Here's the Beef

Fort Worth fave feeds Dallas' demand for pasture-raised meat with new market

Where’s the beef? Ross Avenue.

Photo courtesy of Burgundy Pasture

A grass-fed meat market will come to what has just become Dallas' hottest new street: Ross Avenue. Jon and Wendy Taggart will open a Dallas branch of Burgundy's Local - Grass Fed Meat Market, similar to the meat market they opened in Fort Worth in 2014.

The store will offer the same lineup as their Fort Worth outlet with grass-fed beef, pork, chicken, grass-fed lamb, raw milk cheese, pastured eggs, and local honey, all raised and produced in North Central Texas. Their goal is to have the largest selection of sustainable pasture-raised meats in North Texas. Opening is forecast for fall 2016.

"In the past, our approach to getting our product to town was to home-deliver it to customers," Wendy says. "But we made a decision that we also wanted to do direct retail, instead of going into grocery stores or restaurants. That's what we know, and it keeps us in touch with our customers."

The shop will go into the same nicely refurbished space as Little Woodrow's, the Houston-based bar.

"We wanted to be north and east of downtown, and that's right about where we are," Wendy says. "We were grateful to find a place so centrally located with good parking. I felt it was important to be in Dallas. People don't mind driving in from the suburbs to shop, but I'm not sure that's true the other way around."

The Taggarts have their own USDA inspected butcher shop in Grandview, south of Fort Worth, where they cut and package beef, pork, and lamb. Beef cuts will include tri tip sirloin, sirloin flap, teres major, and beef shank (think osso bucco). Pasture-raised chickens will be dressed out weekly and delivered fresh to the store.

"In Fort Worth, we've been serving grass-fed beef hamburgers and hot dogs on the weekends, but we won't have a kitchen in the Dallas shop," she says. "I'm hoping to partner with a chef to do some prepared entrees that customers can take home and heat up."

The Taggarts are farmers and ranchers who've been raising grass-fed beef for 16 years.

"We hope the quality and uniqueness of our offering brings enrichment to the community," she says. "We're farmers and ranchers. I'm hoping I can do some things in the store that portray that."

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Sub Sandwich News

Grab subs and pizza at new family-owned Lunch Break Cafe in Fort Worth

Lunch Break Cafe

Lunch Break Cafe BLT, with lots of B.

A well-regarded cafe serving sub sandwiches has risen in east Fort Worth: Called The Lunch Break Cafe, it’s a family-owned restaurant that opened in early December at 7251 Stoneway Dr. N. 400, in the former Riverbend Bistro space at River Bend Plaza, featuring made-from-scratch subs, burgers, and pizza.

Lunch Break Cafe represents a second coming: It's owned by William Dorsett, who previously owned a similar concept called The Lunch Stop, which he opened with his family in Haltom City in 2010.

That restaurant specialized in sandwiches but he closed it in 2022 because he had expansion in mind. The prior location did not have the kitchen space for cooked items, including pizzas and burgers, that Dorsett wanted to serve.

He calls this second coming "new-and-improved."

“The Lunch Stop was a smaller location, and it was strictly deli,” Dorsett says. “They wouldn’t allow us to do burgers with the vented hood. So we sold the Lunch Stop and moved here, and now we’re The Lunch Break.”

Several of the deli sandwiches that were a previously a mainstay have been carried over from The Lunch Spot, including BLTs, Italian subs, and roast beef subs.

But now there's an expanded menu with many hot items as well as cold, including pizza in three varieties — pepperoni, cheese, and sausage & black olive, on a choice of hand-tossed or thin crust dough. There are also hot dogs, chili dogs, soup, and chili.

Everything’s made in house from scratch.

The restaurant currently doesn’t have a menu posted online, but according to Dorsett, cheeseburger combos and sandwiches go for $8-$9 and 12-inch pizzas with up to three toppings are $8.

Though The Lunch Break is only a few minutes away from where his first deli opened, Dorsett says this area is a better fit because it's more accessible rather than in an industrial location he was in before, with a name that speaks to his mission.

"It's a more professional area and a great location for workers in search of a good, affordable lunch," Dorsett says.