MR FARRIS GOES TO CITY HALL: NOVEMBER

We've been attending all sorts of meetings for you lately, Denton, and we've got so much info about things that are coming up that we just had to write another column about it. This is that column. Read on to get in the know. 

First and foremost, lovely purveyor of all things donuts and chicken biscuits, Hypnotic Donuts, will open their Denton location in early 2014! They'll be a sort of entry way onto the square with a giant mural going onto the west side of the Radio Building on Hickory (see the image above). They are putting in outdoor seating complete with umbrellas and great big pots to fill the concrete corner with plant life. We know what you're thinking and don't worry - Cultivar Coffee will soon be contributing to the Denton Coffee Wars since they’ll have their own set up within Hypnotic Donuts. Word on the street is that this shop will be employing 20 to 30 strapping young Dentonites, making them both fatter and more caffeinated. These legit gourmet donuts will be available in the morning and for lunch. The shop will be closed during part of the afternoon and then open again to serve the evening crowd. We're looking forward to these tasty donuts making their way to the downtown area, and can't wait to grab a bacon-topped fried chunk of dough after a long night at East Side. 

We hear the African Grocery has opened over on Elm Street. If anyone has bought any African food stuffs from there, please let us know, we are highly curious about this little shop.

New retail is going in on Hickory and Welch, which means that sign with a photo of retail and living spaces is becoming a reality. We hear that they’ve finally broken ground and we speculate that a 7-11 will be going in sooner than you know it. Slurpees for all y’all.

East Hickory is seriously going to happen, for real this time y’all. No take backs, no halvesies, no joke. The city says they will break ground on the project in January. Apparently the CVB is wanting to start a new public art campaign around the construction to promote those businesses most affected by the street being blocked off and torn up. 

Holiday lighting and wassail fest is just around the corner! Get your Santa hats ready and get ready to pony up a little cash for that carriage ride with your significant other.  Twinkling lights, the community band and spiked wassail for all is on its way.

The convention center is supposedly going to be up for election by the city council sooner rather than later. The vote is supposed to happen before the next local election. Catch up on the convention center plans here and see the future of convention centers in Denton. 

That's it for this month, everybody. We're gonna take our coffee mug back into all of those lovely meetings now. Hopefully there won't be a Powerpoint presentation. 

THE DENTON COFFEE WARS: AMBIANCE

Coffee Wars by Becky Gates of Guyer High School. 

You may not know it yet, but you are currently living right in the middle of the coffee wars. Things are pretty crazy right now and it’s only going to get worse from here. Hypnotic Donuts/Cultivar Coffee will be opening early next year, and we've already heard rumors of two more coffee shops on their way to downtown Denton. We’re here to prepare you for the onslaught of beans, grounds and spoiled milk that will soon alter life as you know it in Denton County. This is the first in an ongoing column entitled Coffee Wars, in which we aim to guide you through the throes of caffeinated war here in Denton, TX. Future columns will cover things such as local roasters, baristas, etc..., but today we're talking about ambiance. Coffee isn't always the most important thing a coffee shop has to offer. Oftentimes, the reason someone patronizes one of these stores is to find a place in which their can either get some work done, talk with a friend or just sit down and read a book. We're definitely the type of person who is able to get more work done in front of a screen/book/stack of papers in a coffee shop than we are in front of a screen at home. Thusly, we took it upon ourselves to sort through the debris and do some research to see just what Denton has to offer as far as coffee shop ambiance goes. Read on for more and let us know your thoughts in the comments. 

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Shift

Shift is the new boy in town and they are pretty legit. The beans are from Ft. Worth’s Avoca and the technical know-how behind the bar is also great. (You’re in luck if you see the white dude with the hair - You’ll know him when you see him.) While the tables are slightly small and aren’t that great for working on a laptop. It’s a cozy little spot and everybody there seems hard at work. And after-all, isn’t that what you want in a coffee shop - peer pressure to get your stuff done? You might even see some people reading books on structuralism or Wittgenstein. This is a great place to pretend to read Infinite Jest.
 

Zera

Zera can be hit or miss as far as ambiance goes. Of course, a lot of your coffee shop experience depends upon your barista. Zera has a unique employee situation due to the fact that many of the workers here are actually in a Christian recovery program. Sometimes that can work out pretty well, other times, however, it doesn’t. If you’re looking for a place to join in a religious discussion or a place to have your next small group meeting, Zera is great. However, if you’re just looking for a place to sip on some good coffee while you work your butt off, look elsewhere.

