New bourbon tasting room, restaurant planned in historic Fort Worth Stockyards
A Kentucky-based distillery has bought a historic Stockyards packinghouse and warehouse to remodel as a multi-million-dollar “bourbon wonderland,” according to the former owner.
Horse Soldier Bourbon, founded by former U.S. Army Green Berets from the Afghanistan War, bought Los Vaqueros Restaurant to remodel as the company’s third Urban Stillhouse dining and events center, owner Vicki Cisneros said this week.
Los Vaqueros remains open for the next few days at 2629 N. Main St. while work is finished on its new location, 2513 Rodeo Plaza, Cisneros said.
The first Urban Stillhouse restaurant, tasting room and events center opened in 2020 in St. Petersburg, Florida.
The distillery itself later moved and opened a second restaurant in a planned $200 million development in Somerset, Kentucky.
The Stockyards location is a towering, two-story, 11,416-square-foot brick cold-storage warehouse built in 1915 for D. Hart & Sons Livestock Co. and occupied the last 41 years by Los Vaqueros.
Cisneros said her understanding is that Meredith Koko, a daughter of co-founder and 5th Special Forces Group veteran John Koko, plans to restore the building’s top floor and basement to host receptions and events along with tastings and “bourbon-forward” dining.
Urban Stillhouse would be the newest development in a Stockyards already busy with a $630 million expansion of Mule Alley. Nearby, “Yellowstone” producer Taylor Sheridan and partners are spending $3 million to remodel Cattlemen’s Steak House, 2458 N. Main St.
“It’s going to be a much more upscale restaurant, the level of or even a little higher than the [Hotel] Drover,” Cisneros said. “I am so happy.”
Horse Soldier’s investors include California-based Gallo, the largest wine producer in the world.
John Koko and the original co-founders were Special Forces soldiers who entered Afghanistan on horseback after the 9-11 terror attacks in 2001, as featured in the 2018 movie “12 Strong.”
The St. Petersburg restaurant, measuring at 16,000 square feet, is praised for hazelnut-crusted lamb chops, a bourbon-butter bison filet, osso buco and Sunday brunch.
The second location in Somerset, Kentucky, population about 12,000, opened earlier this year in a 105-year-old former furniture store in the town about halfway between Lexington, Kentucky, and Knoxville, Tennessee.
Urban Stillhouse has not announced the purchase or listed Fort Worth on its website.
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