Restaurant news

Devastating closures lead this round of Fort Worth restaurant news

VBQ Smokehouse vegan BBQ

Photo courtesy of VBQ Smokehouse

This edition of Fort Worth restaurant news includes some saddening closures, new menu items, and a couple of interesting company collaborations. There’s also a couple of crawfish events going on, just in time for peak crawfish season.

Here's what's happening in Fort Worth restaurant news:

VBQ Smokehouse, the vegan barbecue startup, has closed. The concept occupied Mariachi's Dine-In at 5724 Locke Ave. on Sundays and Mondays. Mariachi’s owner Ashley Miller announced the closure on social media, saying, “Running this pop-up and spending more $ in labor than we take in sales has caused us to come to this difficult decision.”

Jimboy's Tacos, the cult-favorite taco chain from California known for its unique crispy tacos dusted with Parmesan cheese, closed its second and final Fort Worth location at 7028 Blue Mound Rd., just months after closing their location at 9316 Clifford St.

Rock Springs Café at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden is now offering weekly Sunday brunch from 10 am-2 pm. The menu features a mix of both traditional brunch items like the All American (two eggs, thick-cut bacon, sausage patties, and Southwestern breakfast potatoes with choice of buttermilk biscuit or mini pancakes) and dishes with modern twists including the Pancake Taco Trio (choice of three tacos made with a buttermilk pancake shell).

The Cajun Market at Bourbon Street Bar & Grill in Bedford is offering a Sunday brunch buffet full of breakfast favorites with a Cajun twist. Offerings include biscuits and gravy, crawfish pies, chicken gumbo, boudin pepper jack spring rolls, jambalaya, hush puppies, okra, thin-fried catfish, grits, and homestyle potatoes. $24.99 or $10 for ages 12 and younger. Every Sunday 11 am-3 pm.

Rock Springs Café at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden is hosting an all-you-can-eat crawfish boil April 13. Crawfish will be served a pound and a half at a time with corn and potatoes, and alcoholic drinks will be available for purchase. $60 or $48 for Fort Worth Botanic Garden members. 12 noon-5 pm.

Ronald McDonald House of Fort Worth has hired a chef: Ian Salavon, whose resume includes culinary positions at P.F. Chang's, H-E-B, Gordon Biersch, and Aramark. The new position will help the company manage meal planning and preparation and increased food costs, while providing nutritious meals for families.

Banh Shop, the Dallas-based concept that does Asian street food, will open its third non-airport location in Las Colinas at 7601 N. MacArthur Blvd. #105. Opens March 27.

JINYA Ramen Bar will offer their happy hour menu all day on Mondays in April. Starting April 1, customers can order small plates like tempura brussel sprouts, spicy tuna tacos, and JINYA buns.

Tacodeli, the Austin-based taqueria chain, now has four salsas and two dips available at H-E-B stores across Texas. The line includes 12-ounce containers of their famed Salsa Doña (creamy jalapeño), salsa verde, salsa roja, black bean dip, queso, and a new chunky salsa.

Birdcall, the fried chicken chain from Denver, has collaborated with Little Sesame, a boutique hummus company, to offer a crispy chicken shawarma sandwich, with tomato hummus and cucumber yogurt salad on a brioche bun for $10.25. $1 from each sandwich sale will support the Chef Ann Foundation. Available through April 2.

HTeaO, the Texas-based iced tea franchise, has launched HTeaO Energy Shots, tea-based energy shots available in four flavors: lemon, peach, watermelon, and blueberry. Available at all HTeaO locations in 2.5-ounce bottles for $3.29.

Globe Life Field in Arlington has formed a partnership withTeremana Tequila, the small-batch tequila founded by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, making it the official premium tequila of MLB’s Texas Rangers. Throughout the season, fans can visit the newly opened Teremana Terrace in centerfield which will be serving Teremana cocktails, including the signature People’s Margarita, a pineapple margarita sweetened with agave nectar.

Spoetzl Brewery & Distillery, the family-owned brewer of Shiner Bock, has added Shiner Craft Spirits to its distribution, bringing Shiner Craft Vodka, Shiner Craft Gin, and Shiner whiskey to liquor stores across DFW. Shiner Craft Spirits will be available on shelves April 1 for a suggested retail price of $19.99 for the vodka, and $25.99 for the gin and whiskey.

McDonald’s is planning to sell Krispy Kreme doughnuts at all of its restaurants nationwide by the end of 2026. The rollout will start in the second half of 2024 but take more than two years to reach all stores as Krispy Kreme will have to more than double its distribution to fulfill the partnership.

Lay’s has launched four new regionally inspired potato chip flavors: Crispy Taco, BLT Sandwich, Fried Pickles with Ranch, and Kettle Cooked Lime & Cracked Pepper. Available for a limited time.

Unilever, one of the top suppliers of beauty and personal care, home care, and food products, is spinning off its ice cream division into a stand-alone entity. The portfolio includes Ben & Jerry's, Magnum, Wall’s, Breyers, Talenti, Popsicle, and Klondike.

closings

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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