Coronavirus News

TABC loosens COVID-19 requirements to help bars in Fort Worth survive

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Bars get a break from the TABC.

Photo by Daniel Cavazos

The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission has cut some slack on the rules regarding Texas bars, which it says will make it easier for bars to reopen under current COVID-19 restrictions.

The TABC approved a new amendment that removes certain obstacles and theoretically makes it easier for bars to be classified as restaurants.

Under Gov. Greg Abbott's current order, bars are not allowed to be open. Restaurants and restaurant with bars are allowed, as long 51 percent or more of their sales comes from food.

A flurry of bars that serve food have applied for a certificate in which they operate as restaurants. But that process has been complicated by restrictions, which the TABC has now removed.

There are three obstacles removed:

Commercial cooking equipment is no longer required
Commercially pre-packaged items can be counted
Food trucks can also be counted

TABC's amendments are to Rule 33.5, which covers food and beverage certificates. The new amendment goes into effect immediately. It means that:

Bars can now reopen even if they don't have commercial-grade kitchens.
Food prepared off-site, including packaged items, can now be sold at bars.
Bars can now partner with food trucks and count those sales toward the TABC's rule that food must represent 51 percent or more of their gross revenue.

Bars and restaurants have borne the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic, and especially bars. Gov. Abbott closed them down in March, then allowed them to reopen May 22, then abruptly shut them down again on June 26.

"Many establishments that would have otherwise remained shuttered will be able to reopen and operate in a safe manner due to these amendments," the TABC amendment says. "This result will not only help mitigate the economic crisis in the State of Texas resulting from the COVID-19 disaster, it will also protect the welfare of thousands of members of the regulated industry and their employees who rely upon the income from these establishments to support themselves and their families."

"Without the option offered by this rule amendment, many of these establishments will be forced to close permanently within the next 30 days," it says.

Bar owners still must apply for a Food & Beverage Permit. And while there are now fewer restrictions from the TABC, it doesn't take into account what's happening within individual cities, who would have to sign off on new certificates of occupancy that go along with these changes, representing possibly another set of hurdles and expenses.

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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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