Fairmount Music Hall, Sky Bar and Kitchen
1311 Lipscomb St.
Fort Worth 76110
www.facebook.com/fairmountskybar/
A place that was once a great venue for whetting musical appetites is being replaced by a place that will still do that – along with satisfying a real appetite.
The Fairmount Music Hall will make its soft grand opening on Feb. 28. It will be in the same location as the former Live Oak Music Hall and Lounge, which closed its doors last April.
The new venue is from partners Derek Scheler, Stephen Hominick, and chef Jordan Rogers, friends who have known each other for more than two decades.
“We fell in love with the area and thought, we can bring in a completely different demographic,” Scheler said.
“The Fairmount will be built on the success of the artists and elegant dining options and atmosphere,” Scheler said. “Jordan opened up all the restaurants for the Campesi family in Dallas. He learned how to cook in Italy. Stephen has a promotions and sales background. I have owned restaurants and bars for the last six years and still own one in Burleson [the Spice Rack].”
The menu will include items such as elk-stuffed bell pepper, lobster rolls and various flatbreads and paninis.
Scheler also owns Texas Red Hot Radio in Burleson. That connection is a large part of the reason for the Feb. 28 opening. The Texas Regional Radio Music Awards and Summit (TRRMAS) will be held in Arlington March 2-3. As part of opening day, the Fairmount will host a party to kick off the show. It will be open to the public and held on the rooftop Sky Bar, which has a panoramic view of Fort Worth.
There will also be an after party each evening following the TRRMAS activities.
The pre-party will feature Texas musician Phil Hamilton opening for Fort Worth native and American Idol finalist Casey James (Season 9). Josh Lee will play on March 1, and The Benton Lawson Band is booked for the March 2 after party. The Zac Stokes band is set to take the stage on March 3.
“My radio station reports to the Texas Regional Radio,” Scheler said, noting that the organization agreed to host the pre-party at the venue to help put Fairmount on the map.
“It’s an app-based radio station with over 30,000 listeners a month. We have over 50,000 app downloads, and it’s web-based, so heard across the world. We are now in seven countries and growing.”
Scheler said the Fairmount will be one-fourth restaurant, one-fourth sports bar, one-fourth music hall and one-fourth coffee bar with both nitro and espresso choices. The music hall portion holds about 350 patrons and the sky bar can accommodate over 150. The facility will be open 11 a.m.-2 a.m. seven days a week,
Scheler said the music will vary with a large assortment ranging from blues to rock to country and Americana. And he expects to have plenty of artists, with one special enticement.
“We have been asked what our radius clauses are for artists, and we thought we would reverse market,” he said.
A radius clause is a form of non-compete clause used in the live music industry in which a tour promoter stipulates that performers, for a certain length of time before or after a concert or festival appearance, must not hold concerts at other locations within a certain radius of the city where they are performing.
Fairmount will have none of these, Scheler said. It refuses to limit the artists in any way or to restrict their promotions for coming events, he said.
“The strategy is a little unorthodox, but musicians have already started showing the music hall a lot of respect and acknowledgment of the support they have shown in the local music scene, and have agreed that this will be the place that will be desired by many to play at in Fort Worth,” Scheler said.