The lowdown on what’s up with neighborhood businesses

Divine Coffee Shop becomes JJ’s Cafe

Lake Highlands residents Jose Ramirez and wife Josefina Orozco have breathed new life into Northlake Shopping Center’s Divine Coffee Shop, giving it a thorough renovation and renaming it JJ’s Cafe. Though the couple purchased Divine in April 2010, they have just now finally seen their vision for the breakfast spot realized. They gave JJ’s Café an updated menu featuring crepes, cheese blintzes, scrambles and more. “We now also have a variety of flavored pancakes,” Ramirez says. The neighborhood breakfast spot is open from 7 a.m.-2 p.m., seven days a week.

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JJ’s Café
10233 E. Northwest Hwy.
214.221.4659

Construction begins at Walnut Hill and Audelia


Razing of the long-vacated building at Walnut Hill and Audelia officially has begun, and new homes could be built by spring 2012. Trucks have started tearing down the former Walmart in preparation for the White Rock Place Addition project. As we reported last summer, the 7-Eleven will stay, along with the new ViewPoint Bank, My Office, the vet clinic, the former florist space and the strip that holds Highlands Café and T. Hee Greetings. Everything else will be demolished. White Rock Place Addition, comprised of 17 single-family homes by three different builders — Highland Classic Homes, Nobility Homes and New Leaf Construction — could be complete by April 2012, Highland Classic Homes’ Mark Dann tells us. “We will need the weather to cooperate to meet that deadline,” he says. Dann says he doesn’t have the exact numbers of home sales thus far, “but from the other builders … I think we are half sold out at this point.”

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ViewPoint Bank
9625 Audelia
800.578.9009

Park Tavern to open at The Shops at Park Lane

Park Tavern is set to open this month at The Shops at Park Lane. With hopes for a mid-month opening, the restaurant is the first DFW venture for Chicago-based parent company Restaurants-America, which is also opening Townhouse Restaurant in the former Sushi Samba space at Galleria Dallas. Park Tavern will feature American cuisine in a “sophisticated urban setting.” The menu will offer a wide selection of small plates, sandwiches, salads and entrées, and the 6,800-square-foot restaurant will be located near Bailey’s Prime Plus.

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The Shops at Park Lane
Park and Greenville

Nothing Bundt Cakes expands

The beloved Preston and Royal store, Nothing Bundt Cakes, continues its Texas expansion with four new completed leases in Arlington, Frisco, Flower Mound and Rockwall. But the Las Vegas-based company isn’t finished yet; it has plans to open stores in Plano and Lake Highlands in 2012. Known for pure ingredients and adorable little cakes, Nothing Bundt Cakes now has 31 retail locations in the U.S.

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Nothing Bundt Cakes
10720 Preston
214.691.2253

1. Last month the city’s housing community services committee asked City Council to allow a public hearing in January to appeal for $13 million in HUD block grants to “jumpstart” the Lake Highlands Town Center. Last summer, a consultant stressed the need for a better parking situation at the future Walnut Hill-Audelia development. Read more coverage on the blog here.

2. The Store in Lake Highlands is having a three-day party with door prizes and gifts-with-purchase, Jan. 19-21, to celebrate its shipment of new Vera Bradley colors and styles.

3. ViewPoint Bank officially has opened a full-service location in the former Washington Mutual spot at Walnut Hill and Audelia. The president of the bank’s newest branch is LHHS graduate and current resident Ethan Everett.

Send business news tips to livelocal@advocatemag.com.