Nacho news

Find nachos and Chicago-style fare at Hurst restaurant Fry's Kitchen

Pizza puffs at Fry's Kitchen.

Fry's Kitchen

There's a new eatery in Hurst serving a few hard-to-find Chicago-style classics. Called Fry's Kitchen, it's a mom-and-pop that opened softly in late July at 401 W. Bedford Euless Rd. in the former space of the similarly-themed E&B Chicago Eats.

Fry's Kitchen is from Ruby Ramsey and her husband, Kyle Betts, who moved to Texas from Chicago in 2011. They initially dreamed about opening an event space as they enjoy entertaining guests. But fate intervened when the owner of E&B Chicago Eats offered to sell them the restaurant.

"We used to go there, and the owner reached out to me and said, 'I know you and your husband like cooking'," Ramsey says. "We were interested and went from there."

They serve Chicago-inspired food featuring Windy City treats such as pizza puffs, polishes, Italian beef, wings, and gyros — all highly sought after among Chicagoans who've moved to DFW. (Who even have their own Facebook page.)

Italian beef sandwiches aren't too hard to find around DFW, especially since the Chicago chain Portillo's arrived; but not many DFW restaurants offer the pizza puff, a staple in Chicago, described as a giant fried pizza roll.

"Pizza puffs are a rare find in the Dallas area," Ramsey says. "I know people who have come in and tried the pizza puff and say it's amazing. It's like a super-sized pizza roll."

But Fry's bigger claim to fame has become its nachos. They offer them in nine options, with toppings like steak, brisket, and jerk chicken.

"Nachos are our specialty, and we have a variety on either tortilla chips or Doritos, however the customer likes it, with all of the toppings," Ramsey says. "And these aren't small, it's a nice-sized portion."

Other menu items include gyro sandwiches, an American-Mediterranean fusion gyro cheeseburger, and peach cobbler for dessert. Prices range from $8 for nachos with cheese only to $68 for a large party-size basket of wings.

It's the first restaurant for the couple but they're already winning over diners and seekers of Chicago fare. This comment is typical: "We’ve been in Texas 8 years and have tried different Chicago style restaurants here, but this place right here gives you real authentic Chicago taste omg!" You won't find higher praise.

openings

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.”

chefs