Cowboys. Cattle drives. Honky tonks. Say "Fort Worth," and those immediately come to mind. But the city offers so much more than that. And no hotel shows that better than the newly-opened Crescent Hotel in Fort Worth.
Arriving for a weekend, we step into the lobby and are greeted with modern paintings and art books on Jean-Michel Basquiat, Ellsworth Kelly, Jeff Koons and Mark Rothko.
"The hotel is meant to be more modern and less Texas western," Jamel Taggart, director of food and beverage, says as he shows us around.
The five-story hotel has 200 rooms, a spa and plenty of meeting space. It's a different side of Fort Worth, and the art vibes make sense. Across the street sits the Kimbell Art Museum, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art — locations that we visit the following day. They're so close! So convenient!
But this is still Fort Worth. And going to the Fort Worth Stockyards or Billy Bob's Texas is easy. In the hotel, the vibe, even beneath the modern art sheen, is Texas. People in cowboy hats sit at the bar and order craft cocktails. The hats don't seem out of place as they would, say, at an art hotel in New York.
I guess that's what I like best.
Taggart takes us to the rooftop bar, Ralph's, named after Mary Ralph Lowe's father Ralph. She was the previous owner of the property and agreed to sell if the bar was named after him. The bar is art deco excellence: teal, 24-karat gold back bar, peacock wallpaper and ceramic giraffes.
That night, we dine at The Blue Room, a special intimate place, unmarked and between frosted-glass doors, with service, meals and drinks to impress. Of course, you can get steaks, but I order the Dover sole, which is prepared tableside. You don't usually come to Fort Worth to eat seafood, but at The Blue Room, you should.
I love hotel lobbies in the morning. Light streams into Emilia's that morning, and I tell Chris Gregory, the restaurant manager, that the restaurant's turquoise chairs are some of the most comfortable dining chairs I've sat in. "We tested 15 different chairs before settling on this," he says.
We munch on pastries and pancakes that taste like lemon cake before getting ready to head out for a morning of art galleries. I thank Gregory, who, as we're leaving, says, "The gateway to the West is great and all, but we decided to do something different."
I think about that as the light changes, and we walk to the Modern Art Museum. Different, yes, but still very Fort Worth.
