There's a new restaurant and bar coming to Fort Worth with some serious starpower: Called Koe Wetzel's Riot Room, it'll open at 1100 Foch St., in what was previously a bar & restaurant called The Dogwood, sometime in February.

Koe Wetzel is the Texas-born "outlaw" singer-songwriter who's been blazing a trail with live shows and albums such as his most recent release, Hell Paso, which debuted at No. 12 on the Billboard 200.

The new venue is a collaboration put together by hospitality veteran Emil Bragdon, a Renaissance man and part-time pilot whose prior ventures include Reservoir, The Whiskey Garden, and Your Mom's House.

He envisioned a venue steeped in country music culture, using his own operational expertise but partnered with people who had experience in the country-music realm. That includes Fred Barnett, owner of The Thirsty Armadillo in The Fort Worth Stockyards, as well as Wetzel, who brings the starpower and inspiration.

"All of my restaurants are high-energy nightlife type places, built out very well, but I was thinking about a place where you wouldn't have to dress up if you didn't want to," Bragdon says. "My partners own country bars, they have that background. I thought if we joined forces, we could pool our expertise."

The result: a high-energy country bar and restaurant, with a menu of American comfort food executed by chef Chad Burnett, and with creative input from Wetzel.

"Koe has a huge fan base in Fort Worth," Bragdon says. "I know his drummer so we had a personal connection. But it's also about who Koe is and what he represents. He has a carefree party attitude, that whole persona, which is so infectious. He's a gung-ho type person."

They sat down and mapped out the things that were important to Wetzel as far as food, menu names, decor, vibe, set against the things that Bragdon knew would work.

"Some of the menu correlates to some of his music as well as his upbringing," Bragdon says.

Koe also got sign-off on the name, which is how they arrived at "riot room."

"The definition a riot in this context is someone who's fun to be around - not with people rioting," Bragdon says. "It's a place you have fun. Inside the venue, we'll have that definition of 'riot': a bunch of people who want to have a good time."

The space will feature an expansive patio and a centerpiece which Bragdon calls "the most insane DJ booth ever seen": It's a custom-built one-off unit by Riggs Fabrication, an automotive shop that does high-end builds, in which they've taken the front of a 2020 Ford F-350 truck and turned it into a musical centerpiece.

This is Bragdon's 10th venue but it's unlike anything he's ever done.

"Working with Koe has been delightful, it's exciting because I've never done anything with a music artist," he says.