Restaurant News

Fort Worth receives western outpost of Dallas restaurant popular with night owls

Avanti is opening another location in Fort Worth.

Photo courtesy of Avanti

Uptown Dallas mainstay Avanti Ristorante is about to join a migration west. The restaurant will open a Fort Worth location in mid-March, in the One City Place development, on the site of the former Tandy Center.

The original Italian-Mediterranean restaurant has been on McKinney Avenue for more than 30 years. It's a cozy rendezvous spot and go-to for night-owls, thanks to its willingness to stay open late, with its trademark "moonlight breakfast."

Owner Amin Malek says that the Fort Worth branch will be much like the Dallas original, but with additions to the menu and twice the space.

"The menu will be similar, but because of the added square footage and the bigger, beautiful kitchen, we'll be adding more Mediterranean items," he says. "We're also introducing some flatbreads for our patio and bar diners, and extending our appetizer selection."

That includes a favorite of his: cheese.

"One thing I've always wanted to have is a nice cheese and charcuterie selection, which we were not able to do in Uptown, due to the lack of space in the kitchen there," he says. "You can't fit more than three people in that kitchen. But I'm a huge cheese fan, and want to offer a nice cheese selection."

Fort Worth will also have another unique feature that's been high on Malek's wish list.

"One thing we've never been able to have on McKinney is a private room," he says. "This has a room that seats more than 60 people, with AV connections for corporate events."

This is not Avanti's first expansion. In 1995, a second Avanti opened at Fountain Place in downtown Dallas, where it became a lunch destination for downtown workers and a popular spot for weddings and other catered events. That branch closed in 2014.

Avanti Fort Worth will pick up the slack. Located at Throckmorton and Second streets, abutting a grassy area it'll share with fellow Dallas emigre Wild Salsa, it re-creates McKinney Avenue's ambience, with an elegant chandelier, huge windows, and patio.

"When we realized we were going to close Fountain Place, we began looking for a place we could host events," Malek says. "Once we saw the location in Fort Worth, we realized it wasn't an event space but would be better suited for restaurant. It gave us a good incentive to go west."

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Hotel News

Restaurant at chic new Fort Worth hotel reveals menu by Top Chef

Courtesy rendering

Bar and lounge at Nobleman Hotel in Fort Worth.

A new hotel restaurant opening in Fort Worth will bring back a name familiar to local diners: The restaurant is Duchess, opening in The Nobleman Hotel, 503 Bryan Ave. in Fort Worth’s Southside neighborhood in 2025. The chef is Casey Thompson, a former DFW chef who rocketed to fame after she appeared as a contestant on Top Chef.

Thompson is especially familar to Fort Worth, since she helped launch Brownstone, a restaurant that opened in 2010 in Fort Worth's West 7th district where she served as a consulting chef for a year.

The Nobleman Hotel is the distinctive development from Bedford Lodging in which a new-construction hotel will be wrapped around the historic No. 5 Fire Station, built in 1911. The restored fire station will serve as the heart of the hotel and will also be home to Duchess, with an architecturally prominent façade and approachable menu that represent a significant addition to the local dining scene.

Food
Bedford Lodging president Jeff Blackman enlisted consultant chef Thompson — who started out at The Mansion Restaurant in Dallas — to concept the menu and source an executive chef, to be named at a later date.

Chef Casey Thompson Casey Thompson at a DIFFA event in 2016. Photo by Shana Anderson

According to a release, the restaurant will feature New American cuisine with a Texas influence including steaks, pasta, and seafood.

Starters will include blue crab toast, tuna tartare, beef carpaccio ciabatta, snapper crudo, and crispy chicken croquettes.

Entrees will include red snapper with clams and butter beans; ricotta gnocchi with truffle butter; and a fried eggplant schnitzel with a poblano chimichurri.

Three steak options will include filet, ribeye, and New York strip, with an array of sauces.

Sides will include hand-cut fries with tarragon aioli; baguettes with pan drippings; and a homey side of spinach with black-eyed peas.

One stand-out feature will be the “Bowl of Red” — beef boar and beer chili with accoutrements, served in a silver tureen with choice of Fritos or buttered koji rice.

Design
The 56-seat restaurant will feature warm tones, banquettes, flooring changes, and details such as firemen’s pulley systems and brass fittings, keeping the history of the space alive. The entry will feature a welcoming portal on the first floor of the fire house to the bar and dining room.

The patio will be a continuation of the restaurant space with outdoor dining and vignettes of lounge furniture for smaller bites.

The Nobleman Hotel, a Tapestry Collection by Hilton concept, will open in early 2025, with 121 guest rooms and 32 extended stay suites with kitchenettes — pairing modern amenities with a historic façade, anchored by the original No. 5 Fire Station.

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