News You Can Eat

Exciting new openings on the horizon in this Fort Worth restaurant news

This burger comes to you via Whiskey Cake.

Courtesy of Whiskey Cake

This roundup of dining news around Fort Worth includes tasty bites about new openings, new menus, and new seasonal specials, including a tempting vegan version of shepherd's pie.

Here's what's happening in Fort Worth restaurant news:

Whiskey Cake Kitchen & Bar, a successful Dallas-based chain that dubs itself a neighborhood joint for craft cocktails and comfort food, is opening its first location in Fort Worth. A spokesperson confirms that a restaurant is opening at Alliance Town Center North, at 3001 Amador Dr., although there's no forecast for when. Named for the decadent dessert, they do classic American dishes and wood-grilled food in a rustic atmosphere. There are currently nine locations in Las Colinas, Plano, Uptown Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Oklahoma City, and Tampa, with another set to open in Austin this spring.

Flower Child, the healthy, happy fast-casual restaurant, has opened its first location in Fort Worth, in the heart of University Park Village between Downtown Fort Worth and Texas Christian University's campus. The eatery from Fox Restaurant Concepts offers a wide-ranging menu that caters to all dietary lifestyles, from vegetarian and vegan to gluten-free, and features a selection of signature lemonades and kombucha on tap, along with wine, sangria, and local craft beers. The Fort Worth restaurant is Flower Child’s 10th location in Texas.

Marco's Pizza, the Ohio-based pizza chain that is home to "authentic Italian quality pizza," is opening a location in Fort Worth, in the Lincoln Village center at 6322 Camp Bowie Blvd. #6330. Obviously this is a welcome arrival, as there are currently only 16 locations in the Fort Worth area, although most are outside of the city center a la North Richland Hills, Burleson, Keller, Bedford, Arlington, and Roanoke. This is maybe a good time to mention that there is amazing pizza being slung a few blocks down Camp Bowie at Pizza Verde, 5716 Locke Ave., featuring pizzas topped with ingredients such as potato and leek. Back to Marco's, there's another Marco's opening in Grapevine, at 2150 W. Northwest Hwy., which their website says is "coming soon."

Spiral Diner, the acclaimed DFW vegan chain, has a great new Blue Plate Special for April: Shepherd's Pie, with a Spiral twist on the classic Irish comfort dish, featuring a savory base of Beyond Meat, onions, carrots, peas, spices, and VioLife cheese topped with perfectly browned mashed potatoes.

Thirsty Lion Gastropub has a new spring menu featuring spicy Moroccan meatballs seasoned with Moroccan harissa and spices, salmon cakes, blackened salmon Caesar salad, Wagyu burger with prosciutto, onions, cheddar, arugula, and pimento remoulade, Korean sweet-spicy baby back ribs & kimchi fried rice, lemon pepper shrimp with cilantro jasmine rice & asparagus, and whiskey apple crumble with cinnamon-pecan streusel topping. It's available through June 26 at both their locations in Irving and Euless.

Nourish Daily with Smoothie King is a smoothie subscription launched exclusively in Dallas-Fort Worth on April 12. Nourish Daily provides customizable purpose-driven smoothies in space-saving recyclable packaging with the convenience of free scheduled delivery. They send frozen ingredients and powder; you add 8 ounces of non-dairy milk, coconut water, or juice. Flavors include Veggie Mango with pineapple, mango, kale, and spinach; and Keto Berry with raspberries, blueberries, spinach, and almonds. The smallest quantity is a 7-smoothie package for about $50.

Corner Bakery has new limited-time menu offerings starting April 19 and available through June, including Hazelnut Cold Brew, Blueberry Topped Pancakes, and a variety of newly filled croissants including chocolate, strawberry & cream cheese, and apple. They're also bringing back Chicken Rosa Pasta with cavatappi, chicken, parmesan, spinach, tomato, pesto, and tomato cream sauce.

Razzoo's has a new Creole crab cake appetizer with two flash-fried crab cakes for $15, available through July 3.

Church's Chicken is launching a new Texas-sized meal and combo, with three-piece legs and thighs, two sides, a biscuit, and a jalapeno pepper, for $6. A Texas-sized combo comes with a large drink, for $7.49, available through May 29.

news-you-can-eat

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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