T-Room Out

Prime Dallas ladies-who-lunch tea room to close after 18 years

Last chance for the tuna melt.

Photo courtesy of Forty Five Ten

In what feels like somewhat inevitable news, Forty Five Ten, the Dallas-based luxury boutique, is closing the T Room at Forty Five Ten on McKinney Avenue.

According to a release, the closure comes as "part of a strategic decision" by the Headington Companies who own it, to refocus on the flagship Forty Five Ten location in downtown Dallas.

The restaurant, which served for 18 years as one of the top lunch destinations for the tasteful-ladies set, will close on June 30.

To mark the news, there is even a quote from co-founder Brian Bolke, who sold Forty Five Ten to the Headington Companies but remains on as a consultant. So very gracious and mindful of the Headington Companies.

"The closing of the T Room is bittersweet, of course," Bolke says. "It's a bit like watching a child graduate – you have nostalgia for all those wonderful younger days, but are so proud and hopeful for the bright future. I’ll miss my favorite tuna melt, but the farro bowl at Mirador has become my new favorite."

Founded in 2000 by Bolke and Shelly Musselman, Forty Five Ten has always cultivated a strong roster of experimental and unconventional designers. After Headington Companies acquired the brand in 2014, they expanded their footprint with the opening of a flagship store in downtown Dallas in 2016. In our writeup, we called it "the most beautiful store in Dallas."

In 2018, Headington Companies appointed Kristen Cole as president and Chief Creative Officer, with plans for additional brick-and-mortar locations, an ecommerce platform, and an expansion of the retail family including the Tenoversix boutique.

The downtown location will undergo several renovations this summer, the most significant of which will be on the main floor with the inclusion of Tenoversix, which was previously located on the first floor of The Joule.

"We expect to see more walk-in traffic from Main Street since the assortment of books, design objects, emerging fashion and gifts will feel more approachable," Cole says.

Tenoversix's move opens space for another concept within the hotel, which is still in the works. Additionally, a new take on the coffee bar concept will be completed by this fall in the area known as Copper Bar.

This is all good news. It's also true that the T Room's fortunes had dimmed ever so slightly once Forty Five Ten on Main moved downtown in 2016.

But we are talking 18 years of baby showers, genteel birthday parties, rosé-fueled meetups, and CultureMap company lunches. A menu with more than a dozen salads such as the green goddess; quiche; and toasty panini sandwiches, available in the "T Room combination," with two items for $16 or three for $20. All in a refined space with an adjoining courtyard and fountain in artfully distressed brick.

True to form, the T Room will go out in style. On June 30, its last day of lunch service, the T Room will offer champagne for all guests, to commemorate the day. Reservations are recommended.

downtown closings

Tex-Mex News

Upscale Dallas Mexican restaurant Hugo's Invitados closes last outlet

Photo courtesy of Hugo's Invitados

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A highly-regarded Mexican restaurant has closed: Hugo's Invitados, which had been wowing crowds at its Las Colinas location 5240 N. O'Connor Blvd. #160 since 2018, closed in mid-May.

According to spokesperson Matt Whiteley, the lockout came as a surprise. The restaurant issued a statement which said that "we find ourselves unexpectedly closed," before apologizing for the "incredible inconvenience."

"We assure you, this was not our decision. We were in the midst of ongoing negotiations with property ownership, when the proprietors elected, without warning, to suddenly and fully terminate the terms of our lease," their statement said.

Hugo's first opened as a partnership between entrepreneur Mark Hulme and restaurateur Hugo Miranda (Meso Maya), with an ambitious and well-executed menu of chef-driven Mexican food with dishes such as Wagyu carne asada, Mexican cioppino, and scallops with huitlacoche & corn couli. Margaritas were made with organic ingredients, and everything on the menu was gluten-free.

They went on to open a Tex-Mex spinoff Hugo's Lost Colony in 2021, followed by the debut of a fresh taqueria called Honest Taco in Dallas' West Village in 2022. (They also had plans to open a second Hugo's in Uptown Dallas in the McKinney & Olive luxury tower but that plan got scuttled; they went on to open a Hugo's in the West Village in 2023.)

Their momentum got derailed due to a string of unfortunate circumstances — including Miranda contracting COVID in 2020, as well as a change at the West Village, where restaurateur Mike Karns took over as majority owner and promptly installed his own concepts in the Honest Taco space: first Mexican Test Kitchen, a pop-up, which he replaced with UnaVida, now reportedly closed.

But the original Hugo's at Las Colinas still had a loyal and consistent following, and had also become a destination for gluten-free diners, Whiteley says.

"That location was still doing very well," he says. "We had regulars from the neighborhood as well as customers who came from outside the area, and we also had the same staff who were with us from day one, who cared deeply and who get all the credit for the quality and service."

They hadn't lagged significantly on rent and were anticipating a brisk Mother's Day weekend with full reservations; alas, the new-ish landlord, a company called Water Street O'Connor LP, abruptly locked the space the Thursday before.

"It would have been a special weekend for our customers as well as for our 70-plus employees, whose livelihoods depended on this small business," Whiteley says.

It's an unfortunate ending for a restaurant that could have been a run-of-the-mill Tex-Mex but was instead something much better, and Whiteley says that, at this point, as much as they'd like to revive it, the likelihood that it will resurface is slim.

tex-mex closings