Anthony DeSimone is no stranger to the streets of Marfa, Texas. DeSimone, along with his friend Alex Marks, visited Marfa in the summer of 2007, which would, unbeknownst to DeSimone, be his future home. The pair spent the night right around the corner from what would become Awesome Street beverage lounge, DeSimone’s current-day creation, 18 years later. The space provides beer, wine, coffee and other non-alcoholic drinks set against a backdrop of groovy music and chic visual design.
Born in 1984, DeSimone grew up in Tiburon, California, just outside San Francisco. His family was in the restaurant business, with his dad owning several businesses before the one that made it, Paradise Ice Cream and Hamburgers, really took off, launching DeSimone in the world of the service industry.
“I grew up in hospitality,” DeSimone said. “I basically grew up in that ice cream shop, from the time I was nine, all through high school, scooping ice cream at 16 years old and 17, and working that as a job.”
Through Paradise Ice Cream and Hamburgers, along with the other restaurants the family ran before, DeSimone honed his hospitality skills and learned how a successful small-owned business operates. Drawn to the creative arts, soon after high school, he studied painting in San Francisco. Then, at the age of 24, during his trip to Marfa, the intended one-night stay turned out to be longer than expected. Soon enough, with an apartment secured above a laundromat, DeSimone got to call West Texas his new home.
“I’ve been here almost 20 years,” DeSimone said. “I was fresh out of college and came here on a whim to visit a friend who was living here and had visited the year before, actually, and it was my first time in Texas. Ended up coming out a year later when my best buddy and I were trying to work on music together, and we stopped here for a weekend, which became a week, which became the summer, which became a year, and then it became a decade.”
Adjusting to the slower pace of a small town and working various odd jobs, DeSimone fell in love with the beauty of West Texas. Then came Cochineal, a restaurant run by former owners Tom Rapp and Toshifumi “Toshi” Sakihara. With few dining options at the time, Cochineal became a unique space that emphasized fine dining and a refined atmosphere. DeSimone waited tables and later became a cook at the space, soon developing a curiosity about beverages.
“I basically started getting my fine-dining schooling there, which ultimately set the foundation for understanding wine, the academia and complexity of wine, and the finite nuance of fine dining,” DeSimone said. “I took interest in it immediately, and so it was very easy for me to want to ask questions and learn everything.”
During this time, DeSimone slowly learned about the wine and beverage market –– which ones were unique and which ones fit Cochineal’s mission to serve Marfa an unforgettable dining experience. A moment involving a Perfect Manhattan cocktail came to pass that would take DeSimone’s curiosity in beverages to a new level.
“When Cochineal put in a bar, it introduced me to a Perfect Manhattan,” DeSimone said. “But the idea of a quote-unquote ‘Perfect Manhattan,’ where the vermouth is split between dry vermouth and sweet vermouth versus just sweet vermouth, when I had that drink, that kind of opened my palate and my eyes to what a great cocktail tasted like.”
Soon, DeSimone would gain bartending experience at Planet Marfa and then become a co-curator at Cactus Liquors, a full-service liquor store, with Faith Gay. However, after putting in his two weeks with Cactus Liquors for a job with a distribution company, it fell through, prompting DeSimone to create a strategy for what to do next.
Having served many of the restaurants in town, he saw owning his own space as the perfect opportunity. With the help of many of his family, friends, partner Jacqueline Del Olmo and artist Harry Crofton, Awesome Street was born, having had its opening weekend on July 31.
“So, Awesome Street is meant to be a weird, cool little place where I can take care of my friends and community, the way that they’ve taken care of me over the years, and it’s also a chance for me to do cool sh-t,” DeSimone said.
“I grew up watching Cheers, and yeah, I wanted to run like this kind of like a cafe, essentially where you can stop in for a glass of wine in the afternoon or in the evening, and then go to dinner.”
DeSimone has taken his roots in the Bay Area, combined with his fine-dining techniques, to create a beverage lounge that has an emphasis on the classic drinks and atmosphere customers have always enjoyed, going back to the time DeSimone made milkshakes and scooped ice cream where everybody knows your name.
Awesome Street is open Wednesdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. to 9 p.m., and is located at 201 E Dallas St, Unit 3.
