Where to Drink

Where to drink in Fort Worth right now: 5 best bars for frozen cocktails

Gone are the days when frozen drinks only meant margaritas and piña coladas — and maybe a daiquiri or two. Today’s blended concoctions are much more sophisticated and involved. Fresh ingredients are combined with stylish spirits, either whirled in a blender to order or poured from a dedicated drink machine. Garnished with summer fruit and herbs, they’re as Instagram-friendly as they are tasty. Here are five of Fort Worth’s best spots for frozen cocktails.

Water Horse Pool Bar at the Omni Fort Worth Hotel
It’s the summer of passion fruit at the downtown Fort Worth hotel, which means the tropical flavor appears in several dishes, drinks, and even spa treatments all summer long. At the posh pool bar, with its teak tables, cushioned loungers and vibrant floral, the list of passion fruit cocktails runs deep. Two are frozen: the Peachy Passion Freeze spiked with Belvedere peach nectar vodka, and the Mango Passion Daiquiri made with Cruzan mango rum. Both are blended to order, just like Jimmy Buffet would prefer.

America Gardens
Keep cool on the 10,000-square-foot, tree-lined patio with new frozen drinks. The West Seventh-area hot spot for party music and patio games has launched colorful libations including the frozen Blue Hawaiian garnished with a pineapple wedge, whipped cream-topped dreamsicle, pink frozen rose, and the frozen wild berry mojito finished with a slice of cucumber and mint leaves. Caution: the Instagram-friendly cocktails are as potent as they are pretty.

Gemelle
Word is the wait time for a table at Tim Love’s gorgeous new Italian restaurant can approach two hours or more. Fortunately the bar is open all day, so grab a seat and enjoy the only frozen Aperol spritz in town. Served in a tapered rocks glass, the coral-hued refresher is simply Aperol (an Italian aperitif with orange and rhubarb flavors) prosecco, and a splash of soda. It’s an Italian summer in a glass, perfect for sipping and strolling Love’s lush vegetable and herb garden while waiting for that table.

Bar 7 at the Food Hall at Crockett Row
Folks might not realize this fancy food court has a full bar, and there are four frozen cocktails worth visiting for right now. Try the classic frozen margarita; the frozen mule made with ginger beer, vodka and lime; the frozen rose; and the Irish Peach. The latter is brand new and combines Irish whiskey with peach liqueur and simple syrup. The food hall’s bar was recently rebranded as Bar 7, and will celebrate its grand opening June 15 with live music from Andrew Sevener, a finalist from NBC’s The Voice. The party will run from 4-9:30 pm, and admission is free.

4 Kahunas Tiki Lounge
Tiki drinks, with their endless vacation vibes, keep appearing on cocktail menus around town. But this Arlington bar, with its bamboo furnishings, totem poles, and tiki hut bar, is completely dedicated to the trendy cocktail category. Sail away (in spirit) to the South Pacific with the Headhunter, an alcoholic banana smoothie blended with dark rum and cinnamon and banana liqueurs. The Missionary’s Downfall is a fruitier frozen choice, blended with light rum, peach, lime, and mint. Both will get guests on island time in no time.

Passion fruit cocktails are on the menu at the Omni Hotel's pool bar.

frozen margarita, Omni pool bar Fort Worth

Photo courtesy of Omni Fort Worth Hotel

Passion fruit cocktails are on the menu at the Omni Hotel's pool bar.

where-drink cocktails

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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