‘We will do better,’ new operator of Dallas bar Redfield’s tells LGBT community before its reopening

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Redfield’s Tavern in Dallas reopens Monday, Dec. 14 with a new name, Redfield’s Neighborhood Tavern.

Dylan Asher, the former bar manager at Maple Landing in Dallas, has been hired by Redfield’s original owners to run the operations of the bar. Asher, who is gay, hopes that other members of the LGBT community in Dallas will return to the establishment — despite backlash in October when the co-owners were caught on tape saying they didn’t want Redfield’s to be perceived as an “overtly gay” place.

The co-owners have also hired publicist Waylon Tate to represent Redfield’s. Tate is also gay.

“I think it’s important that we look at this as an opportunity of learning and healing, on both sides,” Tate says. “The comments that were made were hurtful.

“I think we need to find a place, in society, where we learn to forgive.

Redfield’s Neighborhood Tavern is not being re-branded as a gay bar. A press release says its identity, since it opened in fall 2019, is as “a welcome space for locals to gather, engage and celebrate.” It will have the same furniture, live music and expansive patio as before, Tate says.

Tillotson, one of the former operators of the bar, wasn’t available for comment.

Redfield’s Tavern is located in the Medical District in Dallas, near UT Southwestern Medical Center and Dallas Love Field airport. Redfield’s has been closed since October, and the name was painted over.

Asher will hire and manage staff, and he’s reached out to the neighborhood to invite them back. Tate calls it “an offering” to the LGBT community.

For Jose Hurtado, a member of the LGBT community who organized a protest described as a “funeral” for the bar in October, he says the reopening is too little, too late.

“The bar didn’t transfer hands,” he says. “It just seems like they’re covering their tracks and trying to get back that business.” He doesn’t have plans to revisit Redfield’s, he says: Not unless the co-owners leave the company and therefore “would have no capital gain from the business.”

Dennis Jansen, who, like Hurtado, was interviewed by The Dallas Morning News in October, says he doesn’t expect or desire Redfield’s to identify as a gay bar, but he does expect its co-owners to identify the place as LGBT-friendly.

“The fact that they’re so scared of being associated with the LGBT community is all we need to know,” Jansen says.

Jansen hasn’t decided whether he will revisit Redfield’s.

“I’m looking for some indication that the owners understand how hurtful what they were trying to do was, to the people who have been spending a lot disposable income at their establishment,” Jansen says. “It doesn’t seem like they get it. It’s a great space, but it’s not that unique that people won’t just go to the next nice restaurant and bar.”

Tate and Asher hope that members of the LGBT community, like Hurtado and Jansen, will give Redfield’s a chance.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do in order to reconnect with our neighbors,” Asher says in a statement.