When This & That Hospitality owners Phil Schanbaum and Brandon Hays opened Sfuzzi on Henderson Avenue, the neighborhood wasn’t quite ready for a straightforward restaurant concept.
Sfuzzi originally opened in 1987 in Uptown. It was an upscale Italian restaurant operated by Robert Colombo that grew to 20 locations in 1993 before going bankrupt. While working at a nightclub, Schanbaum and Hays met Colombo, who had opened other concepts nearby. The trio worked together on the second coming of Sfuzzi, still in Uptown, in the late aughts, but it closed again in the early 2010s.
Schanbaum and Hays moved on to other projects, including The Whippersnapper and High Fives on the southeast end of Henderson Avenue. They gave Sfuzzi another try in 2022, this time on the corner of Henderson and Capitol Avenues, but it closed earlier this year.
“We thought it would maybe translate a little bit better to the next generation, and unfortunately, those kids said, ‘Oh yeah, my parents used to hang out there,’” Schanbaum says. “There’s a lot of bar-operated venues down there, and I think that it wasn’t resonating as well being so restaurant-forward.”
But that was then. This is now.
Last fall, Acadia Realty Trust and Ignite-Rebees announced a project to construct multiple mixed-use buildings on a long-vacant 161,000-square-foot property between Glencoe Street and McMillan Avenue. The project will include restaurants, offices and retail.
Schanbaum envisions this project ushering in a neighborhood that’s more walkable and hospitable to restaurants and retail, not just a bar district.
“The bar element of what that area has been able to provide is amazing, but it’s not capitalizing what all it can, and all the retail opportunities and dining opportunities that are coming forward are going to make that place really special,” he says.
To complement the new Henderson Avenue, Schanbaum and Hays opened Hendy’s on Henderson last month. The new concept purposefully walks the line between bar and restaurant. Crafted by Chef Peja Krstic of MôT Hai Ba, a recipient of Michelin’s Bib Gourmand Award, the menu has what Schanbaum calls “new American classics done better than you’ve ever had them.” The cocktail program, curated by one of Burger Schmurger’s operators Jeremy Koeninger, is meant to be approachable and broadly appealing.
“We never want people to be able to look at a menu and go, ‘I have no idea how to say that,’ or ‘That’s a little bit too adventurous for me. Maybe I should try something that’s a little bit safer,’” Schanbaum says. “We try to find ways to be able to connect with people.”
The name Hendy’s is a reference to the new generation on Henderson, the kids who call it “Hendy Avenue.”
“We wanted to kind of show the ownership of the area,” Schanbaum says.
When looking into the history of Henderson Avenue’s commercial development, Ignite-Rebees co-founder Tristan Simon’s name comes up often.
Simon landed in Las Colinas from Washington, D.C., in the ’90s because he had a sports management job working for a couple of Dallas Mavericks players in a “very lowly service capacity.” While there, he noticed something missing — a quality restaurant and bar scene — and he decided to do something about that. So, Simon opened Cool River with two other partners. Though he sold out of the Cool River project after about a year, the restaurant went on to be successful for over two decades and motivated him to pursue new concepts.
Simon moved to Dallas proper and took an interest in the north blocks of Henderson Avenue that jutted out from U.S. 75. There was construction happening on the highway in the ’90s that prevented adjacent streets, like Henderson, from evolving much, Simon says. He knew that once 75 was re-finished, which was imminent in 1999, those streets would reap the benefits. He also liked the style of old buildings on Henderson, and it didn’t hurt that the property was inexpensive to lease and buy back then. He started with Cuba Libre Cafe at the corner of Henderson and Willis Avenues where The Charlotte is now.
“I built that building, or at least the original incarnation of that building, on that triangular site. It was the first thing I did down there,” Simon says. “There was an old concrete block building with a roof half torn off that had been abandoned for some time. There was a gravel pit in the back. The street was 30% vacant from a retail perspective, (there was) vagrancy. But the bones were there, and you could see it was positioned to be something more.”
Simon rattles off a slew of restaurants and bars that he opened between 2000 and 2008, including the original Fireside Pies, The Porch, Hibiscus, Candleroom and Victor Tangos. He launched about seven concepts in eight years, some of which with chef and restaurateur Nick Badovinus.
“The idea is that we’re just going to keep building our following, sort of one new place after another, and let the customer guide us into what the next place should be until we’re kind of out of good ideas that have enough market support to justify them,” Simon says.
Simon’s experience during this time is what catapulted his career beyond Henderson Avenue. He opened Westside Tavern in Los Angeles as well as CBD Provisions and Midnight Rambler in Downtown Dallas. Then, he sold his business while it was making $100 million in revenue with over a thousand employees in 2014.
Simon’s next venture was in commercial real estate but through a food and beverage lens. His work on Henderson showed him that destination restaurants and nightlife venues transform neighborhoods and create valuable real estate. And he hopes the new project on Henderson Avenue will have a similar or greater impact than his restaurants did in the 2000s.
Today, Henderson Avenue is filled with independent bars and restaurants, local boutiques and contemporary brands, and Simon describes the businesses as eclectic and unpretentious.
“I think the establishments on Henderson will always want to be a combination of approachable, casual spots,” Simon says. For example, The Old Monk at the intersection of Henderson, Willis Avenue and Pershing Street is “so welcoming, it is so eclectic. I don’t know anyone that doesn’t like it or feel comfortable there. All kinds of people use it, and it’s just to me a real embodiment of the best of Henderson — past, present and future.”
The Whippersnapper, a bar opened by Hays and Schanbaum near the intersection of Henderson and McMillan Avenues, fits into this picture.
“We were able to change its face many times by doing all of our pop-ups and fun theme parties,” Schanbaum says. “That was something that was very special to us. We found a way to reinvent the wheel over and over again, and that was a way that allowed us to be able to run it for as long as we did.”
Hays and Schanbaum opened The Whippersnapper months after launching High Fives next door, which is celebrating 10 years in business this year. But “The Whip” closed earlier this year and will be replaced by a new This & That Hospitality bar.
Boogie’s won’t have a kitchen. Instead, music and cocktails/mocktails will be on the menu. Schanbaum describes Boogie’s as a place to listen to unique tunes — such as electronic music, disco, funk and old school — while drinking cocktails. Think fun, not aggressive, Schanbaum says. You can expect a more upbeat musical vibe after 10 p.m., but it’s not meant to be “wild and crazy.”
Boogie’s will be very different from The Whip, and that’s the point.
“You’re going to walk in and not have any idea that it was The Whippersnapper before,” Schanbaum says.
In the future, Henderson Avenue may also be ready to embrace design and architecture. This is a priority of the mixed-use buildings that are under construction. Each building will have its own identity, and they will all be built in a “design-forward manner,” Simon says. The businesses that occupy the buildings will also be more aesthetically driven.
Eight of them will be on the north side of Henderson, three on the south side. These structures vary from single-tenant retail bungalows, two- and three-story mixed-use spaces and one-story spaces with multiple tenants. This project includes repaving that part of Henderson, decorative crosswalks, landscaping and the addition of a traffic signal at McMillan and Henderson Avenues. Simon expects the buildings and public works projects to be done by the end of 2026, and all businesses to be open by the first quarter of 2027.
One of the good parts about running a business on Henderson Avenue is the synergy between the other establishments, Schanbaum says while mentioning the former Beauty Bar and Barcadia. As more operators have moved in, that vibe has only gotten better.
“We have great relationships between all the different bar owners and restaurants around that area,” Schanbaum says. “We make sure that we keep the area safe and look out for each other, which has been a really great thing for us all.”
