A vintage building in downtown Dallas is getting a new lease on life: Located at 1519 Main St., the space will become a spectacular new lounge and event space called 1519 Main, and it's from Hospitality Alliance, the company led by restaurant wunderkind Kevin Lillis, who helped create the original AT&T Discovery District downtown.
1519 is situated in the thick of the Central Business District, across the street from the Joule Dallas hotel and in the same stretch as The Eye sculpture and the Forty Five Ten boutique.
The building is unusual because it's a two-story space, which might be a challenge for most potential tenants. But Lillis had the ideal scenario.
"I fell in love with the building," he says. "It had so many original features like the rose-and-cream marble floors from the 1920s. I could immediately see a sophisticated lounge on the first floor. It became viable because I have a friend who was looking for office space, so we're partnering on it, and he's leasing the second floor."
1519 will boast a cosmopolitan, low-key atmosphere, with ultra high-end cocktails from acclaimed mixologist Brian Van Flandern, a food TV regular (Bar Rescue, Barefoot Contessa), author, and consultant who created the renowned cocktail program at the Palm Court at The Plaza Hotel in New York, where he and Lillis both worked.
"Brian had done the Plaza Hotel and has a taste for a concept like this, with sophisticated cocktails and 3-Michelin-star service that will match the beautiful space," Lillis says.
1519 Main St. downtown Dallas
Courtesy
Hospitality Alliance beverage director Angela Montesclaros will be a partner, as well.
The project has been in the works for two years, requiring a special use permit, plus the typical delays in dealing with the city (a scenario that is supposedly going to improve!). They also needed to reassure their neighbors, including the St. Jude Chapel next door, that their impact on the area would be low-key.
Dallas County Appraisal District puts the building's date of birth at 1928 — although the building's current co-owner Scott Remphrey, CEO of The Brytar Companies, says he's not sure that's correct.
Brytar acquired the building from an oil and gas company. Prior to that, it was occupied by Bank of America, with offices and a conference room on the second floor with a glass wall overlooking Main Street.
But here's a fun fact: In its earliest pre-Depression-era days, it was home to a Planters Peanut Shop, which eventually moved to Elm Street.
"Some of the brick walls have original painted advertising from the early 1900's that were retained," Remphrey says. "They were advertisements on the exterior walls, which became interior walls of the building when the Planters store was open in the 20's."
That will definitely all stay.
"We're not doing much with the walls or the floors, other than trying to make sure we minimize any damage," Lillis says. "The goal is to retain as much of the original features as possible."
Lillis is currently overseeing the hospitality programs at Victory Park as well as Toyota Music Factory, where they've only just opened a number of restaurant concepts including Jaxon, a modern Texan Restaurant; Pistil, a cocktail lounge; and Shoals Smokehouse, a BBQ restaurant.
1519, which is slated to open in late spring, is on a smaller scale, and that's part of the appeal.
"This is a concept where I can be extremely focused," he says. "At our other Hospitality Alliance projects, we have to be different things to different guests at different times of the week — convention, concert-goers, local residents, office tenants, etc."
"Here we are being only one thing: a high end cocktail den with no compromises," he says. "We aren't trying to please everyone — we are trying to be great at one thing, for a guest looking for that experience."