Jupiter House

The reigning king of Denton coffee shops. Y’all remember when this place wasn’t owned by city councilman, Joey Hawkins? While Jupiter House’s coffee might not be our favorite, this is still a great spot to stop by if you and a friend are looking for some caffeine on the square. Many use this place as their office space (in fact, it gets so crowded, during finals you might not be able to find a table), but we find it fairly difficult to get anything actually accomplished. Jupiter House’s tables are best used for socializing, which isn’t a bad thing at all. In fact, if you’re single, you can probably delete your OkCupid account and just hang out here for an evening. That said, they’ve got a pretty good setup if you do decide to post up here and get some work done. Lots of electrical outlets, great music and plenty of light help the matter. If you’re smart, you’ll nab yourself one of the tables with a little light fixture on it. It makes you feel powerful for some reason. Beware of sitting at a table facing the front between the hours of 4 and 6pm, lest you enjoy staring directly at the sun.
 

Seven Mile Coffee

While we’ve given Seven Mile Cafe a hard time before, we’re pretty big fans of their coffee shop. Now that they’re complete with their own roaster, too, we couldn’t be happier. The tables are large and the coffee is good. It’s rarely too crowded, the chairs are comfortable and the baristas are always pleasant. The soundtrack can waver anywhere from The Smiths to Coldplay, though, so either pack some headphones or come prepared for anything. Too bad they close well before the witching hour. If you’re a daytime coffee shop worker, this is the place for you.

Big Mike's

Close by to what was once the late, great Kharma Cafe location, Big Mike's shares a similar clientele. Slightly granola people looking for a place to hangout and drink coffee. Big Mike's is the only of these spots that is open 24 hours. So, if you've got a large project or paper that you need to bang out, you can grab a spot and a bottemless cup of joe at Big Mike's and hope that you finish before the sunrise. The atmosphere itself is a bit grungy, but isn't that just kinda Denton? 

Roots

While we dig this place, you really should only be going here if you live south of Guyer High School. If so, you’re in the clear. It’s still Denton County, but it's in Highland Village and not the actual city of Denton. Do y’all read this blog over there anyway? Like Shift, Roots is another trendy, nicely decorated third-wave coffee shop in the middle of a non-assuming strip center. The difference between this place and Shift, however, is lots and lots of money behind the set up, but that may just be the main difference between Denton and Highland Village in general. If you dig chalk board walls and light fixtures inspired by Anthropologie, this is the set up for you. 

Yogurt Fusion

Does a fro-yo place deserve to make our list of coffee shops when we’re discussing ambiance? When said yogurt shop deals in Intelligentsia beans, it sure does. That, coupled with one of our favorite baristas in town makes Yogurt Fusion a contender. Add the fact that you can sit down and let your kids play games on the store’s Wii while you people watch the awesome, older crowd headed in to see Urine Town across the street at the Denton Community Theatre, and you’ve got a fun place to hang. It’s bright and there’s lots of windows, too. Good for conversation and kids, but bad for working.

The White House

A year ago, this location was Art Six. Then, it was 2 B's and a V for a while but that name conjured up too many images of Total Recall. Now, they're called The White House. The decor in this eternal coffee shop is a little bit too Hobby Lobby or Michael's for us, but it's a cool, old house and the backyard is great. We suggest bringing headphones and finding a cozy corner where no one will possibly find you. 

Denton Square Donuts

UPDATE: While we haven't confirmed this yet, we've heard that Denton Square Donuts has stopped using Bookish beans in their coffee and espresso beverages.

And, of course, Denton Square Donuts should be on this list, too. What was once home to Denton’s coffee shop The Hydrant, Denton Square Donuts has had a roller coaster couple of years. If we’re correct, they’ve seen three different sets of owners since their inception. During the vast majority of that time, though, they’ve been one of the town’s go-to spots for another one of our favorite local roasters, Bookish Coffee. While in the past, we’ve complained about the lack of donuts at Denton Square Donuts, we’ve heard rumors that DSD has recently changed their menu and that actual, honest-to-goodness donuts are on sale here now. However, today we’re discussing ambiance - not food. Don’t be fooled by Denton Square Donuts’ ground floor. Make your way to the back and up the stair case to get to the second floor, one of our favorite hide outs on the square. While it can sometimes be a little to quiet, this brick-walled room is a great place to zone out and finish that novel (it is National Novel Writing Month, after all) or grade that fat stack of papers.

