Hotel News

New Marriott hotel adds pool, deck, and restaurants to Dallas Uptown

Dynamic, crisp, transitional, and elegantly integrated into the historic Uptown neighborhood.

Courtesy photo

A new hotel in Uptown Dallas is nearing its opening date: The Marriott Dallas Uptown will be opening in early January at 3033 Fairmount St., just a dog-walk from the Katy Trail.

The hotel takes up an entire block on Fairmount between Carlisle and Wolf streets, previously home to apartments and a few quirky old homes that epitomized the kind of character Uptown once personified.

A release describes the new hotel, from developer Alamo Manhattan, as a property that is "dynamic, crisp, transitional, and elegantly integrated" into the historically eclectic neighborhood. Elegantly integrated with everything except for those old houses that used to be in this space.

General manager Robbie Tawil says in a statement that they're thrilled to join the vibrant neighborhood, stating that "our hotel is ready to become a staple in the Uptown community, providing residents and travelers with a place to wine, dine, and relax."

The hotel has 14 stories and 255 guestrooms, with a full-service restaurant, a casual all-day café + lobby lounge, fitness center, and pool deck with views.

Restaurants include:

Good Graces will be a full-service "modern brasserie" serving oysters, charcuterie, salads, steak seafood, wine, and cocktails in a bright and airy space with a "hip soundtrack"
Vicinity Coffee will feature Starbucks coffee, and be suited for breakfast on the go or daily coffee fix

The interior design showcases the Uptown community. An art installation behind the reception desk features reclaimed wood as a backdrop to scenes of local landscapes, terrain, outdoor activities, and neighborhoods. Is the wood reclaimed from the old houses that were in this location? That would make sense.

For example, the lobby lighting plan is laid in track configuration as a nod to the nearby K-T route of the Union Pacific Railroad which eventually became the Katy Trail.

To showcase the area's walkability, there are deep pedestrian walkways adjacent to the hotel's elevated outdoor venues along the perimeter. The facade is stone and glass, with "subtle ornamentation" and lighting details. Guest rooms and suites are soothing, minimalist, and sleekly arranged for leisure and workability.

Their intended audience/market is what they call the "professional go getter" and the spontaneous adventurer looking for an authentic, luxurious Uptown Dallas experience.

The Marriott joins a slew of other hotels in the area including the Ritz Carlton Dallas, The Mansion, Warwick Melrose, Hyatt House Uptown, Hotel ZaZa, and Le Meridien/Stoneleigh. The W Hotel in Victory Park is not too far, not to mention the Dallas Marriott Downtown.

hotels uptown

Uptown News

Euro-style Hotel St. Germain in Uptown Dallas closed after 33 years

Google Maps / Flashback Dallas

Hotel St. Germain

A darling boutique hotel in Uptown Dallas that was Dallas' first B&B has closed: Hotel St. Germain, which occupied a turn-of-the-century home at 2516 Maple St., closed its doors and auctioned off its furnishings in an estate sale that took place November 8-10.

A friend of the family that owned the hotel confirmed that it had been closed for nearly a year, and that the property was recently sold to an undisclosed buyer who intends to maintain its lodging status.

It's in a prime location, since Maple Avenue is currently going through a major turnover from bumpy little street to the home of big projects like Maple Terrace, the 22-story residential tower at 3003 Maple Ave.

Hotel St. Germain was opened in 1991 by businesswoman and former New Orleans resident Claire Heymann, the granddaughter of a Paris antiques dealer, who did exactly what preservationists dream about: She took a crumbling old home built in 1900 and transformed it, giving it a stunning makeover and filling it with fine art and antiques: one-of-a-kind sleigh beds, spindly antique desks, amber wall sconces, vintage bathroom fittings, and sparkling crystal chandeliers.

The property had only seven rooms, each unique, and was Dallas' first bed-and-breakfast inn. It also had a quirky in-house restaurant featuring acclaimed chefs of the day such as William Guthrie.

It's disappointing to have missed the sale with its assortment of leaded glass windows, vintage sinks, chandeliers, and French antique furniture.

Flashback Dallas shares a history of the structure, and food writer Mark Stuertz (who co-authored Fork Fight!, the memoir by Pei Wei co-founder Mark Brezinski) wrote a great review of the restaurant in 1997, recounting its colorful past.

"Heymann discovered the property in the late '80s, then a foreclosed, boarded-up hovel facing a wrecking ball, while scouring the area between McKinney and Turtle Creek for an old house worthy of conversion into a small, stylish hotel similar to those she had visited on numerous jaunts to San Francisco," he wrote.

Heymann named it for the St. Germain area of Paris, and filled it with elegant furnishings, many from her antiques dealer mother. Stuertz called the result "an odd mix of romance, quaintness, European-style finery, and antique-collector busyness," "stuffed with fabrics fussily pleated, puddled, lashed and tasseled, as well as handsome furnishings seasoned with art deco accents and shabby chic touches."

The closure was due in part to the fact that Heymann has been suffering from Alzheimer's Disease and is in a nursing home.

Gary Bellomy, who worked at the hotel, posted an elegy on Facebook, calling her "one of the most complicated and brilliant women I have known."

"Hotel St. Germain, her mad, brilliant brainstorm joins the ranks of Dallas’ unique history," he said. "Many of you will mourn. It is unlikely we will ever see this level of French sophistication in this spot we call home."

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