For years, the standing complaint inside Westlake's office parks was simple: the town had more corporate headquarters than places to eat after six. That complaint needs an update. Over the past several months, Westlake's dining options multiplied, and not one of them required a new building permit for new construction. The town's food and drink scene grew by renovating what was already standing.
That distinction matters if you live here. Entrada and Front 44 get most of the attention because they promise a walkable district with a hotel, restaurants, and a chapel, but Front 44 doesn't break ground on its final phase until 2027, and Entrada's amenity core is still under construction along Davis Boulevard. If you're waiting for those to open before you have somewhere new to go, you're missing what already opened this year in two buildings you've probably driven past a hundred times.
A 40-Year-Old Hotel Gets a New Name
The building most residents still call the Marriott Solana has a different name now. Following a multimillion-dollar renovation led by Dallas-based Coury Hospitality, the 293-room property at 1301 Solana Boulevard reopened this spring as The Ricardo Marriott DFW Westlake. The name is not a marketing invention. It honors Ricardo Legorreta, the Mexican architect who designed the hotel and the surrounding Solana Plaza when the campus first went up decades ago as part of an IBM development.
As Fort Worth CultureMap reported, Coury Hospitality president Andrew Casperson said, "This transformation goes beyond a renovation." The physical changes back that up. The hotel added nearly 15,000 square feet of updated meeting and event space across 17 rooms, refreshed its pool and outdoor terraces, and redid guest rooms throughout. But the part that actually changes a Tuesday night for someone who lives three miles away is the restaurant lineup.
Four Rooms, One New Reason to Stay in Town
The old Solana Great Room is gone as a name, even if the layout under its golden oculus ceiling looks familiar. The Ricardo now runs four distinct food and beverage concepts under one roof, and they're built to pull in neighbors as much as hotel guests.
| Venue | What It Is | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| House of Toro Chophouse & Patio | Latin-inflected steakhouse with premium cuts and a curated wine list | A client dinner or a special occasion without driving to Southlake |
| Black Pearl Lounge | Cocktail bar with tableside caviar service and hand-cut beef tartare | Drinks before or after dinner |
| Solana Kitchen + Lounge | All-day dining, breakfast through dinner | A weekday lunch or a quieter family meal |
| Café31 | Lavazza coffee and grab-and-go pastries | A coffee run on the way to the office |
House of Toro is the one worth knowing by name. Chef de Cuisine Nate Sanders, who previously worked at Carbone Dallas and Trick Rider in Frisco, oversees the kitchen, while Executive Chef Joe Riojas runs the hotel's broader culinary program. The restaurant leans into Spanish ingredients and a steakhouse format, which happens to line up with the Catalonian architectural theme going into Entrada a mile up the road, even though the two projects have nothing to do with each other. Solana Kitchen + Lounge runs breakfast and lunch from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. and dinner from 4 to 10 p.m., which makes it the more realistic option if you just want a Tuesday dinner without the full chophouse production.
The Office Tenant Lounge That Got There First
Before the hotel finished its overhaul, an office campus a few minutes away had already made the same bet. The Terraces at Solana, an eight-building complex originally built for IBM in the 1980s, underwent its own $25 million revitalization in 2021 under new owner Glenstar, a Chicago-based firm. Part of that renovation was Terra Lounge, a casual pizza and cocktail spot at 1500 Solana Boulevard, Building 7, that opened in 2024 and was, at first, restricted to office tenants only.
Glenstar opened it to the public not long after, and the reasoning was refreshingly direct. As Southlake Style reported, Kristi Layton, the company's vice president and general manager of The Terraces, said: "We'd like to see Terra Lounge become the 'cheers' of the neighborhood." The space now includes a bocce ball court and outdoor seating alongside the bar, and it's become the closest thing Westlake has to a neighborhood hangout that isn't attached to a hotel lobby.
One detail worth knowing before you plan around it: Terra Lounge keeps office hours. It's open Monday through Thursday from noon to 8 p.m. and Friday from noon to 5 p.m., and it's closed entirely on weekends. If you're picturing a Saturday night stop, that's not what this venue is built for. It's a weekday spot, timed to the office population that surrounds it, which tells you something about who Westlake's dining scene is still primarily designed to serve.
Westlake's own event calendar has also been busy on the entertainment side. The town has hosted evening concerts this year, including a May 2026 show from Texas Born and Bred, a Texas music tribute act, as part of its community programming. None of this required a new venue either. It's the same pattern as the restaurants: existing infrastructure, reused for a bigger audience.
What Hasn't Changed Yet
Entrada, the Spanish-village development off Highway 114, still centers on a single Starbucks location according to the town's own business directory. That's not a criticism of the project. It's a timeline fact. The retail core planned for Entrada is a multi-year build, and residents who assume it's further along than it is will be disappointed if they drive over expecting a finished plaza. Front 44, the Hillwood-led retail and restaurant development at Circle T Ranch, is even earlier in its timeline, with a groundbreaking that puts a 2027 opening within reach but not this year.
That gap between what's promised and what's open is exactly why the Ricardo Marriott and Terra Lounge renovations matter more than they might seem at first glance. They're proof that Westlake's food scene doesn't have to wait on ground-up construction to grow. Buildings that already exist, an office campus from the IBM era and a hotel designed by Legorreta himself, got reworked into something residents can actually use this month.
The Practical Map, As of Now
If you're deciding where to go based on what's actually open in Westlake today, here's the current lineup by occasion:
- A client dinner or celebration: House of Toro Chophouse & Patio at The Ricardo Marriott
- Cocktails before or after: Black Pearl Lounge, same building
- A casual weekday lunch: Solana Kitchen + Lounge, or Terra Lounge for pizza
- Coffee on your way out: Café31 at The Ricardo, Sip | Stir Coffee House on Solana Boulevard, or the Starbucks at Entrada
- A quick bite near the office: Cross Timbers Market inside The Terraces, or La Scala Pizzeria on Solana Boulevard
- A drive-thru coffee stop: Dutch Bros on US-377
None of this is a promise about what Westlake will look like once Entrada and Front 44 are finished. It's a map of what's already usable, in buildings that were here long before either of those projects broke ground, reworked by owners who bet that Westlake residents would show up if given a reason to stay close to home.
Andrea Miranda has spent years tracking exactly this kind of shift across Southlake, Westlake, and the surrounding towns, the small changes that tell you where a neighborhood is actually headed before the bigger headlines catch up. If you're curious what a market this active looks like from the inside, whether you're settled here or just starting to pay attention, reach out to Andrea Miranda for a closer look at what's changing in the neighborhoods she knows best.
