Swirll Winery in downtown Dallas to re-open in April with new owners

by Teresa Gubbins

DALLAS — Swirll Winery, the make-your-own wine place in the Davis Building in downtown Dallas, has found a new owner and is scheduled to re-open on April 3.

"We're in the process of renovating and building up inventory, and on April 3, we're going to re-open," says KC Kronbach, of Knightvest Capital, a real estate investment and private equity firm based in Dallas.

Kronbach and his partners first became acquainted with Swirll nearly a year ago when they heard that owners Louis and Peggy Davion were trying to franchise the concept. But they were never able to come to terms. After Swirll shut down in December, Kensington stepped back in with an offer. Now they're in the process or remodeling and retuning the concept, Kronbach says.

"We're going from the bronze-Plano-Tuscan-grape theme to more of a contemporary urban charcoal with black furniture and red accents -- more edgy and downtown but also keeping a vintage look to it," he says.

They'll still offer the create-your-own-wine feature for which Swirll was known, but they're also installing a wine bar in front where you can stop in and have a glass, with an inventory that includes the 20 varietals made by Swirll plus wines from more than 50 Texas vineyards. They're still going to do retail sales of bottles of wine, but they also hope to become more of a destination, with perks such as free wireless access and night-time hours: until 11 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, and midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.

"We're counting on downtown residents to support downtown retail," Kronbach says.