Since it opened in 2014, Lisa and Phil Adams’ Near Southside bar Proper has come to establish itself as the quintessential neighborhood bar, a quiet, quaint place where locals sit, sip, and chat. Bars like Proper are few and far between and hark back to a time before noisy sports bars and bars and grills dominated the drinking landscape; if you just want to sit and read a book at Proper, no one — and nothing — is going to bug you.
Unintentionally or not, Proper pays homage to Fort Worth classic bar-bars like J&J’s Hideaway and the Black Dog Tavern. That was the vibe the couple had in mind when they opened Proper 11 years ago, taking a chance on a slice of Magnolia Avenue that hadn’t quite been redeveloped yet.
“We had very little money, and our bar stock was limited,” Lisa recalls. “Things have changed a lot. I think you can still see the original pictures on the website of when we started. The neighborhood guided us. We just listened to them.”…