WHAT WE DID: NOVEMBER 18TH

Well, we've been pretty busy this weekend, y'all, but we didn't get to take too many photos. Y'all still did, though, and that's awesome. Bike races, parades and the little fest that could, Oaktopia, all happened this weekend. Here's the pics to prove it. Remember to tag your photos with #WDDI whenever you're up to any awesome stuff this week for inclusion in next week's What We Did. Read on for pretty pics. 

Denton loves its parades. Veteran's Day is included among those days we celebrate with a parade. Now that we think about it, are there any holidays that can't be improved by a parade? Can't think of any. Here's a shot from Bryse Olcon of the parade from last Monday. 

Photo by Bryce Olcon. 

Shaina Sheaff enjoyed taking in some jazz over at Kenton Hall. 

Gabe Bunch got excited that Mellow Mushroom had some Breakfast Stout on draft. 

Remember when we recommended the lovely movie descriptions over at Silver Cinemas in the mall? Yeah, we still love those darned things. Crack us up every time. Worth the price of admission just to read the heavily-stroked text. 

Del the Funky Homosapien brought it down at Oaktopia. According to twitter the eclectic rapper could be heard from many blocks away. Photo by KBrownies. 

Oaktopia had acts of many shapes and sizes (and playing at lots of different places). Here's Afro Deezy Axe playing on the courthouse lawn. Photo by Stefania. 

We do love it when we get larger names (that would normally play Dallas or Ft. Worth) to pass through our humble abode. We hope Del enjoyed his time here and that we see him again sometime. Thanks, Oaktopia!

WHAT WE DID: NOVEMBER 11TH

We went back to being our normal fat ass selves this weekend. We hope you like food photos, because there's a bunch of it below. Burgers, chicken fried steak, smoked meats, etc... It's all included in this week's What We Did. Also, we were in a parade and hung out at The DIME Store for a while. Y'all took some great photos, too. Ya know what? Now that we're thinking about it, this is a pretty gosh darn great post. Have fun perusing them! And remember to tag your photos with #WDDI on your social network of choice to get included in What We Did every Monday morning.  

Lone Star Attitude had a soft opening over the weekend. They officially launch to the public starting today, November 11th. Above is the "Georgie Boy," their burger with bacon and cheddar. Our expectations for the place were all over the place, but now that we've finally been there, we're happy to say that LSA is a welcome addition to the Denton square. While the sign or overall feel might be a bit more "in your face" than many are happy with, they are able to pull it off. The food is good and cheap and the atmosphere is fun. It's definitely a wonderful spot to take out-of-towners and/or family visiting you in town. We'll have more of our thoughts on LSA in a separate post tomorrow. 

Most places with vibes like LSA have overly sweet drinks, but we found the drinks - most of which are tequila or vodka based - to be very well thought out, and believe us when we say we tried a lot of the drinks. 

There's even a nod to the former occupant of the space inside. You can catch it if you keep looking up. 

The dudes over at Pan Ector were awesome enough to get us a limited edition run of some "Mean Green" UNT shirts for  the Homecoming Parade this past Saturday. Maybe you caught some of us on top of a float yelling at you about your haircut or that sweater we liked. Where did you get that sweater anyway? Thanks Pan Ector!

Reader Sarah Adams (and a bunch of other WDDI friends) went to UNT's Homecoming game, too. 

We checked out Loop 288's pedestrian bridge at night. Still a fun walk, but could definitely use some additional lighting up there. The current ambiance is very "mugging friendly."

Watch out Denton, we're all over meetings and committees near you.  

If you really want to make some change that can be noticed in town, we encourage you to do the same - join a committee or group and start giving your opinion. We know you have them. The breakfast taco committee is full, though. 

We had a Christmas-themed photobooth at The DIME Store's Holiday Open House this past Saturday. Here's a few of the shots from the participants. We had a fun time and can't wait to lose our paycheck buying Christmas presents for our friends and family at DIME. The new guy's section is fun, too. 

We also made it over to the newly-opened Horny Toad Cafe over in the old Good Eats spot on the loop. - another family-friendly (and more upscale than we had originally imagined) eatery that's popped up on the scene in the past week. 

This enormous chicken fried wagyu steak may give Cartwright's a run for its money as far Denton's best CFS goes. 

