New Urbanism at Night

I've sung the praises of the Shops at Legacy many times on this blog, so it should come as no surprise that I don't need too many excuses to stop there when I'm in the area. Saturday night, with a gig about five minutes away, provided me with that very opportunity.

Most of my Legacy stops have been in the afternoon or early evening, so it was interesting to see the place this late at night (I stopped at Starbucks to do some reading, and they were open until 11:30). And what I saw impressed me a great deal; the place was absolutely hoppin' at that hour. This makes sense upon further review; unlike, say, Firewheel, which is mostly organized around shopping, there are an abundance of full-service restaurants at Legacy, many of which stay open late. (There is one corner of Southlake Town Square which almost fits the same bill, but it's not densely populated with restaurants in the way that Legacy's Bishop Road is.) I would have loved to take the "picture that's worth a thousand words" to demonstrate the vibrance of this place, but there really were too many cars on the street to do it. At 11:30 at night. In the suburbs. Take that, "I Won't Go North of LBJ Because There's Nothing There" snobs.

(Happy moment of the night: Seeing a new Sambuca restaurant in Legacy. Sad moment of the night: Hearing music that was about as far removed from jazz as you can get, coming out of that same Sambuca. I'm sorry these guys have abandoned their roots, and, while I really like the food, I can't justify paying those prices if I'm not going to enjoy the music. Ahh, for the days when I could hear the likes of MIchael Brecker or Pharoah Sanders at one of their locations...)

As I said in a few recent posts, I'm a huge fan of New Urbanism, and, were it not for the musician's dilemma of needing to not share walls with anyone else (and, OK, the musician's dilemma of needing more money), I'd choose this lifestyle in a heartbeat. But in the meantime, I'll certainly enjoy the amenities it offers to the outside world and support such developments as much as I can.