Bagel News

Buzzy Dan's Bagels to open 2 new Fort Worth-area locations

Rainbow bagels from Dan's Bagel's

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An acclaimed bagel shop in the mid-cities is expanding bigtime: Dan's Bagels, which has been winning over bagel fans at its original location in Trophy Club, is opening not one but two new outlets in spring 2025.

The first is in Argyle at an address still TBD — it's under construction off US-377, near the intersection of Frenchtown Road, just north of Liberty Christian High School and east of Northlake. This one will come with a small patio.
The second is at 2430 Forest Park Blvd. in the former Chip'd Cookie Nachos location (which is also the former Black Rooster Bakery location), close to TCU.

Both locations are new franchisees: The Argyle store is from Josh & Jill Pezzuto, Jwho have several years of fast-casual and franchise experience; and the TCU store is from Luis and Mona Lisa.

Dan’s Bagels is a bona-fide pandemic success, founded by husband-and-wife Dan and Jen Hilbert who, like many among us, turned to baking during the pandemic as a distraction from the quarantine — specifically, baking bagels, which theyy had acquired a taste for, after living on the East Coast for more than 30 years.

"We yearned for a legit bagel - one that was crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside," Dan says. "We missed the hustle and bustle of local neighborhood bagel shops offering scratch-made bagels and made-to-order sandwiches."

They quit their corporate jobs and established Dan’s Bagels in April 2020, selling bagels out of their home, offering online preorders for pickup.

"The watershed moment was in November 2020, when word of mouth and buzz for our bagels ignited a demand we had not seen before — we sold 1,000 bagels in 7 minutes," Dan says.

They opened a brick & mortar shop in August 2021 at 301 Trophy Lake Dr. #132, in Trophy Club, and are consistently cited as a destination for bagels. They're skilled at social media, employing devices such as setting up a live-feed "Bagel cam" so that fans can watch as the bagel bins are emptied. And they rotate in seasonal specials, often viral such as the rainbow-hued bagel, or a red-white-and-blue bagel on Memorial Day.

They do about a dozen flavors, some unconventional, such as their pizza bagel, pumpkin, and rosemary salt. You can spot their blueberry bagel: It's tinted an Instagram-friendly vivid blue.

They have a large assortment of flavored schmears. They also do other items such as cinnamon rolls, "hard rolls" — a New York institution that's like a bagel but lighter — plus blueberry muffins, crumb cake, and black & white cookies.

Both of the new locations are anticipated to open in late Spring 2025.

desserts 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.”

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