News You Can Eat

Smoothies and bowls give this Fort Worth restaurant news a healthy glow

Those bowls sure do look healthy.

Photo courtesy of Mamaka

This roundup of Fort Worth dining news runs the gamut from tacos to pizza to healthy bowls and smoothies. There's an opening and a closure, and a little of everything in between.

Here's what's happening in Fort Worth restaurant news:

Mamaka Bowls, a California style smoothie bar, has opened a location at Fort Worth shopping and dining destination WestBend. Launched by mother-daughter Carrie and KK Hudson, who started making bowls at home. Thy opened the first Mamaka Bowls in Fayetteville, Arkansas, then Waco, and now Fort Worth. The menu includes smoothies, bowls, and granola made in house, with more than 15 flavor blends, all dairy-free and no sugar added, such as The Peach, with OJ, peaches, mango, banana, and coconut, topped with granola, strawberries, coconut shreds, and banana.

Located at 1653 River Run, #151, the shop has a surf theme with open air garage doors and hanging swings.

Tulips, the music venue that opened in 2020, is closing its deli operation to regroup. They initially opened the deli in December 2020 as an interim thing to tide them over during COVID-19, but the deli was never intended as a permanent thing.

"We found the fastest way into making food, which was putting a deli where a venue bar was supposed to be, and this was never supposed to last longer than COVID restrictions," says owner Jason Suder. "But Bria Downey does not mess around when it comes to a menu, and we were happily surprised with the response. Now is the time to figure out how to feed hundreds of people without sacrificing a component of the business we have all grown to love."

Taco Cabana has a new owner. Dallas-based Fiesta Restaurant Group, Inc sold the brand to YTC Enterprises, LLC, an affiliate of Yadav Enterprises, Inc. a restaurant company based in California. According to the release, the sale proceeds will pay off some of Fiesta's loans and will enable the company to focus on the growth of its Pollo Tropical chain. Yadav is the largest Jack in the Box franchisee, one of the largest Denny's franchisees, the largest TGI Friday's franchisee, a significant investor in the ownership group of TGI Friday's global parent company, a franchisee of El Pollo Loco, and a franchisee of Corner Bakery Cafe. They better be good to Taco Cabana!

Torchy's Tacos has a Thai-inspired Tuk Tuk taco for its July taco of the month, a comeback item from 2017, with Thai fajita beef, cooked cabbage slaw, crushed peanuts, pickled cucumber and carrots, Sriracha, avocado sauce, and jack cheese for $6.50. The July cocktail is the Torchy's Cherry Limeade with Tito’s Handmade Vodka, sweet & sour, Sprite, and cherry.

Tacodeli is offering a limited time menu item, the Barbacoa Taco, from July 6-August 1, made with HeartBrand beef cheek barbacoa, cilantro, onion, avocado and salsa de arbol, for $4.25.

Pie Five Pizza has a new Parmesan Crunch Stuffed Crust Pizza. The outer edge of the dough is stuffed with mozzarella cheese, then topped with marinara sauce, mozzarella, and parmesan cheese. More parmesan cheese is sprinkled on the outer crust before it goes into the oven. It's finished with a buttery garlic blend. Through July 11, you can get a two-topping Parmesan Crunch Stuffed Crust Pizza for $5 with promo code STFDCRNCH redeemable online or in-store.

Volleman's Home Delivery has launched in Dallas-Fort Worth. The home delivery service offers Texas-made dairy products, bread, produce, proteins, and pantry staples. It's a partnership between Volleman's Family Farm, the only Texas-owned glass bottling dairy, and Matt Shatto of Shatto Home Delivery, a home delivery service based in Kansas City. Participating Dallas businesses include Shug's Bagels, Oak Cliff Coffee Roasters, and Empire Baking Company.

Chipotle will offer buy-one, get-one free entrées on July 6 as part of the White House's initiative to get more Americans vaccinated. The BOGO offer will be valid in-restaurant from 3 pm to close. Say "Friends BOGO" at the cashier to redeem.

