3 Musume restaurant workers among injured in Fort Worth hotel explosion; chef escaped

Three workers at Musume restaurant were among those hospitalized in stable condition with injuries from the explosion Monday in the Sandman Signature Hotel, according to a spokesperson for restaurant co-owner Josh Babb.

Musume was closed during the mid-afternoon explosion and no customers were in the restaurant, Babb said.

The restaurant is in the lobby bar and lower-level old bank vault of the 103-year-old W.T. Waggoner Building, 810 Houston St., a 20-story skyscraper that until 1957 was home to the old Continental National Bank.

Chef Yuzo Toyama, a product of Shizuoka, Japan, was among those employees in the restaurant during the explosion. He was not injured, Babb said.

Fort Worth explosion: Sandman hotel opened in 2023 in one of city’s most iconic towers

Thompson’s Bookstore, a cocktail lounge across West Eighth Street at 900 Houston St,, announced that the bar will be closed until further notice. The street outside Thompson’s, which underwent a $4 million renovation last year, was littered with debris.

Musume opened June 26. The flashy Asian restaurant’s first location is at 2330 Flora St., Dallas, in the Dallas Arts District.

Musume — “muh-suh-may” — is Japanese for “daughter.”

The Sandman Signature Hotel opened March 31. It is the second Sandman Signature hotel in the U.S., following one in Plano.

The brand is part of Vancouver-based Northland Properties, which is Canada’s largest privately owned hospitality company with hotels and resorts across Canada and, more recently, in the U.K. The company’s president, Tom Gaglardi, has owned the NHL Dallas Stars hockey club since 2011. He also owns the Texas Stars of the American Hockey League.