Horny Toad Cafe features lots of "Farm to table" ingredients on their menu. The restaurant is owned by the same people behind The Abbey Inn, too. It's a much better use of the space than Good Eats ever was and we actually will probably go back again sometime. Above is the smoked meatloaf and organic "mash." 

Photo by certifiedelvisa

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra has an 'On the Go' preformance at UNT's Murchison Performing Arts Center last week. We especially enjoyed a particular flutist with a gold flute who played with plenty of flair.  

Big Mike's has the best mugs. Photo by Shaina Sheaff. 

Photo by Shaina Sheaff. 

Made a quick trip out to Lake Ray Roberts to get a glimpse of Texas fall at it's finest. The trees were turning, the air was crisp and a few campfires made us feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside.  

MONTH IN REVIEW: OCTOBER

Do y’all ever get into those conversations with people who have recently moved to Denton who just don’t dig it? We have - quite a bit actually. We’ve come to the conclusion that enjoying Denton life is a lot like taking a vacation to an all-inclusive resort - you have to completely buy in 100% to the events taking place while you’re there in order to enjoy it. This means going to large city events such as the Day of the Dead festival. That said, October was full of those types of events. Looks like November will be, too. Here is some of what happened over the past few weeks.

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If we want to beat a dead horse, we could mention that Subway finally changed their sign at the beginning of the month after a long wait. Not to be outdone, the soon-to-open Lone Star Attitude put up their bright sign. Some took issue with it, as well. However, we haven't really heard any major rumblings about the classy corner sign put up by Cafe Herrera. 

The Atlantic Cities blog published an article saying that Denton County ranked #6 in a list of the tech hotspots in the nation. They came to this conclusion by looking at jobs that were created in the area between the years 2007 and 2012. City councilman Kevin Roden, says the city isn’t capitalizing on this fact correctly and published what he thinks should happen on his blog.

Oh man, was Canned this past month, too? That seems like it was forever ago. We enjoyed some wonderful canned brews and interviewed Menomena in between what seemed to be flash floods. We’re hoping Oaktopia is able to defy the “Rainy Denton Festival” curse.

Earlier this month, the city of Denton filed a temporary restraining order on the Eagleridge natural gas well to get them to stop operating without the necessary permits. The suits were dropped almost as quickly as anyone could report on the matter, and we haven’t heard much else out of it yet. City councilman, Dalton Gregory, says the city plans on rewriting (again) our local fracking rules. Said new rules will only apply to gas wells that are created after they are in effect, leaving existing gas wells to operate under the rules in place at the time of their initial drilling.

On the lighter side, we put on a show with Psychic Temple, Sarah Alexander and Shiny Around the Edges in which the latter sadly played their last show with their sax player Mike Forbes. 

Maker Space officially made the announcement that they have abandoned their original name and identity to become TRADE and plan to open in 2014.

We wrote about tacos and some of y’all whined about it. We’re gonna do it again soon, so get ready to argue with us.

We don’t want to jynx it, but the UNT football team has been strangely great this season. After their Halloween victory, they’re currently 6-3. We’re excited to see where this season will take them.

Local cold brewers, Dead Beat Coffee, sold out of their first batch of java. We’ll have more info from them and what they’re all about soon.

The Day of the Dead Festival happened again (a week before the actual Day of the Dead, mind you). The coffin races were bigger and better than ever before. We got to see lots of spectacle and a fair amount of crashes. We hope those things only increase next year. Oh yeah, the costumes were good, too.

The Horny Toad Cafe started prepping the old Good Eats spot over at Loop 288 and I-35 by Rose Costumes. All we know about them so far is that they are not related to the Horny Toad Bar and Grill in Cranfills Gap, TX. As soon as we know more, we’ll share the knowledge.

The Pizza Inn at the corner of University and Carroll suddenly closed down this month. They hurriedly took all of the signage down, too. We haven’t heard yet if there’s another business with plans to move in yet, but we’re thinking there must be.

Lastly, Irwindale, CA complained about the air and smell created by the Huy Fong Foods factory that produces the spicy Asian condiment, sriracha and wanted the factory to stop production until a solution was found. Kevin Roden (haven’t we already talked about him in here?) attempted to get the factory to move to Denton and created the social media tag #sriracha2denton encouraging others to share photos of Sriracha in and around Denton. We talked about how sriracha would make the town better. Some complained that they didn’t want it. While Irwindale and Huy Fong were able to figure things out on their own, the story of a small town Denton politician stealing sriracha from California got international attention and lots of buzz.

