Fort Worth Magazine/Olaf Growald
Talk about a very soft re-opening.
DRG Concepts, Dallas-based owner of restaurant concepts such as Dallas Chop House, Dallas Fish Market, Wild Salsa, Chop House Burger, and Wicked Butcher, shut down all of its restaurants except the Dallas location of Chop House Burger earlier this in response to COVID-19.
On Nov. 21, DRG quietly re-opened its Wicked Butcher in downtown Fort Worth, which had been open for just a few months when COVID hit. The Sinclair, Autograph Collection hotel, home to the Wicked Butcher, also closed for several months and re-opened the same day as Wicked Butcher.
With no PR, traffic has been building, Nafees Alam, DRG’s CEO, said in an interview. Under Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s COVID-related orders, the restaurant can operate at up to 50% capacity.
“It’s been ramping up,” Alam said. “The weekend was very good.” The restaurant is getting customers from hotels, many in town for the National Finals Rodeo in Arlington Dec. 3-12, he said. “It’s all rodeo.”
Wicked Butcher is currently operating seven days a week and only the lobby bar and dining room – the business is defined as a restaurant - and not its main basement restaurant. The restaurant opened in January with limited capacity, to allow it to hone its processes and service. “We’re about at the same level we were” in traffic, Alam said.
The restaurant has rehired 19 staff, from a peak 46, Alam said.
DRG has been renovating its other restaurants during COVID. “You are going to see all of our restaurants open by the second or third quarter next year,” Hoque, who founded DRG with Alam, said in the interview with Alam. “We’re going to open one at a time.”
DRG has a Chop House Burger and Wild Salsa in downtown Fort Worth. It’s also planning an Italian restaurant downtown that Hoque predicted will open late next year.
DRG is planning a New Year’s Eve Dinner in the lobby bar and dining room. The basement space will re-open in early 2021. The lobby bar and dining room is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Hours are 7 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, and 7 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. DRG provides all food and beverage for guests of The Sinclair.
Alam is’ also working on an idea for a Saturday-Sunday brunch in the lobby bar. “We want to establish the restaurant has a Fort Worth staple,” he said. It's not clear yet when DRG will open the rooftop bar at the Sinclair, which didn't open before COVID, Hoque and Alam said.
Hoque says he expects next year will continue to be tough on business, as vaccines roll out. "Nothing's going to get better until the beginning of the second quarter," he said. "2021 is going to be the toughest year in the industry."