Where to Eat

Where to eat in Fort Worth right now: 7 best new late-night restaurants

You can get this delicious hot dog late at night.

Photo courtesy of The Rim

For many of us, summer means breaks from school and work. With a little more free time, we stay up a little later and out a little longer. Eats are needed to keep us going through the night.

Fort Worth has plenty of venerable after-hours standbys like Ol’ South and Salsa Limon. But there are also several new night-owl destinations to try. This month's Where to Eat is dedicated to these new late-night spots.

Here are 7 restaurants where you can eat late at night:

Bartaco
Upscale taco spot in the WestBend shopping center is the first Texas location of a Connecticut-based chain. It has many things going for it: good prices, a varied selection of tacos, and a nice patio that overlooks the Trinity. Tacos are of the street-style size and come filled with ingredients such as ancho-crusted tuna, tempura-battered cod, cauliflower with romesco sauce, and roasted duck with a tamarind glaze. There are also rice bowls, sides such as elote and chipotle slaw, and housemade agua frescas in flavors like ginger grapefruit. Open until midnight daily.

Bru City Stadium
Located across from AT&T Stadium, at 1004 N. Collins St., this newly opened brew and burger joint is an offshoot of the original in Euless, with more an impressive selection of nearly 20 burgers and more than 100 craft beers. Burgers come in both the straightforward and gourmet variety. The signature is the "Crime Scene," a towering monster piled high jalapeno chips, sauteed garlic, cayenne pepper, bacon, and a fried egg. The menu also includes sandwiches, hot dogs, and sides like German potato salad. Open until midnight Friday and 1 am Saturday.

Funkytown Donuts & Drafts
The second location of this gourmet doughnut shop, recently opened downtown at 132 E. 4th St., in the old Cupcakery spot, touts two things the Near Southside original lacks: beer and late hours. The shop serves four craft brews on tap, and will rotate them seasonally. Doughnuts — both yeast and cake — are made on-site, from scratch, in a variety of rotating flavors, such as maple and candied bacon, Fruity Pebbles, and crème brulee. While most doughnut shops are only open for breakfast and lunch, the downtown Funkytown is open evenings as well, until 11 pm Saturday and Sunday.

Fort Brewery & Pizza
Latest project from Near Southside sibling developers Will Churchill and Corrie Watson is at 1001 W. Magnolia Ave., in the former Chimera Brewing Co., and one of the few in the area to keep late hours. It specializes in thin-crust pizza and craft beer, made by new brewmaster Jeremy Whitehead. Pies come with toppings such as prosciutto, goat cheese, and housemade meatballs, as well as barbecue sauce and brisket from nearby Heim BBQ. Vegan cheese is available, as are gluten-free crusts. Other dishes include mini calzones, a caprese sandwich on housemade bread, and jumbo breadsticks. Open until midnight Monday-Saturday.

Insomnia Cookies
Late-night cookie cravings can be sated at the first Fort Worth location of this national chain, located at 2868 W. Berry St., near TCU. Choose from nearly a dozen types of freshly-baked cookies, from double chocolate chunk to peanut butter chip to Snickerdoodle. There are brownies and ice cream, too. A big bonus: Insomnia delivers. Open until 3 am nightly.

The Rim
Super-popular restaurant in Burleson is known for its unique piece of décor: a vintage Airstream trailer. Better yet, the kitchen is inside the trailer. Owned by the same team as Rio Mambo, The Rim aims to bring the gourmet food trailer experience to an inside restaurant. The small menu of mostly American staples includes a maple-butter fried chicken sandwich, a burger topped with beer-braised onions and bourbon barbecue sauce, and a hot dog sprinkled with crisp pork belly and barbecue mustard aioli. There's also a wide selection of craft beers. Open until midnight Friday and Saturday.

Zenna Restaurant
Opened in May, the Fort Worth offshoot of this Dallas-based mini-chain landed in a good spot for late night dining: the bar-crowded West 7th Street area. Located at 3001 Bledsoe St., the restaurant offers a huge menu of Thai and Japanese staples: fried rice dishes, curries, and a whopping 66 varieties of sushi rolls. Zenna is one of the few restaurants in the city to keep super-late hours every day, just as they do in Dallas: They’re open until 3 am nightly.

where-to-eat

where to eat

Where to eat in Fort Worth: 9 restaurants to take your holiday guests

Manny Rodriguez

Chumley House

The holidays draw near and for many of us, that means one thing: family’s coming to town. Cook your heart out for them, yes, but take advantage of Fort Worth’s thriving restaurant scene and show off some of our city’s finest places to eat.

For our annual December edition of our monthly Where to Eat feature, we offer suggestions for where to take the family, with a list that accommodates every type of eater — from the Tex Mex lover to vegans to big splurges.

Here's Where to eat in Fort Worth right now:

Best barbecue: Goldee’s Barbecue
Lauded by The New York Times, recently high-fived by Michelin, and ranked No. 1 on Texas Monthly’s best barbecue list, Goldee’s remains the top ‘cue choice for many in Texas and beyond. Part of the experience of eating here is the wait. Chances are, you’ll stand in line (or sit; you can bring chairs) for a good two or three hours, but with the wait comes a sense of community - and isn’t that what the holidays are all about? Maybe? You can’t go wrong with the expertly smoked brisket, huge beef ribs, or housemade Lao sausage. Be sure to get a couple slices of bread; it’s made in-house.