Alright, November. What ya got?

WHAT WE DID: NOV. 4TH

Nathan Williams of Sunday Print Shop picked out his favorite sub $20 items at the Handmade Harvest. We like his Matthew Sallack pics. 

The Center for Visual Arts was packed from 10am until closing time at 4pm. 

Our tag made the board at the Handmade Harvest! Pic from Brad Koehn.  

Elyse Harlow dug The Green Piano's wares at the Handmade Harvest. 

Futuro Woman liked Quilts by Emily.  

Rock Lottery 12 was another well-attended event this past weekend. AV the Great (pictured above), a local rapper, fronted a rather eclectic group of musicians (the best kind of Rock Lottery group) that called themselves The Trill.

 "The" Moist was the band that we most hoped would create some sort of an ongoing collaboration, however, we're not sure how keen the Dallas Cowboys drumline was on it. 

Daniel Ziegler of The Corn Kit Quintet. 

We all voted early. Did you? If not, Tuesday's the day. The Denton ISD bond proposal makes up the crux of it. If you aren't sure what that entails, they have a good rundown here. There's also a Facebook group that is encouraging folks to know that is okay to vote no on the election. 

The very first dial tone phone call in Denton was made on this phone from Mayor Mark Hannah to his wife. No joke. We used it to prank call our friend Tommy. 

Michelle Bradley likes the fact that Viet Bites is BYOB. What wine goes best with banh mi and shrimp chips?  

Royal Grub had a launch party for their salsas. Sara Button dug it. 

Alphonso might be our new favorite bartender at Paschall's. This "Older Fashioned" he elegantly prepared for us was so beautiful it was hard to bring ourselves to drink it. 

We checked out a house show with former Dentonite Bryce Gilbertson. 

We tried the new gourmet grilled cheeses at Shiitake Swerve. The order may have taken a little while to arrive, but it was delivered to us inside of Oak St. Drafthouse and worth the wait. We tried both "The Swerve" and "The Decadent." Both were perfectly crunchy on the outside and the cheeses on the inside were a great mix of salty and sweet - no soup needed for dipping. 

Photo by Sara Button. 

THE DENTON SRIRACHA MERGER

As you probably already know by now, the factory that produces Sriracha, the condiment made of chili and garlic also known as “the best thing ever,” has shut down for the foreseeable future due to the fact that the townsfolk of Irwindale, CA, the town in which the factory resides, are a bunch of whiny babies and jerks. Said jerks apparently can’t appreciate the slight smell of garlic in the air or breathing in delectable spices all the time. Kevin Roden, Denton city councilman and over-pronouncer of Sriracha, has made a bid for Denton to be the new home of the beloved company and we’re right behind him on this. Yesterday, Roden took to social media, encouraging Dentonites from all over to show David Fong, CEO of Huy Fong Foods (the company behind Sriracha), reasons why Denton should be their new home. If you search #Sriracha2Denton, you’ll find tons of pics of the iconic Sriracha bottle in front of plenty of Denton landmarks. In a bid of positivity, we’re jumping the gun and discussing a list of things in Denton that would be markedly improved with the addition of Huy Fong Foods and Sriracha to town. If you have your own to add, tell us in the comments!

1. A Sriracha Flavored Ice Cream from Beth Marie’s

We’ve tried their “red wine and blue cheese” and their whiskey and honey concoction and both were delicious and left us clamoring for more. What if Huy Fong moved to Denton and collaborated with Beth Maries on an ice cream flavor? Can you imagine the possibilities? You could place the garlicky, spicy ice cream that you could place on top of some sort of dessert that we currently can't imagine, but we’re sure exists. We need this now.

2. Sriracha in some Morrison’s Corn Kits Mixes

People don’t realize that Sriracha isn’t just good on Asian food. It’s good on all sorts of stuff. You can dip pizza in it, use it as a replacement for salsa or stir it into some corn bread for a nice, spicy kick. We hope to do just that. Just put “Thanks, We Denton Do It” on the mix when you sell it, Morrison’s.

3. Sriracha Cocktail at Paschall’s or Oak St. Drafthouse

Oh man, can y’all imagine the possibilities? A teaspoon of sriracha in a bloody Mary (or Maria) from either of the aforementioned bars would give it just the kick that we love. We could even see The Greenhouse getting on this bandwagon. Heck, maybe y’all should just go ahead and do this and we’ll hop in over the weekend and try one. Maybe for free? What other drinks would sriracha be good in? Shoot, just shake it in a shaker with some tequila and maybe a lime and we’ll drink whatever you wanna call it.

