Who knows if In-N-Out Burger will ever make it to Dallas, but what looks like its spiritual sister from the east coast is on its way. Elevation Burger, an Arlington, Virginia-based gourmet hamburger chain dedicated to organic, grass-fed, and sustainably raised beef, is set to open its first Dallas location this fall at Hillcrest Crossing (nw corner of Hillcrest and Northwest Highway), which I confirmed this morning. Still trying to get someone in corporate or the franchisee on the phone for details.

Update: Spoke with Chris Lambert, a Elevation Burger co-owner who says the Dallas store could open by late summer. He also filled me in on the company back story. The first restaurant was founded in 2005 by native Californian Hans Hess, who moved to D.C. to work for a Congressman on Capitol Hill. Turns out, he also had twin passions for burger joints and organic food, so when he left the political realm, he did the only logical thing and founded an organic burger joint.

Since the company started franchising just over two years ago, it has opened seven restaurants, mostly in the D.C. Mid-Atlantic, and has another seven that will open in coming months. But it has plans within the next five years to expand that to 64, including five outlets planned for Kuwait.

Lambert said there’s a big focus on freshness. Beef is grass-fed, free-range, and USDA-certified organic, and produce is sourced locally and certified organic when possible. French fries are cut on site and cooked in olive oil. And the only reason there are freezers, Lamber says, is to keep the ice cream in.

This black Chevrolet SUV drove by me Friday when I was waiting to turn onto Douglas Avenue from Preston Center. It took me a few seconds to get my phone out of my pocket, so it wasn’t until the car was far away and behind a tree that I was able to snap the above photo, but the writing on the vehicle said (I swear): “Mary Kay Protective Services.”

I checked it out, and the company shares an address and leadership with the eponymous makeup company, but it is a registered as its own entity with requisite security-firm permits from the state and everything. The question, naturally, is why.

The possibilities, at least until Mary Kay’s public relations department (whom I’ve called several times) sets me straight, are these:

1)Mary Kay is trying to toughen up its image with an edgier name and by replacing the pink Caddys with black Tahoes. I suggest umlauts.

2)The firm provides body guards for the ladies who sell makeup.

3) By analogy to Child Protective Services, they take custody of Mary Kay products from makeup owners deemed to be unfit.

Oh, and Mary Kay also runs a travel company.

State House District 114 Democratic candidate John Wellik opened his campaign last week, portraying Republican opponent Will Hartnett as out of step with the district and part of the cadre of Austin politicians who have, in Wellik’s view, stymied Texas’ potential. Hartnett, in the middle of a two-week jury trial, called Wellik’s campaign kickoff “a minor political event attended entirely by active Democrats” and offered this reponse via e-mail:

“My opponent’s comments paint him as a typical ‘tax and spend’ Democrat aligned with the free-spending policies of the Obama Administration.  I am confident that my conservative voting record and my fiscally conservative philosophy are more in tune with the interests of the district.  I look forward to comparing and contrasting our respective philosophies and positions.”

Check out this pretty funny PSA from Preston Hollow-ite and ESD junior Henry Spellings and senior Dominic Granello. It won honorable mention in the 2010 Texas State Bar YouTube Video Contest. The guy doing the dunking is U of San Diego-bound senior Trevor Fuller. Bravo.

I interviewed Greenhill graduate Mila Hermanovski this afternoon. On last night’s season finale of Project Runway, Hermanovski finished third behind runner-up Emilio Sosa (left) and champion Seth Aaron Henderson (right).

Hermanovski has already moved on to another reality show, but in a behind-the-scenes capacity. She dresses the judges on Dancing With the Stars, as well as host Tom Bergeron.

“It’s a nice little three-day-a-week gig,” she said. “It gets my health benefits, and it pays my rent and my fabric expenses. And that’s for another month or so, just through the end of this season. I hope to be a full-time fashion designer, but it’s nice to know I have costuming, if I need to, to fall back on.”

Read more of my interview with Hermanovski in next week’s edition of Preston Hollow People.

