There aren’t an awful lot of these old inlaid street names in the city (ditto for the old blue & white tile street names on the curbs). This lovely example is at 8th & Houston downtown, next to the W. T. Waggoner Building.
The Fort Worth Business Press is reporting that Grace, the new restaurant under construction in the ground floor of Carter + Burgess Plaza on Main downtown, will feature chef Blaine Staniford as its executive chef.
In addition to appearances on Good Morning America and The Rachael Ray Show, Staniford is perhaps best known as the head chef at Fuse, a Tex-Asian fusion restaurant in Dallas. Grace, which is being developed by former Del Frisco’s manager Adam Jones, will serve modern American food.
Grace’s design is by local architectural/design company Firm 817, run by Joe and Tracy Self, hosts of Design Talk Radio on TCU Radio.
Steve Watkins, of Panther City Coffee fame, wrote a story a couple of weeks ago for a blog called The Practical Environmentalist. The story features one of downtown’s newer presences: the Go Green Taxi pedicab service.
Downtown has been getting some press for “greening” their operations lately, with Sundance Square signing Green Mountain Energy as their electric provider and buying an electric car. For a small business guy like me, though, it’s nice to see some of the more grassroots efforts get some recognition, too. Next time you’re taking in the downtown nightlife and don’t feel like walking several blocks to your next destination, try Go Green Taxi.
By now, you may have heard the news that Metromedia Restaurant Group of Plano has gone into bankruptcy (here’s the news from Unfair Park and the Startlegram), and they’ve taken the downtown Bennigan’s and the 29 Degree Tavern at Chapel Hill with them. As of this morning, both the eateries are closed.
I’m not a big chain person. I’ve had decently passable experiences at Bennigan’s downtown before, and have been to 29 Degree a couple of times (though as Pete Wann will tell you, 29 degrees was too cold for quality beer), but I’m not particularly shaken up. I do wonder what will take the downtown Bennigan’s place - will it return, or will something new take its place?
So, what are your thoughts on the closure of these places?
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As I often do, the other day I was cruising Flickr, looking for some cool Fort Worth related photos when I stumbled upon John Ward’s amazing aerial photos of downtown Fort Worth. I like the aerial photography, so I decided to check out Ward’s website thinking he might be a pilot or has a buddy with a plane. Further amazement ensued when I discovered that Ward uses a home-built remote control plane to do his work. I love that American ingenuity!
It’s just energy news day, isn’t it? The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Fort Worth’s own XTO Energy will be purchasing Hunt Petroleum:
Natural-gas producer XTO Energy Inc. has agreed to acquire closely held Hunt Petroleum Corp. for $4.19 billion in cash and stock, a deal that may help put to rest a Hunt family feud.
The purchase price consists of $2.6 billion in cash and 23.5 million shares of XTO common stock valued at approximately $1.6 billion, or $67.50 a share.
It’s been a while since the last time I did one of these big development roundups, so let’s do another one, covering the current hotbed of activity - the 7th Street corridor between downtown and the museums. A lot has changed since the last time I wrote about these developments, so let’s dive right in.
Museum Place is really making significant strides in construction these days. The area around the development is a world of torn-up pavement, orange cones, fences, and cranes as work steadily moves from the big 7th/University/Camp Bowie/Bailey intersection back into the neighborhood.
Above, the big building of the development, One Museum Place, is getting more glass installed as its facade installation continues. This building will be home to ground-level retail, office space, and condos on the upper two floors.
Speculation has been running around ever since Chesapeake Energy announced their purchase of the Pier 1 Place skyscraper from Pier 1 Imports that the gas drilling company would relight the building’s distinctive night lighting system, which has been turned off for months due to money troubles at Pier 1 (I took the above photo on February 11, 2007, at which point the lights were still on).
Now, a fairly strong rumor is running around that Chesapeake will be holding an event of some sort on June 9th to relight the tower. Love them or hate them, it looks like the lights of Pier 1 Place (or should that be Chesapeake Plaza?) will once again be shining into the night sky over downtown Fort Worth.
We’ll let y’all know as we learn more.
As you may remember from last year, Sundance Square played host to a series of outdoor movie screenings in the Chisholm Trail parking lot. They set up a giant screen, invited some concessionaires, and slapped a movie on a giant-ass screen for all the world to see.
Well, they’re starting things up again this year on the 12th of June (a Thursday). The first movie will be “Hairspray.” After that, they’ll be showing another family-friendly movie every Thursday until the 10th of July.
Grab your kiddos and head downtown for some free entertainment under the stars! Movies start at dusk.
Next,
