The Reata Restaurant will not return to the Tower until July.

But we now know what it will look like.

New, bright vermilion awnings will line the restaurant’s picture windows along Throckmorton Street and West Fourth Street, according to an application submitted to a downtown review board.

Reata owner Mike Micallef has announced that the restaurant will move to 500 Throckmorton St. at the end of June. The lease on the current location, 310 Houston St., is ending.

In the application, Reata’s owners hope the Throckmorton site will be “temporary.”

They are looking for a venue with more space for private dinners and events, possibly at a potential future hotel location that has yet to take shape.

The move to a vacant curbside space at 500 Throckmorton — two blocks from the current location — is actually a return to the original address for Reata, the home of Texas “cowboy cuisine” for 28 years.

Reata, known for steaks, chicken steaks and specialties such as filet tamales or jalapeño-coriander soup, originally opened on the top floor of the tower in 1996.

This restaurant was destroyed by the tornado that hit downtown on March 28, 2000.

The new Reata will replace a Cantina Laredo location that closed in 2020 when downtown business slowed at the start of the COVID pandemic.

Micallef had hinted a year ago that the restaurant was eyeing “some great locations in and around the city center.”

Reata’s announcement at the time said nearby office towers, the Fort Worth Convention Center, Bass Performance Hall and new hotels had made downtown a “thriving environment.”

“Our history with the Tower is both historic and powerful,” Micallef was quoted as saying in the statement.

Regarding the restaurant’s mobility, Micallef said, “Like Fort Worth, Reata is a testament to resilience and rebirth. Together, we will continue to create unforgettable experiences, regardless of geography.”

A citywide search and a large-scale customer survey to advise on a new location of 12,000 to 20,000 square meters and “up to 200 parking spaces” instead led Reata back to where it started.

Omni Hotels CEO Bob Rowling said a year ago that the hotel was negotiating with downtown restaurants about moving to the new, second Omni tower, currently under construction at 1500 Houston St.

He said it would be “really exciting” to get the downtown restaurant he had been talking to.

The original Omni Tower, 1300 Houston St., is closer to the Fort Worth Convention Center and has an even more attractive location. It currently houses the hotel’s all-day restaurant, Cast Iron, and a Bob’s Steak and Chop House.

Neither the hotel nor the restaurant have announced any agreement or deal.

Micallef had previously explained that increased convention and tourism business made the city centre attractive to Reata, the restaurant that introduced “cowboy cuisine” and spawned a generation of chefs known for their contemporary Western cuisine.

Micallef announced in March that the restaurant would leave its current home, the former Caravan of Dreams nightclub and rooftop terrace, in June 2024. The restaurant had been unable to secure a new lease, he said, and there were concerns about a price increase designed to encourage customers to use parking garages rather than crowded valet stands.

The new location will offer valet parking as well as free parking in the tower garage for up to three hours with confirmation, Micallef said.

The tower is also home to the premium steakhouse Mercury Chophouse and the taqueria Salsa Limon.

Mercury Chophouse offers valet parking for $10 at Studio Eighty nightclub, 500 Taylor St.

Additionally, Reata operates a Reata at the rodeo site in the Amon G. Carter Jr. Exhibits Hall for four weeks each year during the Stock Show Rodeo.