- Sarah Blaskovich, Dallas Morning News

The new owners plan to turn a historic, ‘ugly-on-the-outside’ building into an old-school bar.

The owners of Katy Trail Ice House in Uptown Dallas announced that they will build another bar and add much-needed parking spaces near the original beer garden.

Asel Art Supply on Cedar Springs Road will be partially demolished and turned into a 2,900 square-foot bar called The Depot, our real estate editor Steve Brown reports. Katy Trail Ice House founder Buddy Cramer gave The Dallas Morning News an inside peek into what The Depot will look and feel like when it opens in 2023:

“It’s going to be a little bit in the vein of an Adair’s or a Stan’s or a Time Out Tavern,” Cramer says, naming three long-time beer bars in Dallas. “It’s going to be real old-school: a long, thin bar.”

While it’s expected to look and feel like a sibling restaurant to Katy Trail Ice House, it isn’t an extension of that existing bar, with its picnic tables and shade trees in a backyard setting. The Depot is 100% indoors. It will have a bit of a honky tonk feel, Cramer says, with shuffleboard tables and a jukebox.

He makes the Ice House versus The Depot comparison this way: “It’s going to be like going to different rooms in somebody’s house.”

In many cases, bar-goers may go to both rooms, so to speak, because The Depot will take wait-list names for Katy Trail Ice House. As in: Those who show up to this down-the-street-bar can drink indoors while they wait for a table at the bigger venue. The Depot will also host private parties.

The sprawling Katy Trail Ice House seats about 950 people. The Depot will tack on room for another 125.

Cramer and developer Ray Washburne closed on the 1927-era Asel Art building on Oct. 3, 2022. Cramer didn’t disclose the terms of the sale.

The Depot will not have its own kitchen, but staff will sell a small menu of items made at the Ice House like bratwurst, jalapeño sausage and brisket. The depot will have big TVs to watch sports, Cramer says.

“Even though it’s super ugly on the outside, there are some cool bones to it,” Cramer says of the former art store. “It’s going to end up looking pretty cool.”

Cramer wants to install a revolving door on the corner, right near the traffic light at Cedar Springs and Carlisle.

The new bar is one of two Katy Trail Ice House-related projects in North Texas right now. Cramer and his team are also building a $7 million beer garden in Allen.

“I promised I won’t do any more [Katy Trail Ice Houses],” Cramer says, laughing. (That’s true, just read this Dallas Morning News story.)

“This is really to ensure that the Ice House [in Uptown] will always have plenty of parking.” They’ll get an extra 80 spaces out of it.

The Depot is expected to open in spring 2023 at 2701 Cedar Springs Road, Dallas.

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