The Old Plantation (later renamed Village Station) moved to Cedar Springs Road, where S4 now stands, from Downtown when the Dallas Museum of Art purchased land to move from Fair Park and build a large new facility. Among Caven’s Dallas bars were The Candy Store, Mark Twain, LaFitte’s, Mother Blues, The Wooden Nickle and 4001. But in its heyday, the list contained very different names. Today the company operates four bars in Dallas - TMC: The Mining Company, JR.’s Bar & Grill, Sue Ellen’s and S4.
The company incorporated as Caven Enterprises, Inc., in 1981.īy the time of his death at 68 in 1988, he had been owner of 60 clubs in Texas, Florida and Washington, D.C., among other locations, according his obituary that appeared in This Week In Texas two weeks after his death. It wasn’t until the 1970s that Caven ventured into Dallas (and later Houston), eventually taking his successful formula for bars national. Frank Caven was closely associated with Dallas, but the founder of a string of gay clubs was born in Philadelphia and opened his first Texas bar in 1963 … in El Paso.