Downtown Fort Worth's Houston Street Is Turning Its Old Bank Buildings Into a Dinner Block

When a gas explosion tore through the bottom two floors of the W.T. Waggoner Building on January 8, 2024, the old bank vault inside was a private dining room for Musume. The tatami table in it was still set, and the plates had not moved. That vault is coming back on November 15, and it looks much as it did before.

The reopening at 810 Houston St. matters for more than one restaurant. It is the first finished piece of a bigger change on the 800 and 900 blocks of Houston Street. Two former bank buildings and a historic basement there are being turned into dining rooms, all across from the city's largest construction project downtown. Then, one week after Musume reopens, the GM Financial Parade of Lights turns north onto Houston Street and goes right past the block.

The vault comes back, the teller windows don't

Musume had been open only six months when the blast hit. According to the Fort Worth Business Journal, the rebuild cost nearly $4 million. It was paid for by a joint venture between owner Josh Babb's Rock Libations Group and Northland Properties, which owns the Sandman hotel.

Regulars will notice the changes. The 5,000-square-foot space now has warm woods, Japanese-inspired murals, and Italian marble walls. The lounge has more seating, which brings capacity to nearly 200. The old teller windows were lost in the explosion. Babb told the Business Journal that losing them let his team build a room closer in look to the other Musume locations around DFW.

The menu keeps its anchors. The miso black cod, marinated for 72 hours, is staying. The kitchen is adding more local and flown-in ingredients, and the bar is building out a list of nearly 100 sakes and more than 60 Japanese whiskeys. The staff will look familiar too: more than 90% of the original Fort Worth team is returning.

Babb told the Business Journal why the vault means so much to him:

"It's the biggest piece of nostalgia that reminds me of all the effort that we put in, not only opening Musume Fort Worth the first time, but how much effort we put in to get back here."

The hotel upstairs is on a similar timeline. The Business Journal reports that the Sandman Signature Hotel, also closed since the blast, plans to welcome guests again this November. If both open on schedule, both of the Waggoner Building's best-known tenants will be open again for the first time since early 2024.

Three addresses, one block, three different stages

Musume is only the first of the projects on this stretch, and the other two are much further from opening.

Beverly's comes from restaurateurs Jeff Payne and Jason Cross, who also own Cousin's BBQ and The Mont, the westside restaurant that opened in December 2025. It will be an upscale Mexican restaurant of about 7,000 square feet in the basement of the historic Hogan Building. Fort Worth Magazine originally listed it for a March opening. In August, the Fort Worth Report said a date would be announced soon. A local restaurant tracker updated September 1 still listed it as expected in fall 2026, with no date set.

Al Biernat's is the furthest out. The Dallas steakhouse, which dates back to 1998, has signed a lease at 913 Houston for its third location. Per the Fort Worth Report's August story, the restaurant is in early planning and has not set an opening date. The building is an 11,760-square-foot midcentury modern bank built of glass and brick in 1959. It has floor-to-ceiling windows, a basement, a mezzanine, and a curved staircase that winds through the interior. It has been mostly empty since the bank moved out in the 1990s.

So within about one block, the Waggoner Building's old steel bank vault and a 1959 savings-and-loan lobby are both becoming dining rooms. In November, though, Musume is the only one of the three with a date.

What the restaurants are betting on across the street

The reason for the clustering is right across the street. Al Biernat's future home sits directly across from the Fort Worth Convention Center, which is in the middle of a roughly $701 million transformation. A little to the south, the Texas A&M University System opened its $240 million, eight-story Law and Education Building on August 5.

Most of the convention center work is still ahead. According to a City of Fort Worth release from February 2026, the $95 million Phase 1 is finished. The $606 million Phase 2 will replace the old arena with a new convention building and update the existing center. The city's schedule had crews setting up for demolition in summer 2026, the arena coming down in early 2027, and Phase 2 finishing in early 2030.

That means the restaurants on Houston Street are opening ahead of the crowds they are counting on, with more than three years of construction across the street still to come. For people who live in the area, this is the window when a table on this block is easiest to get.

A week later, the parade turns onto Houston

The 2026 GM Financial Parade of Lights is Sunday, November 22, at 6 p.m. This year's theme is "A Legacy in Lights." The official route goes right through this block:

1. Start at Weatherford and Throckmorton streets.
2. East on Weatherford Street.
3. South on Commerce Street to 9th Street.
4. West on 9th Street.
5. North on Houston Street to 2nd Street.
6. Over to Throckmorton Street, then south to 3rd Street, where the parade ends.

When the floats turn north from 9th Street, the 900 and 800 blocks of Houston are among the first stretches they pass. That puts Musume, the Hogan Building, and the old Farm & Home Savings building near the front of the parade's run on Houston, just seven days after the restaurant reopens.

Getting there takes more planning than on a normal Sunday. Parade organizers say downtown streets start closing at 6 a.m. on parade day, and they point visitors to a separate closure list. Anyone planning dinner before or after the parade should expect to park farther out and walk in.

The cones you will see before then

Parade day isn't the only time to expect closures. The City of Fort Worth's road closure listings from mid-October show scheduled work at three spots near this block:

• Houston Street between W. 7th and W. 8th, July 24 through November 20, 2026
• W. 7th Street between Main and Houston, July 24 through November 20, 2026
• Commerce Street between E. 4th and E. 5th, October 1 through December 31, 2026

The city says listed work can mean lane closures or full closures with detours, and these listings don't spell out the detour for each segment. The two Houston and 7th Street jobs are scheduled to end on November 20, two days before the parade. The Commerce Street work runs through the end of the year, and the parade route goes south on Commerce past that block. It's worth checking the city's page again the week of your plans, since these schedules change.

While the rest of the block catches up

Until Beverly's and Al Biernat's set dates, the closest new spot pairs well with this part of downtown. Hiro's Kitchen Sushi & Sake opened August 20 at 309 W. Daggett Ave., Suite 101, in South Main Village, a short drive south of the convention center. It is a reservation-only sushi counter with up to 15 seats, part of what the Fort Worth Report described as a growing multicourse dining trend in the city.

Between them, Musume's roughly 200 seats and Hiro's 15-seat counter cover the range of Japanese dining now within a few minutes of each other on the south side of downtown. If you're driving in from Aledo or the west side for the parade, booking one for the weekend before or after makes downtown a two-trip month.

At Pickard Real Estate Group, we follow blocks like this one because the restaurants and events that open around a neighborhood shape how our clients spend their time there. If Houston Street's comeback has you wondering how changes across Fort Worth and Aledo might affect what your own home is worth, request a Get Home Value estimate and we'll talk it through with you.