Former Dallas nightclub Sambuca was bulldozed into heap of debris at McKinney Avenue and N. Pearl Street in Uptown.
Two excavators remained on the property at the Uptown Dallas intersection across from the Crescent development and the Ritz-Carlton Dallas on Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025.
Part of Sambuca’s brick structure is slouched onto the pavement, but much of the former building has already been hauled away by Lloyd D. Nabors Demolition, the Dallas-area company that knocked down Valley View Mall, the “Leaning Tower of Dallas” and others.
Sambuca on McKinney Avenue closed in early 2018. But its memory lived on: It was a dinner-and-a-show restaurant, a model that’s rare in Dallas today.
Restaurant News
Excavators are parked at 2120 McKinney Avenue in Dallas, the former site of Sambuca jazz bar.
Angela Piazza / Staff Photographer
Sambuca opened in 1991 in Deep Ellum as a jazz club and a place to spot a celebrity after a show, like when Harry Connick, Jr. and Rod Stewart’s band stopped in. Models and movie producers hung out at the Elm Street haunt, too, according to Dallas Morning News archives.
A pile of rubble, the formerly vacant Sambuca, sits in the shadow of Hotel Crescent Court on McKinney Avenue in Dallas.
Chase Hanna
The bar moved to a “much larger structure on McKinney Avenue,” The News reported in 2004. The restaurant was draped in red velvet, crystal chandeliers and gold. It was praised for its “sexy” look and covered patio with views of Pearl Street. In addition to the food, music and occasional celebrity sightings in Uptown, Sambuca was also — amusingly — the site of auditions for Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen in 2005.
By Sambuca’s 20th birthday in 2011, founders Kim and Holly Forsythe had grown the brand to Nashville, Houston and Plano.
Sambuca 360 remains open in Plano, but it appears Sambucas in other cities have closed.
Sambuca history: From Deep Ellum to Uptown Dallas
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Before Sambuca shuttered in Uptown Dallas in 2018, the Dallas Observer reported the building had “major plumbing and foundation issues” that led to a lawsuit.
At McKinney Avenue and N. Pearl Street in Dallas, the former Sambuca is a pile of bricks and debris as of Oct. 19, 2025.
Chase Hanna
Kim Forsythe, who built a 30-year dinner-theater business with Sambuca, didn’t respond to an immediate request for comment.
Neither did the Trammell Crow representative listed on the city of Dallas permit for the demolition.
It isn’t clear yet what will happen to this nearly razed piece of land on one of Uptown Dallas’ most prominent corners. A MetLife spokesman declined to comment on Sambuca’s demolition.
Sambuca (which has been closed since 2018) was at 2120 McKinney Ave., Dallas.
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