UPDATE 8-10-2020: The restaurant is now serving a limited version of its full menu, including burgers, sandwiches, sides, chicken nuggets, chips & queso, ice cream, and shakes.

UPDATE 7-27-2020: The restaurant opened July 27, serving ice cream only to begin with.

---

A new burger joint coming to northeast Fort Worth will open with a very special something extra: ice cream made in-house.

The new restaurant is called Sear-N-Dip, and it will open at 5800 N. Tarrant Pkwy., in the same center as the Academy sporting goods store.

Sear-N-Dip will go into a prominent corner suite that was previously home to LA Burger, and before that, Smashburger. But don't you worry about that. Owner Kirk Bennett says he feels confident that Sear-N-Dip will succeed where others have not.

"Third time's the charm," he says, joking. "But I feel like what we'll be doing is distinctive enough that it'll find an audience."

That includes good-quality beef ground in-house and a simple-but-good approach.

"It's going to be basic burgers; we'll be doing thin patties that get seared with a nice crust," he says. "We'll offer 2-ounce patties, the same size as Whataburger, and 3-ounce patties, the same size as Five Guys. If you want a quarter pounder, you can always double up. And then you build what you want, from lettuce, tomato, bacon, mushrooms. All the flavor in a burger is usually in that seared crust and in the toppings."

Sides will include French fries, curly fries, crinkle cut fries, onion rings, and mac & cheese. They'll also offer chips & salsa, queso, guacamole, nachos, chicken tenders, and a grilled cheese patty melt. "Not everybody who goes to a burger joint wants burgers," he says.

This is all well and good, but hello, the cool thing here is that it is not just a burger joint but also an ice cream stand — and they'll be making the ice cream in-house.

"I would never do just burgers or ice cream, but you take the two and put them together, now you have something," Bennett says. "We'll try to have around 15 flavors, and probably the basics, because people go back to what they had when they were young: chocolate and vanilla, but also pistachio, cookie dough, Oreo, strawberry cheesecake. We'll also do fountain specials like banana splits, sundaes, and shakes."

Bennett is a native of Graham, Texas, who saw an opportunity when LA Burger closed to try this new 2-in-1 concept out. He anticipates opening Sear-N-Dip — "sear" for the burger, "dip" for the ice cream, combining for a neat play on "serendipity" — in mid-June.

"I love burgers and ice cream, and I figured it was time to do something fun for work," he says.

---

Stephanie Allmon Merry contributed to this story.