When the dust settled inside the W.T. Waggoner Building in January 2024, Musume's dining room was in ruins. Inside the old steel bank vault, which the restaurant had turned into a private dining room, the tatami table was still set for guests. According to the Fort Worth Business Journal, none of the plates had moved.
That vault will be the first room anyone gets to sit in again when Musume reopens on Nov. 15 at 810 Houston St. Owner Josh Babb told the Business Journal that it will look much as it did before the explosion. It is also his favorite room in the restaurant. The room built to protect a bank's money is now holding up the comeback of one of downtown's most damaged buildings. Several of Fort Worth's other big openings this fall are following the same pattern, filling the oldest rooms in the oldest buildings downtown.
What the blast took, and what it left
On Jan. 8, 2024, an explosion tore through the bottom two floors of the Waggoner Building. The Sandman Signature Hotel had only recently opened there, and Musume, on the ground floor, had been open just six months. WFAA reported that 21 people were injured and nearby businesses had to shut down for months. The station also reported that the official cause has not been determined.
The building was finished in 1920 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, according to Associated Press coverage from the day after the explosion. Some of the bank's original features didn't survive. The old teller windows are gone. Babb told the Business Journal that losing them gave his team room to redesign the restaurant to look more like the other Musume locations around DFW.
So the restaurant reopening this month is a newer room built around one historic piece. The 5,000-square-foot space now has warm woods, Japanese-inspired murals and Italian marble walls. Extra lounge seating brings capacity to nearly 200. The vault is the part that stayed the same.
Back in order, one block at a time
The area around the Waggoner reopened in stages. The building itself is going last.
- Jan. 8, 2024. The explosion closes the Waggoner Building and the streets around it. The Fort Worth Report listed J's Burgers n' More, Barber's Bookstore, Thompson's Bookstore, La'Creamian, The Winchester Tavern, Basic Bar, The Archibald, Al Dente Italian Trattoria and Peters Brothers Hats among the businesses behind the barricades.
- Jan. 11 and 12, 2024. The Star-Telegram reported that Basic Bar reopened that Thursday, followed by Thompson's Bookstore and The Winchester Tavern on Friday. The Archibald was open again by Jan. 13.
- July 2024. NBC DFW covered the celebration as 8th Street reopened six months after the blast, with La'Creamian serving customers.
- Nov. 15, 2026. Musume reopens at 810 Houston St.
- December 2026. The Sandman Signature Hotel, closed since the blast, plans to welcome guests again.
The businesses nearby were back within days or months. The Waggoner took almost three years, and its restaurant will be open again before its hotel rooms are.
The hotel's owner helped pay for the restaurant downstairs
The hotel's owner is a partner in the restaurant's return. The rebuild cost nearly $4 million and was funded through a joint venture between Rock Libations Group, Babb's North Texas hospitality company, and Northland Properties, which owns the Sandman hotel. The Business Journal called Musume's return "a major step in bringing the W.T. Waggoner Building back to life." For a few weeks this fall, the restaurant will be the only part of the building with its lights on.
The decision to come back wasn't automatic. Babb told the Business Journal that rebuild talks started within three to six months of the explosion, involving Rock Libations co-founder Sean Clavir and partners from both companies. Some members of the Musume team urged him not to return, and others asked whether it should reopen as a different concept. Babb chose the same restaurant in the same city, and he credited the community he had gotten to know during those first six months.
"Before we had left, we tried to participate in anything and everything that we could in Fort Worth to be a part of the community. The kind of support we got there ... that's a rare thing. But that's just kind of how Fort Worth is."
Josh Babb, speaking to the Fort Worth Business Journal
Most of the opening crew is coming back with him. Musume Fort Worth will employ about 50 people, and more than 90% of the original Fort Worth staff is returning, including general manager Sammi Shafto.
What's on the table when the doors open
Regulars from the first run will find old favorites. The miso black cod, marinated for 72 hours, is staying on the menu. PaperCity's fall openings roundup lists a nine-course omakase, seafood flown in daily from Japan, and dishes served only at the Fort Worth location. The drinks list pairs a sake collection that PaperCity calls the city's largest with more than 60 Japanese whiskies. Both the vault and the tatami room are coming back.
If you want to book the vault, the reservation page is the place to start. With the hotel still closed until December, the first weeks will draw a dinner crowd made up mostly of people who live or work downtown.
The next block down Houston Street, another basement
Musume is one of several projects bringing old downtown rooms back into use this fall. At 901 Houston St., one block from the Waggoner, Beverly's Downtown is moving into the basement of the Hogan Building. Fort Worth Magazine reports that the Hogan was built in 1900 for downtown commercial use and given an Art Deco renovation in 1937.
Beverly's has deep local roots. It is a project of Jeff Payne and Jason Cross, owners of Cousin's Bar-B-Q, along with chef Michael Arlt. The same team opened The Mont. PaperCity reported earlier that the restaurant is named for Payne's mother, Beverly Payne, who started Cousin's in Fort Worth in 1983 with her husband, "Boots." PaperCity describes the menu as a playful take on Mexican food, drawing on dishes from different regions of Mexico.
That gives two neighboring blocks of Houston Street two new dining rooms below street level in buildings that are more than a century old. One is a 1920 bank vault and the other is a basement under a building from 1900.
And a waiting room on Lancaster
The pattern continues at the south end of downtown. Station & Vine is going into the Texas & Pacific Station at 221 W. Lancaster Ave. The Fort Worth Report notes that the Texas & Pacific Railway built the station in 1931 in the Zigzag Moderne style. According to the Star-Telegram, the 5,400-square-foot T&P Ballroom was once the terminal's Main Waiting Room. Before this, T&P Tavern spent 14 years in the station and closed on July 27, 2024.
Chef Douglas Brown of Edible Ideas Inc. is running the project. Chef Oscar Aponte leads the kitchen with what PaperCity's Station & Vine preview calls chef-driven Americana: braised lamb shank, Gulf red snapper and honey-glazed boneless short rib. Plans also include The Parlor cocktail lounge, an outdoor patio, and the restored ballroom for weddings and private events. Station & Vine's website lists its opening as fall 2026.
Put together, Musume, Beverly's Downtown and Station & Vine show where downtown's new dining is landing this fall: inside rooms that were built for a bank, a 1900 commercial building and a railroad. Nov. 15 is the first date on that calendar, and the Waggoner's hotel floors are scheduled to follow in December.
If you own near Houston Street or anywhere else downtown, and you want to know whether the Waggoner's return is changing how buyers look at the blocks around it, Jennifer Frank follows downtown Fort Worth closely. Start with an instant home valuation and we'll go over what's happening on your block.
