Reply With QuoteThis is just a rumor, but I've heard that Rusty Taco is interested in taking over the Lily Pad space. I know downtown already has Taco Borracho, but Rusty would be an awesome brand for that location.
Just turn it into a legal wall since Laura Miller closed all of Dallas' a few years agoOriginally Posted by jimmyx18
This is just a rumor, but I've heard that Rusty Taco is interested in taking over the Lily Pad space. I know downtown already has Taco Borracho, but Rusty would be an awesome brand for that location.
That would be great if true! They serve fresh food simple enough for such a small space and they offer simple but delicious drinks. One of the problems with the Lily Pad before is everyone kept telling them what they wanted the place to be and the space was not big enough to serve/cook everything for everybody. That tends to happen often Downtown every single resident has an idea what they want from you so in order to try to gain their business you try to accomodate them. The Lily Pad needs a solid vision that serves simple enough good food and it will be ok.
Yes I know of another restaurant group that looked at this space recently and it would have been really fun but the space can not allow for making any real food. Too bad they did not design this space to be a real working restaurant.
I was thinking the same thing, but the space is bigger than a food truck so how could it not be able to make the same kind of food?
It shouldn't be a full service restaurant it should just be a small snack and drink spot for a quick casual bite. If it was a restaurant we would most likely end up with another valet high end fancy food boutique and I dont think we need another one of those down there.
Update pics of Belo Gardens
It's looking nice
RAIN! To....much.....rain.....
^This is going to be a chill park. Can't wait for it to open. Stunning photograph!
Very cool pic!
My favorite park in downtown!
Sweeet
RAIN! To....much.....rain.....
Here is a site proposed as a small park. Are they starting on a park, or just utility work? It's at Good Latimer and Canton next to Camden Farmer's Market.
parkwork.jpg
Looks like the Deep Ellum Gardens project which just kicked off. http://www.facebook.com/Deepellumurbangardens http://forum.dallasmetropolis.com/sh...l=1#post475773
Went by Belo gardens Saturday morning and got this picture of them testing the water feature
photo 5.jpg
Here is a wider view of their calibration work and the east side of the park
overview.jpg
Had lunch in Bryant Park in NYC last week. I've long said this should be the model for Main St. Garden. The latest addition to the on-site cafes made me wonder whether Southwest Airlines might consider a similar outpost in its hometown?
Full bar, and food served from the neighboring sandwich place (plenty of wait staff, btw). Bonus: little packages of Southwest honey roasted peanuts, on request. A pretty cool space, in all.
2012-03-29_14-32-39_9.jpg2012-03-29_14-32-33_595.jpg2012-03-29_14-32-25_339.jpg
The park looks sharp at night on the ground level (as well as from the air, thanks to Justin's photo. All the footpath lights give it a modern feel. I hope the park ages well.
The Lily Pad was open on Saturday. I walked by but didn't stop to see what exactly was going on. Not sure if it was just a weekend thing or not.
That's the temporary Beer Garden run by the guys from Homegrown Arts Festival. If you read the press release from Downtown Dallas inc they partnered with those guys to basically sell beer temporarily out of the space until a vendor is found around June. For now it's just a sort of small beer garden.
More specifically, Josh Florence, who runs City Tavern and Club Dada (which are both awesome contributions to their respective neighborhoods).
Anyone else stop by the "visitorlando" thing at main street gardens this afternoon? It was kind of nice to get a free lunch and hang out with folks. I think they may have thought more people were going to stop by. They said they had free lunch for the first 500 people. By the time I left, they still had food and no one in line.
I walked through it but I had already had lunch. Had no idea it was going on so whoever was in charge of promoting it did a piss-poor job.
I only found out about it because my wife was walking around with my little girl and came across it.
I saw the DDI announcement a few hours before but was out of town. Who catered the food?
That's kind of awesome
Beerfest in Fair Park this weekend, btw.
Sorry, I forgot since yesterday. It was your choice of sandwitch type with chopped fruit, pickle slice, bag of chips, a cookie, and your choice of drink. Pretty nice as free lunches go. I wasn't able to finish it.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Rusty Taco to go into Main Street Garden in downtown Dallas
by Teresa Gubbins
www.pegasusnews.com
ARLINGTON — Rusty Taco, the concept launched by veteran restaurateur Rusty Fenton with branches on Greenville Avenue and Harry Hines, is expanding north and south -- including a branch in downtown Dallas in Main Street Garden, in the space that was formerly occupied by the Lilypad.
Fenton will take over the space in May and hopes to have it open within the month.
"I love Dallas and it's always been my dream for a branch downtown," Fenton said. "Tacos are the original street food, and I think it fulfills expectations for visitors when they come to Dallas."
