Opening news

Whiskey Cake restaurant to open in Fort Worth's hottest neighborhood

The whiskey cake at Whiskey Cake.

Photo courtesy of Whiskey Cake

A restaurant named for its sticky toffee-cake signature dessert is coming to Fort Worth: Whiskey Cake Kitchen & Bar, an American tavern concept from Dallas hospitality company FB Society, will open its first location in Tarrant County at 2849 Heritage Trace Pkwy. in the Alliance Town Center in buzzy North Fort Worth.

According to a release, it'll open in the fall. This will be the third Whiskey Cake location in DFW, following the original in Plano which opened in 2011 and a second that opened in Las Colinas in 2018.

Whiskey Cake Kitchen & Bar touts its locally sourced menu with entrees such as rotisserie chicken, burger with brisket-chuck, chicken & waffles, and beet salad with spinach, farro, watermelon, and shallots. Prices range from $14 for the salad to $27 for the pork chop. There are also "snacks," including $11 goat cheese fondue and $9 crispy flash-fried brussels sprouts.

Weekend brunch features hearty dishes like carrot cake pancake stack and the Wagyu wake-up hash with sweet potatoes, wilted greens, and eggs.

Dessert includes the signature whiskey cake for $11—a sticky toffee cake with pecans.

Cocktails include old fashioneds, elixirs, whiskey flights, IPAs on tap, wines, and zero-proof options. Signature drinks include whiskey cocktails and flights, with a whiskey collection of American, bourbon, rye, and scotch available in 2 oz pours.

"Whiskey Cake is a modern take on an American tavern," says Whiskey Cake CEO Jeff Carcara in a release. "We create everything on our menu in-house and use the best local ingredients available. Our garden-to-glass cocktails are unique twists on classics, and the atmosphere is high-energy and always fun. We can’t wait to bring this experience to the Alliance community."

The atmosphere typically features vintage-inspired lighting fixtures, classic leather seating, and sprawling high tops centered in the restaurant alongside a bar showcasing a selection of locally sourced whiskeys displayed on custom-made shelves.

The Fort Worth restaurant will include three private event spaces, a temperature-controlled patio, and accommodate over 350 guests, with an interior space spanning over 9,000 square feet.

Whiskey Cake has since grown to 10 locations across Texas, Oklahoma, and Florida, with plans for further expansion across the United States. FB Society also owns Mexican Sugar, Sixty Vines, The Ranch, Haywire, Ida Claire, and Son of a Butcher Slider Bar, which is also opening a location at Alliance in the fall.

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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