A Dallas hospitality trio is expanding to Fort Worth with an innovative new bar: Called Bronc's Tack Room, it'll open in the Fort Worth Stockyards in a former women's clothing store at 115 W. Exchange Ave., with an opening slated for summer 2026.
Bronc's is a new concept from Matt Peterson, Devan Pharis, and Sam Wynne, who first collaborated on Lawnie's, an old-school Texas ice house on Dallas' buzzy Henderson Avenue, which they opened in 2024. (Wynne is also well known in Dallas' food & beverage world as a co-founder of Mike's Gemini Twin, a dive bar in the Cedars District; and Braindead Brewing, the pioneering craft beer bar in Deep Ellum which closed in 2021.)
Bronc's will cater to the Stockyards neighborhood, filling a niche currently unfilled: a casual place to grab an affordable bite and beer, open 7 days a week, including weekday lunch.
"The Stockyards is known internationally, people come from all over the world, it's the leading attraction for Dallas-Fort Worth — we want to cater to that daily foot traffic," Peterson says.
Construction is underway, with a target opening date of sometime this summer. For the food, they're still finalizing the menu, but they have a clear vision.
"Instead of a bar and grill, it's going to be a bar and griddle, where we'll serve up to a dozen hot sandwich offerings," Peterson says. "No fryer, just bagged chips and griddled potatoes, and ice cold beer in frozen mini schooners – a nod to Moose's Saloon in Kalispell, Montana, one of our favorites."
Bronc's restaurant-bar is on street level, but it will also boast an additional, separate venue in the basement.
Bronc's Tack Room will go into the old Pinkies space.Google Maps
"This is going to be the first multi-level bar in the Stockyards, with a separate basement entrance off Bull Alley, that will cater to a younger crowd," Pharis says. "It'll have pool tables, darts, and a live-music stage … a concept similar to what you might find on Broadway in Nashville or Bourbon Street in New Orleans."
The street-level venue is a 1,600-square-foot traditional shotgun space with original brick and a pressed-tin ceiling. A set of stairs drops down into a 4,600-square-foot basement that extends west into the neighboring space beneath the storied Longhorn Saloon, the oldest honky-tonk in Fort Worth, operating under the same roof since 1919.
"Part of what makes this special is that it's a subterranean space located under a building that's 115 years old," Wynne says. "We loved the opportunity to activate a basement space that wasn't existing and start fresh."
Pharis says they courted the landlord, who owns multiple buildings throughout the district, seeking a space in the Stockyards for a couple of years.
"It's very seldom that something like this becomes available," he says. "But we wanted to be intentional with any second location that we opened by choosing an area with similar foot traffic and stature as Henderson."
On the surface, Bronc's is a departure from Lawnie's, a casual, front-lawn hangout featuring packaged beer and basic cocktails. But the two concepts share an approachable price point as well as a personality that's tailored to their neighborhoods.
"Lawnie's took off like a rocket ship and helped confirm that we had the ability to curate an experience that people want to be a part of," Pharis says.
