Cowboys Hotel

Luxurious details emerge for Dallas Cowboys headquarters hotel in Frisco

New details have been revealed regarding the Omni Frisco Hotel, the luxury property opening in summer 2017 adjacent to the new Dallas Cowboys World Headquarters.

At a VIP-packed event, Frisco Mayor Maher Maso provided updates on the 300-room hotel with an assemblage that included executives from Omni Hotels & Resorts and the Dallas Cowboys, plus representatives from the Frisco City Council, the Frisco Economic and Community Development Corporations, and the Frisco Convention & Visitors Bureau. Anyone who's anyone in Frisco was there.

The Omni Frisco will serve as a cornerstone of The Star development, which will be anchored by the Dallas Cowboys World Headquarters and The Ford Center. The Cowboys' new headquarters facilities will be home to the entire football operations, including administrative offices, coaches' offices, and the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. The deal was struck in October 2014.

With seating for 12,000, The Ford Center is in a position to be the largest indoor stadium for amateur football in the country. It'll function both as the home venue for Frisco Independent School District (FISD) for events and activities and the practice and training facility for the Cowboys.

Mike Deitemeyer, president of Omni Hotels & Resorts, said that the hotel would honor the history of the Dallas Cowboys and the city of Frisco, with lots of local flavor. The design concept will incorporate the city's motto "Progress in Motion," with a nod to the Dallas Cowboys' history.

The goal is to set a new standard for hotel accommodations in Frisco. "The Star will be a first-of-its-kind destination that brings the Cowboys brand to life," said Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones.

Hotel attributes
The hotel will be 16 stories tall, with 300 guest rooms and suites. Eateries will include a fine-dining spot, a coffee and wine bar in the lobby, and a rooftop bar and grill. A luxury retail outlet will offer local designers' goods and artwork, including sketches of Cowboys Ring of Honor inductees.

A rooftop pool and deck will be situated on the fourth floor, with room for 300 to 400 guests, plus views of the plaza and The Ford Center. Features include three firepits, cabanas, and a bar and grill.

A key feature will be its viability for meetings and events, with 24,000 square feet of meeting space, inclusive of a 13,000-square-foot ballroom. The Omni and Dallas Cowboys partnership also offers planners and attendees access to additional meetings and exhibit space in The Ford Center, as well as events on the plaza.

The Omni Frisco Hotel's partnership with the Dallas Cowboys is the latest in its expanding collection of properties anchoring multipurpose sports developments. The Omni San Diego Hotel is connected, via skybridge, to Petco Park, home of the Padres, while the Omni Atlanta Hotel at CNN Center connects to the College Football Hall of Fame and Museum.

The Dallas Cowboys broke ground on the property in 2014 on a 90-acre site at the northwest corner of Warren Parkway and the Dallas North Tollway in Frisco. Additional facets of development will include more offices, retail, and restaurants.

A rendering of the lobby of the new Omni Frisco.

Courtesy rendering

A rendering of the lobby of the new Omni Frisco.

hotels dallas-cowboys

STARS STRUCK

Texas Monthly’s handy new restaurant guide crowns 95 Dallas spots

Courtesy of Cafe Momentum

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After half a century, Texas Monthly is ditching its revered Dining Guide. But before hangry locals start storming the magazine’s offices, know it has replaced the massive list with the Texas Grand — an honor roll of the “thousand-ish” best restaurants in the state, including 95 in Dallas proper.

And each Dallas suburb you add to the search increases the number of local honorees. Addison and Garland each boast two restaurants on the roll, and together Plano and Arlington add 14. Once you include Farmers Branch, Grapevine, and Irving in the search, the Dallas metro area has some 128 restaurants on the list.

The Dining Guide has been a fixture of the magazine since its 1973 launch. It was synonymous with Texas Monthly’s former restaurant critic Pat Sharpe, who began her storied career proofreading the entries as an editorial assistant, then added hundreds of restaurants until her retirement in 2025.

The new guide scraps the guide’s star system. Sharpe originally used the ratings under a three-star system, which she described as good/better/best in a 2001 column. In 2017, that scale grew to five. The new Texas Grand describes its entries as “restaurants in the state that are wholeheartedly recommended by [Texas Monthly’s] dining team.”

“Excellent food, service, and overall atmosphere are musts — and that excellence can exist at all price points, whether at a taco truck, a diner, or an upscale steakhouse,” explained the magazine in a FAQ section. “We don’t pay much attention to big chains …Our reviewers focus largely on restaurants with local roots that offer something genuinely special.”

Where once readers had to pour over pages of the magazine to discover new restaurant picks, Texas Grand now allows them to sort by city, type of cuisine, and price point. There are some quirky filters, too, like checkboxes for pet-friendly spots, “fancy” eateries, or those that offer Favor delivery. A map feature lets road-trippers easily plan road-trip dinners.

Dallas picks include an eclectic mix: There's the humble 1-year-old Oak Cliff diner Donde Los Tacos and its 15-year-old neighbor down the street Lockhart Smokehouse. Also on the list, the nonprofit Cafe Momentum downtown and the backyard-born One90 Smoked Meats in Lake Highlands. Slightly up the scale, budgetarily speaking, are spots such as Highland Park soufflé specialists Rise No 1, Design District darling The Charles, and posh Pappas Bros. Steakhouse with its rooftop helipad.

Each eatery is described in one sentence. Frisco's Bharat Bhavan is “an impressively large, sensory, and satisfying destination for vegetarian Indian fare" and Smokey Joe's is a “a gas-station-turned-barbecue-joint with some of the city’s best brisket.” For the publication's full thoughts, readers can pony up for a subscription.

Texas foodies can peruse the full list here.

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