Hit Up These Food Events

5 most delicious food and drink events in Fort Worth this week

Kick off Carnival season with a New Orleans-inspired cooking class.

The Cookery

Carnival season — the festive period leading up to Mardi Gras — has arrived, and there are Fort Worth venues ready to celebrate. Plan for a bar crawl and a NOLA-themed cooking class to kick things off. There's also a champagne and French fry pairing at a posh bar, a Dry January mixology session, and a make-and-take cooking class featuring game day grub just in time for the NFL playoffs.

Thursday, January 9

Marquee Night Out: Dry January Mixology Tasting at B&B Theatres
A mixology class at a movie theater? B&B Theatres in North Richland Hills hosts them monthly. January’s theme will feature non-alcoholic libations, including the tropical “Storyboard,” the citrus-forward “Call Sheet,” and the “Movie Star” made with Grove 42 zero proof spirits. The event is $25, plus tax and a small fee, and runs from 7:30–9 pm.

Friday, January 10

International Champagne & French Fries Day at Cave Society
The subterranean wine cave hidden inside downtown Grapevine’s Hotel Vin will host a posh pairing of French fries and champagne. Participants will partake in an array of champagnes from Folio Wines matched with gourmet fries and various dips. Tickets are $45, plus tax, and the event takes place from 5–7 pm.

Bourbon Street at The Cookery
Prepare for Carnival season with a class on quintessential Crescent City cuisine. The Cookery culinary studio will teach participants how to make Cajun crawfish bread with pickled mirliton slaw, shrimp, chicken, and andouille sausage jambalaya with corn and pepper maque choux, and classic bananas Foster with homemade vanilla ice cream. Enjoy Hurricanes and wine pairings, too. The hands-on class is $125 and begins at 6:30 pm.

Saturday, January 11

Carnival Bar Crawl
Kick off Carnival season Fort Worth-style with a bar crawl along Jennings and Pennsylvania Avenues. Hosted by Mardi Gras Near Southside, a group that is spearheading Carnival celebrations in the Near Southside area, the bar hop will start at Liberty Lounge before moving on to Jackie O’s and ending at Reflections. Arrive at Liberty Lounge at 4 pm and plan to spend about an hour at each venue or jump in anytime. Mardi Gras attire is encouraged.

Sunday, January 12

Game Day Appetizers at Central Market Cooking School
Just in time for the NFL’s Wild Card weekend, Central Market Fort Worth will host a hands-on game day-inspired cooking class. The make-and-take menu will feature avocado green goddess dip with crudite', harissa chicken wings with yogurt-mint dipping sauce, pork meatballs with bourbon-peach barbecue sauce, and muffuletta shooter-style sandwiches. The class is $75 and will run from 11 am–1:30 pm, so participants can head straight to their watch parties.

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Bye-bye to BB

Boisterous bar-restaurant Bottled Blonde closes in Fort Worth

Facebook/Bottled Blonde

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A boisterous bar and restaurant in Fort Worth has closed: Bottled Blonde Pizzeria + Beer Garden shuttered its location in the West 7th entertainment district in mid-December, along with its adjacent sibling outdoor concept Backyard, which closed as well.

According to a spokesperson, the Fort Worth location has closed "indefinitely," which seems to be another word for "permanently," as the venue's social media pages have been shut down, along with the phone and presence on Bottled Blonde's website.

The Arizona-based concept combining bar-restaurant and outdoor space had been there for nearly three years, opening in March 2022 in a former commercial office space and parking lot at 2821 Morton St.

Bottled Blonde Fort Worth was part of Evening Entertainment Group (EEG), the Arizona company that once owned a portfolio of restaurants and bars in cities such as Scottsdale, Phoenix, Tucscon, Miami, and Dallas, where the first Texas location of Bottled Blonde opened in 2017.

Its combination of pizza, drinks, brunch, TVs & entertainment options, plus expansive outdoor space proved to be an irresistible formula, especially post-pandemic when outdoor spaces became increasingly important.

The concept was created by EEG founders Les and Diane Corieri, and was for many years a windfall wherever it went. In Dallas, its success proved to be a juggernaut, single-handedly spawning an entertainment zone near Deep Ellum, attracting half a dozen mostly copycat bars that opened in its wake.

The Dallas Bottled Blonde is still open, along with its Backyard concept next door. However, those same copycat bars seem to have eaten away at BB's success: For most of the seven years Bottled Blonde has been open in Dallas, it was famously the city's most successful establishment, No. 1 on the list of liquor sales as compiled by TABSreport.com, surpassing $1 million every month and beating out big sellers like Nick & Sam's, Cowboys Red River, and American Airlines Center.

But sales have slacked and in recent months, the Dallas location hasn't even made the top 25.

When the Fort Worth location opened, it was the fifth Bottled Blonde, joining Dallas, Miami, Scottsdale, and Houston. But there are now just two locations: Dallas, and the original in Scottsdale.

Neither Les nor Diane Corieri would respond to emails.

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