Hash Over

Theater of the absurd?

The Arcadia theater on Lower Greenville Avenue is closed. Or is under new management. And is reopening. Or something. "Reopen is even the wrong word," says Bill Hutchinson, president of Dunhill Partners, the firm that owns the property on which the Arcadia sits. "It might not ever close. But...we have taken possession away from the Kahns."

The "Kahns" he refers to are brothers Steve and Bruce. Hutchinson entered into a partnership deal with Bruce Kahn. Hutchinson held 30 percent interest in the Arcadia to Bruce Kahn's 70 percent, and Steve Kahn managed the place. But that was before Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission investigators secured warrants against the Kahns and Hutchinson charging them with a subterfuge conspiracy, or operating the club while its liquor license was in another's name. Then, last week, Bruce Kahn was indicted for making false statements on the Arcadia's liquor-license application he filed last February. Seems he forgot to mention a 1986 arrest by Dallas police for assault.

So with their Arcadia ambitions scuttled, the Kahns are off pumping life into their video and nudie club venture on Reeder Road and Interstate 35. Hutchinson says normal operation of the Arcadia might be interrupted for the next couple of weeks while Dunhill completes negotiations with a new operator -- and while Chuck Norris scours the place for any leftover small-time villains. Hutchinson says Dunhill signed a contract with the producers of Walker, Texas Ranger to do some filming at the Arcadia over the next couple of weeks for the TV show.

Pumping prime

The average Dallas steakhouse grind must turn you into rippling, muscle-bound knots. At least that's what happened to 19-year-old Zack Stevenson, a server at Ruth's Chris Steak House in North Dallas. Seems Zack skipped a steak-slinging shift recently to take part in the Extreme Powerlifting Federation Championship in Houston, where he bench-pressed 350 pounds and leg-pressed another 800. All of this grunting and hoisting qualified him for the national championship, where Zack went on to bench 380 pounds, more than twice his weight and 15 pounds more than the old teenage bench-press world record of 365 pounds. That makes Zack the strongest teenage weightlifter in the world. It also makes him capable of benching 152 porterhouse steaks, 233 T-bones, or 276 bone-in rib eyes. The numbers get really big if you want Zack to leg-lift steaks to your table.