Restaurant News Roundup

This Fort Worth restaurant news has both glad openings and sad closures

Bankhead Brewpub

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This roundup of Fort Worth restaurant news has some unfortunate news of closures, but some promising news of openings coming soon. Plus new dishes, new menus, and new doughnuts.

Here's what's happening in Fort Worth restaurant news, bad news (closures) first:

Jimboy's Tacos, the cult-favorite taco chain from California known for its unique crispy tacos dusted with Parmesan cheese, closed its location in west Fort Worth in early January. Despair not: The location at 7028 Blue Mound Rd. is still open.

La Onda, the restaurant that opened only recently at the Hotel Revel, has closed. The owners posted a notice on Facebook, apologizing to guests who'd placed reservations, and thanking the community for its support.

Eazy Monkey, the Asian-themed restaurant from chef Andrew Dilda that opened in late summer at 401 W. Magnolia Ave., has closed. Their website is disabled and they stopped doing social media posts in mid-December.

Nothing Bundt Cakes is opening a location at Alliance Town Center this weekend at 3251 Tracewood Way #111, directly across from Torchy's Tacos and CAVA. This is the 16th location in DFW for the chain, which also has locations on Camp Bowie Boulevard and in Lake Worth.

Batter & Beans, specializing in little doughnuts, plus coffee and more, has opened at 3548 South Hills Ave., south of TCU in Westcliff Center. They're doing fresh, made-to-order mini cake doughnuts plus premium coffee they're sourcing out from Metropolis, a small-batch artisan roaster from Chicago, which is the owners' hometown.

61 Osteria the Italian eatery on the west end of downtown has stopped serving lunch but has a new Apertivo Hour, an Italian-inspired happy hour from 4:30-6:30 pm, with choice of bubbly, white wine, red wine, a cocktail, or a spritz for $10, which comes with a complimentary snack.

Pizza Verde, the award-winning vegan pizzeria, has ramped up its frozen pizza operation, providing customers with frozen pizzas that are ready to take-and-bake at home. The pizzas are available at Hao's Grocery Cafe in Fort Worth, who are selling their Kimchi & Pepperoni pizza; Juice Junkies TX in Fort Worth and Keller, who are selling their Pepperoni & BBQ Chicken; Mashup Market in Denton, who are selling their Pepperoni pizza and their best-seller Three Cheese & Potato Leek; and FMG Vine in Grapevine, also selling their Pepperoni pizza and Three Cheese & Potato Leek.

Candlelite Inn Family Restaurant is offering lunch specials seven days a week until the end of January, which is this week, from 11 am-2 pm.

Bankhead Brewpub at 611 University Dr. has added new menu items including Steak Frites, Cajun Shrimp Risotto, Chevry Croquettes, and a clever Nashville Hot Pizza.

Shipley Do-Nuts has introduced its first-ever systemwide limited-time doughnut - made with freeze-dried Skittles, available now at all Dallas and the 350+ Shipley locations nationwide through March 31, or while supplies last. Shipley Do-Nuts is the first brand in the U.S. to feature the freeze-dried Skittles. It's a classic yeast doughnut with strawberry or cherry icing, topped with tangy, fruity freeze-dried Skittles bringing a light yet crunchy texture to the famed hexagon-shaped Shipley doughnut known for its fluffiness.

Yogurtland has limited-edition items to celebrate the season of love: the new Chocolate Hazelnut Lava Cake froyo made with real roasted hazelnuts and molten chocolate; the return of Chocolate Covered Strawberry froyo, inspired by the classic treat of milk chocolate-dipped strawberries; and Sour Gummy Hearts, a seasonal topping.

Girl Scout Cookie season in Northeast Texas us underway, with cookies available through February 25. You can get them from a registered Girl Scout as well as online Use the Girl Scout Cookie Finder to locate a nearby booth and support local Girl Scout troops. The cookies are being sold at the same price despite changes in our 32 counties. Little Brownie Bakers produces kosher and halal-certified cookies for the Northeast Texas Council with no high-fructose corn syrup or trans fat.

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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