Bar News

Deep Ellum hipster honky-tonk opens second outlet outside Dallas

Honky-tonk on the move.

Photo courtesy of Mama Tried

A honky-tonk in quotes from Deep Ellum is opening a second location, this one in an entertainment zone to the west.

Mama Tried, the Nashville-style honky-tonk from veteran bar owner Brooke Humphries, will open a location at the Toyota Music Factory in Irving.

According to a release, it'll open in August, occupying a corner space next to the performance stage in Texas Lottery Plaza. It'll be open for lunch, happy hour, dinner, late-night dining, and Sunday brunch, with Southern cuisine and comfort food.

Humphries says in a statement that she's thrilled to be joining the ranks at Toyota Music Factory, calling it a "natural fit" for the second location.

She opened the first Mama Tried in 2018 as a combination restaurant-bar, dance hall, and live music venue spotlighting classic country, dance party, no pop country, outlaw country, bluegrass, and Kentucky bluegrass. She and her team invested much sweat equity transforming the location at 215 Henry St. at the corner of Canton Street into a funky-cool bar with accompanying outdoor space.

Humphries says that Mama Tried is "a good time if you enjoy good ol' country music."

"I'm real proud of it," she says. "There's nothing like it around here, and country is all I listen to these days, so I'm stoked."

Humphries has the golden touch with a diverse portfolio of bars and restaurants that includes trailblazing bars, such as Barcadia and Beauty Bar; her dance bar in East Dallas, It'll Do Club; her coffee shop, Mudsmith; and her fun American concept, Pints & Quarts, located at the Centrum in Oak Lawn.

Noah Lazes, president and CEO of ARK Group, the developer at Toyota Music Factory, says Mama Tried is a fine addition to their lineup.

"Brooke's knowledge and experience in the DFW bar, restaurant, and music scene is second to none," Lazes says. "New involvement of smart, local creative operators like Brooke is a big feather in our cap, as they add even more diversification to the already massive offering of entertainment and restaurant concepts at the Toyota Music Factory."

Mama Tried joins two other local concepts on the venue's plaza. Frisco Cajun restaurant Green Gator opened in March; Reservoir, a gastropub from Fort Worth, opened a location in April.

The entertainment and dining destination has a concert venue, an Alamo Drafthouse Cinema multiplex movie theater, and many restaurants and bars.

nightlife

PIZZA PROBLEMS

Plano-based Pizza Hut to close 250 restaurants as U.S. sales plummet

Pizza Hut/Facebook

Pizza Hut will close 250 restaurants by mid-2026.

By the middle of the year, the country will have fewer Pizza Huts. Yum! Brands, the parent company of the almost 70-year-old chain, announced it plans to close an estimated 250 restaurants — about 4 percent of Pizza Hut's massive global footprint.

The closures were revealed during Yum's fourth quarter earnings call on February 4. While Yum! Brands is based in Louisville, Kentucky, Pizza Hut is headquartered in Plano.

Yum! representatives said that U.S. Pizza Hut store sales slid 3 percent as value initiatives, like the $5 Crafted Flatzz personal pizza, have failed to take hold with customers, who are increasingly spending their pizza budget at rival Domino’s.

In November 2025, Yum! Brands announced that it would launch a “formal review of strategic options,” a program called “Hut Forward,” which officials said could result in a global reduction in the number of Pizza Hut outlets or an eventual sale of the concept.

“The Pizza Hut team has been working hard to address business and category challenges; however, Pizza Hut’s performance indicates the need to take additional action to help the brand realize its full value, which may be better executed outside of Yum! Brands,” said Chris Turner, CEO of Yum! Brands, in a previous press release.

It’s unclear how any such sale would affect the franchise’s Plano headquarters. The corporation is currently in the process of moving KFC, which has been experiencing its own financial struggles, from Kentucky to its Plano home base.

In recent years, the overall pizza landscape has been rocky for national chains. Concepts like Papa John’s, Blaze Pizza, and Mod Pizza have closed units as dining shifts increasingly to favor more “interesting” concepts like Nashville-style hot chicken. In early January, the Wall Street Journal reported that pizzerias are no longer the second most popular chain format in the U.S., plummeting below Mexican restaurants and coffee shops to sixth place.

Although Pizza Hut has not disclosed exactly which locations would be shuttering, it did say it expects to wrap up the closure round by the middle of 2026.

chains pizza closings pizza hut closure

Bar News

Deep Ellum hipster honky-tonk opens second outlet outside Dallas

PIZZA PROBLEMS

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