Photography by Kathy Tran.

Manicured nails and a sky blue bandana tied like a Fred Jones ascot may not be what you picture for the owner of the Pour House Dallas (PhD). In fact, Eric Tschetter is a sports bar owner who doesn’t even like sports. And after 30 years doing so, with 14 years of service in Oak Cliff, PhD is coming to a close at the end of February.

“I just knew sports sold,” he says. “Everybody thinks, ‘Oh, he’s the owner. What do you think about, you know, whatever?’ I’m like, ‘I have no idea.’ I don’t know record. I know the Cowboys are bad, and that translates to bad business for me, or not bad business, but less business for me.”

Before opening in downtown Fort Worth on Halloween 1995 as The Pour House, the Texas Christian University graduate says he had never been in the restaurant business, except for a brief time bartending and waiting tables “poorly.” 

The original spot stayed in Fort Worth until a dispute with the landlord following a 2008 New Year’s Eve bash eventually led to a lost lease plus name and location changes. 

“I was living over here in Oak Cliff, driving back and forth every day,” he says. “And I was like, ‘Oh my God, Oak Cliff doesn’t really have any neighborhood sports hangout places.’”






By 2012, PhD settled on a West Davis Street location, adjacent to The Kessler and on the edge of the Winnetka Heights neighborhood.

Even decades into the sports bar world, his opinion of the games never changed — aside from learning a little more about soccer ahead of the FIFA World Cup coming to Dallas this summer. 

“We have really concentrated on the last couple of years to become a soccer bar hangout,” he says, “because we have a lot of soccer fans in the neighborhood that are guiding us as to what matches we need to have on and what’s the big ones and the sound.”

He notes that one of the soccer fans lives right across the street. The same goes for his trivia host, who comes by every Wednesday night for weekly trivia. The two of them have a sort of rivalry since the host attended Southern Methodist University. But each week, consistent neighborhood groups come in to participate in the free activity.

Another constant has been the menu, which has not changed much over the last 30 years.

“I’m very big into what makes me feel comfortable, and a good burger always makes me feel comfortable,” he says.

One of the burger options includes the PHD Burger ($17.50) filled with sautéed mushrooms, grilled pickled jalapeños, thick-cut bacon, American cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickles and onion atop the patty. Tschetter added that the menu item in particular has been with him for 20 years.

Some of the popular sellers include a variety of bone-in or boneless wings ($8.75-$22.75), the lone dessert item of the Phd Cheesecake ($5.95) and of course the variety of local beers and spirits available at the bar.

“I have a thousand funny stories that have happened in the restaurant, but what touches me the most is how people met here and get married and want to get engaged here and stuff,” he says. “The first timers seem to always feel what we’ve built as far as the community of people that come in here … I have people that have said they feel that community when they walk in.”

In a Facebook post shared by Tschetter on Feb. 18, PhD will take the next 1.5 weeks as a victory lap with the sports bar’s final day set for Feb. 28.