Question of the Day: Is Lee Harvey’s an Offensive Name for a Bar?
Last month, we ran an online-only feature called “The Best Jukebox Bars in Dallas.” One such bar was Lee Harvey’s (aka “The Most Polite Bar in Dallas.” Well, a reader named Jackson left a comment to the story that I’m only just now reading. He wrote:
You write that Lee Harvey’s is “a destination spot for locals and out-of-towners.” Not to quibble, but wouldn’t it be safe to say that cocktails at LH wouldn’t go down well with Kennedy offspring who happen to be visiting Big D? Not to mention the now-fully grown children of the local cop Oswald killed minutes before his arrest in ‘63, J.D. Tippit.
To this day there’s no watering hole in D.C. called “J. Wilkes,” and his infamy is a lot older.
Ironic detachment, untethered, can border on cruelty, especially when victims are still around. Try imagining a Middle Eastern joint in L.A. named after Sirhan B. Sirhan, who killed Bobby Kennedy in ‘68. Downright creepy.
When Lee Harvey’s opened, I wasn’t offended by the name, but I can remember thinking that some might be. Now, after five years, when I hear the name, I no longer think of the assassin. I think of fire pits and a tiny pool table and brain cells sacrificed in the name of good, clean fun (okay — mostly neither good nor clean).
So the question: is the name offensive?
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Go back to Colorado and stop whining. It’s not offensive.
I think of Harry Hunsicker.
“…but wouldn’t it be safe to say that ****tails at LH wouldn’t go down well with Kennedy offspring…”
Yeah. A Kennedy would have trouble downing a ****tail. Sure. Pull this leg and it plays Jingle Bells.
No. Next question?
hmm… i always thought it was named after the bit-part character in “stripes”
I can see both sides of the argument. My dad is a cop and I think I would be reticent to drink at a bar named for the man who killed him.
That being said, I also think that some time has passed and surely even the children or grandchildren of Officer Tippet realize that it’s not about glorifying Oswald. The entire assasination has become a pop culture phenomenon and so the name of the bar is just riffing on it since it’s something Dallas is know for, IMO.
Also, they have yet to designate my preferred seating spot in the back as John Wilkes Booth so there is obviously a line they won’t cross.
Yes, it is offensive, but you say that like it’s a bad thing…
Yes, I find it in bad taste, but there seems to be no shortage of that attribute in Dallas, so I’m not surprised.
I think it should have been named Candy Barr.
It’s not like it’s called Hitler’s.
I love LH and I only think it would be offensive if they started passing out their flyers to tourists in front of the School Book Depository.
I had a couple of beers at Stalin’s Bar & Grill last week then went over to Pol Pot’s Restaurant for some Sushi — it was to die for.
Did you have the Pol Pot Stickers?
Bethany,
Yes. It is amazing what they can do with Chihuahua.
But what about the Clown Burgers at JW Gacy’s Grill?
Are they made of real clown?
Yeah — but it tastes kinda funny.
Whatever you do, don’t order the hot dog at Ron Jeremy’s Grill on McKinney.
My neighbor worked at J.E.J. Bar and Grill until he came down with aspergers.
PR, I ordered a hotdog there and it was cheese filled which was a great surprise since they didn’t show it on the menu. Strange.
And if you order food at Barack’s Bar & Grill on Lover’s, they will take it away from you and distribute it to everyone else.
Is Clair Boothe loose?
Well, now I just want to open a restaurant/bar named the Wack Job, and base the menu on, well, wack jobs.
Don’t order the egg nog, or anything with mayo.
The protein smoothie at TCBY is made with genuine throat yogurt.
As a rule, here are the foods to avoid – or maybe not:
Fish taco
Kumquat
Jerk chicken
Atomic Fireballs
Blow pops
Nut roll
Spicy tuna roll
Burger with an onion ring in it and a fried egg on it as well as chili, with a side of cheese fries and a yard-long beer: “A Nation in Shock”
Rusty Trombone’s serves up a huge corndog, but I heard it tastes like crap.
I like me some cowboy burgers. Come to think of it, i just like me some cowboys.
Brian, don’t you have more profitable things to do with your time?
Has anyone eaten at MW’s? Smells like broccoli!
Look. As Larry Flint once tried to prove, there’s an expiration date on bad taste.
That said, I’m pulling what little rank I have here.
First, I’m a Dallas native who was two f___ing blocks away when Kennedy was shot. And it nearly killed me, that day. And for 30 years recalling it.