Un Deux Trois, a “leading manufacturer of distinctive girls contempora” is building out in Preston Center in the space corner of Villanova Drive and Kate Street (where the Equinox Fitness leasing office was for a while). From their website, it looks like their dresses aren’t exactly bargains–some cost as much as $495–but then again, they’re tres chic. Un Deux Trois dresses have made many trips down the red carpet material, worn by precocious and prolific preteen actresses, including Bailee Madison, Ella Bleu Travolta, and Bella Thorne.

As far as an opening date, on the Preston Center space, I’m working on it.

Democratic candidate and Preston Hollow resident John Wellik’s campaign for State House District 114 against incumbent Republican Will Hartnett (and fellow Preston Hollow resident) has been slowly gaining steam since he announced his candidacy in January without much of a platform. Last night, he officially debuted his campaign to a crowd of maybe 60 people, many of them members of the Preston Hollow Democrats, at Enchilada’s on Greenville Avenue, just south of Walnut Hill Lane.

After rattling off a brief biography (born and raised on an Iowa farm, moved to the big city of Des Moines, got a degree in accounting from Drake University, moved to Dallas 27 years ago with wife Susan), Wellik enumerated his priorities: reducing the high school dropout rate, establishing more research universities in the state, reducing carbon emissions, lowering homeowner’s insurance and utility rates, and maintain existing highways rather than building new ones. He critiqued Governor Rick Perry for touting the state’s stimulus-assisted balanced budget while posturing against the stimulus package itself. In the process, he threw few jabs at Hartnett, who he characterized as out of touch:

“You deserve a pragmatic, common sense problem-solver as your representative. My opponent has not been that representative. He’s not been out in the district, meeting with people, understanding the issues that are important to them, that are important to us, as North Texans. He’s been in office for 20 years, almost the entire time that Susan and I have lived here, years when our state government has not kept up with the needs of the growing population of our state, not to mention thinking about where we want our state to be in the future.”

Not the whole shopping center, which covers the north side of the Preston Royal intersection, both corners, but specifically the former sites of Popolo’s, 7-Eleven, and Jamba Juice, all of which have vamoosed in the previous months. Kim Mangone, the property manager, isn’t giving any firm details yet, but she has a vague outline of what things might look like if everything pans out.

-The Popolo’s space will likely be divided in two, with the south end of the building remaining restaurant space and the north becoming a space for corporate retail.

-The narrow Jamba Juice space will be some sort of takeout food option.

-The 7-Eleven is being looked at by a national casual dining restaurant.

When the construction dust settles (now, it hasn’t even started flying), it could look totally different. Mangone said her phone is ringing off the hook with people interested in PR Village.

“I don’t know how people can say commercial real estate” is suffering, Mangone said. “I get at least five phone calls a day [on that site].”

I was looking into a City Plan Commission item from last week (a minor zoning amendment to allow a restaurant patio) and stumbled upon something curious. The owner of the shopping center on the northeast corner of Northwest Highway and Midway Road (the one with Albertson’s, Suze, Howard Wang’s China Grill, etc.) is co-owned by something called “Preston Hollow Indian School, LP.” I checked Secretary of State records and learned it was formed in 2005 and now seems to be a subsidiary of Westwood Financial Corp., a real estate investment firm in Los Angeles. I e-mailed the person listed as director, a Westwood partner, to see if he could give me any info on what struck me as an odd name. No response. Which only leads me to baseless speculation. Was there once an Indian school on the site where Native Americans were dressed in starched shirts and pressed pants and purged of their native languages? Are there plans to put one there? Anyway, ‘Indian’ is a little non-PC, unless we’re talking about someone from the subcontinent. Are we? But I digress.

I was on the scene last Friday as a group of first- and eight-graders from Good Shepherd Episcopal School presented a roughly $2,200 donation to the Dallas Zoo. It was a noble effort, and you can read all about it in the paper. But here, I want to discuss something else.

There was a handful of eighth-grade boys (none of whom are pictured here) who were giggly over their repeated utterances of “Hey Don.” They kept saying it in a particular way, that I’m not exactly sure how to express in print. They would draw out the “Hey” and emphasize the “Don.” Sort of like, “heeeyyy DON.”

They seemed to be looking in a certain direction, across the crowd, every time they said it. But I couldn’t tell if they were trying to torture a fellow student named “Don” or one of their chaperones. Anyone have a clue what that was about?