The Lilypad space was originally developed by chef Doug Brown, who tried, unsuccessfully, to do a semi-upscale canteen with frozen yogurt and gourmet items. It closed last month and has since been the "Main Street Beer Garden" overseen by Josh Florence, owner of City Tavern.
Manager Charlene Bailey, who worked at the Lily Pad for a year, said that it was hard to gauge how much food would sell.
"The food came from our off-site commissary, and we didn't want things to go bad, so we'd often run out of things -- it was hard to judge," she said.
Their most reliable regulars: downtown Dallas' bicycle couriers.
"We cater to the local residents here, and that included the bicycle messengers, who would spend the afternoons here when they weren't working," she said.
DDI released a Request for Interest for a new operator last month. Rusty Taco beat a dozen other candidates.
"We are indebted to Doug Brown for entering this new venture with us when we opened Main Street Garden," said Crawford. "We look forward to the prospect of bringing a fresh, new concept to Downtown and we know that Rusty will deliver."
Rusty Taco will also open branches in Plano and the Colony, both slated to open this spring, Fenton said.
"My goal is to save the world from Fuzzy's," he said.
Called it on Post #1504
Nicely done.Called it on Post #1504
Sabor is reopening in May. Taco times.
Great to hear! That's exactly what is needed in the park!I'm glad a "fancy" food place isn't going in there.
On another note, I hope Sabor does a better job of advertising/promoting themselves. They need a sign that lights up. Most people didn't even know they were over there.
Word. They had good food (much better than Taco Borracho) but terrible management and marketing.
It is reopening under new ownership, so hopefully it will be better.
Sorry, but Rusty Taco won’t be taking Main Street Garden’s cafe space after all
By Robert Wilonsky
rwilonsky@dallasnews.com
Posted on April 20, 2012
One week ago today Downtown Dallas Inc. broke the news: After many submissions and much consideration, Rusty Taco had been given the cafe space in Main Street Garden formerly known the Lily Pad. And there was much rejoicing in the land — except at nearby Wild Salsa, where Mike Hoque is also planning to go into the street-taco business. As Hoque told our Karen Robinson-Jacobs, he’s concerned that “two taco windows in one block is too much.”
Downtown Dallas Inc. now feels the same way.
Rusty Fenton, namesake of Rusty Tacos, says this morning he was told by Downtown Dallas Inc. president on Wednesday that the deal’s off. Which took Fenton by surprise, as you can imagine: “After those glowing quotes in the paper, I was surprised,” he says this morning. “I also thought we were a perfect fit. I am hoping to work it out, but apparently there’s been some push back.”
John Crawford, president and CEO of Downtown Dallas Inc., says this morning that “as we got down to evaluating what we wanted to get done and how we wanted to do it and evaluated the strength Rusty Fenton brings to the market, we decided to spread the wealth.”
Translated: He didn’t want two taco stands competing more or less across the street from each other. Crawford, who says Hoque passed on the chance to compete for the cafe space, says he hopes to find another space for Rusty Taco — one that’s not directly across from a would-be competitor.
“Hoque is going to open a taco window across the street, and with an asset as strong as Rusty Fenton and Rusty Taco, we wondered: ‘Is there a way we can parlay that into another location [for Fenton]?” says Crawford. “Rusty Fenton is interested in becoming part of the downtown scene, and I went to him and said ‘The cafe at Main Street Garden is an important asset to downtown. But someone with your capability, what if we considered a different location?’”
Fenton says he remains hopeful something can be worked out; he’s just not sure what … or when. He was two weeks away from moving into the park cafe, he says. This latest development caught him off guard. “We were super-excited about the space,” Fenton says.
Crawford says he’s now not sure who will take over the former Lily Pad — or how they’ll find another operator. Rusty Taco won the bid over some dozen competitors chosen by a downtown stakeholders committee. Crawford says there was no second-place finisher: The list, he says, went from 12 to a top five to the single offering.
“We’ll reconvene and reevaluate the process,” he says. “We may reach out to some people because of the changing dynamics in downtown and say. ‘You didn’t come around the first time, but is this something that might be of interest?’”
I asked Crawford if he’s embarrassed about how this played out.
“I don’t think its embarrassing,” he insists. “It’s a change of strategy. It’s a change for the better. Is it confusing? Possibly. We made an announcement, and now we’re changing it. But there’s a feelgood story at the end of the day. Downtown will better off, and Rusty will be better off.”
^Wow, what a load of crap! Wild Salsa was "planning" on selling street tacos out of their window and they complained to John Crawford? Amazing. Why have ANY food stand at Main Street Garden at all since it will compete with other food establishments?
Eliminating competition is not the way to generate vibrancy. What a load of crap is right. More choices bring more people. I understand how easily decision makers can be lead into such a warped conclusion, it's a very easy and tempting trap. But it's still a trap and no one wins. Wild Salsa would get a boost, but it would not be as much of a boost if they had good competition.
