By Taylor Adams Cogan
Deep Ellum’s character came from more than its location, railroads, and one- and two-story buildings. Its grit, sincerity, and whimsy have pulled generations to its streets because of the various people who made their mark here. From the people who have come to feel welcomed where they couldn’t elsewhere 150 years ago, to the artists who constantly created, to the musicians who busked, and the entrepreneurs who hosted bands, people brought their own expertise and passion to the area. Deep Ellum has always had something about it to help people thrive as they became part of its fabric.
Jeffrey Yarbrough had multiple ways to leave a mark in Deep Ellum, fueled by his passion for bringing fashion to the streets filled with punk shows.
“I met some of these young guys breaking into buildings, holding parties. And I was the guy who would bring in the fashion models, designers, the sexy people,” Jeffrey says.
Those young guys included Jeff Swaney, and the group would throw what they’d call “outlaw parties.”
“We would go into a warehouse, where we’d basically not have approval. Until we called the cops on ourselves because we’d run out of beer,” Jeffrey says. “Jeff was running a breakfast cafe. I told him, ‘I know the ones breaking into the buildings. I don’t care if you’re doing it, I just want to get paid for it.’”
At the time, Jeffrey was a promoter of sorts, bringing people “to make the party,” with DJs or fashion shows. In 1989, Jeff and Jeffrey became business partners, opening the legendary Club Clearview, Art Bar, and Blind Lemon.
“What I wanted to do was bring more of the mainstream social set to Deep Ellum. I didn’t want just the three hundred coolest rock kids. I wanted to bring fashion, and lifestyle, and art,” he says. “I wanted to bring those people down to the neighborhood, so we did that through restaurants and promotions.
“Jeff had a lot of the creative vision of the culture of what was going on, and I was the guy bringing the bodies to the stage.”
They created more than a space for people to be. From the Dallas Observer:
“To walk into Club Clearview during its peak was to tiptoe into a dream stitched together by paint fumes, guitar riffs and sheer electricity. Deep Ellum’s heartbeat pulsed through the room, flooding it with fearless art, explosive creativity and a sense of camaraderie that could only belong to one place, in one city, during one transcendent era.For over two decades, Clearview wasn’t just a nightclub that housed performances from Butthole Surfers, The Jesus and Mary Chain and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It was the nerve center of a Dallas counterculture, a patchwork stronghold where artists, misfits and romantics dared the night to be unforgettable — it delivered.”
Crowds ranged from 500 to 1,500, in typical Deep Ellum fashion, being people from all walks of life with varying interests, which they could pursue at a place like Cleareview. Whether to see local artists live painting, bands that would one day become famous, or already-made celebrities.
Or politicians: Jeffrey says they hosted Bill Clinton’s 50th birthday via satellite from Blind Lemon.
“I was on the phone with Hillary Clinton for months. We were happy to have President Clinton’s birthday in the coolest spot in Dallas at the time,” he says.
Jeffrey and Jeff had a great partnership, sticking together from about 1985 to 1995. Jeffrey bought him out, continuing the businesses through 2005. Since his time making unforgettable nights in Deep Ellum, Jeffrey leaned into his business, bigInk Commercial Real Estate, where he’s a broker for hospitality businesses. It’s a passion of his to help restaurants, bars, distilleries, and breweries find their spaces.
But like anyone who’s spent time in the neighborhood, he knows the magic of Deep Ellum persists through the decades and its cyclical ups and downs.
“What I really love about that neighborhood is that I could bring in young, creative minds, put them together, and the visions and things that come out of that workspace were phenomenal,” he says. “All in this little tiny six blocks of a neighborhood. Some of the old-timers didn’t always care for my mainstream life of saying fashion and art, but there’s more to it than punk rock.”
His first commercial exposure to the neighborhood had been earlier at the Prophet Bar — Russell Hobbs was one of the early ones, along with Jeff, Jeffrey says.
“I was seeing this Hispanic guy out of Austin. To come in and drive a BMW and pull into this neighborhood, I wanted to go to a punk show. There were guys with mohawks outside. It was very ‘love all, serve all.’ There was no trouble. I was very fashionable, and they were very raw. And we were going in to see the same show,” he says.
That was the culture of Deep Ellum, he says: Everyone meshed together so well.
”Punk rock, fashion, gay, artist: Everyone hung out together. There was this common interest where we could all be in the same space. It didn’t matter lifestyle, color, none of it mattered,” he says. “We were all here, and it was very cool to be here.”
