A First Look at Beverly’s Downtown — Fort Worth’s Highly Anticipated New Underground Mexican Restaurant

For a state with centuries of Mexican heritage, local cuisine inspired by our southern neighbor often falls into two camps: restaurants serving Tex-Mex comfort food and those devoted to preserving traditional Mexican recipes. When guests enter Beverly’s Downtown, opening in Fort Worth on November 10, they’ll find a playful middle ground that improvises on Mexican cooking traditions while staying true to the flavors that continue to allure Texans.

We were recently invited to tour the underground restaurant at 901 Houston Street for a first look and to speak with Michael Arlt, culinary director of Around the Fire Hospitality, the restaurant group behind The Mont and Beverly’s Downtown, and co-owner Jason Cross. Both Cross and fellow co-owner Jeff Payne partnered with Hogan Building owners Jeff Morgan and Steve Maddux to bring the project to life.

Welcome to Beverly’s Downtown

Descending the stairs into Beverly’s Downtown, guests enter a warmly lit space where earthy terracotta tones, geometric tilework, and textured plaster walls create an inviting atmosphere. Designed by Fort Worth-based Maven, the 7,000-square-foot restaurant offers a dedicated cocktail lounge and adjoining dining room. The large bar, Arlt says, was designed as a destination in its own right, welcoming downtown visitors whether they’re stopping in for drinks or settling in for dinner.

Cross tells PaperCity that hospitality should take precedence over rigid schedules.

“I’m of the mindset that if you have a wonderful party going and it goes to 11 instead of 10, let’s keep it going,” he continues. “Restaurants have kind of lost their way by being so rigid. We’re here to serve others and share great food and drinks. Our hospitality group is focused on the purpose of why we do this.”

Arlt’s menu promises a playful blend of Latin-inspired dishes, from dry-aged duck to banana leaf-steamed bass and pork presa. Other highlights include dry-aged beef aguachile, tuna toro tostadas topped with caviar, and heirloom flour and corn blend tortillas served with cultured butter and pickled onion.

A Global Take on Mexican Traditions

Arlt and Cross traveled to Mexico City to immerse themselves in the city’s vibrant culinary scene and draw inspiration for their own hospitality concept, sampling everything from street food to Michelin-starred dining. Their stops included Sud 777, where unexpected Asian influences caught their attention, and acclaimed restaurants Quintonil and Pujol.

“When we were in Mexico City, we had the best tamales that we’ve ever had,” Arlt says. “It was so soft, and it wasn’t dry. That inspired a duck tamale that we’re going to make with a sauce that is like a gravy.”

Beverly’s Downtown, Cross adds, doesn’t aim to replicate heritage Mexican cuisine or dishes that Abuela made.

“We love experimenting, and I think that’s one of the fun things we get to do here is take what we see there, which is rooted in culture, and break through that straitjacket to work with the best ingredients and put our twist on it,” Cross says.

Planned brunch highlights include a chorizo breakfast sandwich, beef fat-fried potatoes topped with aioli, croissant French toast, and blue corn masa pancakes. Cocktails will offer a salsa verde-inspired mezcal concoction topped with lime foam, which Arlt describes as having a “dirty martini meets chips and salsa vibe,” a torched pineapple cocktail made with Mexican rum, and a margarita featuring Cointreau Noir. The Husky Old Fashioned will be made with corn whiskey and roasted corn syrup.

Notable dinner options include a Mexican-style mixed grill featuring Wagyu skirt steak, grilled vegetables, and panela cheese. Guests can also explore three varieties of mole — chichilo, mole negro, and mole blanco — or opt for a chef-driven tasting menu with wine pairings.

“We wanted to make sure that we stayed sort of tight to the tradition, but also like two steps out,” Arlt says. “Your grandma may make it a very different way. We’re not grandma.”

Building a Culture of Hospitality

Beverly’s Downtown will open next week for dinner service only, with lunch and brunch to follow. Cross and his team are developing a hospitality training program on the Hogan Building’s second floor that will serve the group’s growing portfolio of restaurants. Rather than focusing solely on the mechanics of service, the training will emphasize anticipating guests’ needs, creating memorable experiences, and supporting employees so they can better care for diners.

The Mont’s team learned that memorable hospitality often comes through unexpected gestures, such as surprising diners with complimentary tastes of dishes after overhearing uncertainty about what to order. Arlt will bring that philosophy to Beverly’s Downtown.

“Going into The Mont, we were always adamant that we wanted to take care of people, but a lot of that initially focused on wowing them with show-stopping dishes,” Arlt says. “Then we started looking at what actually mattered by paying attention to what really resonates with them.”

What matters, he says, is making guests feel special rather than imposing the restaurant’s vision of what the experience should be. Cross adds that the most important people working at Beverly’s Downtown won’t be the owners or managers.

“The guest-facing servers and people prepping for the day are the most important to us,” he says. “We have to reach the younger generation of waitstaff where they are by finding ways to teach the importance of even mundane tasks, like keeping water cups full. And we have to break down that traditional hierarchy that has defined restaurant hospitality to allow our staff to find job roles that they are passionate about.”