Food Truck News

Fort Worth's Alliance center lures in laid-back Truck Yard from Dallas

It'll be a great place to kick back and relax with live music, games, and drinks.

Truck Yard/Facebook

Alliance Town Center, the 900-acre master-planned community at AllianceTexas in far north Fort Worth, has lured in a laid-back concept founded in Dallas: Truck Yard, an indoor-outdoor hang with food trucks, drinks, games, and space for pets.

Truck Yard made its debut on Lower Greenville Avenue in Dallas in 2013, and has been a vastly popular place to kick back and relax with live music, ample space to party and play, a daily rotation of food trucks, and a full bar.

Truck Yard locations opened in The Colony and in Houston in 2019. Fort Worth will be the fourth. According to a release, it's scheduled to open in fall 2020. There isn’t an address available yet but it will be located at the northwest corner of Prairie Vista Drive and Feather Grass Lane.

Hillwood VP Mark Miller says that the new venue will significantly expand the dining and entertainment options at Alliance Town Center, whether for happy hour, lunch, or dinner. Food trucks will set up daily, which will help to diversify the culinary options available at Alliance Town Center.

In addition to the food truck offerings, the indoor bar will serve beer at a crisp 39 degrees and craft cocktails such as the Mojito Mo' Problems, a take on the classic mojito; the Mother Trucker, a Texas-style spin on long island iced tea; and Frosé, a spiked, frozen rosé wine.

It'll be situated on more than two acres, with indoor-outdoor spaces that include heavily-shaded patios and a 6,500-square-foot indoor area called the West Texas Pole Barn. There'll be a game pit and a dedicated rest area for four-legged friends.

Decor will include historic windmills, water towers and silos, hand-painted murals and signs, and rustic treasures plucked from Hillwood’s AllianceTexas ranch properties that include a "car kebab" — a large installation art piece made of various vintage car parts — and eight mid-century National Highway Rest Stop ramadas.

Founder Jason Boso, who also founded Twisted Root Burger and Tacos & Avocados, says in a statement that this location will be more "live-music-forward" with a Fort Worth honky tonk-beer hall ambiance.

"The West Texas Pole Barn has the largest amount of interior space of any of our locations, designed to keep us open and serving year-round," he says.

The space will also have animals on site including ponies, goats, and bison, in a facility called the Fainting Goat Ranch. Boso also says something about it being Instagrammable but let's not encourage that whole trend of taking selfies with poor animals in the background, shall we?

Truck Yard will be open 364 days a year, with indoor and outdoor stages constructed from two vintage 1950s flatbed trucks parked end to end, as well as a band shell stage made of tree branches.

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Burger News

Hip hang Crystal Springs Hideaway debuts in Fort Worth River District

Crystal Springs Hideaway

Burger at Crystal Springs Hideaway

A fun beer garden and burger spot in Fort Worth’s River District has made its debut: Crystal Springs Hideaway is now open at ADDRESS with a Texas beer and wine garden featuring 25+ draft beers, burgers, cocktails, along with a wine-cheese-charcuterie shop, all in a historically significant space that's been artfully renovated.

Cystal Springs Hideaway is from JD and Shanna Granger, Fort Worth's "most fun couple," who were gratified to find what is a historically significant property for this exciting venture.

“Over the years, I feel like our beloved Fort Worth joints have faded away," JD says in a statement. "But then I came across this great 100-year-old bungalow with a stone carriage house and water tower – nestled smack-dab in the middle of a neighborhood. I immediately knew this is the kind of place people miss and want to hang out at. It has the character for our vision and is the perfect neighborhood to do it in. It’s casual. It’s comfortable. And it will be an affordable place to enjoy drinks with friends and grab a bite to eat."

The raw character of the carriage house, the original hardwood floors and shiplap in the bungalow, and the 150-year-old cottonwoods offer a look back in time. All renovations were carefully executed to preserve and enhance the history of the site.

Now open to the public, the venue will celebrate its grand opening party set for Friday, January 3.

Food
Big Kat Burgers is from chefs Mike Sugg and Bryce Blackburn, lifelong friends who launched Big Kat Burgers as a food truck in 2017, gaining a loyal following with special burger-of-the-month announcements as well as cutting and grinding their burgers by hand from primal cuts of beef.

Crystal Springs Hideaway will be Big Kat Burgers first brick-and-mortar kitchen location.

In addition to their award-winning burgers, they are rolling out additional menu items including chicken sandwiches, BLT, salads, and shareables, including cowboy caviar, mama’s corn dip and beer-battered jalapeno bottlecaps. A brunch menu will also be available on Saturdays and Sundays.

Wine shop
The Crystal Springs’ wine, cheese and charcuterie shoppe offers customers a “Build-Your-Own” cheese and charcuterie board option. The wine shoppe curated by wine professional JR Clark features a variety of unique wines at different price points, providing something for everyone. Guests are invited to choose their wine, pair it with their favorite cheese and meat, grab a couple of glasses and find a place to relax and enjoy.

Chef Kelly Burton whose resume includes HG Sply Co., Winslow’s Cedar Springs, and Nonna Tata where she is chef de cuisine and kitchen Manager, will devise a rotating cheese and charcuterie experience at Crystal Springs Hideaway.

Crystal Springs Hideaway Crystal Springs HideawaCrystal Springs Hideawa

Setting
The name of the venue is a nod to the Crystal Springs Dance Pavilion, which was located directly behind the venue and known as the birthplace of western swing music in the 1920’s.

The “Hideaway” has several large TVs perfect for bowl watching and is dog friendly. The original water tower overlooks the beer garden, which is nestled beneath mature live oaks and majestic 150-year-old cottonwood trees. It also offers two patios with heaters and two indoor bars with bar seating.

JD and Shanna
JD is an attorney and former Tarrant County prosecutor best known for his role in overseeing design, construction and implementation of the transformational Trinity River Vision project in Fort Worth. As director of the Trinity River Vision, he helped change the perception of the river by creating development opportunities and designing special spaces that drew people in.

JD designed the Woodshed Smokehouse, Coyote Drive-In, Panther Island Pavilion, kayak, paddleboard, tubing concessions and signature river events.

Shanna oversaw all programming and marketing for Panther Island Pavilion and numerous river events that brought thousands of people to the riverbanks. Shanna directed and produced the Rockin’ the River music series, Fort Worth’s Fourth, Sunday Funday, the outdoor ice-skating rink, Panther Island Ice and TRWD Flyfest.

After JD secured $400 million for the river project, JD and Shanna moved to the private sector, growing their real estate company, creating an event production company that produces the annual Fort Worth Oktoberfest drawing over 30,000 people to Trinity Park for German bier, food and entertainment, and now creating a hospitality venture to bring the Crystal Springs Hideaway to Fort Worth.

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