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Dougherty’s Pharmacy moves to new Dallas address, opens kid-friendly ice cream shop

The owner of Neuhaus Cafe in Preston Hollow will operate the ice cream shop.

After more than 50 years at Preston Road and Royal Lane in Dallas — and after more than 90 years in business — Dougherty’s Pharmacy is moving 2 miles north. The new store at the southwest corner of Preston Road and Interstate 635 will be bigger, newer and sweeter.

The s’mores shake at Dougherty's is a chocolate-based shake lined in a graham cracker crust.
The s’mores shake at Dougherty's is a chocolate-based shake lined in a graham cracker crust.(Allison Slomowitz / Special Contributor)

Mervyn Sacher, the owner of the beloved Neuhaus Cafe in Preston Hollow, will open Dougherty’s Old Fashioned Soda Fountain inside the new pharmacy. His plan is to sell “elaborate milkshakes” for kids and coffee and tea for adults.

The new soda shop will also sell lunch items like pimento grilled cheese sandwiches and PB&Js.

Sacher will continue to operate Neuhaus Cafe at Preston-Royal. Patti Hunter, the former general manager at Neuhaus, is partnering with Sacher on Dougherty’s Old Fashioned Soda Fountain.

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Sacher is taking inspiration from Highland Park Soda Fountain, the 106-year-old institution that closed in 2018. For decades, Highland Park Soda Fountain was an operating pharmacy with casual counter service, where customers could sit on spinning seats, sip a strawberry milkshake and eat a grilled cheese.

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Sacher hopes to evoke that same nostalgia when the new Dougherty’s Pharmacy opens April 12. The soda fountain is expected to open soon after, Sacher said.

Dougherty’s takes the place of the former Spring Creek Barbeque restaurant.

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The existing Dougherty’s Pharmacy, at Preston Royal Village, is expected to close to the public around the same time the new shop opens.

Dougherty’s entered into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in August 2019 and emerged in December 2020. Dougherty’s has a second pharmacy at Preston and Campbell roads and another in McAlester, Okla.

The new Dougherty's Pharmacy is at Preston Road and LBJ Freeway in Dallas.
The new Dougherty's Pharmacy is at Preston Road and LBJ Freeway in Dallas.(Lola Gomez / Staff Photographer)

The new Dougherty’s Pharmacy near LBJ Freeway will have a drive-through. That faster, touchless service is important to the pharmacy’s growth, said Stewart Edington, Dougherty’s Pharmacy rep.

Dougherty’s has a long history in Dallas, starting in 1929 when Bill Dougherty opened the pharmacy in Oak Cliff. Dougherty’s moved to Preston Hollow in 1967.

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“It belongs to the community, it really does,” Edington said. “That’s not a cliché; it really is their pharmacy. It was important to stay in the neighborhood.”

The new location and the addition of the soda shop will “make us modern and keep up with the times — and also allow us to keep our roots,” Edington said.

Dougherty’s Pharmacy and Dougherty’s Old Fashioned Soda Fountain will be at 12835 Preston Road (at Interstate 635), Dallas. The pharmacy is expected to open April 12, 2021. The soda shop is expected to open a week or so after that.

For more food news, follow Sarah Blaskovich on Twitter at @sblaskovich.