New Restaurant and Sports Bar Coming to Tuscaloosa’s Strip will “Blow People Away,” Developers Say
A new restaurant and entertainment venue is coming to the Tuscaloosa Strip, and the development group behind it says it’s unlike anything else the Druid City has ever seen.
The new venue, Twelve25, is named for its address on University Boulevard in the building that once housed El Rincon Latin Bar & Grill and is tentatively planning to open in late July or early August.
The building’s interior is being demolished, rebuilt and renovated by CMB Holdings Group, LLC, who are making their first foray into the Tuscaloosa market with this concept.
Company partners Jay Jarrett and Josh Boone, an alumnus of both the University of Alabama and its School of Law, described Twelve25 as a fluid, adaptable place that will strive as much as possible to be everything to everybody.
“Essentially what we want to do is be Tuscaloosa’s newest tradition. We’ll have great food, a great environment and great times for our patrons and the city of Tuscaloosa,” Jarrett said. “Our concept is centered around having a new way to do game days, a new way to do nightlife, a new way to brunch, a new way to do any activity on the Strip – we’re going to look different, we’re going to feel different and we’re going to be different.”
Jarrett said CMB Holdings Group has partners and consultants from all corners of the entertainment world who will be bringing concepts from Las Vegas and Nashville and Washington D.C. to Tuscaloosa for the first time, creating an experience never before seen in this city.
“When you go there, you’re still going to have the small town college feel because that’s the people who are there, but there will also be a new, big city atmosphere with the décor, the look of the place and the atmosphere in general,” said Ryan Dahlstrom, the founder and president of the The Bar Experts and a consultant for CMB Holdings Group on this project. “It’s really going to have the look and feel of a big city venue but in the local Tuscaloosa market, something that will appeal to students but also to the business district there.”
The concept includes four separate VIP rooms and a staff better described as entertainers than bartenders or servers. Dahlstrom said this will allow the venue to adapt to each day’s demands. They’ll transition from a restaurant to a night life experience each day, but also be able to fluidly have two or three entirely different events happening inside Twelve25 at once, so the college crowd can enjoy custom crafted drinks and dance in one part of the venue while a smaller, more upscale corporate party takes place elsewhere in the building.
“It’s almost like three venues opened up into one, you can travel from room to room seamlessly but also have the feeling that you’re almost moving through different properties,” Boone said. “It’s a very unique venue not only for the market but for the region because most everything that pops up other than hotels are just traditional, stale and they feel like everything else around them. This one is going to blow people away.”
The venue has launched a website where people interested can apply for employment or learn more about corporate event opportunities. Stay tuned to this site and this station for more news about the Twelve25 as it is released.
“I’m sure a lot of people say they’re going to be the newest coolest thing,” Boone said. “This property won’t just say it, this property will actually do it and show it.”