BBQ News

Acclaimed BBQ joint gains something extra at new North Richland Hills spot

Plenty of room at the new location.

Photo courtesy of Berry Best

One of the most popular barbecue joints in northeast Tarrant County has a new home, complete with a luxury it's never had before: a dining room.

Berry Best BBQ, a family-run barbecue spot from Watauga, has moved into a new location at 7509 Boulevard 26 in North Richland Hills, in the space once occupied by Poor Daddy’s Smokehouse.

Opened July 4, the new location is a major upgrade for owners John and Brandi Berry. Their original store, where they'd been for five years, was so small, there was no seating. Customers ordered via drive-thru window or a walk-up counter.

"We’ve gone from 400 square feet to nearly 2,000," says John Berry. "This has been the ultimate goal from day 1. Because we were new, we decided to start out small and make a name for ourselves. Now that we've been in the game for a while, it was time for an upgrade."

The building is outfitted with the same custom-made smoker used at the original location. It's a similar menu, with brisket, ribs, sausage, chicken, and bologna, all smoked the slow and low method for hours over pecan.

All the meats share a common trait: a slightly spicy seven-blend seasoning that the Oak Cliff native says took years to perfect.

Unlike pitmasters who specialize in Central Texas-style barbecue, Berry freely uses barbecue sauce, which he makes himself.

Berry is also known for his scratch-made sides, including smoked mac & cheese and smoked collard greens. His most popular side: baked beans, which many people order as their meal.

"Some people line up just for the beans," he says. "I haven't changed the recipe a bit."

There are a handful of new menu items, such as brisket nachos, a pile of tortilla chips topped with chopped brisket, sauce, ground beef, cheese and veggies.

Desserts include banana pudding, peach cobbler, and various cakes, all made by Brandi.

The restaurant is open for both dining room service and curbside service; there's also a drive-thru window.

The couple started talking about moving a year ago, after a fire caused significant damage at their Watauga location. Around the same time, they opened a second location, a to-go-only spot located inside the food court of North East Mall. But with the cost of repairs on the Watauga site, they closed the mall stand in October.

"After we made the repairs and reopened, we decided to start putting money and time aside to find a new place," Berry says. "It took a while but we have the perfect spot now."

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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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