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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\u2019s occupied by Champions Social Club, whose owners say they\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n
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 \u2014 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\u2019t.<\/p>\n
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 \u2026 poker. The city keeps saying members-only card rooms are illegal, even after a prior city attorney told the City Council in 2019<\/a> that poker rooms are kosher so long as they\u2019re private and the owner doesn\u2019t take a cut of the winning hand. The state\u2019s own law library agrees<\/a>.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, Champions asked the City Council-appointed Board of Adjustment to return its CO<\/a>. 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 \u201cgross incompetence.\u201d<\/p>\n And it turned into the Cara Mendelsohn Show.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Robert Wilonsky<\/p>\n 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 \u201cNO POKER\u201d sticker affixed to her pink suit\u2019s lapel. She left for a bit, but rushed back into chambers while one of Champions\u2019 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\u2019s efforts to deny the CO. <\/p>\n Opinion<\/p>\n By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n Mendelsohn stood at the horseshoe for hours, near her board appointee, Michael Hopkovitz \u2014 the lone nay vote among the five panelists. She testified, too, to defend herself, she said, against \u201cthe absolute lies\u201d 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<\/a> \u2014 there was audio played during an uncomfortable cross-examination.) <\/p>\n She said she was there against the advice of a city attorney who, according to Mendelsohn herself, told her she shouldn\u2019t even be in chambers.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve sat through plenty of off-the-rails meetings at City Hall. But I\u2019ve never seen a council member take the podium during a hearing of an independent quasi-judicial board that isn\u2019t supposed to have any interactions with council members, much less ones offering unsolicited legal advice during a public proceeding. <\/p>\n 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\u2019t received a response. I would have asked the just-hired inspector general, if the council hadn\u2019t just fired him<\/a>.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Robert Wilonsky<\/p>\n I get what Mendelsohn was trying to do. She was sticking up for the neighborhood behind Champions\u2019 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<\/a> about that proposed H-E-B grocery store, which received the City Plan Commission\u2019s unanimous blessing Thursday afternoon. It\u2019s getting hard to keep track of which project next to which highway people hate most these days.<\/p>\n Mendelsohn has made her hatred of private poker rooms abundantly clear on Facebook and in newsletters. On Tuesday, Mendelsohn said she\u2019d 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\u2019s \u201c100% opposed to\u201d Champions and that she was \u201cgoing to do everything I can to make sure it doesn\u2019t happen.\u201d <\/p>\n Mendelsohn also acknowledged she\u2019s fighting Champions\u2019 application at the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.<\/p>\n \u201cThey may end up not having a liquor license,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ll see what happens with that.\u201d<\/p>\n But she took offense at \u201cthe slur of political influence.\u201d<\/p>\n 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 \u2014 if that was even allowed. She then turned and left chambers.<\/p>\n The interior of the 25,000-square-foot Champions, formerly the home of the III Forks steakhouse that closed in September 2020.<\/p>\n Robert Wilonsky<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ATIIEVPAVVC4PJYKLZDTRZX75Y.JPG\")
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