Going Green.

Deep Ellum's The Green Room Is Coming Back Again, This Time As A Sports Bar, Except Not Really.

During its initial run from 1994 to 2006, the Deep Ellum dining spot The Green Room served as something of a local legend among Dallas foodies. The eatery, which was as popular with celebrities such as Billy Gibbons and Angi Harmon as it was with the big-name musicians still regularly performing at the nearby venue Trees during its own initial run, score points with these crowds thanks to its pairing of upscale fare and unpretentious surroundings.

Indeed, throughout Trees and The Green Room's early histories, the venue and restaurant we always at least somewhat connected. It was the venue's original owners, in fact, who first opened the restaurant — in part to help provide hospitality for the musicians playing the nearby space on any given night.

Ever since, the two joints have seemingly been attached at the hip. When Trees ended its original 15 year-run and shuttered its doors back in January of 2006, The Green Room followed suit just a few months later. Then, when Trees re-opened under new ownership in 2009, The Green Room in turn got its own second lease on life in 2010.

But whereas Trees has thrived in its latest incarnation, hosting big shows from bands such as At The Drive-In and Black Flag in the past year alone, The Green Room wasn't able to do much of anything at all. By early 2011, the doors to the restaurant had shuttered once more.

But don't expect things to stay that way much longer. Christian Baird, who helped open Gilley's back in 2003, has been quietly working on re-opening The Green Room for the past few months, and says he should be ready to hold a soft opening for the space as soon as June 7 and 8. Assuming Baird's liquor license application is approved next week, the grand opening for the new Green Room could come as early as the following weekend.

Just know this: When The Green Room does end up opening under Baird's command, it won't be operating under the same upscale vibe that handcuffed the spot's most-recent tenants in their own attempts at re-opening.

Instead, says Baird, he's adding a boatload of televisions and going in a direction he refers to as “a rock-and-roll sports bar,” a;though even he admitted that calling the place a “sports bar” probably isn't really the most accurate descriptor.

No matter what people call it, though, Baird says he's just trying to give people a place in which they can hangout, eat and drink before and after heading to shows around the neighborhood. His big pitch: His spot won't just be another one in Deep Ellum that serves pizza and sandwiches.

To that end, he says the newly re-vamped restaurant will offer slightly nicer takes on standard bar fare — including mozzarella sticks made with cheese sourced from the nearby Mozzarella Company and huckleberry corndogs made from sausages at Rudolph's Meat Market and dipped in a huckleberry pancake batter.

One thing The Green Room will not be, however, is a live music venue. Other than the occasional DJ spinning inside or the rare acoustic act entertaining guests on the spot's upstairs patio, live music absolutely won't be the place's No. 1 priority, Baird says. Nor should it be, necessarily: For the time being, Trees and the across-the-street pairing of Dada and Three Links seems to have got that scene pretty much on lock.

It's Baird's hope, though, that when those clubs let out, those crowds will have a place to hang out for a few more hours — only, this time, the space will be able to be enjoyed by folks who aren't necessarily looking to spend $30 on a post-concert meal.