Craft Beer News

DFW burger genius creates cool new gas-station brewpub in Mansfield

By the Horns will not lack for charm.

Photo courtesy of By the Horns

UPDATE: By The Horns opens on March 1.

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The town of Mansfield is already hot, but it's about to get hotter. So much hotter, with a new restaurant and brewpub called By the Horns Brewery coming from Jason Boso, founder of the Twisted Root burger chain and Truck Yard, the Greenville Avenue food truck park in Dallas.

By the Horns Brewery will focus on house-brewed beers and creative tacos in an indoor/outdoor space located at 109 N. Main St., with an opening targeted for early 2019.

By the Horns will not lack for charm. It's going into an old gas station and will incorporate some of the original tenant's fixtures and memorabilia, including old-fashioned gas pumps in front of the space.

The interior boasts 4,000 square feet, with 92 seats and large garage doors that can be opened to the pet-friendly backyard.

There'll be a full bar and a brewery led by Justin Meyers, a graduate of the University of Missouri who has plied his trade at craft breweries across the country. That includes famed Paulaner Brauhaus in New York, where he oversaw brewing and cellaring operations. He made regular trips to Munich, Germany to learn both traditional and new techniques from Paulaner brewmasters at the Bavarian brewery, which dates back to 1634.

For By the Horns, Meyers has developed five beers — all traditional German beers with an American twist — that will be served on tap. There will always be two revolving beers and three flagship offerings, and custom taps will transfer the beers directly from the tank, so they never touch the air.

At launch, Meyers will offer a Bavarian-style IPA, a German Hefeweizen, a Bavarian lager, a juicy American Northeast IPA and a Doppelbock. Beers can be ordered individually or as flights, and customers can also make their own six-packs of 20-ounce growlers that can be purchased on site and enjoyed at home.

The bar will include its own Tacos & Avocados restaurant inside the space. The menu will feature rotisserie chicken and pork tacos, guacamole, and Oaxacan cricket tostadas, plus local sodas made with cane sugar.

To tie the two concepts together, some of the brewery's spent grain will be used to make "beer grain tortillas."

By the Horns will offer brewery tours, and live music ranging from solo guitarists to small bands will go down in the adjacent "Backyard" space on weekends.

Boso says they've been working hard on the concept and are excited for the big unveil.

"We hope the fine people of Mansfield and all of DFW will enjoy our fresh-brewed beers, delicious food, and relaxing atmosphere, and we can’t wait to welcome everyone in for a cold drink," he says.

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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