Urban Stillhouse owner Meredith Koko wants Fort Worth to know she does not intend to tear down the 110-year-old former cold-storage warehouse that once housed the Los Vaqueros Stockyards restaurant.
“The message that I’m really trying to get across, that I think is getting missed, is the fact that we are not coming in there to do anything other than be a part of the Stockyards,” she said. “I don’t think there’s a better brand to be here, frankly, with the American story we have, and the love we have for Texas and just the Americana of it. That said, I cannot say and I don’t know, because I’m not an engineer, what we are going to be able to save or salvage.”
Koko was speaking after news that the new owners of the property had filed a demolition permit for the former D. Hart and Sons Livestock Co. building at 2629 N. Main St. Koko emphasized that the demolition permit came about because the structure was not “structurally sound.” They don’t plan to demolish the building, but there are no halfway measures to apply for with the city.
“All I can promise is we’re going to do our best,” she said. “I mean, that is a definite. We didn’t buy it to knock it down. We bought it because we loved it. So we’re going to do our best.”
Koko said they originally planned to open an Urban Stillhouse restaurant and whiskey tasting room in the building.
However, that plan didn’t prove financially feasible unless they also added a hotel, so the Urban Stillhouse restaurant group partnered with McKibbon Hospitality, to build a 120-room boutique hotel on the site, along with the restaurant and tasting room.
“We’re going to keep literally as much as it is possible,” she said. “That is a no brainer to me. But there will be a new building somewhere on that property that’s safe for putting hotel rooms. I just don’t know what to expect from a structural standpoint.”
Koko said she and her father, John Koko, one of the co-founders of the Horse Soldier Bourbon brand, fell in love with the Stockyards area when they first came to visit in 2023.
“We saw the area, the history, the John Wayne Museum, the horses, the Americana, I mean it fit right in with our brand,” she said.
The Stockyards building is a two-story, 11,416-square-foot brick cold-storage warehouse and meat locker that opened in 1915. It became the Los Vaqueros Stockyards location from 1996 to 2024 when the Tex-Mex restaurant moved across the street to 2513 Rodeo Plaza.
Horse Soldier Bourbon is itself rooted in history. Following the 9/11 attacks in 2001, a group of U.S. Special Forces soldiers were the first into Afghanistan. They partnered with Afghan allies and rode horses through the mountains to disperse Taliban strongholds, thus the name Horse Soldiers. Their work was classified for nearly a decade and when their story came out, there was a film, “12 Strong” and a documentary, “Legion of Brothers.”
John Koko partnered with some of the Horse Soldiers to create a bourbon to help tell their story. Among the investors are California-based Gallo, the largest wine producer in the world.
Meredith Koko came on board to develop the restaurants. So far there are two, one in Somerset, Kentucky, and another in St. Petersburg, Florida.
The Fort Worth location would be the third location that, like the other Urban Stillhouse restaurants, is situated in a unique development.
The Urban Stillhouse will have plenty of company in the Stockyards, with “Yellowstone” producer Taylor Sheridan a partner in the $3 million remodel of Cattlemen’s at 2458 N. Main St., and several Tim Love concepts nearby.
Poppi and tea
Fort Worth-based tea franchise HTeaO is teaming up once again with prebiotic soda sensation Poppi to launch a new limited-time beverage duo for fall. The two Texas brands first collaborated in February 2025. The new creations are Orange Dream Poppi and Root Beer Floatin’ Poppi. Both drinks are available at all participating HTeaO locations.
Grapevine hotels
Grapevine is continuing to grow its hospitality footprint with new developments and major renovations.
The city is home to more than 20 hotels, 1 million square feet of meeting space and more than 6,000 hotel rooms.
New hotels coming online include the Hampton Inn & Home2 Suites by Hilton, a dual-brand $14 million property that will break ground in October on a former restaurant site at West State Highway 114 and State Highway 121. This five-story hotel will include 201 rooms with the expected completion date for the first quarter of 2027.
Also coming is the AC Hotel by Marriott at Silverlake. Newcrest Image is bringing a five-story, 200 room hotel near Grapevine Mills at State Highway 26. It will feature outdoor space, a full-service restaurant, 7,000 square feet of event space and six meeting rooms. It is scheduled to open in early 2029.
Meanwhile, there are expansions at Hotel Vin on Grapevine’s Main Street that will add 121 guest rooms, a spa, outdoor pool and private event space. Great Wolf Lodge Grapevine has recently completed a renovation and expansion with several new attractions and a redesigned grand lobby.
Do you have something for the Bob on Business column? Email Bob Francis, business editor for the Fort Worth Report, at bob.francis@fortworthreport.org.
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