DALLAS — “It costs a lot of money to look this cheap,” reads a marquee sign inside the Truck Yard in Lower Greenville. The Dolly Parton quote is the kind of zinger the brassy performer used on late-night talk shows in the ‘80s, never knowing future generations would stitch it on Etsy throw pillows and share it on Instagram like ancient wisdom.
“Dolly’s a national treasure!” says Jason Boso, owner of the Truck Yard, the laid-back bar and restaurant whose four locations (along with Boso’s Second Rodeo Brewing in the Fort Worth Stockyards) hosted Dolly Day on Jan. 18, the day before Parton’s 79th birthday. The Dallas event originated last year, inspired by Mrs. Roper Romps, a cult phenomenon in several American cities where attendees dress in caftans, oversized glasses and curly red hair like the actress Audra Lindley, aka Mrs. Roper on the ABC sitcom “Three’s Company.”
“We hope one day we’ll have 500 Dollys bouncing down Greenville Avenue,” Boso says.
From punchline to feminist hero
At 6 p.m. on a frigid Saturday, the original Truck Yard location is packed. Only a handful of the 600 or so have gone Full Dolly, but the attire is Dolly-inspired, lots of sparkles and cowboy boots and shades of pink. The bar is selling cocktails in big plastic cups with Dolly’s face on one side and “cup of ambition” on the other, a nod to the working-girl anthem, “9 to 5.”
“She’s an icon,” says Laura Horn, seated beside a table scattered with empty cups and two tiny pink cowboy hats from the Dolly-themed strawberry lemon drop shot. “She set the stage for strong independent female artists.”