I am surprised that they are not any reviews for this great classic, old-school shopping area in University Park. First built in in 1927 but not really filled out until the 40s, Snider Plaza reflects a time when charm and stylish design coexisted with the type of everyday practicality. Parkies, though they are rich still need a normal grocery store, vets, music lessons, urgent care facilities and a million other things most often found in ugly soulless suburban strip centers. What is great about Snider Plaza is that it mixes charming buildings, upscale specialty shopping, food options of all kinds and these needed practical shopping options. Snider largely has the charm and style of say Downtown McKinney but despite it's fancy address is in many ways less "gentrified." along with a large number of boutiques here is a great old school BBQ joint called Peggy Sue's, Kuby's famous sausage house, a health food store, a place that sells nothing but brass bath fixtures (who can live without those) and three banks (insert rich parkie joke here), famous fried chicken joint, a Starbucks and a CVS. This is a great mix of retail types. At the farthest end from Mockingbird there is a pocket sized Tom Thumb and a gas station/garage.
Most of buildings look really great and I love the fountain and just overall layout of this area. It is not a cookie cutter perfectly designed shopping area but is not so chaotic as to make one wish for more organization.
There is one enormous problem with Snider Plaza one that those more practicality minded and less prone to care about style and history would cause to mark this place down below four stars; the parking situation here can be disastrous. In the Dallas area a place full of parking nightmares on a crowded weekend and at Christmas time Snider Plaza might be the worst of them all. All the parking is old school in front of the shop spots with no real large outlying lots. There was a program underway to build a new pay garage by the outlying bank but I'm not sure how that's going besides who the hell wants to pay 5 bucks to park outside of Downtown. The obnoxious parking shows there is hope for equality in America as rich and poor, black and white all will shake there fists in rage and finding a spot. I am assume there is valet parking available at one eatery or another but I have never seen it. These parking problems are terrible at prime time shopping times but recently for an early lunch on a Monday there were a large number of spots available, so the parking problem is likely confined to weekend, holidays etc. With the exception fo the Tom Thumb Lot and maybe one or two other aresa controled by banks or medical offices all, parking is 2 hours and no businesses have exclusive parking lots, so at least when you find almost any spot anywhere it is okay to park there.
Overall, I love Snider Plaza. The place feels alive, looks great and offers a large number of diverse shopping and dining opportunities. Coem during the week or get there earlier or later than most people like to shop and enjoy. read more