Closure News
Green Door restaurant in famed historic downtown Dallas building closes
Green Door Public House has closed.
A treasured neighborhood restaurant near the Dallas Farmers Market has closed: Green Door Public House, which resided at 600 S. Harwood St. in a building with a profound historic legacy, closed on August 4, after 10 years.
A note from management thanked its customers for "10 amazing years serving the Farmers Market district," and encouraged customers to visit its sibling Harwood Tavern at 333 S. Harwood St. nearby.
While management did not offer an explanation for the closure, ownership of the building just changed hands in mid-July, which would seem to loom as a factor, although a representative from the restaurant said that overall costs had been rising and business had also been slightly down.
Green Door debuted in 2014 as a highly urban Chicago-style bar and restaurant near the Dallas Farmers Market — an instant legend, thanks to the building's unique backstory: Originally located at 2226 Elm St. at the corner of Cesar Chavez Boulevard, it was a century-old structure that was slated to be mowed down in order to make way for the widening of Cesar Chavez.
Wildcat Management founder Tanya Ragan intervened, famously buying the building for $1, then overseeing a relocation with co-owner Mike Ruibal (Ruibal's Plants of Texas) and Architexas principal Craig Melde. This required reassembling the building, brick by brick, at its new address, in order to recreate the structure as it appeared in 1899.
Green Door Public House was opened by original owners Bryan and Kathy Crelly, who also owned Uncle Uber's Sandwich Shop in Deep Ellum, with partner and hospitality veteran Ken Rothman. It became a destination for downtown worker lunches, weekend brunch, a generous (and award-winning) happy hour that ran from 2-7 pm weekdays, and a dinnertime hang for Dallas Farmers Market residential buildings and townhomes nearby.
The menu boasted an appealing combination of sports bar fare and home cooking classics: chicken-fried ribeye, wings, burgers, tacos, cheddar fries, portobello sandwich, beer, an extensive selection of whiskey, scotch, and bourbon, and Prohibition-inspired cocktails.
With a spacious patio, optimum downtown location, and on-site parking, it earned spots on lists such as 5 best neighborhood bars and 10 hot downtown restaurants.
However, Wildcat recently sold the building, without disclosing price or buyer — although the price was confirmed to be "more than $1," and Ruibal was reportedly the buyer.
In 2021, the Crellys shifted away from the restaurant biz and Rothman took over full time, overseeing Green Door, Uncle Uber's, and Harwood Tavern, a restaurant and bar they opened in 2017, nabbing the building on the east side of downtown that had briefly housed upscale Mexican restaurant Agave Azul.
Uncle Uber's closed in March 2024, enduring a decade in Deep Ellum, in a 100-year-old building and a neighborhood that changed dramatically during its tenure. For the Green Door team, this represents a consolidation at Harwood Tavern, which is thriving with an appealing menu of pub food like fish & chips, Swedish meatballs, "Irish grilled cheese," and short rib poutine; and a location that's advantageously adjacent to the currently buzzy East Quarter development.
