ARLINGTON, Texas _ Almost two decades after his retirement, Troy Aikman hopes to score a touchdown at Texas Live!, the upcoming dining/entertainment complex by Globe Life Park.
Sporting a hard-hat and safety vest, the NFL Hall of Famer, former Dallas Cowboys quarterback and current Fox broadcaster announced Troy's, a new restaurant/beer hall that will be part of the complex.
"It's inspired by a lot of the great Texas beer halls," Aikman said. "I've been thinking for a while about jumping in and opening a restaurant, having something that I can put my name on, and this is a great opportunity for me."
Aikman says he has been involved with the design and planning a menu for the restaurant, which will feature live music indoors and outdoors. The restaurant will have a beer garden and a patio and, of course, big-screen TVs.
"You can't have a restaurant with my name on it and not have big-screen for watching games," Aikman told reporters. "Especially games where I'm broadcasting."
Aikman says the menu will be driven mainly by gourmet burgers, although healthy options are also planned, and one of the appetizers will be an artichoke dip using his wife's recipe.
According to a release issued later, Troy's is designed by Jeffrey Beers International, and a Live Oak tree will be the center of the patio space. There will be an indoor/outdoor stage, cocktails and wine as well as beer.
Aikman's announcement was the climax of a roughly hour-long tour led by Reed Cordish, principal of the Cordish Companies, which is developing Texas Live! in partnership with the Texas Rangers and the City of Arlington.
Several restaurants have already been announced for the complex, including one from spiky-haired "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" host Guy Fieri as well as dining and/or music venues Rangers Republic, Live! Arena and Arlington Backyard.
The $250 million complex will be across the street from Globe Life Park, the current home of the Texas Rangers, and next to Globe Life Field, the MLB team's future home, due to open in 2020 and already under construction enough that from a second-floor viewpoint in the Texas Live! building, you could detect the outlines of a field and the stands.
Texas Live! will house 200,000 square feet of dining and entertainment space as well as an outdoor event pavilion that can handle up to 5,000 people. It is planned to be a year-round attraction with events taking place when no games are being played at the Rangers stadium or nearby AT&T Stadium., which will be visible from large windows in Texas Live!
The project is expected to bring 3,000 new jobs, including 2,000 construction jobs and 1,025 permanent jobs. The $150 million Live! by Loews hotel, which includes 35,000 square feet of convention space, will open in 2019 and add 220 permanent jobs.
"It will be 302 and rooms, truly up-scale and high-end," Cordish told reporters. "It's also a full resort, so it's the first high-end full hotel/event center/resort that Arlington, Texas, has ever had. It will be a great addition to the overall Arlington entertainment district."
Cordish said that the hotel will have "massive large-scale TVs" in the rooms, a fitness center overlooking the pool, and a combination of entertainment, sports and hospitality throughout the hotel, including an in-house brewery from Granbury's Revolver Brewing.
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