Fort Worth is getting more of its favorite food groups in new restaurants that include barbecue, pizza, and doughnuts. Here's our helping of local dining news:
Funky Town Donuts is Fort Worth's first gourmet doughnut shop, à la Voodoo Doughnut in Portland, and will open May 28 in Near Southside, at 1000 Eighth Ave., in the same new building as Jimmy John's.
Owners are Brandon and Angie Moors, and Brandon's mother Ruth. They ramped up their business by selling doughnuts for special events, such as TCU's sports banquet, before moving into this brick-and-mortar space. They'll serve both yeast and cake doughnut versions, and they will make their dough from scratch, which is rare in the doughnut world, where most shops use a mix. Glazes will incorporate fresh fruit, and their lineup will include seasonal offerings.
Flavors include bramble berry (blackberry and lemon); chipper (chocolate icing and potato chips); double stuff (crushed Oreo cookies and vanilla icing); and S'moors, a chocolate doughnut topped with graham cracker crumbles and roasted marshmallows. Doughnuts will go for $2-$4, and the menu will also include mini-doughnuts and doughnut holes, plus vegan and gluten-free doughnuts served twice a week on Wednesdays and Sundays.
Also in on the gourmet doughnut trend is Fort Worth chef Tim Love, with a venture called Back Dough Donuts. It's a pop-up doughnut stand at Queenie's Steakhouse, Love's eatery in Denton, which has been selling house-made doughnuts from 11 pm-1 am on Friday and Saturday nights, out the restaurant's back door — hence the name Back Dough. Flavors change weekly but so far have included blackberry cheesecake, strawberry shortcake, and chocolate mousse.
Love was recently crowned best chef in Fort Worth at the CultureMap Tastemaker Awards, and he charmed as the emcee of the Tastemaker Awards event in Austin.
Blue Goose Cantina, the venerable mini-chain from Dallas serving Tex-Mex, beer, and margaritas, will open its first Tarrant County location in Grapevine in mid-June, at 2455 E. Grapevine Mills Cir., in the former space of Cajun eatery Salt Water Willy's, which closed in 2015. Blue Goose specializes in mesquite-grilled fajitas, served with house-made flour tortillas. Brunch is a big deal, with migas; steak and eggs; huevos rancheros; and breakfast quesadillas stuffed with scrambled eggs, avocado, bacon, and cheese. Six other branches are located in the Dallas area.
Earl's 377 Pizza is a new spot in Argyle, an area of North Texas that's in desperate need of "new." The pizza joint, which is from the team behind LSA Burger Co. and Barley and Board in Denton, opened May 23 and scored a pair of cool chefs: Keith Grober, formerly of Rodeo Goat and Fred's Texas Café, and Chad Kelley, of Barley & Board and, previously, Meddlesome Moth in Dallas.
Housed in a converted fire station, Earl's serves thin-crust pizzas piled with toppings both traditional and not, from meatballs and salami to smashed potatoes. There are also salads and sandwiches, along with craft beer, including lots of local labels. The decor is unique in that most of the furniture and fixtures were pieced together out of unusual items, like banjos and military helmets.
Meat U Anywhere, the Grapevine barbecue restaurant, will open a second branch in Trophy Club in early June, taking over a large space at 91 Trophy Club Dr. The original Grapevine location opened in 2015 and offers terrific barbecue, but not enough parking or seating to handle the mobs. Owner Andy Sedino, a former executive for regional barbecue chain Rudy’s Texas Bar-B-Q, acquired the larger space to accommodate meetings, large groups, and special events.
The new spot will have the same menu as Grapevine. Meats will be smoked over a combination of hickory and oak in three wood-burning pits. Sedino plans on introducing new items at both locations, such as smoked pork belly; cornbread; and two new sauces, one spicy, one sweet.
"I'm a Texas boy, so I don't really like sweet sauce," he says. "But we had so many requests for a sweet sauce that we decided to do one for the pulled pork sandwich — a Carolina-style, mustard-based sauce."
Jambo's BBQ Shack now has a third location at 1724 W. Division St., in the former Arlington Steak House space. The original Jambo's in Rendon was opened three years ago by competitive barbecuer Jamie Geer, then purchased by the Lovato family, who opened a location in Arlington on Little Road in 2015.
Jambo's does smoked brisket; sausage; ribs; and a towering sandwich called the Jambo Texan, which incorporates samples of all three meats, plus pulled pork and bologna.
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Funky Town Donuts is Fort Worth's first gourmet doughnut shop.
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