Taking it all to-go

Restaurant cocktail kits ease the booze blues in Fort Worth

Mix up these margs at home.

Photo courtesy of Blue Goose Cantina

In another life — as in two weeks ago — alcohol leaving any restaurant’s premises in Fort Worth was forbidden by the Texas Alcoholic & Beverage Commission.

Now, in a world where a virus has completely disrupted daily life, TABC has loosened its reins thanks to a waiver issued by Gov. Greg Abbott. While there's still some grappling with what, exactly, the "mixed beverage" waiver means, restaurants have seized the day (and the revenue opportunity) by packing cocktail kits for drive-by customers.

Many local neighborhood restaurants (Tex-Mex ones, especially), are offering curbside margarita kits and other fun "deconstructed" drinks. Here are some options that have have proven to be popular in all corners of the city.

Note that a food purchase is required by law. Also note that drinking in bars, dining rooms, and lobbies while waiting for pickup is forbidden.

Blue Goose Cantina
The new University Park Village restaurant was just picking up steam as a go-to for Tex-Mex. Now those tangy margaritas are available in DIY drink-making kits that include tequila and mix for $38, which serves four. Other drink kits include skinny ‘ritas, Ranch Water, and mimosas. Prices range from $20-$38. Add a pound of brisket tacos for pairing.

The Post at River East
The Race Street restaurant and live music venue is serving 32-ounce craft cocktail kits for only $25. The lengthy drink menu includes a vodka-spiked lemon basil blossom; mojitos, and Patio Punch made with rum and tropical fruit juices. Pair the drinks with a $4 per-person dinner, which changes daily and ranges from green chile enchilada casserole to baked penne Alfredo. A family-size platter is $20 and comes with a salad.

Branch & Bird
While the sky-high views are on hold to the public for the time-being, the downtown restaurant’s cocktails to-go can help ease the pain. Brand new cocktail kits include Ranch Water with El Jimador tequila; Tito’s and soda with lime and cranberry juice; Old Fashioned; and a signature cocktail called It’s for the Birds made with gin, agave, and lime. There are also mimosas. Kits range from $20 to $28 and make around six to eight cocktails.

Chuy's
Chuy's famous margaritas are now available to prepare at home. Their margarita kit includes a 375-ml bottle of premium silver tequila, housemade sour mix, and a lime. Just fix to your liking, shake, and serve. Place an order for curbside pickup at order.chuys.com.

Taverna Rossa
Taverna Rossa in Southlake is offering a Tito's mule kit. For $30, you get a bottle of Tito's vodka and a couple bottles of Fever Tree ginger beer.

FnG Eats
The popular Keller restaurant has created "DIY deconstructed cocktail kits." Sip It is made with Jim Beam, lemonade, and mint-infused agave syrup; and the comical COVID (not) Punch comes with Barcardi rum, mango puree, blood oranges, fresh lime juice, and agave syrup. Both are sold as single drinks for $9 each. There's also a "deconstructed" bloody Mary, mules, blood orange margaritas, and more.

Blue Mesa Grill
Blue Mesa's famous weekend brunch now has a mimosa kit option: a bottle of house champagne and quart of orange juice for $15. Weekend brunch (menu here) serves four for $60. A half-gallon of the Southwest restaurant's blue margaritas runs for $30 while a full gallon goes for $50. Pair it with a $50 family fajita “necessity pack,” which comes with steak and chicken fajitas, black beans, rice and corn cakes, and a roll of toilet paper — no joke.

Joe T. Garcia’s
Global pandemic or not, there will always be a line at Joe T.’s. This time, it’s by vehicle, as witnessed last weekend when cars lined up all the way down North Main Street for fajitas and pitchers of the Tex-Mex institution’s famously potent margaritas. Order ahead by phone to get 16 ounces for $16.50, 32 ounces for $33, and 64 ounces for $66. The servers will put them right in your trunk, and they'll be sealed up as tight as a container of milk from the store.

Tributary Café
Cocktail four-packs include hurricanes, margaritas, Snickerdoodle Punch, the Old Fashioned, and bloody Mary — each for $20. The Race Street neighborhood gem, popular for elevated Louisiana-inspired fare, is also offering family-style meals that feed four for $40.

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Chef News

Fort Worth's Will Rogers Memorial Center welcomes bright new chef

FortWorthtx.gov

Will Rogers Memorial Center

There's a new chef in town: Waylon Cornelius, named executive chef of catering and concessions for Craft Culinary Concepts, the food and beverage provider at Will Rogers Memorial Center.

Will Rogers Memorial Center is the 120-acre entertainment complex anchoring Fort Worth’s Cultural District, owned and operated by the City of Fort Worth. Cornelius will oversee menus for trade shows and other events at the center which bring in more than 2 million visitors a year.

Craft Culinary Concepts is headquartered in Glendale, Arizona, and manages food and beverage programs for entertainment, sports and cultural facilities.

Chef Waylon Corneliusfortworthtx.gov

According to a release, Cornelius joined the team this summer and is already shifting the expectations of guests from a typical “BBQ and beans” menu to a bill of fare satisfying every kind of palate.

“We always have fajitas ready to go, but we also make a beautiful Beef Wellington or baked salmon with a pink salt crust,” Cornelius says in a statement.

For consumer trade shows, Craft and its partners Caribou and Taco Heads offer more choices for the thousands of guests who attend events at WRMC annually.

“Some of our equestrian guests are away from home and here for several days, and they need more than popcorn and hot dogs,” Cornelius says. “Our concessions offer biscuits and gravy, burritos made in-house, strawberry salad, fruit and yogurt cups.”

A native of Mansfield, Cornelius grew up helping in a farm-to-table kitchen. He was raised on a farm with his mother, grandmother, and grandfather -- a Vietnam veteran who enjoyed vegetable gardens and raising hogs and chickens. He studied computer science after high school and holds an associate's degree in Cultural Resource Management and Policy Analysis from Tarrant County College.

He's a 2003 graduate of AIMS Academy of Culinary Arts in Dallas where he was mentored by a number of great chefs. While training as assistant executive sous chef at the AAA four-diamond Grand Hyatt DFW, he worked with Executive Chef Sutti Sripolpa, chef Eric Dreyer (who went on to be Oprah Winfrey’s personal chef), and Chef Jean-Claude Plihon, under whom he honed his French cooking skills.

As executive sous chef at the opening of Perry’s Steakhouse and Grille in Southlake, Cornelius gained expertise with volume. While at HG Sply Co., he learned about gluten-free items and other food allergies.

HG Sply is also where he crossed paths with Chef James R. Schell III, Craft’s general manager at WRMC, who recruited Cornelius to the complex.

"James said he needed someone who can hit moving targets, push the culinary team to be more avant-garde and use locally sourced, seasonal ingredients, so here I am," Cornelius says. "Culinary is a small world."

“I want people to say, ‘When we were in Fort Worth, you won’t believe what we got at Will Rogers!’” Schell says. “Even the celebrities who perform [in the auditorium] are surprised. When Chicago played here recently and we served dinner backstage, they said they felt treated like the Rolling Stones.”

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