I’m sure most of your New Year’s resolutions don’t involve eating more food or shopping. But what about trying something new? Maybe adventure and exploration are on your to-do list. If so, there are plenty of new things just around the corner in Oak Cliff.

First, some history: Oak Cliff came to existence in 1886. This is the same year President Grover Cleveland married in the White House, Coca-Cola was invented and Karl Benz announced the Benz Patent Motorwagen. This was also the same year Highland Park was founded. In 1893 Oak Cliff suffered from the depression and growth stagnated. By 1900 parts of Oak Cliff had lost its appeal as an elite community. In 1903 Dallas annexed Oak Cliff. In 1908 there was flooding from the Trinity River, and a fire impacted the neighborhood in 1909. Oak Cliff also saw the effects of the 1957 Dallas tornado. In 1963 an Oak Cliff theater became the hideout of Lee Harvey Oswald. This area has been relatively quiet since the 70s. But even with the depression of 2008, revitalization of the Oak Cliff area has begun and change continues. It’s exciting to watch the area grow.

The surrounding areas and neighborhoods of Oak Cliff – like Bishop Arts District and  Kessler Park – also boast some great restaurants and experiences. And, as mentioned in my previous blog, there is a Co-op Style Grocer there called Urban Acres.

As paper and hardback books are slowly becoming a thing of the past, the Book Doctor will repair and restore books as well as create custom ones!

Dude, Sweet Chocolate is a “chocolate boutique” in Bishop Arts. They make all their own chocolate and have fun new flavors and things to try. Their Chocolate Salami is a roll of marzipan, figs, dates and chocolate made to look similar to salami. Their products make great gifts.

Some of my favorite places to eat in the Oak Cliff area are: Tillman’s Roadhouse (Best Prime Rib, Chicken-Fried Streak and table top S’mores)

Odd Fellows (Red Velvet Pancakes!)

Hattie’s Low-South Cooking, Jonathon’s (Great for Brunch), Bolsa, Smoke and Bar Belmont

The View from Bar Belmont

Chicken Scratch/The Foundry

You can take your family to shop and peruse antiques and local art. You can drive around the Kessler Park Neighborhood to view their Architecturally Significant Homes built as early as the 1920s and 1930s.

The Kessler Theater was built in 1941. Most of it was destroyed in the 1957 tornado that came through Dallas. It was said to be a church, a sweatshop and eventually a retail shop before it closed in 1978. Thirty-one years later it was resurrected and “intended to ‘stimulate in the corridor’ while retaining its ‘cultural flavor, social diversity and ‘economic diversity’.” [AK1] Open since 2010, you can now see live performances there.

And, for those with a green thumb, a 1936 Conoco Station on Davis was turned into a great little nursery called Repotted that features native plants.

Are you ready to try something new yet?

[AK1]-http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2009/05/resurrecting_the_kessler.php