On Houston Street, the Sandman's Restaurant Has a Reopening Window. The Hotel Doesn't Yet.

In January 2026, the Fort Worth Report reported that the Sandman Signature Hotel at 810 Houston St. was expected to reopen in the summer. Summer came and went. By late August, the Star-Telegram reported that the hotel still wasn't open and was only planning to open sometime this year. Musume, the Japanese restaurant inside the hotel, went ahead and set a timeline anyway. Its target is early November.

That order of events explains how this stretch of downtown is coming back. The recovery on the 800 and 900 blocks of Houston Street is being led by restaurants, and each is moving at its own speed in its own historic building. The hotel that gave the block its worst headline has yet to publish a date of its own.

Three addresses, three different stages

Here is where each project stood in mid-October 2026, using the most recent dated reporting.

On the street, the three addresses sit close together, and the gap between them is entirely about timing. One restaurant is weeks from reopening, one is somewhere in a fall window, and one has only just signed its lease.

Musume came back with a different room and a new kitchen leader

Musume had been open in the W.T. Waggoner Building for only about six months when the January 2024 gas explosion wrecked the basement kitchen, according to the Star-Telegram. The concept started in Dallas in 2018, expanded to downtown Fort Worth in 2023, and has since added a location at The Star in Frisco.

The restaurant returning to Houston Street has been redesigned. The Fort Worth Report describes a redesigned 5,000-square-foot space built around sushi, sashimi and more than 60 varieties of Japanese whisky. A Musume spokesperson told the Report how the team sees the rebuild:

"Following a nearly three-year rebuild after the January 2024 hotel explosion, the contemporary Japanese concept is being completely reimagined with a sleek, bright modern design, fresh sushi flown in daily from Japan, new chef-driven dishes"

The new executive chef is Chris Conlon, who has been culinary director at Rock Libations, the hospitality group behind the Musume restaurants. The Star-Telegram reports that the menu will include Fort Worth-exclusive dishes and a nine-course omakase.

Morning regulars will see one practical change. The Fort Worth location used to be the only Musume that served breakfast. This time it will offer grab-and-go breakfast in place of a full-service menu, a spokesperson told the Star-Telegram. For anyone who works nearby, that turns 810 Houston into a coffee-and-something stop before the hotel upstairs has announced it's taking guests.

So far, early November is still a month and not a date. In mid-October, Musume's OpenTable page wasn't taking bookings. The restaurant's phone number, published by the Fort Worth Report, is 682-842-9355.

Beverly's is building down, below 901 Houston

One block south, Beverly's Downtown has been an "opening soon" project long enough to have outlasted its own forecasts. In April 2025, Fort Worth Magazine expected it in fall or winter 2025. The September 2026 update from Fort Worth Founded moved that to fall 2026 and labeled the opening date as pending.

The plan is a roughly 7,000-square-foot Mexican restaurant underground in the Hogan Building. The Fort Worth Report's August story on Al Biernat's said Beverly's officials expected to announce an opening date soon. As of mid-October, no date had been published.

Beverly's matters for the block because of where it sits. It falls between a reopening restaurant at 810 and a steakhouse lease at 913, so when its doors open, the stretch from the Waggoner Building to the old bank corner gets a working restaurant at street level, or just below it, on both ends and in the middle.

The 1959 bank building is the longest bet on the block

At 913 Houston St., Al Biernat's has signed a lease for its third location, according to the Fort Worth Report. The Dallas steakhouse dates to 1998. Its general manager, Brad Fuller, confirmed the lease and said the Fort Worth project is in early planning, with no opening date set.

Downtown regulars have walked past this building for decades. It was completed in 1959 for Farm & Home Savings. It's a midcentury modern glass-and-brick building of 11,760 square feet, with a basement, a main floor, a mezzanine, floor-to-ceiling glass and a curved staircase that winds through the interior. The bank left in the 1990s. Since then, the building has been considered for a restaurant, retail and a hotel. An entity managed by Dallas-based Eagle Equity bought it in April 2025.

The building has drawn interest since the bank moved out, and it now has a signed tenant. That moves it out of the "what will that building become" category, even with no opening date on the books.

The Parade of Lights runs right past all three

The calendar makes this concrete. The 2026 GM Financial Parade of Lights steps off at 6 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 22, at Weatherford and Throckmorton streets. It heads east on Weatherford, south on Commerce to 9th Street, west on 9th, then north on Houston Street to 2nd. This year's theme is "A Legacy in Lights."

After the turn onto Houston at 9th, floats pass 913 first, then 901, then 810, in reverse order of how ready each one is. If Musume hits its early-November target, the parade will reach it after passing an old bank building in early planning and a Mexican restaurant waiting on a date.

Here are the dated stops on the downtown calendar between this week and the start of December:

1. Saturday, Nov. 7: First Saturdays at Sundance Square Plaza, the monthly market with food trucks, salsa lessons, live music and fireworks.
2. Early November: Musume's announced reopening window at 810 Houston St., with no specific day yet.
3. Sunday, Nov. 22, 6 p.m.: GM Financial Parade of Lights, running north on Houston Street from 9th to 2nd.
4. Tuesday, Dec. 1, 6 p.m.: Community Tree Lighting at Sundance Square Plaza.

A few blocks over, the 2026 openings are further along

Away from Houston Street, downtown's newer openings are a step ahead. Almacén El Gallo is open for lunch and dinner at 500 W. 7th St., Suite 175, serving a Mexican menu in the former Neighbor House Grocery space. It's a working option for a pre-parade dinner on Nov. 22, since it doesn't depend on any of the Houston Street dates.

Two other nearby projects are still in the same holding pattern as Beverly's. Station & Vine, a steakhouse and wine bar planned for 221 W. Lancaster Ave. in the T&P Station, carried a fall opening estimate in September, while its own website still said "Opening Summer 2026." Mea Culpa, a cocktail bar at The Lincoln on West Daggett Avenue, was targeting late October. Both are best treated as "check before you go" until they announce opening dates.

What the hotel's timeline means for the block

The Sandman Signature's own page lists room types with booking links, but it gives no reopening date. The most recent dated reporting, the Star-Telegram's in late August, said the hotel planned to open in 2026. Musume will reopen in its former dining room, which has been repaired. For the next several weeks, the most reliable sign of life at 810 Houston will probably come from the restaurant's front door rather than the hotel's lobby.

For anyone living or working downtown, the timeline breaks down simply. Musume is the near-term addition. Beverly's is the one to watch for a date announcement. Al Biernat's is a signed lease at the 1959 bank corner with no opening date set. The Parade of Lights on Nov. 22 runs past all three addresses in a single walk north from 9th Street.

Living near a block that's reopening tends to raise questions about your own property. If you own a downtown condo or a home in nearby neighborhoods and want to know how this kind of street-level change compares with recent sales around you, Niles Realty Group can walk you through it. Request a Free Home Valuation and we'll put real numbers beside what you're seeing on Houston Street.