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HOT SPOTS

By June 23, 2021 September 10th, 2021 No Comments

Hot Spots

Compiled by June Naylor and Babs Rodriguez

Photo courtesy of the Kimpton Harper Hotel

The Kimpton Harper Hotel expands hospitality

The San Francisco-based boutique brand makes its introduction to Fort Worth, as another downtown landmark building gets a major makeover. The Harper also offers a free-standing restaurant, plus a penthouse whiskey bar and cocktail lounge adjacent to the 24th-floor lobby. Room decor is sophisticated and includes cool details such as colorful local art and a small panther figurine in each room’s closet. The 31 one-bedroom suites (226 guestrooms total) also feature inviting wet-room baths with soaking tubs. We like the full-size Atelier Bloem bath amenities and the Bluetooth speaker system found in all the rooms. Complimentary umbrellas and yoga mats are also included. First-floor restaurant il Modo offers contemporary Italian food from chef Matt Williams. Watch the pasta made on site in the glass-walled prep room (classes are in the works). Refinery 714 is the top-floor lounge, which will offer a bar menu along with views of the city. Work out on one of the gym’s Pelotons or check out a bike to roll around downtown. And The Harper is pet-friendly, with no size or weight limit. As the website says, “If your pet fits through the door, we’ll welcome them in.”

714 Main St., 817-332-7200 or 800-994-6103, theharperfortworth.com

Bowie House Hotel inches on

Fencing erected along the perimeters of the hotel and town home development in Arlington Heights shows forward motion, but owner Jo Ellard says that difficulties in developing the utilities delayed the expected May groundbreaking. In bigger news for those concerned about the density of the project, the number of adjacent town homes has decreased from 11 to eight. Construction office trailers on land leased at the northwest corner of Camp Bowie Boulevard and Dorothy Lane will be harbingers of the groundbreaking, and off-site parking for workers is still being negotiated. A request for an expansion to a six-day workweek (with Sundays as needed) has yet to be resolved with the neighborhood. Ellard notes that the goal of her team is to have the noisiest phase of construction completed prior to Christmas 2021, with an opening in late 2022. During construction, westbound lanes of the boulevard will be reduced to a single lane in front of the site.

Visit the Arlington Heights Neighborhood Association website for more updates, arlingtonheightsna.com.

Hotel Otto gets some love

Twenty-one years since opening his first restaurant (Lonesome Dove), Tim Love can’t slow down. Running more than a dozen restaurants in four cities in Texas plus Tennessee still isn’t enough. Adding innkeeper to his resume, he opens Hotel Otto in Fort Worth this summer. On property between the Monticello and River District neighborhoods where his Italian bar-and-restaurant Gemelle sits, the eight-bungalow retreat was designed by Love and fashioned from new shipping containers by Waco-based CargoHome. Each bungalow sleeps two in queen beds and provides room to lounge on rooftop decks. Access to a swimming pool next to Gemelle is available by reservation. Other amenities include midafternoon cocktail cart service, Hermés bath products and silk robes. There’s room service and breakfast for guests, too. “There’s nothing like it in Fort Worth — or, really, anywhere,” Love says. “It just seemed like it would be fun.” Overnights from $199.
4400 White Settlement Road, 817-732-9535, hotelottoftw.com

Hotel Dryce ready to rock

The 21-room boutique hotel behind Fort Works Art gets closer to an opening date later this summer. Forbes added to the anticipation when the contemporary revitalization of the onetime dry ice building and adjacent property merited a spot on the magazine’s list of the “world’s most exciting hotel openings in 2021.” Find updates at hoteldryce.com.