May was a busy month for the West End Historic District.
Festivals & Events
Dallas Fest
May 4th, the first Saturday of the month, kicked things off with the 2nd annual Dallas Fest, a free music & art festival hosted in our historic district. highlight some of the innovative creators our city has to offer, while also showing attendees that our district is evolving into an innovative and active place. The inaugural 2018 year hosted roughly 15,000 people, while this year the city of Dallas reported between 22,000-25,000 attendees.
“We were blown away by the amount of people that came out and supported us again this year”, says Jeremy Scott, Festival Chairman & Owner of Tutta’s Pizza. “The West End has a lot more to offer than people realize, and we think this festival is a step towards showing the city all the growth and development our district has seen over the last few years”.
If you missed the festival, you can watch a recap here:
May also saw the return of Margarita Meltdown the our district. Restaurants from all over the city gathered to concoct their finest margarita for attendees to sample and vote to determine who makes the best Margarita in Dallas. This year marked the 9th annual Meltdown and a return to the Dallas West End after a brief stint at the farmers market.
Roughly 3,000 people attended the three hour event. If you missed out, here are some photos from the big day:
Grand Openings
The Luminary
Crescent Real Estate’s latest project, The Luminary, opened their doors for the grand opening on May 17th. This seven story office building is described as “a creative space designed for creatives”, and now stands as the tallest building in the West End. The building embraces the West End’s historic context while providing a modern and creative office space designed to blend with the area’s walkable lifestyle of retail, entertainment and housing opportunities.
The Luminary’s journey began two years ago. Crescent, in partnership with Long Wharf Capital LLC, purchased the existing headquarters of Dallas-based architectural firm Corgan in 2017 and announced plans for an innovative expansion to be located at the center of the vibrant West End District in Downtown Dallas.
“Pound for pound, The Luminary is the most innovative new office building in Dallas,” said Joseph Pitchford, managing director for Crescent Real Estate. ”We are thrilled to have worked with Corgan to bring electrochromic glass and an offset core floor plate to the Dallas office market.”
Designed by Corgan, the new expansion of more than 100,000 square feet includes a creative lobby lounge, an industrial-chic rooftop terrace boasting panoramic views, and three floors of office space encompassing a total of 81,711 square feet. Each floor has 27,237 square feet. The garage, which provides much-needed parking space to accommodate workers and visitors who come to the West End, offers a generous 3.0/1,000 parking ratio.
Family Thais
West End restaurateur Tony Street, owner of YO Ranch Steakhouse, announced in a release this May that the Thai Bistro concept Family Thais will open their doors in the Dallas West End on July 10th.
the Thai-centric bistro is opening at 208 N. Market St., in the location that previously was home to Dante’s Pizzeria. The Streets are executing an extensive renovation to transform the space into a modern quick-service eatery.
Tony and his wife Jab Srikaij are restaurant business veterans. In addition to opening YO Ranch in 1996, Tony is the nephew of Gene Street, founder of Black Eyed Peas, and also has a stake in the family’s Street’s Fine Chicken restaurant chain.
Jab was chef at the beloved Toys Café at 4422 Lemmon Ave. for 17 years. Toys closed in 2011, but Jab did not lose her passion for the food of her homeland.
The couple Family Thais as a project they could do together, and have been running a temporary stand every weekend at the Dallas Farmers Market, where they’ve been previewing and testing menu items.
The menu will showcase traditional Thai favorites, such as pad Thai and pad kee mao. But they’re also adding a modern twist, with new-wave items, such as boba teas, espresso, crepes, bubble waffles, and milkshakes.
This Month In The West End
The relighting of the Underpass — June 26th, 6-9PM
The relighting of the iconic underpass arches connecting the West End is underway, with an unveiling currently scheduled for June 26th.