Dallas Fort Worth Urban Forum

After what seems like an eternity after they tore the old MAC down construction has started in earnest on the new San Martin Cafe. Interestingly this will be the first location outside of Guatemala and El Salvador for the cafe and should be a great fit for the neighborhood with a Guatemalan coffee bar, bakery and cafe food.

http://www.sanmartinbakery.com/

Would rather have seen this incorporated into the bottom of denser developement including the next door lowrise property.

I'm not, I doubt the cafe will be there 10, maybe even 5 years from now and considering that is one of the best development sites in Uptown I would be afraid right now that we would get something like M-Line tower. I mean M-Line tower is fine, I'm glad they are donating space to the MATA and it has retail but the exterior finish out to me doesn't scream some of the best, unobstructable views in Dallas.

When the property is properly developed I would like to see a tall, glass condo tower.

I'm okay with the fact that not all new developments are going to be mid/high-rises, as long as they aren't suburban in design (which this one doesn't appear to be). With that said, the gas station and C-store have got to go.

A look at the site as of yesterday:

3/19/17

Untitled by Around My City, on Flickr

Untitled by Around My City, on Flickr

After what seems like an eternity the structure is finally under construction. Two story tall I-beams are in place now, no idea if they are just going for exceptionally high ceilings, two stories of dining or if they are doing something like kitchen up, dining below. If they were doing two stories or even two plus a roof deck they might be able to get a downtown view. I don't think they can but it may just be Mercer Square blocking the second story view of downtown from La Tour.

IMHO the construction delay was a huge mistake, I think there is a real chance that Cafe Express opens well before this does by the looks of it and that would be giving up a huge advantage for San Martin since they are similar concepts without much else very similar in Uptown.

We have a mystery here. For several weeks construction work has pretty much stopped. Recently the rent-a-fence was taken down and hauled away leaving only wooden barricades at the driveways.

What we now have is a 90% completed steel framework with some wallboard and possibly no tenant.

Hmmm...that does make a mind wonder.

I am in a current, albeit slow-going, discussion (one week now) with the owners in Guate. Mostly, though, with an old friend that knows them. I'll let you know when I know more. I have no investment in this project financially, however. It's just personal.

Initial talk is another permit (I looked that up and can't find a recently denied/pending permit although I may likely have lost the actual issue in translation), but, I do get the impression doing this whole thing from so far away and not having a certain SMU-grad San Martín family member back here to lead the way is a huge set-back.

Status from a week ago:

https://twitter.com/CTroyMathis/status/ ... 6528280576

The workers have returned and are working on the steel frame again.

9/24/17

Untitled by Around My City, on Flickr

Untitled by Around My City, on Flickr

A few looks from late this morning:



https://twitter.com/CTroyMathis/status/ ... 0718861312


https://twitter.com/CTroyMathis/status/ ... 2083638272

Three more here: https://twitter.com/CTroyMathis/status/ ... 5408626688
Another three here, also: https://twitter.com/CTroyMathis/status/ ... 5904499712

What a waste of property. This plot of land could have been far more efficiently used had they built a tower here.

Did this get completed?

Last I saw it was still being worked on. Sadly, I have a feeling this place will be open less than how long it took to construct. What a waste.

^^Tnex: They are still moving along. The blue & white logo sign should be going up very soon in the upper center of the building, under the flags, facing McKinney Ave. if it isn't up already. The building is topped-off with what appears to be a terracotta (or something similar) roof. Brick and glass exterior.

I believe if I saw correctly when I drove past there last weekend, there was graffiti across the front of the building. I may be mistaken.

Absolute waste of land. Just like the Mutts dog park in the West Village.

joshua.dodd wrote:Absolute waste of land. Just like the Mutts dog park in the West Village.

At least Mutts is temporary...

joshua.dodd wrote:Absolute waste of land. Just like the Mutts dog park in the West Village.

Mutts was designed to be a placeholder amenity until the land is developable as the developer intends which is denser and taller. Believe me, as soon as there is enough demand to develop that property CityPlace Co. will end Mutts and build along the same lines as the rest of the West Village. Mutts is something I would like to see brought to other areas of Dallas. Working this weekend on a public engagement project with citizens in Arlington we identified things people would like to see in urban areas the thing most people requested was a dog park and dog-friendly restaurants. Mutts is model that could be contained in something as easily movable as a shipping container that could be moved as land is developed. The Rustic is almost the same thing except that its super success will make it harder to want to shut down when CityPlace finally wants to develop more of the last bits of land in the West Village.

Drove by here today, didn't realize how this building was set on the property until I saw it up close. Not at all what I was expecting, especially on the back side which looks great on the street. It was there that I noticed all of the tables and chairs ready to be placed. Hope they are open soon.

So is this one still not open yet? For some reason, I assumed it already was. They sure took their sweet time, I hope it ends up being worth it.

No, it is not open and it will still be a bit longer. It's all good, though.

On another note, that living wall up under the glass is really quite a sight in person standing underneath. It looks great, and, will grow quite full in no time.

They covered the former blue wall that faces McKinney Avenue in brick but only the south traffic facing side. Also, you can see tall stacks of boxes inside from McKinney Ave so I am sure they are doing a lot of unpacking.

cowboyeagle05 wrote:They covered the former blue wall that faces McKinney Avenue in brick but only the south traffic facing side. Also, you can see tall stacks of boxes inside from McKinney Ave so I am sure they are doing a lot of unpacking.

