Taco News

Revolver Taco Lounge in Fort Worth's Sundance Square closes abruptly

Tacos out.

Photo courtesy of Revolver Taco Lounge

A high profile taqueria has abruptly closed in Fort Worth: Revolver Taco Lounge, which opened with great fanfare in Sundance Square at the beginning of the summer, closed on August 14, barely two months after they opened.

The restaurant's opening at 156 W. Fourth St., in the former Taco Diner location, was billed as a grand return to Fort Worth, where Revolver first began, with owner Regino Rojas proclaiming that he would bring truly authentic tacos to a space he said lacked authenticity previously.

Rojas posted a veiled reference alluding to the closure on his Facebook page on Saturday night at 1:45 am, and a post on the Fort Worth Foodies Facebook page noted that their front doors were chained; Google was showing them permanently closed, and their website no longer listed Fort Worth as a location.

A statement from Sundance Square suggested that staffing issues were the cause.

"We hold the Regino 'Gino' Rojas family in high regard. While most other restaurants in Sundance Square are performing well, we understand Revolver Taco faced staffing challenges between its Dallas and Fort Worth locations. We hope to have a new announcement soon for this unique space,” said Bill Boecker, President of Sundance Square Management.

That said, the restaurant never hung a sign, and as the Fort Worth Star Telegramnotes, their return — with fancy dishes such as pheasant in mole sauce and $12 margaritas — was a far cry from the first Revolver that opened on West Seventh in 2012 as a simple taqueria and margarita bar.

The Dallas location of Revolver in Deep Ellum is still open, and there's also a location at the AT&T Discovery District's food hall in downtown Dallas.

tacos closings

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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