Closure News

One of the original restaurants on Fort Worth's Seventh Street closes

Shed a tear for Terra.

Terra Mediterranean Grill/Facebook

One of the original eateries on Crockett Row is closing: Terra Mediterranean at West 7th is closing its doors on October 23, following their lunch buffet service. The restaurant had been there for nearly a decade.

According to a release, they made the decision regretfully, after sincere thought and consideration. "We've decided to set our sights on new goals, opportunities and priorities," their statement says.

That includes a re-evaluation of their presence in the Fort Worth market, and the search for a new location that better aligns with the restaurant's brand identity.

However, they may re-open somewhere else in Fort Worth. "We look forward to sharing news about what the next chapter looks like and seeing you when we pop back up in the future in Fort Worth," the statement says.

Terra opened in February 2010, when West Seventh was an exciting new vision, side by side with restaurants such as Brownstone and Patrizio, all of which have since bailed.

Terra's concept was a casual, quick, fresh version of their Mediterranean staples.

"The people of Fort Worth welcomed us with open hearts and minds as we brought a new dining style with our lunch buffet and an unfamiliar cuisine to the Fort Worth area nearly 10 years ago, and for that we will be forever grateful," their statement says.

The management is reaching out to their contacts in the Fort Worth culinary community to provide employees with leads on places that are hiring.

Terra Mediterranean will continue operating in the DFW market with the other two locations of Terra Mediterranean in Plano & Irving as well as the original concept, Ali Baba Mediterranean Grill in Richardson.

And this is nice: Terra Mediterranean gift cards will be honored at all remaining Terra Mediterranean & Ali Baba Mediterranean locations.

Terra Mediterranean will also continue to offer offsite catering to the Fort Worth market from their Irving location.

The statement calls it "not a goodbye, but hopefully a see you later."

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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