What started as a campus improvement project at AT&T’s headquarters has turned into an art-filled, restaurant-focused, $100 million development installed not only for the 5,500 AT&T employees who office on site but also for anyone else in downtown.

“What essentially started out as a landscape project turned into this," says Joe Trampel, AT&T’s director of technology. Launching the AT&T Discovery District has been his full-time focus since June 2018.

He’s wearing a hard hat and gesturing past heavy machinery to an open courtyard between several AT&T buildings, where two standalone restaurants and a food hall with 18 tenants look out over Commerce Street.

AT&T Discovery District is near Commerce and S. Akard streets in downtown Dallas, walkable from Dealey Plaza, the Dallas Convention Center, Dallas City Hall and Main Street Garden.

It was time for an upgrade, several AT&T staffers pointed out: AT&T’s 2.5 million-square-foot campus is made up of buildings that were built in the 1920s and the 1980s. Many employees leave the home base to eat lunch in downtown Dallas. AT&T is the largest company headquartered in Dallas and the No. 9 business on the Fortune 500 list.

There’s a hint of Vegas in the middle of this project, anchored by the 104-foot-tall by 84-foot-wide “media wall” that Trampel says has a “higher resolution than Times Square.” It won’t be a place for AT&T to air advertisements for phones, however; it will use it as an art piece — similar to a high-def outdoor art installation or the spectacle the Bellagio fountains create on the Las Vegas strip.

The media wall could also be used for movie nights or for popular sports events like March Madness basketball games or the Kentucky Derby. AT&T’s $109-billion acquisition of Time Warner affords it the opportunity to show DC Universe movies, HBO and CNN TV shows, and NBA sporting events from WarnerMedia.

Chicken-fried steak bites at Jaxon Texas Kitchen & Beer Garden, one of the restaurants opening at AT&T Discovery District (Kevin Marple)

A sculpture called “The Globe” will have a polished exterior similar to “Cloud Gate” (better known as “The Bean”) in Chicago. But here in Dallas, “The Globe” is made of 7,000 pieces and is big enough for passersby to walk through or for musicians to perform inside it.

AT&T’s director of technology promises “WiFi everywhere”and 5G — in the restaurants, on the patios and in the green spaces.

The AT&T Discovery District’s grand opening is expected in May and should include the official debuts of the media wall, lawn and a retail store with hands-on VR equipment. The two standalone restaurants and the food hall are expected to open before May 2020.

Here’s a look at the parts of AT&T Discovery District debuting soonest: the restaurants.

Hawthorn, an American restaurant

From the restaurant group that operates Pakpao Thai Food, El Bolero Cocina Mexicana and Oak in the Design District comes Hawthorn, an American restaurant.

It’s explained as an all-day restaurant inside the AT&T Discovery District that serves juice-bar drinks and smoothies all day, sandwiches and salads at lunch, and steak and seafood at dinner. For years, AT&T’s campus has had a Starbucks on site — a busy one — but restaurateur Richard Ellman hopes downtown Dallas workers will find a second spot for a drink or breakfast, at Hawthorn.

The restaurant is designed with lots of white and pops of juicy red, chosen to mimic the color of the berries on a hawthorn tree.

Hawthorn will eventually be accessible both from the AT&T lobby (which is still under construction) and from Commerce Street. Ellman hopes it feels like a hotel lobby bar.

“If you picture walking down the street in New York and you see the hotel lobby bars that are glassed-in and you can look in ... it’s got that kind of a feel," he says. The front room, which also has a raw bar, can hold about 40 people. Other rooms in Hawthorn include the 60-person dining room; a 20-person “port room” — named for the after-dinner wine served there alongside cocktails; and a 40-person private dining room that Ellman hopes becomes a spot for downtown Dallas employees’ business dinners.

“We have a lot of people who work downtown and live in [nearby] buildings, and so we want to be approachable," he says. “And, we need to be able to cater to executive private dinners. The quality is going to be high, but for lunch you’ll be able to have sandwiches and salads. And not break the bank.”

Hawthorn, at 208 S. Akard St., Dallas, is expected to open in early March.

Jaxon Texas Kitchen & Beer Garden

JAXON Texas Kitchen & Beer Garden, expected to open March 2 at AT&T Discovery District in downtown Dallas, will serve a frozen chamoy margarita. Chamoy is a Mexican condiment made from pickled fruit like apricot, mango and plum. (Kevin Marple)

This nearly 700-seat restaurant has a Texas theme. About 40% of the menu is barbecue, says Kevin Lillis, CEO of Hospitality Alliance, the company AT&T hired to create Jaxon and the nearby food hall.

Jaxon is designed to invoke Lone Star State pride, from its boot-leather wallpaper to its selection of Texas beers.

Here's the Big Daddy Sandwich at JAXON Texas Kitchen & Beer Garden. (Kevin Marple)

Chef David Gilbert’s menu includes dishes like green chili brisket mac and cheese balls, smoked chicken pot pie pozole, pork ribs and a burger.

Jaxon is in the middle of the Discovery District, looking out over Jackson Street (which is closed for the few blocks where it runs in the middle of this walkable area).

Jaxon’s 10,000-square-foot patio is bound to be a popular vantage point to watch downtown Dallas passersby or peek at the media wall. A second-floor bar, patio and private dining space can double as a spot for parties or rehearsal dinners.

Jaxon Texas Kitchen & Beer Garden, at 311 S. Akard St., Dallas, is expected to open March 2.

The food hall

Name a type of cuisine and AT&T Discovery District’s food hall might have it: There’s ice cream and donuts; salads and sandwiches; pizza; burgers; noodles; seafood; Mexican; Mediterranean; Southern; waffles; and more.

“We don’t want any of the employees or visitors to want a type of food and not find it,” Lillis says. “People can come here without a plan.”

AT&T's Discovery District has a special permit so that customers can carry alcohol throughout the lawn and the food hall, pictured here. (Ben Torres / Special Contributor)

Most of the food-hall vendors (and two bars) come from local restaurateurs, he says.

The list of tenants has not been released yet, nor has the name of the food hall. Lillis says “every space has been spoken for” in the two-story complex.

Chef Brian Zenner, who has worked at Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek and Oak, both in Dallas, is the chef over the second-floor steak restaurant in the food hall. He also serves as the food hall’s corporate chef.

Perhaps most alluring for gourmands is a corner of the food hall that will feature what Lillis describes as a rotating roster of high-profile local and national chefs. One chef may host a pop-up for two months to try out new dishes. Another could swing into town for just four to five nights, for seated dinners.

The food hall, at 211 S. Akard St., Dallas, does not yet have an opening date, but it’s expected to debut before the May grand opening.

Parking at AT&T Discovery District

Street parking in downtown Dallas is notoriously tough, and reps from AT&T say the Discovery District will have free parking in the evenings in employee garages. They say they’re also planning a ride-share dropoff spot and optional valet.

Story updated Feb. 26, 2020 to show the opening date of Jaxon.

For more food news, follow Sarah Blaskovich on Twitter at @sblaskovich.