Best Tex Mex:Fiesta Restaurant
Fort Worth of course is well known for its Mexican cuisine, and zeroing in on one spot for all to try can be difficult. Open for more than four decades, this charming, uncomplicated restaurant on the south side is a good choice: Its menu is more expansive than others, offering dozens of varieties of enchiladas, nachos, chimichangas, and other Tex Mex staples. It’s one of the few restaurants in the area to offer parrillada, sizzling platters of chicken thighs, steak, pork, and veggies that are perfect for sharing. On weekends, there’s an all-day breakfast menu with items such as menudo, chilaquiles, migas, and breakfast tacos.

Best Hot New Spot: The Chumley House
This exquisite new European-inspired steakhouse in the museum district is definitely one of the toughest tables to get right now. A spinoff of the original location in Dallas, The Chumley House offers a variety of European-inspired dishes, chef-inspired takes on American classics, and homages to global cuisine, in a handsomely designed space. Dishes include butter chicken pie with coriander-glazed roots and ginger yorgurt, herb popovers with salted butter, the signature Beef Wellington, a center-cut tenderloin and spinach crepe hidden in a puff pastry, and a halibut “porterhouse” with chimichurri. Steaks include a NY strip and bone-in ribeye. For dessert, there’s salted caramel Biscoff trifle with sweet mascarpone and icebox pie with blackberry cobbler crumble.

Best Outdoor Space: La Cabrona
Patios may definitely be an option for Christmastime dining - remember, this is Texas and typically it’s nice this time of year. This new high-end Mexican restaurant in the W. 7th area has a real beauty for a patio - it’s festively decorated and overlooks all the W. 7th activity. The Monterrey-inspired menu includes dishes such as mole chicken enchiladas, pan-roasted cactus tacos, and carne asada, as well as lighter options such as shrimp cocktail, ceviche, and aguachile, a dish comprised of shrimp cured in a lime and serrano pepper marinade. Great selection of margaritas, cocktails, and beers, too.

Best for a Large Group:Tannahill’s Tavern & Music Hall
With a spacious dining area that spans three rooms and a bar area, Tim Love’s restaurant/music venue combo in the Stockyards is a good option for large groups. As if it were made for indecisive diners, the menu is incredibly varied, with an emphasis on classic American cuisine. Appetizers include grilled fish tacos, raw oysters, smoked crab and green chili dip, and tuna tostadas. Main dishes feature a dry-aged beef double cheeseburger, smoked baby back pork ribs, brisket enchiladas, beef stroganoff, and smoked chicken. A kids menu includes a cheese quesadillas and chicken tenders with fries. The restaurant and music venue are in separate areas, so there’s an additional cost to see the concerts.

Best Late Night:Pho 95
Late-night dining is becoming a thing of the past in Fort Worth - thankfully, Ol’ South is still around. But in Arlington, after-hours grub is still easy to find. Pho 95’s east Arlington location, at 2525 E. Arkansas Ln., is a good option for night owls craving Vietnamese classics, like bowls of piping hot pho, beef stew and other hearty soups. It’s a fun, no-frills atmosphere in which the tables and chairs are pushed so closely together, you’re bound to make a friend or two.

Best splurge:Bonnell’s Fine Texas Cuisine
With some dishes hovering in the $60-$70 range, Fort Worth chef Jon Bonnell’s namesake restaurant is definitely on the upper end of the splurge scale. But this southwest Fort Worth restaurant is a truly unique experience, in that your guests may never eat food quite like this again. Among the entrees: pepper-crusted buffalo with whiskey cream, ancho chile-rubbed elk backstrap, made from a premium cut of meat that runs along the spine, and a larger-than-life tomahawk pork chop, rubbed with a special barbecue seasoning, with mascarpone whipped sweet potatoes. Appetizers include crispy quail legs and elk tacos - only in Texas.

Best on a budget: Sunny’s Cafe
Opened earlier this year in the space once occupied by Bavarian Bakery & Cafe, this second location of the Sycamore School Road staple offers breakfast and lunch essentials, made to order and priced inexpensively. For breakfast, try the excellent pancakes - pillow-y on the inside, with nicely browned edges on the outside. Home fries - cubed fried potatoes cooked with onions and peppers - are a must. Rotating lunch specials include chicken-fried steak, pork chops, Shepherd’s pie, and chopped steak, and come with your choice of two sides, usually for less than $12.

Best quintessential Texas: Dayne’s Craft BBQ
Though just a year old, Dayne’s Craft Barbecue has all the hallmarks of a quintessential Texas restaurant: It’s located in a small town (Aledo, about 20 minutes west of Fort Worth), it’s housed in a historic building that’s nearly a century old, and the dining room looks out onto railroad tracks. You can enjoy your terrific brisket sandwich or excellent smashburger while watching the trains chug by; that’s about as Texas as you can get.

bests holidays where to eat