Craft Beer News
Fort Worth's Cowtown Brewing bestows beer & BBQ at new Southlake outlet
A Fort Worth brewery and brewpub has spun off a second location in an address well known for serving beer: Cowtown Brewing Company, a brewpub that makes its own beer as well as a food menu centered on barbecue, has opened a smaller version of itself at Southlake Town Square.
Nestled between Crumble Cookie & Jared Jewelers, it's at 1512 E. Southlake Blvd. #10, which was previously home to the Ginger Man, the beer palace that closed during the pandemic.
Cowtown was founded in 2018 by owners Billy Avila and Shawn Kidwell, in a former transmission shop at 1301 E. Belknap St., just northeast of Sundance Square, where they serves their own brewed-in-house beers on tap along with smoked meats such as brisket, pulled pork, baby back ribs, black pepper sausage, jalapeno-cheddar sausage, and bologna, plus burgers, wings, tacos, loaded tots, nachos, and brisket queso.
Kidwell acquired BBQ smarts when he was part of a competitive BBQ cookoff team.
They opened the new location with a scaled-down menu of flatbreads, brat bites, pretzels and brats. But they'll add more items slowly over the next few months.
They'll definitely serve their beer, but they won't be making beer at the Southlake location, a spokesperson says.
The Southlake location was their response to customer requests.
"We have a big clientele that live in that area of Southlake, Grapevine, and the mid-cities and this makes it more accessible," Kidwell says. "There's also not really a concept like this in Southlake, and it gives us the chance for a new group of people to be exposed to our beer and to craft beer."
Their beers are mostly German- and American-style but they also do ambitious special editions like their Spirit World, aged for a year in Cabernet Sauvignon barrels, and Stampede, aged for a year in rye whiskey barrels.
Their beer venture is doing well, with distribution to more than 100 locations, from Dallas-Fort Worth to Houston to College Station.