From The Minds Of The Polyphonic Spree and Hagfish Comes New East Dallas Spot The Lounge Here.
After a week of friends-and-family test runs and at least 10 months of build-outs, the new East Dallas bar and restaurant The Lounge Here is now set to formally open its doors to the public on Saturday, October 1.
The spot is just the latest Dallas business venture with direct ties to the Polyphonic Spree. Specifically, it’s a collaboration between Spree manager/choir singer Julie Doyle (also a co-owner of Good Records) and Hagfish drummer Tony Barsotti (also an acclaimed furniture designer).
One part low-key neighborhood restaurant, one part chic throwback cocktail bar, Here is a stunning entry into Dallas’ food and drink realm, impeccably designed with unique architectural features and sharp mid-century modern furnishings. Stepping through the front door, past its rather unassuming white exterior at 9028 Garland Road, right between Margie’s Wig Salon and the Kitchen Recording Studio, provides a rather transporting experience. Within the cut-off-from-the-outside interior — the front-facing windows are small and curtained off, there’s no TV anywhere in sight and they’d take your cell phones from you if they could, joked one staff member earlier this week — the room feels quite warm thanks to its low lighting and its color palette.
The visuals are dominated by a 20-plus-foot-long landscape from Marfa artist Rainer Judd that hangs opposite a beautiful wooden, fuselage-like curved wall built by Barsotti himself that runs the entire length of the dining room. The bartop in the back of the cozy space — Doyle says Here can seat up to 60 — is also curved into an inviting semicircle, giving those with their bellies to it an immediate sense of community within the room, for which Doyle and Barsotti say they sought a “West Texas-meets-Palm Springs” vibe.
At the bar, drinkers can order from a list of cocktails designed by respected Dallas bar mind Omar YeeFoon and eaters can indulge in a “Southern refined” menu from a kitchen run by Micah Killough (Common Table, HG Sply Co.).
In the coming months, the space will add what Doyle calls an “small, intimate patio” out its back door. Prior to that, Here still stands as an immediate welcome addition to a Garland Road stretch that boasts Hypnotic Donuts and Hypnotic Emporium across the way, but not much in terms of non-confectionery dining options. Starting Saturday, guests will be welcome from 4 p.m. until midnight on Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and from 4 p.m. till 2 a.m. on Thursdays through Saturdays. Here will be closed on Mondays.
Below, scan a few photos of the space before taking the vibes in for yourself, in person, starting this weekend.