Food in Southlake

'Lake Ledbetter', our flooded backyard

Since we’re still staying close to home, the only thing I’ve got to write about this week is a new restaurant. If the rain doesn’t stop soon, we’ll need a boat to do any traveling!

Two Sides of Southlake and Restaurant Review

Large house in Southlake

When I think of the Southlake area I generally think of grand homes and upscale shopping complexes. However, there is another side to this fashionable community. Although not incorporated until 1956, Southlake was first settled in the 1840s. It was part of a group of small settlements that included Dove, Jellico, Union Church and Whites Chapel.

Known for the growing of cotton and melons, the Dove Community began in the 1870s. The addition of a store, post office and Lonesome Dove School helped solidify the town, as did the Lonesome Dove Baptist Church and Cemetery. The construction of Lake Grapevine caused some families to relocate and the annexation by Southlake put an end to the Dove Community, but remnants of it still exist. Another small town, Jellico, was established in the late 1880s. It consisted of a post office, a cotton gin,

Top: Log house
Bottom: Barn at Bob Jones Environmental Center

blacksmith shop, grist mill, syrup press, and school. With the waning of cotton prices, the town failed. Union Church probably had the same history as these other tiny towns, but it seems to have faded into history ~ or at least I can’t find anything about it. White's Chapel was actually not a town but a Methodist Church with its community that grew up around it. It began as a log meetinghouse and was the first Methodist church in this area. Eventually a school and a cemetery were built. While Dove, Jellico, Union, and White’s Chapel schools all served this area, the school that led to the development of the Southlake-Carroll school system was the Carroll school. In 1919 the school had three teachers to instruct 97 students in nine grades in a wooden building. It continued to serve as an elementary school until 1970.