Tell me about Southlake and school advice (Dallas, San Antonio: apartments, condo)
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I would agree with the comment that dining options are limited for 'fine' dining. Is there 'fine-dining' in Southlake? You bet there is, but after you've eaten at the 6-8 places, the rest are mainly high-end chain restaurants (steakhouses). They're nice and will usually suffice, but understand that they can get old after a bit.
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Originally Posted by txgolfer130
And while there are many more options in both Ft. Worth/Dallas...they're not 'just 30 min. away'. But this alone shouldn't deter anyone from moving to Southlake.
I am not a huge fan, neither are our friends, of the large chain restaurants. If you live in N. Dallas or Park Cities, you are 15 minutes (or less) from the Bishop Arts District (Hatties, Lucia, Smoke), Design District (FT 33, Meddlesome Moth), Knox Henderson (Hibiscus, Sissys, The Porch), Oak Lawn (Mansion, Al Biernets, Javiers), Downtown (Stampede 66, Tei-An), Uptown (St. Germain, Common Table), Greenville (Terrilis, St. Martin Bistro), Park Cities (Spoon, Rise) etc.
You might not like the places I picked above, but they are unusual places to eat that my family and friends enjoy. Also, please note that the locations are not perfect (Rise is in Inwood Village (not technically Park Cities, but close).
I just don't think that SL has these kinds of options in a close proximity to the city. Moreover, our friends get tired of driving to Dallas for an unusual restaurant, and then having a 30 minute commute back to their house.
That being said, SL is a great place and you don't pick a home based on restaurants, especially when you have young kids!
Hubby and I have eaten at quite a few of those places, but they are a lot "fancier" than we go to every day. We also don't like the nationwide chains, but we tend to go for more casual places. It's not unusual for us to jump in the car and drive to Hard 8 BBQ in Coppell, Afrah and Caravelle in Richardson, Barbec's, The Mecca, etc.
If you (or the friends) haven't tried Cafe Italia in Grapevine, you need to. You may just stop driving to Terrilli's... And it's BYOB, too.
HA! We were JUST THERE last night. mmmmm.....burger.....
(And their shakes are soooo gooood)
Yeah, the shakes are fantastic.
Actually my first Texas welcoming experience was at Kinkaids with the Manager..Somehow he got to talking to me when I was ordering, then came out from behind the counter and sat with me (and my family) and chatted it up. It's flipped me out actually, was kind of weird to me.
I guess that's that Northeast in me. We throw our burgers at people and tell them to GFY..
Actually my first Texas welcoming experience was at Kinkaids with the Manager..Somehow he got to talking to me when I was ordering, then came out from behind the counter and sat with me (and my family) and chatted it up. It's flipped me out actually, was kind of weird to me.
I guess that's that Northeast in me. We throw our burgers at people and tell them to GFY..
That is the one thing DFW has in common with the PNW (OP says the from the West Coast, which could be CA or PNW)- people here will talk with you if you're a stranger.
Another note to the OP - DFw restaurant scene is dominated by chains. There apparently ARE good non-chain restaurants but many of them are closer to downtown Dallas. The metroplex overall has a very "suburban" feel to it for various reasons (rapid expansion means much of it is new).
Actually, I don't think it is "about as misinformed as it gets." Southlake is a football powerhouse. On Friday nights you will see thousands of students (starting very young and including high school kids) at the game. High School football is important at almost every high school, but especially at SL. (can we say luxury boxes?)
We have 4-6 couples that we are very close to that send their kids to SL. We hear complaints all of the time that non-athletic kids feel, at times, excluded. Of course, these complaints would likely hold true at other schools as well. That being said, none of them regret moving to SL. They love the community, the amount of house that you get for the money, the very good schools, the convenience of the town square, the golf course (several of them are golfers), etc. They hate the traffic driving to Dallas or FW, they wish the schools were smaller (or had two high schools), and hate the limited options on nice dining.
Saying that the ISD is 'all about football' is inaccurate and misinformed. "4 to 6 couples"? that 'send their kids to Southlake', does that mean, like that you know a couple of people that live in Southlake? Anecdotes from 1 to 2 people don't make facts.
Hi. My husband, myself, and our two girls are all Californians from birth, and have spent our lives here, minus the 3 years we lived in Southlake. We were there for business reasons, from 2009-2012. Our girls were in the 7th & 10th grades when we arrived in SL. When we left to move back to CA, the younger one was in 10th grade and the older one had graduated and gone on to her first year of college. We have been happily settled back in CA for the past year now.
I think a really important issue for you to think about regarding this move is, what is your lifestyle? Are you laid-back and casual? Or do you hang with the corporate-types and live the higher spending/higher-style life? Because this was a pivotal issue for us, and SL turned out to be an unhappy experience for us. We didn't realize it until we'd been there a while, it was just unfortunately a bad match. I think our realtor at the time just wanted a nice commission from us, and didn't really 'get' our requests that he find us a community that matched our lifestyle.
For us, although we make the same income as those 'corporate types', we don't live that lifestyle. We are casual, drive economical cars, like to BBQ w/ neighbors on paper plates, wear jeans and t-shirts, etc. With us, what you see is what you get. We value just 'being real' and we don't flash our money around or spend a lot (we reinvest almost everything). Politically, we are conservative, but moderately so.
