New Dallas Supper Club Aims to Bring Back the Big Band Scene and a More Adult Hangout

The Clover Club, a new bar with a 1960s supper club vibe and live music, is planning to open in Uptown on June 7. The new spot comes from well-known Dallas bartender Eddie “Lucky” Campbell, who also owns Parliament and The Standard Pour. It’ll be located on the second floor of 2404 Cedar Springs Road, next to Coal Vines.

The idea for The Clover Club came from a desire to bring a great live music club to Dallas, Campbell tells PaperCity. He then chose the name after honing in on the idea.

“It’s a great time period piece name,” Campbell says.

In 1896, the original Clover Club was formed in Philadelphia as a society club. A group of lawyers, bankers and journalists met at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel and concocted the classic Clover Club cocktail. The drink includes gin, egg whites, lemon and raspberry syrup.

I got a chance to check out Dallas’ own Clover Club and talk with the team behind it: “Lucky” Campbell, Brad Woy, Chad Helton, Hunter Sullivan, Anthony Van Camp and Julia Jimenez. As we all sat down at a table in Coal Vines and chatted, I could tell how genuinely excited the entire team is about the project.

“This will be a more mature room for people 35 years and older,” Campbell says. This group is not afraid to say that Clover Club will be an “adult hangout.”

There’s lots of places in Uptown for the younger, twentysomething crowd, but the team felt that something was missing. “We want to fill a void that no one has filled since Beau Nash,” Woy says.

Beau Nash,Dallas’ last Big Band club, closed in 2004. Hunter Sullivan, who will be a regular performer at The Clover Club, used to play at the old Crescent Court hotspot. He also sings at The Rosewood Mansion about twice a month.

Woy, who is in the restaurant finance business and Campbell’s partner at The Standard Pour and Parliament, had to get Sullivan on board the Clover Club project.

“I’ve been a huge fan of Hunter’s since the ’90s,” Woy says. “And I’m partial to the Big Band sound.”

Sullivan loves that the project “cares about the heritage and authenticity of the genre.” Campbell applauds Sullivan: “When you do your old timey stuff you really feel like you’re back.” Everyone in this group truly is a fan of one another.

Some of them even went to high school together: Woy and Helton. With a background of running music programs at House of Blues and having experience in the restaurant industry, Helton was brought on as manager of The Clover Club.

There will be live music five days a week at The Clover Club, including Motown on Thursdays, Big Band on Fridays, “feel good/party band” music on Saturdays, and Latin night on Sundays. Wednesday’s theme is still up in the air, but there will be some tunes.

The Clover Club Scene

The Clover Club will consist of a bar, dining area and live music stage on the second floor. There’s also a third floor rooftop garden for al fresco drinking. The main floor will be very classy and old school. No shorts allowed. But if you just want to grab a casual drink on the rooftop, wear all of the shorts you want.

The rooftop drink menu will consist of patio cocktails like Champagne spritzers and range of easy, familiar drinks to more exotic and savory. The whisky chapter that the bar has will be available on both floors.

As for the dinner menu, chef Anthony Van Camp (Al Biernat’s, SER) is coming up with some modern takes on old classics. There will be steak (high-quality and all prime), lobster potstickers, jumbo shrimp, soups, salads and tenderloin tartare.

“We’ll also have sharable appetizers like cheeses and charcuterie,” Campbell says.

Reservations are required for dinner and seating will take place from 7:30 pm to 9:30 or 10 pm. Music will start after that and go until midnight. On Friday and Saturday nights a DJ will perform afterwards.

Although the look is still coming together, the staircases already have chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and boxes of black leather chairs line the window. Campbell says that the colors will be black and gold. There will be an electronic, red curtain that opens in front of the stage and tons of cool lights.

Before I left, Campbell concocted up some Clover Club cocktails for the group. He used Greenhouse gin, which is a botanical blend with acai berry. After shaking with the egg whites and lemon, he topped with fresh raspberries. This was the first drink made in the new bar.

While he was making the drinks, Campbell asked me what my favorite cocktail was. I said I didn’t really know. I usually just order vodka soda. After taking a sip of the fluffy and perfectly sweet Clover Club, I think this might be it.