February is the time of year when dessert takes center stage. We’re talking Valentine’s Day - a day one celebrates with sweet things for your sweet thing.
Thus, the February edition of Where to Eat focuses on desserts — not just any desserts but those from new or newish restaurants giving their best for the meal's final course.
Here's the sweetest version of where to eat in Fort Worth:
Cafe Americana
Opened in ‘24 near downtown Arlington, this lively restaurant from chef "Moose" Benhamacht has made a name for itself for its international-inspired cuisine and high-energy, colorfully decorated dining room. It’s perfect to kick off or end date night. If you’re going just for desserts, go hungry: The restaurant’s signature dessert is housemade coconut cake and it’s a doozie, big enough not just for two but maybe even three. Topped with burnt meringue and accompanied by a side of dark rum pineapple sauce, poured on top by you or your server, it’s worth every bit of the $18 price.
Chumley House
Museum district newcomer from a Dallas restaurant group takes its culinary cues from British cuisine with dishes like beef Wellington and tallow popovers, served in a handsome room meant to emulate English pubs and restaurants. The bow to British cuisine extends to its dessert menu, which includes a trifle - a layered cake that originated in England - made with Biscoff cookies. The restaurant’s signature dessert is sticky toffee pudding, a British dish that is not at all a pudding. Rather, it’s a sponge cake made with softened dates. Chumley House’s rendition is soaked in a rum-infused caramel sauce and served with a scoop of housemade vanilla gelato.
Joy Zone
Recently opened Asian treats shop, located at 6305 Precinct Line Rd. in North Richland Hills, offers an array of decadent and exotic desserts including rolled ice cream - a trend that started around DFW a few years ago. Ice cream mix is poured onto a cold surface, then formed with a scraper into delicate rounds which are stacked like little roll-ups in a cup, and served with choice of toppings like fruit and candy. Joy Zone also serves bingsu, a Korean shaved ice dessert with chopped fruit, condensed milk, and red beans. Other items include boba drinks, bubble waffles, and sweet coffee drinks. 469-599-0009
Joy Zone rolled ice creamYelp
Melt Ice Creams
Just in time for Valentine's Day, this Fort Worth-based ice cream chain has a trio of new flavors at all of its locations, including the shop that just opened in Willow Park. The Brooklyn Blackout Cake flavor is inspired by blackout cake, a chocolate cake made with layers of chocolate pudding. Passion Fruit is a white chocolate ice cream infused with passion fruit and passion fruit caramel. There’s also a plant-based, gluten-free flavor: dark chocolate hazelnut and raspberry swirl.
Sweet Paris Creperie & Cafe
If you want a bit of swank with your sweet, this elegantly designed, Texas-born chain with a newly opened location in Southlake offers an assortment of sweet crepes in flavors such as Apple Cinnamon Crème Brûlée, made with torched vanilla cream and caramelized apples; dulce de leche; Lemon & Sugar; and Cookie Butter. There’s also a vegan option: Berry Agave with apples caramelized in agave syrup, plus strawberries and blackberries. In addition to crepes, there are sweet waffles, plus savory breakfast, lunch, and dinner crepes.
Walloon’s
At his recently opened restaurant in the Near Southside, chef/owner Marcus Paslay is making a special dessert exclusively for Valentine’s Day: a heart-shaped, strawberry pie with fresh strawberries and a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. Try it with Walloon's popular espresso martini.