Bar News
Fort Worth's Tulips FTW to open spinoff bar styled after CBGB's NY
An award-winning bar in Fort Worth's Near Southside is spawning a spinoff: Tulips FTW, the live-music venue at 112 St. Louis Ave., will soon have a sibling cleverly named Low Doubt Bar, which will open next door, at 120 St. Louis Ave. #108, at the corner of Vickery Boulevard.
UPDATE 1-11-2024: Low Doubt Bar is officially open and it looks really cool.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Owner Jason Suder says, "It'll be a bar where you can come and hang out and drink cheap high-end cocktails. It'll be a place to gab with the bartenders and get a drink after work."
Suder has achieved miracles with Tulips FTW, which opened in November 2020, in the thick of the pandemic, only to emerge from those times as a great bar and live music venue.
It was nominated for Best New Bar in 2021 in CultureMap's annual Tastemaker Awards — a category it won handily — and made the list of Fort Worth's Best Bars For Live Music.
Touted as the city’s first mid-sized music venue since the storied Caravan of Dreams of the '80s and '90s, Tulips is also known for its drinks, landing it on CultureMap's list of Best Bars For a Stiff Cocktail.
But Suder is most proud of the way it has earned a place as a great neighborhood spot.
"Since Tulips has opened, it has done so much more than we anticipated, and it has truly been a collaborative effort," he says. "Working with our partners at Spune Productions who keep delivering the caliber of music we host, to the fans who come out, to the bartenders who go the extra distance with the quality of drinks, I feel like it's something you just can't get at any other concert venue."
It's all about the community, he says.
"What we do is build communities through our events," he says. "We have really become a cultural community center, which we do through art openings, special markets, and conventions."
That includes everything from opening as a warming station and distribution point for free firewood during the 2021 freeze to becoming the only venue in Texas that is also licensed as a tattoo studio.
"Low Doubt," in case you missed it, is a play on words for "load out," the phrase used to describe the tear-down of gear after a band finishes its set.
The location is a former glass-blowing studio that has been used for storage for the past few years. It'll be small, with a capacity of about 40, which will open onto a patio bar. It'll function almost like a speakeasy, accessible via an alleyway on the side of the building.
The opening date is still TBA, but for sure they'll host a hot rod rally and night market on November 18.
The color palette will be black and gold, with touches that evoke the legendary New York punk venue CBGB's — an epic reference point. Decor will incorporate local artists — "we'll let our friends sell their work," he says.
There'll be an old-school cigarette machine, pool table, just a few beers on tap, plus longnecks, cocktails and drink specials, and a featured Miller High Life for $4.20. They'll also open at 4:20 pm every day. Wink wink.
"The aesthetic is going to feel like if a New York punk bar got displaced into Texas," he says.