were only half true. You'll still be able to turn left into Chili's from northbound FM2499, and you'll still be able to turn left into Anamia's from southbound FM2499. But you won't be able to turn left onto FM2499 coming out of either parking lot. The Town and TxDOT will be installing so-called an "S-curb" to prohibit drivers from cutting across FM2499 or turning left onto FM2499. This will be similar to the long-standing "S-curb" that separated the Tom Thumb shopping center from the Albertson's shopping center on FM2499 north of FM3040, which is also under construction, but will be restored soon.

Also, the Town hopes to have all the construction south of FM3040 complete by March, but there's a chance TxDOT may not allow the new lanes to be opened until work is complete on the next phase of FM2499 expansion, north of FM3040.

What is "Midnight Rodeo", and are we getting one at Grapevine Mills?

Amongst all the construction going up across FM2499 from Grapevine Mills Mall, there's a new small sign that promises something called "Midnight Rodeo", which I've never heard of before.

A Google search turns up a collection of country-western dance halls and concert venues in places like Austin, San Antonio, Houston (Katy) and even Amarillo and College Station.

Dust off your boots, all y'all Hummer-driving, Starbuck-swilling suburbanites! Time to kick up some %#&#@$!

Anyone ever been to one of these before?

Is that a "Le Peep" I'm hearing?

Saw a sign posted in the window of a building at the new Kroger shopping center (FM3040 and Morriss) that said "LePeep" was coming there soon.

This is great news to those of us who could eat breakfast 24 hours a day. There's nothing wrong with IHOP, and from the looks of the crowds there on FM2499, many of you agree. And we've got the new Cracker Barrel opening next to Grapevine Mills. But I think LePeep is better than both of those mainstays, and I'm glad they're coming here.