An iconic Dallas bar is closing its doors and seeking a new location.
The Stoneleigh P, a classic Uptown dive bar open since 1973, announced it will be moving locations in 2024 after the current lease expires.
At this time, the bar owners say they are unsure of what location they will choose for the new establishment.
Tom Garrison, Robert Alexander, Teresa Alexander, Alan Cahil, and Richard Windburn all partnered to found Stoneleigh P, and the bar has remained in family ownership since.
The spot became famous in the 1970s and 1980s for hosting Dallas’ edgier crowds, replete with musicians and hippies, after the Stoneleigh Pharmacy was converted into the Stoneleigh P bar.
“It was a community staple for 50 years and was still a community center 10 years ago. Now it’s all going away. It’s all going away,” Stoneleigh P patron and longtime Dallas resident Frank Carter told The Dallas Express.
“What makes this place is it’s about people, not bull—t,” Carter continued.
Carter met the owner of the bar, Tom Harrison, for the first time in 1978.
He’s been visiting “the P” since 1978 and, unsurprisingly, had a wealth of stories.
The bar hosted famous parties throughout its existence and even some celebrities. Carter saw Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan play live in the back corner of the bar.
“Stevie Ray [Vaughan] used to play in that back corner. His little brother Jimmie [Vaughan] would play here with a group he had at the time. They were called the Fabulous Thunderbirds or somethin’ like that.”
Larry McMurtry, the author of Lonesome Dove, was also a P regular when he was in town.
“He used to hang out right down the bar. It’s amazing the people that would be here back then.”
Most notably, Jimmy Carter visited in July of 1975 and met with a contingent of just 10 local Democrats.
Jimmy Carter would return to Dallas the next year as the Democratic presidential nominee before going on to win the election.
Frank summed his feelings on the move up.
“This is a historic place. It’s first base in a rich tapestry of history.”
Kendal Simmons, a 26-year-old former bartender at the P, echoed Frank Carter’s assessment of the spirit of the P to The Dallas Express.
“It was inclusive for everyone. Nobody felt like an outcast because everyone was. It was a dive bar the CEOs could go to and relax while not worrying about ridiculous priced cocktails. They could have a good time and mingle with the other interesting crowds. All the while creatives or middle-class workers were all treated the same as [CEOs] were and could have open conversations with anyone without judgement.”
While the P has been a hangout spot for Uptown residents of all sorts, at the end of the bar sits a sign that reads, “Don’t Uptown my P.”
The sign is too late. The area surrounding the bar has been developed into a thriving metropolis for young professionals.
The bar is now part of a far different community than the one Tom Harrison started the P in during the 1970s, and the rent in the area has become too expensive for the local staple to continue in the same location.
The Stoneleigh P, one of the last two-story buildings in the area, is what Frank Carter calls an “anachronism.”
Still, while waiting for a drink at the bar, another regular laughs.
“I’ve been coming here since 1977. I’m not going to stop when it moves.”
