Updated throughout at 5:12 p.m. on Aug. 27 with details about City Tavern's closing.
City Tavern, a bar, restaurant and music venue in downtown Dallas, is moving from its longtime location on Main Street. Labor Day weekend (Aug. 20 to Sept. 3) will be locals' last chance to visit the original two-story space. But don't worry, it's not going far.
The bar, which opened in 2004, will relocate just a few blocks away to 1512 Elm St., the site of a new apartment complex Mid Elm Lofts, according to a statement. (Google Maps says it's about a 3-minute walk between locations.) City Tavern will inhabit a 1,817-square-foot space on the street level, which is about half the size of its current location. It was expected to there in June, but it's unclear what the tentative open date may now be. (We've reached out to owners for comment.)
Owner Joshua Florence says the new space came available at the right time -- his lease on Main Street was up at the end of 2017. With the move, he hopes to maintain the best parts of City Tavern while also improving upon the concept.
"There's a lot of stuff we love about City Tavern, but the building is very old," Florence says. "So we'll bring over a lot of the design elements of City Tavern, but it's going to be in a new space where everything works."
Florence, who also owns Club Dada in Deep Ellum and throws Homegrown music festival, still plans to host concerts at the new address, though not to the same extent as the old space.
"We probably won't have any more punk shows, just because it will be more of a bar setting than a traditional venue setting," he says.
Bar flies can still belly up at City Tavern's original location for the time being through Sept. 4. And Florence promises it will close the doors in a big way with live music Thursday through Sunday, and a "drink us dry" party on Labor Day.