BUT: A) That was nearly half a century ago and it felt great, for instance, when recently I attended a nightime event at the ‘6th Floor Museum’, drinking feet away from when the shots were fired. It was wonderful to realize that it was so long ago that it was no longer a wound or even a scar. It was now a memory. To put this in perspective, at the time of the assassination, the beginning of Russian Revolution and World War 1 (1917) was 45 years before. That was light years ago, then and now.
PLUS: The bar is not named Lee Harvey Oswald. There is a guy down the street from me whose name is ‘Lee Harvey’. Let’s pretend Seth named his joint after him.
I think Lee Harvey’s is about the only place to get it right in this town. Everywhere else they seem to be going for an L.A. vibe or NYC (I swear there was a bar called Tribeca and another one called Central Park at one point). At least LH’s is trading in on some local color…and btw, whether you believe it or don’t, LHO was never convicted of any crime against Tippett or JFK.
Daniel, loved your and other jokes. Some of which were a bit anatomical, up on this com box thread about as long as Paulie Shore’s leading man status lasted. My literal response was strictly to answer the original question. “Is Lee Harvey’s an offensive name for a bar”. Frankly, as I suggested, if I can see 1963 as being a time when pet stores sold dinosauers, then no, Lee Harvey’s is bad taste in the very best sense. In fact, I’m going there now! Where I hope to fire three shots quickly.
nothing wrong with that at all.
/owner, James Earl Ray’s Memphis BBQ.
yes.
but Sean Avery’s “sloppy seconds” comment isn’t.
I want to open a bar next to Lee Harvey’s called Jack Ruby’s — just to scare ‘em.
How about a bar named Viagra?
I loved Judge Roy Bean’s when we still had a few in town. Wonder if any of the families of his swingers had issues eating there?
Not only is it not offensive, to not understand and come to terms with the mentality of Lee Harvey – or Clyde Barrow for that matter – is to not understand Dallas. This city constantly looks outside itself to try take on its idenity, dress itself in the last season couture of some other place. What it doesn’t realize is that the most Dallas thing – screw the oil rigs, the big money, the can-do spirit – are the Frankensteins this city has created. Oswald and Barrow make us look at what the dream of a no where place that promises everything really is: a scarry extreme American Dream, where fame and immortality is a bullet away. This city is always trying to pave over this reality, this heart of its identity, but the sooner it can figure out a way to embrace it, the sooner Dallas will mature into itself. No Trinity River project or Uptown development is going to make Dallas embrace what it is. Lee Harveys – fire pits and Pabst – does, in its own little way.
Why no hullabaloo over the Ozzie Rabbit Lodge on Lancaster in east Fort Worth? It is adorned with a mural of Oswald’s murder, only blocks from his grave and is a great little neighborhood bar with a lot of local color.
When I go to Lee Harvey’s, I always sit in the back and to the left.
Well, Lakewood’s Tom Stephenson (former D writer) did it first: assassination pictures on the wall of the old Greenville Avenue Country Club (fondly known as the GACC) Point of info for whippersnappers: GACC is now J. Pepe’s.
I found a dog last December by Lee Harvey’s.
I named it Harvey. It’s a great name.
So what are you going to do if you find a rabbit next time?
Hmmm, Personally, I never thought about the bar all that much until I saw this post here, but Lee Harvey is a part of Dallas history, whether we like it or not, buy into the conspiracy theory of the grassy knoll shooter or believe it was Lee Harvey, or lived during that era with a deep personal connection or were born after. Actually, I find it sad that more people probably know the location of the bar than know that we have a memorial to JFK here in Dallas. But there’s the rub: bars invite communication, story telling, and hanging out with friends among the ambient sound of clicking glasses, whereas memorials invoke a solemn air where people whisper and the one in Dallas doesn’t have a spot to sit down on or a place to learn all that much. So after seeing the memorial, people head over the museum and after seeing the pictures and dates they have already seen in the history books, they then go to Lee Harvey’s where they might hear a still-living witness share their heart-rending tale or perhaps share their thoughts on what the JFK museum and memorial raised in their minds…and it will be in that moment that the everyday people, the people JFK was elected to lead, will feel the deepest connection to him.
So yeah, while the name never made it into Dear Abby’s imaginary list of social etiquette’s Top Ten Socially Appropriate Names for Bars in The Continental USA, it does undoubtedly serve the purpose of providing a place where people can keep JFK’s memory alive – and perhaps that’s the best way to look at it: They are keeping John F Kennedy’s name live in Lee Harvey’s Bar, so toast to JFK while you’re there and smile smuggly while you thinkg “take that Lee Harvey!”.