Capital Grille is hosting a summer wine spree available through September 6 called The Generous Pour, featuring a collection of seven distinctive labels available for $28 with dinner. Visit TheCapitalGrille.com to make reservations at Dallas, Plano, and Fort Worth, or order online.

Sadler's Smokehouse in Henderson has introduced its ready-to-eat Sadler's Smokehouse beef brisket, pulled pork, pulled chicken and St. Louis Ribs at Albertsons, Shaws, Associated Wholesale Grocers, Hy-Vee and Kroger. It's $10 for pulled pork, pulled chicken, and St. Louis ribs, and $16 per pound brisket.

DoorDash has partnered with Albertsons to offer on-demand grocery delivery across nearly 2,000 of their banner brand stores nationwide through DoorDash including Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Acme and more. Consumers can order more than 40,000 grocery items on-demand for delivery within an hour with no time slot, queues, or minimum order size required.

DoorDash has also partnered with Beyond Meat to offer limited-edition July 4th grilling kits. You get Beyond Burger, a grilling mit, apron, grilling tools, bottle opener, and recipe card for $15 in 14 cities across the U.S., including Dallas and Houston.

news-you-can-eat

Closure News

Tropic Lady restaurant-bar on Fort Worth's Race Street says aloha

Tropic Lady

The dip trio at Tropic Lady.

A chill restaurant and bar in Fort Worth's River East district has closed: Tropic Lady, which opened in the former Fuzzy's Taco space at 2719 Race St. in 2023, has closed.

The restaurant, which closed in mid-December, was a sibling to Bearded Lady, the popular gastropub in Near Southside; their last Facebook post was on December 10. Their phone number is not working, and their website is no longer active. Owner Shannon Osbakken was unavailable for comment, but a Bearded Lady employee confirmed the closure.

Tropic Lady was a tropical-themed gastropub opened by a trio of friends: Bearded Lady owner Shannon Osbakken, her business partner Sarah Allen, and general manager Amanda Yunger. It offered a similar menu as Bearded lady but with more tropical-inspired fare, including shrimp tacos, bacon-wrapped grilled pineapple bites, and guacamole dotted with mango.

For a gastropub, they did interesting food with dishes like watermelon salad with feta and cucumber; or their Dip Trio, with mango guacamole, tomatillo salsa, and queso blanco served with house-made tortilla chips. Definitely not run-of-the-mill. They also had great lunch specials like a smashburger with curly fries for $10.

Food did not seem to be the problem.

Decor featured artwork and murals created by local artists. A beautifully landscaped patio wrapped around the building’s facade. So the setting did not seem to be a factor.

It's tempting to point the finger at its location on Race Street, which has witnessed a round of closings in the past two years including buzzy birria taqueria Caliscience, which closed in February 2024; as well as The Post at River East, a restaurant and live music venue that shut down the same month.

In 2023, three other restaurants on Race Street closed: Tributary Cafe, the Bon Appetit-lauded La Onda, and vegan burger spot Zonk Burger. But separate reasons can also be found for each of those closures, whether that be inexperience or lease issues.

For years, the city and neighborhood advocates have been trying to turn Race Street into a trendy hotspot. As part of the city’s Urban Villages program, the city of Fort Worth invested $5.6 million in revitalizing the area, making improvements to traffic flow, sidewalks, landscaping, and outdoor lighting.

When Osbakken opened the bar, she said she loved the area, stating "it reminds me of Magnolia when were first were on it 10 years ago in our old location. It's a great community and the neighbors have been friendly and reaching out."

And there are still restaurants along the street, including a popular Mexican restaurant called Tesoro, the Dough’d Up doughnut shop, and Kingyo Sushi & Ramen House, as well as a coffee shop, Race Street Coffee.

The Bearded Lady continues to flourish. Osbakken originally opened the popular gastropub on Magnolia Avenue in 2013. Six years later, she moved it to the South Main, where it’s still going strong.

closings