I found I was uncomfortable many times just walking around Town Square. The majority of the ladies were wearing a lot of 'bling', and driving giant SUV's while I tooled around in my VW Jetta. In addition, while most people were quite friendly, it was almost impossible to make 'real' friends. We had a hard time finding people with the same down-to-earth type values as us, and those we found who were more like us were just too busy with their kids' sports, school activities, etc. I also had a couple of unfortunate encounters with some of my daughters' friends' moms, who were more interested in covering-up their problems and looking like the perfect family on the outside, when I really needed them to be transparent with me so we could help our kids stay out of trouble and make good choices. When I would mention an issue that we were having with my kid and asked them to keep an eye out when my kid was with theirs, I got a nervous laugh and a could shoulder in return. We did meet a few very nice people, but they were hard to find, and do not characterize the general feeling of Southlake.
So, I would say to you: Are you good at hob-nobbing with the social climbers? Do you enjoy trying to out-do your friends and neighbors with fancy decorations and food whenever you host them in your home? Do you talk only about superficial things at all times, and place a high value on looking perfectly coiffed and having a perfect family to show off? Then Southlake will be a great place for you. But if you value meaningful relationships with humble people who care about you as a person, then Southlake will be a challenge. Not to say you can't find nice, 'real' people there, we did find them. But they were hard to find, and they are not the norm there. I really think this has to do with the high income level and corporate relocation aspect of the town.
Another thought: In Southlake, (and I think in many high-income communities), winning/high achieving is everything. If your kids have any learning differences or struggle to get good grades, the school will probably not do much to help you. The schools there are 'good', if by that you mean they get good scores on standardized tests. But both my daughters found the vibe in the High Schools to be very cookie-cutter and clique-y. Both my girls agree that the overriding attitude of the school administration was that the students were there to perform well and make the school look good. Whether by being an amazing athlete who brought maximum 'wins' to the school's reputation, or by getting amazing grades and winning all kinds of scholastic awards/accolades, that was the students' job, and the expectation put forth by the school officials. If the student didn't have some kind of success to contribute to the school, he/she felt they were of no value. My older daughter had a 3.9 GPA and did fine, although her GPA was fairly run-of-the mill for that crowd, and she 'only' did one extra-curricular (Jazz Band her Sr. year). She did not stand out by any means, and that was fine with us! There was an abundance of kids with 4.0 GPA and above, who did at least 2 sports, and were in as many extra-curriculars as they could stuff into their schedules. Makes me wonder what the suicide rate is...My kids also told me that cheating was rampant among the high-achievers, as they felt such pressure to be a success at all costs, in order to impress their teachers and their parents. As for my younger one, she had friends Freshman year that were already addicted to Opiate pain meds. The access, money, and lack of supervision from busy parents afforded these kids the ability to get into a lot of destructive things. Once again, probably an issue with income level more than location. But the difference there, as opposed to say, somewhere here in CA with similar problems, is (in my opinion) the Texas value that "we all keep our problems hidden and we certainly don't address them on a public level". Here in CA, if you're messed up, there is a lot less shame in admitting it and finding help. That is the one thing I feel is sadly wrong in Texas. Lots of shame/taboo with having any sort of problem, addiction, disability, etc.
All that being said, we do not regret having lived there, because we feel that every experience in life, good or bad, can be a good lesson. We learned a lot about ourselves, our values and what's really important in life.
I only miss ONE thing: High School football! The entire town turns out every Friday night to cheer-on the team in the very impressive college-style stadium in the center of town. We never saw this in CA, and it was great fun while we lived there. There is a down-side to all that too, but it's been beat to death in this forum over the years, so I won't go there.
Just think very carefully about the type of people you want to live around, shop alongside, have in your home, play with your kids, etc. If you are not fairly adept at fitting-in with a mostly fancy, often snobby, judge you by your wealth crowd, then you might want to look elsewhere.
LASTLY, about the airport noise: We lived in the landing path of the planes headed for DFW. We were 'above' 1709 and East of Carroll Ave. Planes went over our house every 5-10 minutes on some days, and we could practically see what the captain was wearing. But it didn't really affect us, because the weather was such that we spent 90% of our time indoors with the windows shut, and just didn't really hear the noise. But do ask your realtor about that.
I watched the "Southlake Overview Video" yesterday on youtube and it was such a big turn off!
After seeing it, I can imagine all the things msl529 just wrote. That's exactly what I was thinking afterwards.
I had to show it to my husband, cause Southlake was the No. 1 on his list (mainly because of schools and football). But luckily he felt the same way. Blonde women shopping jewellery, kids in pink Stretch Limousines, older guys golfing...everybody is white, materialistic and superficial. That's the message of the video. Even the mayor looked and talked like a used car Salesman.
I watched the "Southlake Overview Video" yesterday on youtube and it was such a big turn off!
After seeing it, I can imagine all the things msl529 just wrote. That's exactly what I was thinking afterwards.
I had to show it to my husband, cause Southlake was the No. 1 on his list (mainly because of schools and football). But luckily he felt the same way. Blonde women shopping jewellery, kids in pink Stretch Limousines, older guys golfing...everybody is white, materialistic and superficial. That's the message of the video. Even the mayor looked and talked like a used car Salesman.
That was an awkward video. Loved the long shots of the chocolate cake...Nothing was specific to Southlake really. Almost any suburb could use that promo and we'd be none the wiser.
However, to be fair you can substantiate that everyone is superficial and materialistic.
Blonde women shopping jewellery, kids in pink Stretch Limousines, older guys golfing...everybody is white, materialistic and superficial. That's the message of the video.
To be fair, that's the negative stereotype that could be used for pretty much all of the Metroplex (well, moreso on the "Dallas" side).
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