A $60M Arlington hotel revival opens near AT&T Stadium — with one big surprise
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- The Caravan Court Hotel reopened in Arlington as a $60 million, 145-room luxury tower.
- The Vandy restaurant opened Monday with a limited menu under chef Yia Medina.
- The hotel has a forthcoming rooftop bar called the 'sky club.'
The Caravan Court Hotel reopened in Arlington this week, replacing a 65-year-old relic of postwar Americana with a shiny new $60 million luxury tower deeply rooted in the city’s history.
For starters, the restaurant is named The Vandy — with a portrait at the entrance to remember Mayor and County Judge Tom Vandergriff, who declared that Arlington would be the center of North Texas and then brought the city amusement parks and sports teams that made the dream come true.
The Vandy just opened Monday.
The menu is very limited so far — mostly steaks, salmon and salads — under chef “Yia” Medina, a brand-new arrival from Dallas restaurants and hotels and a regular gig on the Food Network.
Don’t go for a while. If you do, be patient.
But a first peek showed The Vandy may draw local diners to the retro hotel, already a landmark at 205 N. Collins St. near AT&T Stadium.
That’s on the corner at East Division Street where the old Caravan Motor Hotel opened in 1961, within weeks of nearby Six Flags Over Texas.
The Caravan Court Hotel, Valencia Hotel Collection is a revival of the luxury lodges that used to line highways in the heyday of car travel. Now, it’s a 145-room hotel with a forthcoming rooftop bar, the “sky club.”
The Vandy’s showcase restaurant item is fried chicken brined with ginger, lemongrass and star anise. But it wasn’t ready Monday.
Instead, a stunningly beautiful Ora King premium salmon in yuzu bitter sauce was one of the best entrees to be found in Arlington.
The menu also offers lobster thermidor, a coffee-rubbed rib-eye in bourbon butter and beef Wellington on Fridays and Saturdays. The rib-eye is more than $55, but most of the menu is a reasonable $30-$45.
Sides include lobster bisque or French onion soup and salads. A lunch menu also offers sandwiches for less than $20 and a lobster roll.
The only two desserts at the opening were small-hatch ice cream (vanilla, chocolate or butterscotch) and cookies. A chocolate cake and an apple pie are coming.
The breakfast menu includes the regular items plus bacon-cheddar biscuits with sausage gravy and candied jalapeño, blueberry pancakes, the ubiquitous avocado toast and juices.
Ask first whether an item is available.
This restaurant literally just opened, and Medina has been in place only days. She inherited a basic Valencia Hotels Collection menu but plans to revamp it this fall to include more local foods.
She might be best recognized here as former executive chef at a short-lived Dallas spinoff of the legendary Le Cirque restaurants from the Michelin-rated Le Cirque at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. (That Cirque closes this summer after a 28-year run.)
But Medina also worked at the Ritz-Carlton Dallas and on “Food Network Kitchen.” Her 22 recipes on the Food Network website include everything from carne guisada to the mofongo and tostones from her native Puerto Rico.
The Vandy is open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with a break in midafternoon.
The restaurant door is actually on East Division Street, at the northeast corner of the property. That’s the door closest to AT&T Stadium.
The hotel phone is 682-217-1800; caravancourthotel.com.
.JPG "PHi_j0118(31).JPG")