They have an active Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/sanmartindallas/

Those boxes have been stacked up for most of a month. Maybe they are waiting for a certificate of occupancy.

Redblock wrote:

cowboyeagle05 wrote:They covered the former blue wall that faces McKinney Avenue in brick but only the south traffic facing side. Also, you can see tall stacks of boxes inside from McKinney Ave so I am sure they are doing a lot of unpacking.

They have an active Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/sanmartindallas/

Those boxes have been stacked up for most of a month. Maybe they are waiting for a certificate of occupancy.

Gosh, feels like yesterday this location was announced on their MySpace page. My how time flies.

Seriously though, this place is awesome right? I know there was a lot of excitement about this coming in, it's just taken a pretty long time to open.

From the DMN story

I am ready for this to open, I love a good bakery and food I shouldn't eat.

Is this open?

Not yet - coming soon according to their Facebook

They still have a TCO (Temp Certificate of Occupancy). . . Their commissary in the DD is basically ready.
The person in charge of social media has her hands really full. I hope all goes well. I need to go back to meet up with her and the others, I haven't in a good minute. I'll report, but, I must say it's been "soon" for a long while. Even my Guatemala friends are very confused when I tell them this place is still not open. And, they know the principals. The living wall is freaking awesome and the table setting with the tree and foliage is a rather fascinating experience waiting for people to sit down in front of and enjoy. . .

San Martin did a rehearsal serving today from 9 to about 1.

They will be doing it again on Sunday. If you are in the area you can check it out.

If management feels they are ready, they will open for real on Monday.

We just came back from San Martin's dress rehearsal and it was fantastic. Everybody was lovely, enthusiastic, and very proud of their food.

The space itself is beautiful, although just like every other restaurant in Dallas, it's far too loud. However, that's more about adhering to trendy 2018 aesthetics, like too-high ceilings, no dividing walls, and no soft surfaces for sound absorption.

We'll probably end up at San Martin every weekend.

It's awesome. . .

Thank you, Redblock, for the heads up on the soft opening! I had a chance to check it out for brunch, and had a wonderful experience there. As emmasensei said, the staff was incredibly friendly and helpful.

I also agree, the space is incredibly beautiful, well decorated, and I love the tall ceilings. Even though it was a 'soft opening', it seem like they were reasonably busy the entire time we were there (there was no wait to get a table, but I'd say about 60% of the tables were occupied when I went there around noon). Honestly, I wasn't a huge fan of my meal, but I think it just a case of personal preference, and not really a knock on the quality of the food there. I will definitely be going back to try other things, I guess I just ordered the wrong thing this time around.

Great, thanks for the pictures and the report!

You're welcome!

I'm still a bit disappointed/confused with the location of this building. One of the staff members at the restaurant had told us that getting this place open was a four year long process (which sounds about right), so, I suppose four years ago McKinney Ave seemed like a no-brainer. In addition, this particular building offers a decent amount of surface parking, which is bad for Uptown, but it'll certainly help bring customers into the place.

Now that it is all said and done, I really would have much rather seen this place in the Farmer's Market area. I suppose I'm being a bit too negative and critical at this point, because the place did do a lot of things right. It's just that they also feature a bakery with 'grab and go' style food, but, unfortunately, there really isn't anywhere close enough for people to 'grab' food and hang out in. With something like the Farmer's market, people could grab a light snack, and continue perusing the area.

Went for lunch today, thought I would try it out and was pleased. It's only their first week so I imagine they are ironing things out but it was good and the bakery looks even better.

I've been waiting for the opening for months now! Visited this weekend and was very impressed with the food quality.. The variety of the bakery goods was amazing! Everything was made with fresh ingredients! Service was attentive but had some flaws. I ordered coffee and waitress forgot to bring sugar. After pointing it out, it took her more than 5 minutes to bring it to me as she was focused on getting orders from neighboring tables. Same thing happened with the salt and pepper! The delay in service didn't bother me, but I know others could be very irritated by this. I notified one of the managers before I left. The solution is very simple, add a sugar caddie with salt & pepper shakers to each table. I wish them well and would definitively go back again!

rasec33 wrote:I've been waiting for the opening for months now! Visited this weekend and was very impressed with the food quality.. The variety of the bakery goods was amazing! Everything was made with fresh ingredients! Service was attentive but had some flaws. I ordered coffee and waitress forgot to bring sugar. After pointing it out, it took her more than 5 minutes to bring it to me as she was focused on getting orders from neighboring tables. Same thing happened with the salt and pepper! The delay in service didn't bother me, but I know others could be very irritated by this. I notified one of the managers before I left. The solution is very simple, add a sugar caddie with salt & pepper shakers to each table. I wish them well and would definitively go back again!

I had the same experience. Very good food, beautiful place, great atmosphere, poor service. I believe we may had the same waitress. Within 5 seconds of leaving our table each time to get our straws, refills, check on our appetizer, etc...., she had already forgotten and moved on to the next task. Therefore, we never got straws, 10 minutes and two requests for more tea, and no appetizers. Other than that, we loved the place. I think it will do very well if they can work out the kinks.

I went in with a friend who lives nearby but never even noticed it being built. He loves Mexican pastries so he was hoping to find something he loved. He sure did, even if things weren't as exciting as being in a Mexican bakery in Oak Cliff. He got a cinnamon roll as well and couldn't believe how good it was. He def wants to come back for coffee and I will sure keep this place in mind for future baked goods for parties or events.