This year saw the opening of many significant event and meeting venues in Dallas/Fort Worth. Here's a look at the best restaurants, party rooms, hotels, corporate event venues, conference centers, and private rooms to open in 2013. These new and renovated Dallas/Fort Worth venues can accommodate groups large or small for private and corporate events, business dinners, cocktail parties, conferences, weddings, and more.
Reunion Tower's Observation Deck reopened in October with high-powered telescopes, nighttime light shows, and an interactive digital display lining the interior. The Dallas icon, which rotates to offer 360-degree views of the city, includes an event space, Cloud Nine, that operates as a café during the day and a private event venue in the evening. The space, managed by Wolfgang Puck Catering, hosts banquets for as many as 140 guests or receptions for 250.
In November Fort Worth's Kimbell Art Museum opened the Renzo Piano Pavilion, a new building designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano. The pavilion provides more gallery space as well as classrooms, an expanded library, underground parking, and a 298-seat auditorium with music-friendly acoustics. The pavilion's natural-light-filled lobby is also available for events and holds 500 for a reception or 300 for dinner. Constructed of glass, concrete, and wood, the expansion has two parallel wings connected by two glass passageways. It has green features such as a sod roof and solar cells.
With an enviable location in Klyde Warren Park, Savor opened in late September. The striking structure, with floor-to-ceiling glass walls, is LEED-certified and designed by architect Thomas Phifer with interiors from Bill Johnson of the Johnson Studios. Among the green features is a key wall that has 12 craft beers and 16 wines on tap and is estimated to save 40,000 bottles of wine a year. The gastropub seats about 325 people with 175 seats inside and 150 seats outside. A chef’s table in the back of the restaurant seats six. The restaurant offers outdoor seating on three of its four sides and has two patios that both overlook the 5.2-acre park.
A $78 million renovation to the Joule Hotel completed in June tripled the meeting spaces, adding two new ballrooms and three new meeting rooms. A rooftop garden terrace holds 30 guests and features a climate-control glass pavilion with a retractable roof and views of downtown Dallas.
Hyatt Regency Dallas recently completed a $50 million renovation to its 1,120 guest rooms and corridors. The upgrade, which was timed with the hotel's 35th anniversary, sought to give rooms a sleek look while incorporating imagery evocative of the city and of Texas. The hotel, attached to the landmark Reunion Tower, includes 160,000 square feet of function space, including three ballrooms, two exhibit halls, 56 meeting rooms, and 42 hospitality suites.
The Dallas Arboretum opened the Rory Meyers Children’s Adventure Garden, an eight-acre learning center, in October. The $62 million project includes 17 galleries with more than 150 exhibits. The children's garden is not yet available for private events, but timed tickets are available. The arboretum offers more than 15,000 square feet of event space including Rosine Hall, which seats 350 at rounds, and the two-story Alex Camp House, which includes a terrace and accommodates events of 200 people.
Live music venue Gas Monkey Bar N' Grill opened this fall from the stars of the Discovery Channel series Fast N' Loud. With more than 10,000 square feet of patio space and 9,000 square feet of indoor space, the venue is more of an entertainment complex. It has two stages, the larger of which is outside and has a $500,000 sound system. The space, which serves a slate of burgers and beer, also has an upstairs with more than 2,000 square feet of V.I.P. space, including a deck, a private room, and a bar.
The 5,000-square-foot Sisu Uptown Resort is a bar, restaurant, and party space that features an outdoor saltwater pool surrounded by palm trees and cabanas with a view of the Dallas skyline. The pool deck can be reserved for events, and there is also a private dining room.
Waters, a new upscale Forth Worth restaurant from chef Jon Bonnell, offers four private dining spaces that seat as many as 48 guests. The menu focuses on fresh, sustainable seafood and includes a raw bar in the main dining room.
Vee Lounge, a 750-person Fort Worth nightclub, opened in February. The 13,434-square-foot space has three full-service bars, a large dance floor, and a heated outdoor patio, as well as a full kitchen that serves global tapas. Diavolo Systems provided the lighting and sound systems.
