Italian closure

Chic Mediterranean Dallas restaurant closes its outpost in Fort Worth

Avanti Ristorante closed on June 22.

Photo courtesy of Avanti

The Fort Worth location of Avanti Ristorante, the sibling to the Uptown Dallas restaurant, closed on June 22, after a little more than a year in the One City Place development downtown, on the site of the former Tandy Center.

Owner Amin Malek attributed the closure to a lack of business.

"Avanti was the first casual fine dining restaurant to open its doors in City Place," he says. "After 15 months, we made the decision to close due to lack of traffic. It was purely a business decision."

According to the Fort Worth Star Telegram, the restaurant posted a sign that on the door stating, "Fort Worth has been our friend and partner and we look forward to exploring new location opportunities in the future."

Malek echoed that sentiment. "I am currently focusing on exciting projects for the Avanti brand," he says. "For us, it is a goodbye and not a farewell."

The restaurant opened in March 2016 as part of a migration of Dallas restaurants headed west, along with concepts such as Wild Salsa and Chop House Burger.

Avanti owner Amin Malek had big ambitions with the Fort Worth branch, including twice the space and an expansion of the menu with flatbreads for the patio and bar diners, and a cheese and charcuterie selection, which he was not able to do in Uptown, due to the lack of kitchen space.

Fort Worth also had a private room that seated more than 60 people, with AV connections for corporate events.

This was not Avanti's first expansion. In 1995, a second Avanti opened at Fountain Place in downtown Dallas, where it became a lunch destination for downtown workers and a popular spot for weddings and other catered events. That branch closed in 2014.

The original Italian-Mediterranean restaurant has been on McKinney Avenue for more than 30 years. It's a cozy rendezvous spot and top go-to for night-owls, thanks to its willingness to stay open late, with its trademark "moonlight breakfast."

Malek expressed gratitude, saying, "I am humbled by the fantastic support Avanti received by the press and the food critics, as well as Fort Worth customers."

closings

Chicken Sandwich News

Fort Worth-area McDonald's to get the ultra-buzzy chicken Big Mac

McDonald's

McDonald's Big Mac on the left, Chicken Big Mac on the right.

Fast-food chain McDonald’s, best known for its burgers, is doing the unthinkable: serving a chicken sandwich.

According to a release, the burger chain is "dropping" a new Chicken Big Mac at participating restaurants in North Texas for a limited time beginning October 10.

The Chicken Big Mac features the same toppings found on a Big Mac, but with two tempura battered fried chicken patties in place of beef burgers. Let us list the toppings here: special sauce, lettuce, cheese, and pickles on a sesame seed bun.

The sandwich was first introduced in 2022 for a limited run in the United Kingdom and enjoyed a test run in Miami the same year. Now it's hitting the U.S., and more specifically, Dallas-Fort Worth.

“With the introduction of the Chicken Big Mac, we’re excited to pay homage to one of our most iconic menu items, the Big Mac, and introduce it to a whole new generation of fans,” says Tariq Hassan, Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer at McDonald’s USA.

The release relays a story about a promotional event that took place last weekend in Los Angeles with a one-day pop-up dining experience by Chain, an online entity known for its "chef-driven takes on chain restaurant classics," wherein they served an item called "The Chicken Sandwich."

Many a fan was hoodwinked by the premise that the sandwich was a fake — but ba-zing, McDonald’s was behind it all. How is that for some next-level viral buzz-generating hype. (Chain is so proud of the promotion that they have it pinned on their Instagram account, and rightfully so! They really perpetrated quite the charade.)

The chain has also enlisted "internet star" Kai Cenat who will try the Chicken Big Mac on his livestream to determine whether a Big Mac with a chicken is, in fact, a Big Mac. Does McDonald's know how to work this social media stuff or does McDonald's know how to work this social media stuff?