Burger News

Gas station restaurant in south Fort Worth brings the burgers & wings

Chicken wings at Lul B's in Fort Worth

Kendrick Mays

Burgers and wings are the thing at Lul B’s Restaurant, a family operation that recently opened in south Fort Worth — right next to a gas station at 5617 McCart Ave. #105, at the corner of Edgecliff Road.

With that proximity to the gas station, it could almost be classified as a gas station restaurant, although it occupies its own space: a bright, clean place with a sunny disposition, serving not only burgers and wings but fried catfish, chicken tenders, and big crunchy onion rings.

Lul B's is from Brendan Quigley, a serial entrepreneur whose previous ventures include Finesse Studio Bar and Grill, which closed during the pandemic.

Prior to opening Lul B's, he started out with an event space in the same building at #117, with his son Brendan, who had just graduated from high school and wanted to get into business. Quigley stepped in to show him the ropes.

The event space took off, frequently used for birthdays and watch parties. That led to the idea of expanding with a restaurant, which they opened quietly in the spring, then re-booted on October 1.

“It was a space right next door to the events space, and it made sense to expand," Quigley says.

Quigley has some all-star help including Kendrick Mays, the actor (Madea's Farewell Play) and photographer; he's an investor and also helps the restaurant with marketing. The menu, which he describes as "American-style," was created by Chestney Smith Muhammed, known as Chef Ches, a local fixture who's had his own catering company for a number of years.

Their burger is a smash burger with American cheese and grilled onions, which you can get topped with bacon or even fried eggs. Wings come in 13 flavors such as Jamaican jerk, lemon pepper, and ranch — original or spicy.

Their two biggest sellers are chicken tenders and fried catfish, and they've even taken to doing a fish and wings combo. Sides include onion rings, fries, and dirty rice. They also have fried biscuits — three for $1 or a dozen for $4, plus mini bundt cakes for dessert.

Prices are cheap, with burgers starting at $6 and wings starting at $8 for five wings and a side.

“You can sit down, chill, watch TV, make your order,” Quigley says. “It's nice vibes in the area, so it's pretty smooth. We made it fun, so to speak.”

burgers 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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