Monday night I drove up to the old III Forks steakhouse on the Dallas North Tollway, a place that shuttered in 2020 and quickly became a hollowed-out homeless crash pad. These days it’s occupied by Champions Social Club, whose owners say they’ve spent $15 million to rehab the joint, which I believe because I have no idea how much it costs to repair stained glass, polished marble and hand-carved crown molding.
Champions is open now, but for just a few hours five days a week to its 200 or so members who have to bring their own booze to wash down steaks — hardly worth the investment. The owners anted up with a much bigger pot in mind, turning this into a packed private poker room. They just need their certificate of occupancy. Which they had until they didn’t.
Champions twice filed for a CO, most recently in October. City Hall issued that permit in April. But just six days later, it took it away because … poker. The city keeps saying members-only card rooms are illegal, even after a prior city attorney told the City Council in 2019 that poker rooms are kosher so long as they’re private and the owner doesn’t take a cut of the winning hand. The state’s own law library agrees.
On Tuesday, Champions asked the City Council-appointed Board of Adjustment to return its CO. Spoiler alert: Champions prevailed following the hearing, which resembles a trial with sworn witnesses and cross-examinations. But it did so only after a surreal eight-hour hearing during which two Board of Adjustment members accused an assistant city attorney of intimidation; a building official refused to explain how the CO was first issued, then retracted; a business owner alleged the retraction was in response to political influence; and one board member lambasted city officials for “gross incompetence.”
And it turned into the Cara Mendelsohn Show.
The co-owners of Champions Social Club, in the old III Forks steakhouse on the Dallas North Tollway, say they spent $15 million to rehab the building most recently occupied by the homeless.
Robert Wilonsky
The Far North Dallas City Council member, who has vehemently opposed private poker rooms, was in council chambers to meet her constituents as they entered, their white “NO POKER” sticker affixed to her pink suit’s lapel. She left for a bit, but rushed back into chambers while one of Champions’ owners was testifying at the podium, to whisper in the ear of Executive Assistant City Attorney Stacy Rodriguez, who had been tasked with defending the city’s efforts to deny the CO.
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Mendelsohn stood at the horseshoe for hours, near her board appointee, Michael Hopkovitz — the lone nay vote among the five panelists. She testified, too, to defend herself, she said, against “the absolute lies” being told by Champions co-owner Isaac Trumbo, who, among other things, recounted her telling a 2021 town hall meeting that poker rooms were legal. (Which she verifiably did while discussing a different case — there was audio played during an uncomfortable cross-examination.)
She said she was there against the advice of a city attorney who, according to Mendelsohn herself, told her she shouldn’t even be in chambers.
I’ve sat through plenty of off-the-rails meetings at City Hall. But I’ve never seen a council member take the podium during a hearing of an independent quasi-judicial board that isn’t supposed to have any interactions with council members, much less ones offering unsolicited legal advice during a public proceeding.
During the meeting, I sent City Attorney Tammy Palomino a photo of the council member leaning against the horseshoe and asked if what she was doing was allowed. Two days later, I still hadn’t received a response. I would have asked the just-hired inspector general, if the council hadn’t just fired him.
At far right is Far North Dallas City Council member Cara Mendelsohn, where she stood for much of Tuesday’s Board of Adjustment hearing concerning Champions Social Club and its certificate of occupancy. The man sitting furthest right at the horseshoe is her appointee to the board, Michael Hopkovitz, who was the panel’s sole vote against restoring the poker room’s CO.
Robert Wilonsky
I get what Mendelsohn was trying to do. She was sticking up for the neighborhood behind Champions’ parking lot, Bent Tree North. Many of its residents hate the idea of a poker room because, you know, crime and traffic, the same thing folks living next to LBJ Freeway are saying about that proposed H-E-B grocery store, which received the City Plan Commission’s unanimous blessing Thursday afternoon. It’s getting hard to keep track of which project next to which highway people hate most these days.
Mendelsohn has made her hatred of private poker rooms abundantly clear on Facebook and in newsletters. On Tuesday, Mendelsohn said she’d discussed them with Denton and Collin County district attorneys, state officials and two members of the Board of Adjustment. She said she once told co-owners Trumbo and Roy Choi she’s “100% opposed to” Champions and that she was “going to do everything I can to make sure it doesn’t happen.”
Mendelsohn also acknowledged she’s fighting Champions’ application at the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.
“They may end up not having a liquor license,” she said. “We’ll see what happens with that.”
But she took offense at “the slur of political influence.”
When she was done testifying, Mendelsohn sat in the front row. I finally asked her if she intended to stay in the room for the upcoming vote — if that was even allowed. She then turned and left chambers.
The interior of the 25,000-square-foot Champions, formerly the home of the III Forks steakhouse that closed in September 2020.
Robert Wilonsky
The hearing should have been straightforward after the Texas Supreme Court last week let Texas Card House on Harry Hines Boulevard keep its CO — a case pitting City Hall against its own Board of Adjustment that cost Dallas taxpayers $600,000. Instead, it was all kinds of bent.
At one point, council member Chad West’s appointee to the board, Kathleen Davis, asked why the city keeps issuing COs for poker rooms and then denying them. “Mistakes happen on a regular basis,” Rodriguez said.
I think we’ve found a new city motto.
A few minutes later, former council member and current board chair Dave Neumann, Mayor Eric Johnson’s appointee, got into it with Rodriguez over a briefing Rodriguez prepared for the Champions case. The assistant city attorney wrote that if the board voted to permit what the city insists is an illegal use, it would be exceeding its authority and putting the members at risk of litigation.
“I am appalled that the City Attorney’s Office in writing is threatening a board member — five board members,” Neumann said. “We are speechless about that.”
“Anybody who would read that would think that’s a threat, and that’s extremely inappropriate, very threatening,” Davis said. “And I mean just a terrible form of intimidation.”
The board was perplexed how Champions got its CO in the first place if it wasn’t legal. Champions’ legal representative asked who brought the so-called error to permitting officials’ attention after it had been issued. Megan Wimer, the assistant director of zoning, twice responded, “That’s confidential.”
The bar at Champions, which is trying to get its liquor license — which Cara Mendelsohn said Tuesday she’s opposing.
Robert Wilonsky
Which, among other reasons, is why the board decided with some ease to give Champions back its CO, which Neumann amended by forcing Champions to brick off its parking-lot driveway leading into Bent Tree North. Said Mendelsohn’s own appointee, “To say the city was grossly incompetent in how it handled the situation would be an understatement.”
It’s very possible that this, too, will head to court. It’s also possible the city’s not done fighting Texas Card House’s CO. Rodriguez said Tuesday that the city is still contemplating filing a motion for a rehearing, the longest of long shots. The City Council discussed that Wednesday behind closed doors — for several hours.
As I walked back to the office a little after 9 Tuesday night, I wondered how someone could revoke Dallas City Hall’s certificate of occupancy. I don’t think anyone should ever be allowed in there again.