4. An Asian Market

Do you know that it takes like half an hour to get to Super H Mart? That’s not even when it’s trafficy. Maybe if we get Huy Fong to move to town, we’ll get us enough Asian cred that we could have a suitable Asian market in Denton. After all, we need a place where we can go to purchase some shrimp chips, (cheaper, fresher) kimchi, spices, some salt-cured duck eggs and other perfectly normal things. Foreign exchange students might feel more comfortable in town, too.

5. La Estrella Tacos

Because we can’t go a week without mentioning our beloved taco lords, we figured we’d throw them in here, too. Have bottles of Sriracha on the tables at La Estrella and you won’t have to worry about over or under-pouring your salsa from the little plastic cups onto your tacos. Sriracha bottles have that handy-dandy green cap that allows you to precisely control just how much red sauce makes it onto your food of choice. We imagine that the spicy condiment would go just perfectly on any taco from La Estrella.

6. The Courthouse/Courthouse Lawn

We already know that you can drink wine on the courthouse lawn. Let’s just start getting weird with it and drinking some sriracha, too. On the plus side, it’s non-alcoholic and comes in a plastic bottle, so you won’t meet any apprehension from the police. If not, the courthouse has been looking a little bland lately. Can we get someone to just pour a little sriracha on the top?

A VERY DENTON HALLOWEEN

Picture by Rich Anderson

It's Halloween, dudes. Costume parties, candy corn, and good times are gonna be all over the place before you're even out of work this evening. Maybe this is the year you finally stop being the Popeye to your spouse's Olive Oyl costume. Maybe you're tired of being a sexy nurse/politician/ocelot/what-have-you. We figured we'd step in and give you a hand. Here's a list of possible costumes for you to blow the lid off of whichever local costume party you plan on attending.The list is full of suggestions of Denton Halloween-specific costumes and how you can put them together. 

1. A Bartender at Paschall's

What you'll need to to: 

Go to Denton Thrift and find an old vest. Hit up Rose Costumes and grab a nice, curly mustache and some spirit gum (or grow one real quick). Carry around a jigger and a bottle of St. Germaine or Luxardo and discuss Norman Mailer. 

2. Peter Weller

What you'll need to to: 

Did y'all know Robocop got his degree in Theatre from UNT in the 1970's? He might not have spent too much time here after that, but we'll still claim him. With Weller, you have lots of different options. You could go as old school Robocop (just spray paint your naked body silver), William S. Burroughs from Naked Lunch (get a top coat, a fedora and a bunch of heroin) or even that one character from the 90's sci-fi classic Screamers that we honestly remember very little about, but we would definitely love to overhear you explain your costume to friends. 

3. Shiny Around the Edges (a couples costume)

What you'll need to do: 

Channel your inner White Stripes, it's an all red and black wardrobe from here on out. If you're going as lead singer, Michael Seman, you're gonna need some orange pants, a black t-shirt, some New Balance kicks and an Oakland Raiders baseball hat on top of your fro. If you're adventurous and going as going as Jenny Seman buy yourself  a red dress, a black sweater, some decent cowboy boots and try out a crazy sweeping side part to your luxurious dark brown hair. Pepper your conversations with topics like urban economics and free form jazz performance art in the form of indie rock. Maybe carry around a book or two, as well. 

4.  One of them Local Farmer People

What you'll need to do: 

You know these people right? You see 'em at the market. They're cool. They have good food, too. We just decided to be jerks and stereotype them a bit. This can be done with or without dreads. That's your choice. Get some patchouli, some 1970's era Levi's and carry around a bunch of eggs. Bonus points if you zone out in the middle of all of your conversations or introduce yourself to the same person three or four times in the course of a single evening. 

5. The John Williams (owner of East Side Social Club and Oak St. Draft House) 

What you'll need to do: 

Grab a beer, a bottle of whiskey and a stack of shot glasses. Wear an Oak Street Draft House shirt or sweatshirt, cargo shorts and flip flops. Offer a shot to anyone you make friends with. 

6. Frenchy's Famous Van

 What you'll need to do: 

Head to SCRAP or Hobby Lobby, grab a bright orange shirt and blue paint. Craft an excellent message on your shirt touting the local news, events or a message to a friend. Mow people's lawns even if they ask you not to. 

