EL PASO, Texas – It’s one of the newest venues in downtown El Paso: The Reagan. The gastropub and entertainment venue is on Mills Avenue and opens this weekend.
Alex Nava and his wife Kassi Foster-Nava, daughter of El Paso billionaire Paul Foster, have been working to open their new stores in the heart of downtown for over a year.
Foster-Nava owned a boutique in Austin for several years, while her husband has been in the DJ business since he was a teenager. Together, the couple bring their experiences in both industries together and bring all their favorite things together in one room that El Pasoans can enjoy as a love letter to their hometown.
“It was great, it’s like working with my best friend,” said Nava.
The Reagan, the middle name of Foster-Nava, serves handcrafted cocktails from award-winning bartenders and food. “Lately we’ve been calling (The Reagan) a chameleon,” said Nava. “It’s a coffee shop in the morning, it’s a restaurant from lunch to dinner, it’s a wine bar on Wednesdays, a venue on Saturdays, it’s a little bit of everything we enjoy.”
A disco ball commissioned by Yolanda Baker who made handcrafted disco balls for Studio 54 and Saturday Night Fever. Guests can also enjoy a Zoltar Fortune Booth made famous in the movie Big, starring Tom Hanks. There are neon signs on the walls with quotes from famous songs by Joy Division and the Smiths, as well as fancy wallpaper.
The venue is another attraction to enliven the city center. “It’s blooming right now and we just wanted to be apart of it,” said Foster-Nava. The couple said they worked to preserve the building’s history by preserving and restoring the brick wall and detailed ceilings.
“I think El Paso always had that, just on a smaller scale … Now we’ve teamed up with the best (people) and I think now El Paso is definitely ready for this (kind of venue),” said Nava. “There’s one thing people always say when they walk in here, they say, ‘It doesn’t seem like a place that belongs in El Paso.’ We want to get away from that, because we come from El Paso, that’s El Paso. ”
The grand opening is Friday June 18th. To learn more, click here.