The April edition of our monthly Where to Eat column has a spring theme, with five Fort Worth restaurants that are celebrating the season with fresh new menus for spring.

Spring means the end of hearty, heavy comfort food and the beginning of light and breezy dishes, perfect for springtime nibbling. These new dishes also provide a great excuse to revisit a favorite restaurant: You get to try something new.

Here's where to eat in April:

Ellerbe Fine Foods
So many local restaurants have adopted a farm-to-table philosophy, it’s easy to forget who was doing it first. Since opening nearly 15 years ago in a 1940s service station on Magnolia Ave., Ellerbe’s — like clockwork — introduces a new menu when the seasons change. Chef Molly McCook’s new spring menu includes cornmeal-crusted redfish with blackened tomatoes; grilled, herb-crusted rack of lamb with housemade labneh; and, a sure-fire way to start a meal, spring beets with pickled turnips.

Grace
Opulent downtown dining destination is celebrating spring with several new dishes from executive chef Blaine Staniford. For an appetizer, try the new shrimp and grits, featuring Royal Red shrimp (large, crimson-colored shrimp), grits, and Staniford’s take on etouffee; or spring carrot bisque, made with pickled baby carrots, crème fraîche and spicy macadamia nuts. There’s a new salad with citrus roasted beets and smoked blue cheese, and a seafood bouillabaisse with crab legs, shrimp, mussels, and hirame fluke.

Maria’s Mexican Kitchen
Opened in 2021, Fort Worth chef Felipe Armenta’s high end Mexican restaurant in the TCU area is one of the few local Mexican restaurants to offer seasonal menus. Its spring menu emphasizes seafood, with new items such as seabass ceviche, blue crab and butter-poached enchiladas, and salmon marinated in a combination of garlic, soy, sesame, and chipotle peppers.

Pizza Verde
Nominated for Best New Restaurant in CultureMap's 2023 Tastemaker Awards, Fort Worth’s plant-based pizza joint recently introduced a handful of new pies, including the Funghi, made with an oil and garlic base, mozzarella, roasted oyster and cremini mushrooms, capers, parsley and fried leeks; and the Chimi, a pie with an oil and garlic base, mozzarella, Juicy Marbles steak, red onion, chimichurri, and parmesan chips, all of which are plant-based ingredients. For heavier appetites, there’s a new sub sandwich, made with plant-based meatballs and marinara; and Fritto Misto, their plant-based take on the classic appetizer, featuring oyster mushrooms and New Wave shrimp.

Taste Project
Open for breakfast, brunch and lunch, this cheffy, pay-what-you-can restaurant in the Near Southside area regularly rotates items, especially on its lunch menu, which was recently updated with several spring dishes. Among them is a shaved carrot and red and golden beet salad, with arugula, crumbled goat cheese, and mint, all tossed in a toasted fennel vinaigrette. New entrees include a lamb burger topped with whipped feta cheese, and a rice & veggie bowl filled with snap peas, pea shoots, fried leeks, and pickled veggies. Desserts include panna cotta and pineapple upside down cake, both made in-house.