Brews with views

Top DFW restaurants and bars hosting parties to watch 4th of July fireworks

There'll be fireworks all weekend.

The fireworks will be popping all over Dallas-Fort Worth this Fourth of July weekend. If your patriotic spirit is willing but your tolerance for crowds is weak, consider finding a spot at a nearby restaurant or bar with a view. These hot spots are offering food and drink specials and watch parties for the most spectacular fireworks displays in town. For a complete list of Independence Day fireworks and events in Fort Worth, click here; for Dallas, click here.

Fort Worth

Brews and Booms at Panther Island Brewing, July 4
Watch the fireworks from Fort Worth’s Fourth from this nearby brewery and tap room. A $15 ticket purchased in advance will get you four Panther Island Brewing pours and a souvenir plastic 16-ounce cup. Tickets will be $20 at the door, and additional tickets after entry will be $10. The Funky Calavera food trailer will be on-site and doors open at 12 pm. Fireworks will start at 9:30 pm. Guests may bring their own chairs, but not outside coolers or drinks.

July 4th at the Arcade ft. Fireworks! at Free Play, July 4
"Love fireworks but hate spending hours waiting at the park? Consider watching the Fort Worth Fourth Fireworks from our award-winning rooftop patio!," says the Near Southside bar-arcade. From 4-11 pm Sunday, they're inviting folks in for chili dogs, drink specials, arcade and Skee Ball challenges, and a rooftop view of the Fort Worth's Fourth fireworks display. It's free to attend, but get there early to claim a great spot on the patio — one of the best in town.

Refinery 714 at The Harper Hotel, July 4
Fort Worth's hottest new fireworks watching spot is this just-opened downtown hotel, which has a penthouse lounge that serves up views miles. They're inviting guests in for patriotic cocktails and fireworks viewing from high in the skyline. "From our north windows, you will be able to see the Panther Island Pavilion fireworks show, and from our east windows you will be able to see the fireworks shows in Arlington," says a spokeswoman. Make it a star-spangled Sunday with a red, white, and blue Blueberry Mint Julep. Make a long weekend of it with their "Sip, Park, Play" promotion that includes a night at the hotel, two complimentary cocktails at Refinery 714, and complimentary valet parking. More info on their website.

Las Colinas

Toyota Music Factory Virtual Fireworks Display, July 4
For those who prefer to party at home, Toyota Music Factory will livestream a fireworks display during the break of the Rockaholics performance at 8 pm Sunday. It's part of a larger celebration that the Las Colinas entertainment and restaurant complex is throwing for the 4th. The Red, White and Brave, presented by KLUV 98.7, will recognize essential workers. For more information, visit the website.

Addison

Kaboom Town! Patio Watch Party at Ida Claire, July 3
The Addison location of this Southern-inspired drinks and dining destination will host a patio party with primo views of the city’s massive fireworks display, Addison Kaboom Town! Tickets — which range from $100 for two to $600 for an airstream — include a parking spot, table seating, welcome cocktail for each guest (appropriately named Da Bomb), and live music. Or avoid the crowds and pick up Ida’s shrimp boil kit to-go ($65), which comes with two pounds of shrimp, a pound of andouille sausage, red potatoes, corn cobs, spices and seasonings, and one Montucky Cold Snacks beer. Pickup is available at all three Ida Claire locations, July 1-4.

Kaboom Town! Block Party at STIRR Addison, July 3
STIRR in Addison will host a block party, with parking spaces directly outside of the building reserved for festivities and views of the Kaboom Town! fireworks show. DJs will spin tunes, there'll be drink and food specials, and vendors onsite. After the fireworks show (9:30-10 pm), stay for the afterparty until 2 am. The restaurant will have specials all weekend long; check the website for more details.

Kaboom Town! Block Party at Vidorra Addison, July 3
Vidorra's Addison location is also getting into the spirit with a block party taking place in parking spaces outside the building. There will be DJs all day long, drink and food specials, and special vendors for the holiday. It all leads up to the 30-minute Kaboom Town! fireworks display at 9:30 pm, with an afterparty lasting until 2 am. The restaurant will offer specials all weekend long; check the website for details.

More Kaboom Town! watch parties are listed here.

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Celestina Blok contributed to this story.

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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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