Yeah, it would be kind of cool to have that turn into a "taco corner" of sorts. Heaven forbid there be competition. Not to knock DRG because I do appreciate their significant investments in downtown, but maybe Iron Cactus and Sol Irlandes should have complained to DDI to stop DRG from opening Wild Salsa. People already had two choices for Tex-Mex close by along Main Street.
Thus why don't you see food trucks on Main Street or around Main Street Gardens...I would think DRG would complain about that too. When you have one company so invested in such a important part of the city this is what happens. This is the downfall of groups like Downtown Dallas Inc when they are put in charge of public infrastructure like city parks. Downtown Dallas Inc budget comes from local businesses paying a membership fee based on how many employees the company has working for them, if DRG is not happy Downtown Dallas Inc isn't happy. The sad thing is we as citizens suffer because Downtown Dallas Inc decided that Rusty Taco was the best choice and now they have to put in a second choice because a member feels threatened.
Last edited by cowboyeagle05; 20 April 2012 at 02:20 PM.
Decisions like this have occurred for decades, and contribute to the decimation of downtown as the primary cultural focal point of the city and region.
What's sad is Wild Salsa actually sucks. DRG did great with chop house burger, but their tex-mex needs a complete overhaul/redo. It would have been nice to have a good taco place near/in the park.
Do other big vibrant cities over-plan/over-administrate like this?
This is such a load of garbage. How dare DDI act as a soviet planning board and choose where and how busineses are started. Plus Rusty's is delicious and I was really looking forward to having one downtown
Hmm well I guess we can disagree on that I love Wild Salsas food I also like Rusty Taco but I don't think they need protection from each other. They can both stand on their own merit if DDI would have handled this correctly. DDI did screw this up though if DRG had found out ahead of time that DDI was planning on choosing Rusty Taco DDI could have chosen someone else and we wouldn't have been the wiser now they've gone an shown their true colors for all to see. One of the things we have to realize is DDI is now in charge of all city parks Downtown based on a contract with the city of Dallas. DDI did it so they could make sure the Downtown marks were managed the way they wanted to and the City of Dallas can sit back and let DDI handle things but its time like these when you desire the transparency of some government processes like bidding on city park concessions.
If they would have built a cafe space in Belo Gardens I guess they could have gone there or if Belo hadn't put a giant wall up blocking the Metropolitan retail space from looking out onto Belo Gardens they might have been able to sign a lease in one of those empty spaces.
i have been several times and i really like Wild Salsa. but it is completly diffrent mexican food then Rusty
funny thing is i live right next to the Rusty taco palce on Greenville and almost never go... and i don't really see that it is all that busy when i drive by. but, i think it would have been a good choice for that spot..
I still say the best would be good to go tacos i can never get in that place it is so packed. and though it is tacos it is very diffrent from Wild Salsa
I could have predicted this would happen. Government should set fair rules, and step back and let private enterprise run.
Now, the taxpayers are stuck with the construction costs of the Lily Pad and no vendors allowed to use it. Now it's tacos, tomorrow it'll be submarine sandwiches, and after that pizza competitors crying foul. Whatever food vendor they can find to occupy the Lily Pad, there will already be another existing business crying foul.
Dallas might as well turn the Lily Pad into a visitors information center, because that's about the only thing around that will not have competitors.
Man, Downtown Dallas made a major blunder on this one. I think I've seen 100% negative reaction to this decision. What a joke!!!
The problem with Dallas City is not that politics drives decisions. The problem is the city staff does it so poorly. The staff keeps setting up committees, getting an answer,and going to press with it. No, no,no. In a well-managed city,the staff knows the go to stakeholders that can break a particular decision. You get them on board to forestall minor players' carping. The stakeholder changes by decision type. Obviously DRG has some juice. Did staff talk to that person or persons and get concurrence?
Mary Suhm should be livid. Does she ever reprimand her managers? They need some training in Urban Governance 101.
Again let me clarify the city is not making this choice Downtown Dallas Inc a private enterprise is in control of who gets to operate out of the Lily Pad. In this case Downtown Dallas Inc got a complaint from one of its members who pays a lot of money to the organization so Downtown Dallas Inc changed their mind in a public way that makes it real obvious that DRG pulls a lot of strings over at Downtown Dallas Inc.
If the city was in charge of this they would have had some sort of public bidding process and the city would have to choose the best option and move on. Course if DRG was worried about it if the city was in charge they would have to pay off public officials so it could be seen as a lose lose situation depending on what you think is easier to police.
Last edited by cowboyeagle05; 20 April 2012 at 04:49 PM.
My error. Then you would think a private group would be even more sensitive to neighbors' interests. Can't blame Suhm and company for this one.
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