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Allen Mederos (left) and Jonathan Morris (right)
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Swing by the Lobby Bar of Hotel Dryce, where locally famous mixologist Pam Moncrief regularly whips up original and unmistakably Fort Worth-esque cocktails, and you’ll undoubtedly run into a diverse and influential cast of characters. While the space undeniably embraces its Funkytown roots, it’s not entirely a juxtaposition to what you might find in the Stockyards; the hotel and bar manage to embrace all aspects of our city. And the lobby’s fresh feng-shui, eclectic interior design, and collection of local art give the space a particular distinctiveness not yet seen in our city. Whether this peculiarity is due to no business wanting to fully explore the diverse aspects of Fort Worth and incorporate it in their interior design, I don’t know. Yet, it’s easy to see why those who spend an incredible amount of energy promoting the city would feel right at home in the Lobby Bar.
And to co-owners Jonathan Morris and Allen Mederos, it’s all going according to plan. Locals and out-of-towners are flocking to Hotel Dryce because Morris and Mederos feel the space is filling a void that once existed in Cowtown.
“One of my favorite things about this process is determining how we tell an authentic story about Fort Worth without doing it the way that it’s been done over, and over, and over again,” Morris, co-owner and co-founder of Hotel Dryce, says. “So, people who experience the city in the way that I do will recognize it and say, ‘Oh, yeah. That’s my Fort Worth.’”
Of course, Hotel Dryce isn’t just a bar, it is also — as its name suggests — a hotel. At 21 rooms, it is small — even for a boutique — but the no-nonsense, utilitarian rooms — as well as its proximity to everything happening in the Cultural District — can provide out-of-towners with a great slice of the city while also providing Fort Worthians with the perfect staycation spot.
Kitty-cornered from Dickies Arena and located directly behind Fort Works Art on Byers Avenue, Hotel Dryce was repurposed from a dry ice warehouse, and the designers went to great lengths to pay homage to the original structure. The brick exterior wall still serves as a barrier for the courtyard, and a blue zigzag line that was part of the original warehouse’s paint scheme remains throughout the hotel. “Dryce,” of course, is a portmanteau of “dry” and “ice.”
Mederos, an entrepreneur who describes himself as a jack-of-all-trades and a master of none, pinpoints the origins of Hotel Dryce back to a conversation he and Morris had over a beer at what was then Shipping and Receiving. Mederos had just returned from a trip to Florida where he was inspired by a boutique hotel he stayed in for his sister’s wedding and thought about opening a similar space in Fort Worth. As serendipity would have it, Morris, unprovoked, brought up the idea of opening a boutique hotel, and the rest is history.
“I immediately said, ‘Don’t say anymore; let’s do it,’” Mederos says. “Thirty days later, we had the icehouse identified and an offer on the table.”
Morris, who’s graced the pages of our magazine countless times, is one of the city’s most original movers and shakers. He’s a busy bee, if you’ll pardon the archaic cliché, dabbling in barbershops, retail spaces, TV shows (be sure to check out his Magnolia Network show, “Self Employed”), and now adding hotelier to his resume.
The pair gave me a sneak preview of the hotel and Lobby Bar on a particularly hot July afternoon while construction was still underway. Morris spoke at length about the work of local artists that would adorn the lobby and rooms; Hotel Dryce teamed with Art Tooth to offer a $4,000 grant to Black and Indigenous people of color to contribute art to the hotel. Artists who received grants, and whose work you can see at Hotel Dryce, include Adam McKinney, Brenda Ciardiello, Guillermo Tapia, Jean Fernandes, and Niki Dione.
“People of color are traditionally underrepresented in Fort Worth hotel spaces,” Morris says. “So, it was important for us to showcase these artists who are so important to the fabric of our city.”
Keeping all things local, the no-nonsense bedframes and woodwork were all custom built and designed by Patrick Adams — one of Fort Worth’s best mustachioed men — and his team at 6572. Sarah Pederson, who was charged with the hotel’s interior design, went with a mix of Western and Southwestern motifs combined with modern elements. One of the unique design touches is the rooms’ curtains, which were brilliants repurposed from Oaxacan rugs.
“Fort Worth leans so much into the past that it hinders itself,” Morris says of some of the interior design choices. “I think the past is important only because it helps define where you’re going and what the future looks like. So, we’ll have a combination modern stuff and vintage stuff living together. We’ll have a juxtaposition.”
Whether it’s the subtle tributes to the old icehouse, the minimalist nature of the rooms, or the occasional rusted sign hanging on a wall, utilitarian was the word I kept coming back to when describing the hotel. But I soon realized that I was only applying this adjective due to some mindless expectation of luxury. The truth is, whether the hotel is utilitarian or luxurious, it’s just, well, Fort Worth.
“I think that luxury in Fort Worth has been done, and I think that’s someone else’s territory to own,” Morris says. “That’s just not my domain. I want to connect people with the authentic version of Fort Worth that I see and that I experience. I think if you are looking for that authenticity, we have it in this space.”
