Oak Cliff bar Tradewinds Social Club closes for good after more than half a century

After 52 years, Tradewinds Social Club in Oak Cliff is shutting its doors for good. The neighborhood dive bar on West Davis Street had become an essential spot for local music in recent years, helping fill the void left when Crown & Harp closed on Lower Greenville in 2017.

Tradewinds closed after Gov. Abbott’s most recent shutdown order for bars on June 26. Its operators were eager to reopen. General manager Justin DiBernardo raised more than $3,000 after setting up a GoFundMe account on July 20 to help keep the business afloat.

But bar owner Dennis Wood said that the building housing Tradewinds was sold a couple weeks ago, leaving him unable to renew his lease. He started bartending at Tradewinds in the ’80s before buying the business about two decades ago.

The property owner couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.

“Right around the time Crown & Harp closed I ran into Jim Branstetter and Lily Taylor, who did the shows over there,” DiBernardo said. “We put a night together and then I just kept saying yes to a lot of things until we had a pretty solid following for live music.”

Indeed, Running With Scissors was a weekly showcase for obscure and experimental music, Avant To Leave This Planet was a recurring performance art variety show, Debbie Does Disco was a monthly DJ night and Tradewinds also had regular shows with local punk and metal bands.

With Tradewinds gone, the only place left in Oak Cliff with similar programming is the Texas Theatre, which frequently pairs films with live music for its Behind the Screen series.

“It was definitely a late crowd,” DiBernardo said, pointing out that it wasn’t unusual for the music to start at 11 p.m. and keeping going right until 2 a.m. “Everyone was on punk time. Hopefully we’ll get the funds to get something else going at some point. The market is there. We’ll figure something out.”