This week in gluttony

These are the 7 best food and drink events in Fort Worth this week

Down there, little doggy. There's a treat for you, too.

Mutts Canine Cantina/Facebook

Tequila is on the menu this week leading up to National Tequila Day. There’s a tequila pairing dinner, margaritas with live music and tequila tastings, and even a dog park party with “Barkaritas.” Wine lovers won’t be left out this week, with a wine dinner paired with Southern dishes and a patio party with a wine tasting set for every Friday this summer.

Wednesday, July 21

Tequila Dinner at Lonesome Dove Western Bistro
Tim Love’s Stockyards fine dining restaurant will host a four-course tequila pairing dinner. The featured tequila will be Herradura, and will include silver, reposado, anejo, and ultra. Reservations are $100 per person and dinner begins at 6:30 pm; to reserve, call 817-740-8810.

Thursday, July 22

Sweet Sips Tea Fest at McAlister’s Deli
Whether it’s sweet, unsweet, mixed with lemonade or flavored, the tea is free on Thursday at all McAlister’s Deli locations. Each customer can claim a free 32-ounce tea of any variety. One per customer. (Excludes third-party deliveries.)

Crown Point Wine Dinner at Fixe Southern House
The Shops at Clearfork Southern restaurant will host its first wine dinner in months featuring wines from Crown Point, an estate winery out of Santa Barbara, California. Highlights from the five-course menu include scallop crudo, Texas ribeye with blackberry reduction, and buttermilk pie. The dinner is $195 per person (including tax and gratuity) and begins at 6:30 pm. To reserve, email janton@fixesouthernhouse.com.

Friday, July 23

Wine and Brine at Waters Restaurant
It’s a patio party every Friday at Waters in Sundance Square, where chef Jon Bonnell will feature some of his favorite wines. Arrive anytime between 4 and 5:30 pm and enjoy two glasses of wine paired with small bites for $25 (plus tax and gratuity). The series will run until the end of September and reservations are recommended; call 817-984-1110.

Saturday, July 24

Bark and Booze at Mutts Canine Cantina
The urban oasis for dogs and their people will host a tequila-fueled fiesta. Visit for the special Mutts’ Barkarita, made with Lunazul resposado tequila, fresh juices, and a touch of agave. Add a sangria popsicle made by local Social Ice for extra flair. Pups can celebrate with their own Pupsicle made with frozen peanut butter and beef broth on an edible “stick.” The specials will be available at both DFW Mutts locations.

15th annual Riscky's BBQ Rib-Eating Contest
For its 15th edition, Riscky's in Fort Worth Stockyards Station will challenge 30 barbecue enthusiasts to eat as many beef ribs as possible in 60 seconds, with the top three finalists receiving cash prizes of $500, $250, and $100. The 11 am event is part of the day-long National Day of The American Cowboy celebration in the Stockyards. All participants must pay a $10 entry fee at the door on the day of the event. Sign-ups are first-come, first-serve.

National Tequila Day at The Post at River East
The intimate music venue, bar, and restaurant will offer a limited-time margarita menu featuring Cuervo 1800 flight specials from El Tequileno. There’ll also be giveaways and tequila samples all evening, along with live music in the string-lit courtyard from 7 to 10 pm.

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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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