This week in gluttony

Mardi Gras brunch tops 5 best food and drink events in Fort Worth this week

Let the good times roll with gumbo at B&B Butchers this Saturday.

B&B Butchers

February starts with a foodie trifecta of tasty happenings, including game day eats for Super Bowl Sunday, Mardi Gras dining, and Valentine's-themed events leading up the big day itself. (Find our list of best places to eat on February 14th here.) There's also a big whiskey release party happening on Saturday, and an opportunity to pull out those keepsake steins for a steal of a beer deal.

Friday, February 6

Chocolate and Wine Pairing at Messina Hof Grapevine Winery
Experience unexpected chocolate flavors that are both savory and sweet during this unique wine pairing at Messina Hof in Grapevine. The menu includes blue cheese truffle with cocoa and black pepper, strawberry salad with chocolate balsamic dressing, rosemary white chocolate butternut soup, rigatoni with dark cocoa and red wine ragu, and Mexican chocolate mousse with orange and ancho chilies. Tickets are $45, plus tax and gratuity, and the pairing begins at 6:30 pm.

Saturday, February 7

Mardi Gras Brunch at B&B Butchers
B&B Butchers will bring a taste of New Orleans to Fort Worth during this festive brunch. The event will feature live Zydeco music, photo ops, face painting, Mardi Gras swag, and dishes like crawfish beignets, chicken and andouille sausage gumbo, Cajun shrimp and blue cheese grits, bourbon bread pudding, and hurricanes. The brunch will run from 11 am-3 pm.

Stein Day at Maple Branch Craft Brewery
Dust off those hefty steins hiding in your cupboards for a sweet deal at Maple Branch Craft Brewery. Pours start at $6 for up to 20 ounces and top out at $12 for up to 48 ounces for beers under eight percent ABV. Pair the pours with Girl Scout Cookies, which will be for sale from 11 am-1 pm.

TX Whiskey Vino de Naranja Release
Celebrate the launch of TX Whiskey’s new Vino de Naranja, the 15th overall expression of the TX Experimental Series. The $11.99 general admission ticket includes a cocktail, live music, access to food trucks, and the opportunity to be one of the first to purchase the bottle ($39.99), plus complimentary bottle engraving. Doors open at 1:30 pm. Or go VIP ($75) for early access at 12 pm and get a special gift and a guided tasting.

Sunday, February 8

The Big Game Day at Worthington Renaissance Hotel

On Super Bowl Sunday, Toro Toro, the Latin steakhouse at the Worthington, will offer a game-day special including two sliders and a draft beer for $20 starting at 2 pm. Then the Rooftop Cinema Club on the terrace level will provide complimentary popcorn to attendees of a ticketed watch party ($20). Doors open at 4:30 pm and kickoff is at 5:30 pm.

food events

restaurant boom

Texas to lead nation in culinary job growth by 2032, report predicts

Restaurant chef garnishing signature dishes

Photo by Louis Hansel on Unsplash

With all the booming restaurant scenes in Texas's major metros like Dallas-Fort Worth, the Lone Star State's overall culinary industry will grow faster than the rest of the country within the next six years, Escoffier found.

A new analysis of the states that will have the most culinary industry job growth has revealed that Texas is expected to lead the nation with the fastest growth in the country by 2032.

The nationally recognized Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts' study, published December 30, 2025, compared all 50 states to determine their job prospects for chefs and head cooks, restaurant cooks, and food service managers based on three key metrics: projected growth rates from 2022-2032; "absolute job creation" (the total number of projected new positions) during the same 10-year span, and actual job growth rates from 2022-2024.

Texas' culinary industry is expected to grow by 24.88 percent by 2032, the report found, which is the highest projected growth rate nationwide. That translates to more than 52,000 culinary jobs created within the next six years.

Escoffier also broke down individual projections across all three metrics:

45,150 new restaurant cook jobs, a 39.72 percent increase
3,580 new chef and head cook jobs, a 19.76 percent increase
3,340 new food service manager jobs, a 15.17 percent increase

"The top three states alone — Texas, California, and Florida — will add nearly 130,000 culinary jobs, almost 45 percent of all jobs created in this industry (despite those states making up about 28 percent of the nation’s population)," the report said. "This demonstrates an extraordinary scale of opportunity for job seekers willing to relocate to states with booming restaurant scenes."

Major Texas cities, including Fort Worth, are bursting with highly esteemed award-winning chefs that are defining the local restaurant scenes. And there are just as many up-and-coming chefs rising through the culinary pipeline.

As Escoffier notes, projections are just one factor among many that determine the strength of the national culinary industry. Texas' combined actual culinary job growth from 2022-2024 is down 0.28 percent when compared to expectations.

"This simply means that, over the past few years, the state appears to have underperformed growth projections; the industry still grew in that state, but perhaps not as much as anticipated," the report's author clarifies. "Given the short timeframe (2022-2024), this category plays a small role in our rankings relative to the ten-year projections."

Washington led the U.S. with the most new culinary jobs added from 2022-2024, with 5,800 positions created during that time. Escoffier said Washington handily beat expectations that only 1,300 jobs would be added, representing a 348 percent "overperformance."

The top 10 states with the fastest-growing culinary industry are:

No. 1 – Texas
No. 2 – California
No. 3 – Georgia
No. 4 – Florida
No. 5 – Washington
No. 6 – North Carolina
No. 7 – Utah
No. 8 – Arizona
No. 9 – Nevada
No. 10 – Alabama

texas culinary job market reports