Advertisement

Food

Best view in Denton? New restaurant on the square promises a lookout spot like you've never seen 

The Wells Fargo building on the Denton Square has loomed there since 1963, like a chaperone over the shenanigans that take place on the blocks below. In 2018, the top floor of that building will transform into its own hangout: a restaurant with the best view in town.

From up there on the eighth floor, you can see nearly the TWU and UNT campuses. You can look way out and spot Frisco. Up close, the Denton County courthouse feels like you could almost give it a high five.

Can't picture where this building is? The eighth-story Wells Fargo building is located at...
Can't picture where this building is? The eighth-story Wells Fargo building is located at the corner of Hickory and Locust streets in Denton. The eighth-story restaurant will be located where the top-most windows are.(Robert W. Hart / Special Contributor)

The restaurant will be called the Sunago Bell. Two meanings: "Sunago," in Greek, translates to "to gather together." And Bell is the last name of the landlord, Jack Bell, and also a design inspiration: The partners in the project plan to utilize bells in the décor -- without covering up those floor-to-ceiling views, of course.

The team behind Sunago Bell helped fraternize the Denton Square into a food and drink destination, as they're behind Barley & Board and LSA Burger Co., among other restaurants.

When John "Sparky" Pearson heard the penthouse of the Wells Fargo building was available for lease, he and his team made a forceful pitch to nab yet another dining spot in the Denton Square, he says.

Advertisement

"He knew we could love on it and make it cool," Pearson says when they got the lease. (Bell wasn't immediately available for comment.)

Eat Drink D-FW

The latest food and drink reviews, recipes and info on the D-FW food scene.

Or with:

The restaurant is expected to have Mediterranean-coastal influences, says chef Chad Kelley, with a focus on seafood and inspiration from the cuisines in Spain, Italy and France. The menu hasn't been created yet.

"Simple, light, clean, fresh," are words he uses to describe the food.

Advertisement

The restaurant will seat about 150 people up on the eighth floor, and the Radical Hospitality team plans to build a skybridge out to the elevator shaft to create a dramatic, on-high effect. Down on the third floor of the same building, the team plans to build a private event space that can hold several hundred people, with a bar. From up on the eighth floor, diners on the east side of the Wells Fargo building can look down and see the third-floor space.

"Think: You're in New York, looking down on a rooftop deck," Pearson explains.

It'll be late summer or early fall 2018 before the Sunago Bell opens, Pearson says. There's nothing much to see up there today except a bunch of wires and some dark-wood office furniture, pushed to the side. Well, and the view.

Advertisement

The best seat in the restaurant will be in the northwest corner, where folks in Denton County might just find the most beautiful spot for a sunset.

101 S. Locust St., Denton. Opening in the second half of 2018.

Workers removes old wiring from the eighth floor of the Wells Fargo building in Denton....
Workers removes old wiring from the eighth floor of the Wells Fargo building in Denton. That's right: It doesn't look like a restaurant yet. There's not even working air conditioning. The Sunago Bell is expected to open in about a year, in 2018.(Robert W. Hart / Special Contributor)