Dessert cocktails
Where to drink in Fort Worth right now: 5 sweet spots for boozy milkshakes
February is a month of sweet indulgences, and there’s perhaps nothing more extravagant than combining dessert with booze. "Adult milkshakes" do just that — blending spirits like vodka, bourbon, flavored liqueurs, and rum with everything from cookies and candy bars to hot fudge and caramel sauce. Spiked shakes apparently pair well with gourmet burgers, as proven by this list of the best spots in town to imbibe. Here are five places where cocktails double as dessert.
Hopdoddy Burger Bar
Customers can play bartender and choose their own spirit to spike any of the shakes on the menu at this Austin-based chain, which has locations on West Seventh Street, Euless, and Southlake. Try vanilla vodka in the strawberry shortbread shake, bourbon in the Nutella chocolate pretzel shake, or perhaps dark rum in the bananas Foster shake. Most additions are just a $3 upcharge. If you carry your own straws into restaurants, make sure it's a thick one here so every last sip can be easily slurped.
Grub Kitchen + Bar
The College Station-based burger bar has been around since 2012, but Fort Worth got its first location just last month in booming far north Fort Worth. There are five kinds of spiked shakes here. Most are made with chocolate vodka, like the Dirty Kitchen Sink, which is piled with pretzels, chocolate chips, coffee grounds, and potato chips. But the fan favorite is the bourbon and caramel shake made with vanilla ice cream and a hefty pour of Jim Beam. Enjoy one on Grub’s spacious patio, which overlooks a grassy knoll (a rarity in the concrete-heavy Alliance developments). It’ll be home to local live music soon, too.
Twisted Root Burger Co.
With locations all over town, from Coppell to Bedford and Mansfield to Roanoke, the local dive provides easy access to its boozy shakes. (Add an Alliance location to the list when the new Victory Shops at Heritage Trace opens this spring.) On the menu: banana and Baileys Irish Cream, Oreo and amaretto, and the mint-hued crème de menthe and chocolate chips. Each homemade custard shake is crowned with a fluffy mound of whipped cream and, in discreet fashion, looks just like the restaurant’s non-alcoholic varieties.
Rodeo Goat
Thick and creamy milkshakes are listed under the dessert menu at this tried-and-true Fort Worth joint, but a closer look reveals “adult shakes” are indeed an option, if you ask your server. There are two off-menu alcoholic shakes to choose from: salted caramel, made with caramel-flavored vodka, and Thin Mint, named for the chocolate-mint Girl Scout cookie and blended with mint liqueur. Both are served in simple plastic cups with little flair, but are big on taste with the extra punch of spiked flavor.
Snuffer’s Restaurant & Bar
There are six secret adult milkshakes at this Colleyville bar and restaurant, and none are listed on the drink menu. Customers in-the-know can ask their server for shakes in the form of banana cream, lemon chill, Thin Mint, hot fudge bourbon, or the two most popular (we’re told), Bailey’s and cookies and cream. The latter is made with RumChata and Grey Goose vodka, while the former adds Kahlua and hazelnut-flavored liqueur.