Tiki News

Dallas gets a fabulous new tiki lounge on Greenville Avenue

It's tiki time in Dallas.

Photo courtesy of Swizzle

In the biggest tiki news since the demise of Trader Vic's, Dallas is in line to get its own dedicated tiki lounge, from a couple that are the royalty of tiki culture in town.

Called Swizzle, it's a new bar-in-the-making coming to Lower Greenville from husband-and-wife Marty Reyes and Jen Ann Tonic, who've built a tiki buzz via a series of Polynesian-style pop-ups called Swizzle Luau Lounge, serving mai tais and other tropical treasures.

The couple has taken possession of the space at 1802 Greenville Ave., most recently occupied by the short-lived Rocko's Pizza, where they'll install their inimitable tiki flair.

Jen says they're a ways off and that details are slim, but that they'll be recreating the same kitschy vibe and craft cocktails found in their popular pop-ups.

"We just signed the lease on Thursday and are working quickly to get everything moving," Jen says. "We're still waiting on our build-out, and are a few months away from anything big happening — that's the timeline."

The Reyeses are a colorful pair with a zest for life and connections to Dallas' coolest subcultures, including the worlds of rockabilly, vintage, Day of the Dead, State Fair of Texas, burlesque, art, flea markets, and fashion.

They have extensive hospitality experience at establishments such as Industry Alley Bar, Cibo Divino, and the Green Door Public House.

But more to the point, they've been longtime tiki aficionados, well before tiki began to resurface as a trend. They organized the 2019 rendition of Dallas Tiki Week in June, taking the reins from bartender/founder Brian McCullough, and carrying off a successful event featuring a crew of tiki enthusiasts and tiki-friendly bars, such as Gung Ho; Sand Bar; Circo; Armoury D.E.; The Gallery; Ruins; and 4 Kahunas, DFW's most famous tiki bar to date.

Jen is a California native who moved to Dallas in 2011. She's nursed an obsession with cocktail culture since adolescence, collecting barware, bar tools, cocktail books, and vintage spirit ads.

Her grandfather lived in Hawaii for a large portion of his life; he was on Oahu during Pearl Harbor. Her mother was a hula dancer and raised Jen on Hawaiian music, Italian music, Elvis, and Frank Sinatra.

Marty is a native Texan, who's been in the service industry for over 25 years, including Dick’s Last Resort and Bowlounge.

He's an avid reader of cocktail books and tiki books, and has a mean collection of Hawaiian shirts and tiki necklaces. He'll be the lead cocktail creator at Swizzle.

"Swizzle would not be where it is today if he didn’t wake up early every day and go to bed late everyday, researching," Jen says.

"His passion for cocktails and the eagerness to make this dream come true mixed with my social media persistence, obsession for tiki, and pretty packaging of his ideas has really turned this dream into a reality," she says.

They debuted the Swizzle Luau Lounge pop-up in May 2016. They've hosted a big Tiki Flea every spring and winter, as well as many luaus and exotica music events. They also love to visit tiki bars across the country.

Tiki has been trending in Dallas bars for about five years, with an increasing array of rum drinks and tiki-themed nights and events. The area got its first dedicated tiki bar in 2018 when 4 Kahunas Tiki Lounge opened in Arlington.

Meanwhile, another tiki bar is set to open in Fort Worth: Tarantula Tiki Lounge is wrapping up construction and will open later in 2019 in Near Southside, from the owners of The Boiled Owl Tavern. That makes three tiki bars, and three makes a trend.

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Flair News

TGI Fridays files for bankruptcy, all 6 Dallas locations now closed

TGI Fridays

Restaurant chain TGI Fridays filed for bankruptcy protection on November 2, saying it is looking for ways to “ensure the long-term viability” of the casual dining brand after closing many of its branches in 2024.

The Dallas-based company's Chapter 11 filing in a Texas federal court accelerates a gradual decline for an iconic chain that was once near the center of American pop culture but has seen its customer base dwindle as tastes changed.

TGI Fridays executive chairman Rohit Manocha said in a statement that the challenges were a result of COVID-19.

"The next steps announced today are difficult but necessary actions to protect the best interests of our stakeholders, including our domestic and international franchisees and our valued team members around the world," Manocha said. "The primary driver of our financial challenges resulted from COVID-19 and our capital structure. This restructuring will allow our go-forward restaurants to proceed with an optimized corporate infrastructure that enables them to reach their full potential."

Until recently, Dallas-Fort Worth had 11 locations including five at DFW Airport. Those airport locations are the only ones still open. The remaining six are all now closed — some closures very recent, most after being in business for a decade or more: 4951 Belt Line Rd. in Addison; 311 N. Clark St. in Cedar Hill, southwest of Dallas; 3700 Towne Crossing Blvd. in Mesquite; and 220 Cornflower Dr. at Firewheel Town Center in Garland.

A Plano location at 2444 Preston Rd. closed in 2022 and is now home to Rise Souffle, while the flagship in Dallas' West End at 1713 Market St. closed in 2020 after 32 years.

Privately owned by TriArtisan Capital Advisors, TGI Fridays has been a beloved dining destination since its inaugural bar opened in Manhattan in 1965. It expanded over the following decades to become a ubiquitous suburban gathering spot known for its ribs, potato skins topped with cheese and bacon, and a decor bedecked with red stripes and Tiffany-style lamps.

The company has boasted that its bartenders trained Tom Cruise for his role in the 1988 film Cocktail, while its serving staff's button-filled uniforms, meant to evoke a fun atmosphere, were later parodied in the 1999 satire Office Space, starring Jennifer Aniston.

Its empire peaked in 2008 with 601 restaurants in the U.S. and a $2 billion business, according to Kevin Schimpf, director of industry research at Technomic. Its sales in the U.S. were $728 million in 2023, down 15% from the prior year, according to Technomic.

It now counts 163 restaurants in the U.S., down from 269 last year and 213 from a week ago. It closed 36 in January and dozens more in the past week. TGI Fridays Inc. said it only owns and operates 39 restaurants in the U.S, a fraction of the 461 TGI Fridays-branded restaurants around the world.

A separate entity, TGI Fridays Franchisor, owns the intellectual property and has franchised the brand to 56 independent owners in 41 countries. Those are independently owned and not part of the Chapter 11 process, and remain open.

A United Kingdom-based franchisee, Hostmore, also sought debt protection in September and abruptly closed locations throughout that country after a failed takeover deal to acquire TGI Fridays.

During the pandemic TGI Fridays made an effort to expand into the delivery market by making itself a hub for ghost kitchens, which have no storefront and only prepare food for delivery. Among the major creditors owed money by TGI Fridays is the delivery service DoorDash, according to Saturday's bankruptcy court filings.

Sit-down chain restaurants more broadly have faced challenges in recent years as diners choose to get food delivered or visit upscale fast-food chains like Chipotle and Shake Shack. In September a U.S. bankruptcy judge approved a reorganization plan for the seafood chain Red Lobster after years of mounting losses. Italian American food chain Buca di Beppo filed for bankruptcy protection in August. PAnother iconic U.S. sit-down restaurant, Denny's, announced in October that it is closing 150 of its lowest-performing restaurants in an effort to turn around the brand’s flagging sales. Wendy’s is also closing up to 140 restaurants, according to a statement from The Wendy's Co. on October 31.