Sandwich News

Stoner sandwich shop Cheba Hut to open location near UT Arlington

Full spread of sandwiches from Cheba Hut.

Cheba Hut Facebook

A fun stoner-themed sandwich shop is blazing into downtown Arlington: Cheba Hut, the Colorado-based sub shop chain, is opening at 504 E. Abram St., in a former Jimmy John's, across the street from Division Brewing.

Cheba Hut boasts a marijuana theme with winking stoner names for menu items, although there is no marijuana in the products. The quality of their sub sandwiches earns high marks.

The chain was founded in 1998 and now has more than 50 locations across the country, including four around DFW: Fort Worth, Deep Ellum, Denton, and Preston Trail Plaza. Arlington will be the fifth, and is set to open in the fall.

The menu has about 30 signature sandwiches, including Jamaican Red (buffalo chicken, jalapeño, and hot sauce) and Acapulco Gold (chicken with BBQ sauce and Swiss cheese), plus salads and a selection of "munchies" such as Rice Krispy treats, loaded nachos, pretzel nuggets, and soups.

Customers can specify bread from a choice of white, wheat, or garlic herb; and can also order their sandwich in different sizes: from a 4-inch nug to an 8-inch pinner to a 12-inch blunt. Prices start at $7 for a small nug and top out at $15 for a large.

In a rare stroke, Cheba boasts a full-service bar with beer and cocktails, such as the signature Dirty Hippie combining cucumber, lemonade, and Deep Eddy Vodka, or the Hash Can with rum, tequila, gin, vodka, Blue Curacao, sour mix, and Red Bull. This amenity is unusual for a sandwich shop.

Most Cheba Hut locations are in hip neighborhoods or near colleges. Arlington, for example, will be right around the corner from the University of Texas at Arlington. The owner is Eddie White, a multi-franchise owner who also owns the Fuzzy’s Taco Shop right next door at 510 E. Abram St. (He also owns a Fuzzy's in Fort Worth and previously owned Harry's at the Harbor in McKinney, now closed.)

This will be his first Cheba Hut franchise, which he considers a significant upgrade from the Jimmy John's that was there before, and he's looking at opening another Cheba Hut in Mansfield.

"I would say it's almost a cultural experience that makes you want to come back," White says. "It's not going to be your standard, white box sandwich shop. Usually with a sandwich shop, it's people coming in and getting a sandwich to go, but with Cheba Hut, you're walking into an environment that's fun, and you want to hang around for a little bit. Plus the sandwiches are off-the-charts good."

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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