‘Bar Rescue’ contacted Lakewood Landing. If they touch it, ‘we ride at dawn’

“Bar Rescue” is a popular reality TV show where host and longtime bar consultant Jon Taffer applies CPR to dying bars. There’s yelling. A bit of shame. Tears are shed, which smell like damp carpet and fluorescent lighting.

The show started back in 2011 and, well, after 15 years of bar rescues, perhaps the search for new spots is getting difficult. For the second time, producers have contacted longtime East Dallas dive Lakewood Landing.

“Last time this happened, which was maybe five years ago, I replied the same way [politely],” Jordan Lowery at Lakewood told the Observer. “But what I wanted to do was send them links to every award we had won, every list we have appeared on, and favorable articles that had been written about us.”

Lakewood is a humble dark neighborhood bar. The bar has been around since the ’60s, and the current owner, Bill Rossell, has owned this self-proclaimed upscale dive since 1998. If you were lucky, at some point you were served by longtime bartender Lucille Matthews, who brought elegance and class to the place.

On any night, Lakewood is a mix of regulars who will give a cursory glance from their spot at the bar when newbies walk in, to preppy Park Cities couples grabbing a drink before heading home. Later in the night, anyone from anywhere hunkers down in a low booth under lower lights and orders the house-dipped and fried corn dogs — after 11 p.m., of course. The bathrooms are allowed to be themselves and the pool table works.

Many accolades have appeared in this very publication; last year, it literally held the No. 1 spot in our ranking of the best bars in Dallas (we stopped ranking bars this year). Lakewood Landing is a favorite, to put it mildly. We could sit here and talk about our favorite bar bites, the best seats, the best time to go and the best fights we had there. But let’s let the people talk. The post has 114 comments. There are countless “nooooos” and “Don’t do it!” but here are our favorites from Facebook:

“Take it so you can fist fight Jon Taffer in the parking lot.”

• Greg Katopody

“Maybe rescue the AC?”

• Austin Scott Cobb

“Do you hate us? Why would you even suggest something like that???”

• Micheal Villarreal

“#savelakewoodlanding !!!! “

• Dionne Fawcett

“Serve the corn dogs before 11pm. (Boom, you’ve been rescued.) “

– Kelly P Perkins

“Load up the corn dog canon we ride at dawn!”

• Julie Matthews

Count us in. We live to ride at dawn over here.