Breakfast News

Fort Worth restaurant with comforting breakfast and brunch closes down

Loaded brunch burger with a side of seasoned tots.

Photo by Fivi's

UPDATE 11-24-2020: Fivi's Kitchen closed on November 21, after three months in business. The restaurant shared the news of its closure via a Facebook post. They attributed the closure to the coronavirus and a lack of business:

We opened this little diner back in August with the idea of sharing some our Aunt FiVi’s favorite recipes with you. We also took to heart the idea of using quality ingredients at a good price – value. When designing the dining room, we wanted the appearance of a clean, inviting facility where visitors would feel at home and comfortable. We feel we achieved the plan.
Sometimes, the timing of things does not work out. With the onset of lockdowns and social distancing due to COVID, we had to delay our opening. The continued spread of the virus made people even more wary of going out except for essentials, much less out to enjoy a meal. It has wreaked a heavy toll on the restaurant industry. A new, locally owned, start up didn’t stand much of a chance.
While we won awards and received great feedback, we did not achieve the level of traffic that makes it financially feasible to stay open. At this point, with a heavy heart, we need to permanently close. We will forever be grateful to our loyal customers who gave us such encouragement with their kind words. They raved about the food and welcomed us into the special community that is Fort Worth. For that we say a heartfelt THANK YOU!

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There's a new breakfast and brunch restaurant in West Fort Worth that aspires to do a modern version of a good old-fashioned diner. Called FiVi's Kitchen, it's located at 5724 Locke Ave., in the old Mariposa's Latin Kitchen space, where it has all the pancakes, omelets, and burgers you'd ever want.

The goal, says co-owner Brad Fields, is to capture the feeling of being at your favorite auntie's table.

"As children, we all had a favorite aunt that would let you do things your parents wouldn't," Fields says. "That was our Aunt FiVi. She was always cooking up things that made us happy or dishes our parents couldn't make. When we ran across her old recipe book, we were transported back to her kitchen table eating all the fun stuff she made. We wanted to share that same feeling with others."

Delectable-sounding dishes include "PBJ pancakes" layered with peanut butter and grape jelly; an omelet filled with chili and topped with shredded cheese and raw onions; and a grilled cheese sandwich made with Gouda cheese and thick-cut bacon, drizzled with maple syrup.

They have chicken-fried steak; chopped steak, that diner classic; and for dessert, a unique spin on bread pudding made with biscuits.

"It's a new twist on the old greasy spoon but a little more modern," he says. "We're aiming for the comfortable feeling you have when you're at a family member's house or a favorite local restaurant."

They're open daily from 7 am-2 pm, for breakfast and lunch, and with a slight air of indulgence.

"Breakast is everyone's favorite meal of the day," he says. "The menu is stuff we all like to eat, and maybe stuff we enjoyed as kids. We have one dish, funnel cake French toast, a very nice French toast we serve with funnel cake pieces on top, then whipped cream and crushed pecans."

Their burgers are "tremendous," he says. "Our burgers are a smash burger, all double patty, we do 3-ounce patties that we smash on grill. They're great with mustard, lettuce, tomato, whatever you want, but if you like spicy, we have some great sauces, including an onion jelly and a jalapeno paste where it burns and makes you say, 'I need more.'"

Their brunch burger comes on a toasted brioche bun with mayo, lettuce, tomato, two smashed burger patties, cheddar cheese, bacon, fried egg, and hot syrup, with seasoned tater tots on the side.

Omelets are another big signature which they serve in a variety of ways, including placed inside tacos or a burrito. "We had one customer who was in a hurry to get out so I offered to put the omelet in a wrap, put the hash browns right in there, so he could take it to go," he says.

For their coffee program, they've partnered with Segafredo Italian Coffee Roasters, which also includes cold brew coffee as well as coffee cocktails and coffee "mocktails."

The indulgence extends to cocktails. They have a full bar license with craft beer on tap, and brunch cocktails such as bloody Marys, screwdrivers, and mimosas. Last but not least: milkshakes, "boozy" or straight, made with Blue Bell ice cream.

breakfast brunch

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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