7. Endive

What you'll need to do:  

As we all know, Denton is known for it's endive - why not embrace it in the form of a Halloween costume this year? Wear some combination of white and green and smell fresh. Maybe be in a salad or something. We don't know. How do you prepare endive again?  

DENTON'S GHOSTLY GUARDIANS

Written by Shaun Treat 

The Homer Flow Memorial Hospital built in 1950

 Halloween is upon us, which seems the perfect opportunity to revisit some of Denton’s most legendary ghost stories. Although most TV and movies tell us that ghosts are frightfully vengeful ghouls, there are also tales of dear departed Dentonites who linger on as guardian spirits. We're going to take this opportunity to warn you of a few of the ghastly souls you should be on the look out for this Halloween. 

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Most ghost stories that get sensationalized are about vengeful or malevolent spirits, like the terrifying tale of the Goatman of the Old Alton Bridge, but not all ghosts are scary monsters. In fact, there are a number of local spectres who are loitering as guardian spirits to our fair community. One is the ghost of Nurse Betty from the old Homer Flow Memorial Hospital.

Many a Dentonite claim their honest-to-Betsy local bonafides by having been born in the old Flow Memorial Hospital, founded with a 1949 post-mortem donation by Homer Flow who is himself buried in the IOOF Cemetery.

Apparently old Homer had donated his property and a chunk of change to the city and Denton County jointly on the condition that they bankroll a charity hospital that provided affordable medical care to the poor. A downright Christian mission that worked for almost forty years, until politics and some municipal tax disputes contributed to the controversial bankruptcy of the Flow Hospital in 1986. Developers have since turned its lot into student housing on Scripture Hill, but stories of a ghostly nurse had already been haunting the hospital grounds for decades.

An unidentified nurse outside of the old Denton City Hospital south of the square, which has it's own ghostly stories. 

Laura Douglas, a librarian at the Emily Fowler Library, has kept records on the ghost often called Nurse Betty after her mother’s own accounts as a nurse there were passed down. As early as the 1950s, night staff, security guards, and even patients had inexplicable encounters with a woman dressed in a nurse’s white gown and cap. Many told of a dedicated young nurse at the Flow Hospital, pregnant from a tryst with a married doctor, who had died in the elevator after collapsing from a botched back-alley abortion yet her spirit still lingered as a caretaker. A new mother groggily saw a nurse in “a vintage uniform” close a window and then blanket her newborn in the middle of a chilly night, but was later told by the night nurse on duty that there was no one else on the floor. Even after the hospital closed, one shaken co-ed claimed that a woman “dressed in a nurse costume” had spooked away a potential attacker during her walk home in the wee hours after the campus bars had closed. Most accounts of Nurse Betty are similarly benevolent or benign, even if often unnerving.

Emily Fowler at the library front desk in 1949. 

Another public servant who continues her mission even after death is a well-known namesake of Denton’s public library. Emily Fowler was a dedicated crusader for free public literacy who served as librarian from 1943 to 1969. After her passing, numerous witnesses have had enough strange occurrences in the library to warrant several teams of paranormal investigators. In one of our favorite tales, a paranormal team was taking readings and recordings for EVP by prompting ghostly response with questions. When they reviewed their tapes, they were surprised by a faint but firm response: “Shhhhhhh!” Apparently, the lingering librarian likes her peace and quiet! Ms. Fowler also has a habit of stacking improperly indexed books in the middle of the floor, maybe because she is a real stickler for abiding by the Dewey Decimal System. Because of this, Laura Douglas has been working on having The Emily Fowler branch officially designated as a haunted library.

Denton has other guardian spirits, like Blind Sheriff Hodges and his boxer Candy or the mischievous Mr. Harrison of the Campus Theater, who still patrol our favorite local haunts. We’d like to think that when someone remarks on our fair town’s pretty remarkable community spirit, we can wink at each other knowing it also includes some civic-minded Dentonites from back in the day who are still lurking about.

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 Back in The Day is an ongoing WDDI contribution from Shaun Treat, an assistant professor in Communication Studies at the University of North Texas and founder of the Denton Haunts historical ghost tour. Doc Treat has written about numerous local places and personalities at his Denton Haunts blog, and is forever indebted to the great work of the fine folks with the Denton County Historical Commission and local keepers of history like Mike Cochran and Laura Douglas at the Emily Fowler Library for their tireless work in helping preserve Denton’s intriguing past.