These are the 8 best food and drink events in Fort Worth this week

This week in gluttony

Fred's Texas Cafe

Burgers take center stage this week. Two popular burger joints are hosting celebrations – one, a grand opening of a new location, and the other, a new pint night partnership with a off-menu feature. There are also two tequila tastings, two foodie festivals (one vegan, and one with a legendary drum battle), and an opportunity to dine out for a good cause.

Tuesday, September 26

Lori’s Day at Newk’s Eatery
The Mississippi-based sandwich, salad, and soup will celebrate its third annual ovarian cancer fundraiser in honor of Lori Newcomb, wife of Newk’s founder Chris Newcomb, who passed away of the disease in 2019. Through Newk’s Cares, founded by Lori in 2014 after her diagnosis, all locations will donate 20 percent of sales to Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance. Newk’s is located at 3556 Highway 114 in Fort Worth’s Alliance area.

First Responders Appreciation Day at B&B Butchers & Restaurant
The annual event treats all on-duty first responders, including firefighters, police officers, EMTs and paramedics, to a complimentary three-course lunch at the Shops at Clearfork steakhouse. Berg Hospitality Group founder and CEO Benjamin Berg started the event in Houston in 2017 after Hurricane Harvey. Menu highlights include the iceberg wedge with crumbled blue cheese, the Butcher Shop burger with applewood smoked bacon, and New York cheesecake. Guests of first responders may partake in the menu for $25. The menu is available from 11 am-4 pm and reservations are recommended.

Pint Night with Panther Island Brewing at Fred’s Texas Café
The longtime burger joint has launched a new monthly pint partnership with Panther Island Brewing Company. Each month, patrons can order an off-menu specialty burger paired with a Panther Island beer. This month, it’s the Elotes Burger – a half-pound Black Angus patty with grilled pepperjack cheese, elotes, and finished with spicy Cheetos dust, cilantro, and Valentina hot sauce. The burger is paired with Panther Island’s Pantera Loco Mexican Lager and the combo is available at both Fred’s locations (Camp Bowie Boulevard and Western Center Boulevard) for the rest of September. Visit either location for live music on Tuesday and Wednesday this week for Panther Island Pint Night, when patrons can keep the pint glass. On October 1, Fred’s will debut the Oktoberfest burger, to be served on a pretzel bun with caramelized onions and Panther Island Brewnette amber ale beer cheese poured atop tableside.

Wednesday, September 27

Rodeo Goat Grand Opening in Denton
Worth the drive: a new location of Rodeo Goat in Denton, especially this Wednesday. That’s when the funky-fun burger joint will host a fundraiser for the Denton Community Food Center as part of its grand opening celebration. The $25 ticket includes burgers and other menu items and two drink tickets good for beer, wine, and cocktails. Note the restaurant will not be open to the public during the fundraiser celebration, which will run from 5:30-8 pm.

Thursday, September 28

Meet the Maker at Toro Toro
The Worthington Renaissance Hotel restaurant will feature the flavors of Milagro Tequila during this complimentary tasting. Visit anytime between 5-7 pm for tequila sampling and bar bites. Valet parking is complimentary.

Saturday, September 30

Fort Worth Veg-Fest
Hosted by vegan restaurants Belenty’s Love and Vida Café, this vegan food festival and market will feature nearly two dozen vendors offering everything from vegan soul food to skin care. The event will take place from 11 am-4 pm at SouthSide Bar & Party Hall, and admission is free.

Tequila & Margarita Festival at Fort Worth Botanic Garden
As part of its month-long ¡Celebramos! A Celebration of Latin American Culture & Heritage, the Fort Worth Botanic Garden will host a late-night party fueled by tequila and margaritas. The $45 ticket ($30 for Fort Worth Botanic Garden members) will include tequila tastings, margs, and bites from local Latin restaurants along with dance demonstrations and DJ music. The event will take place from 8 pm-12 am.

Sunday, October 1

Fort Worth Eatz Food Fest
It’s a Sunday Funday paired with a legendary drum battle. Visit Trinity Park (near the Fort Worth Dream Park) for a food festival featuring performances by alumni of Grambling State University and Prairie View A&M University drum lines. Food vendors will feature barbecue, fried fish, snow cones, and more. Admission is free with advance tickets or pay $20 and get two mimosas. The event will run from 11 am-6 pm.

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'Yellowstone' stars to greet fans at Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo

Yellowstone news

Yellowstone fans, get your comfy shoes ready - there'll be a long line for this one. Cole Hauser a.k.a. "Rip Wheeler" on Yellowstone, and Taylor Sheridan, the show's co-creator, executive producer, and director of the series, will meet fans and sign autographs at the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo.

The event will take place from 4:30-6:30 pm only on Friday, February 3. Location is the 6666 Ranch booth near the south end of Aisle 700 in the Amon G. Carter, Jr. Exhibits Hall.

According to a February 2 announcement from FWSSR, "fans will have the opportunity to snag an autograph as well as purchase some distinctive Yellowstone and 6666 Ranch merchandise while also enjoying all the features the Stock Show offers."

The event is free to attend (with paid Stock Show admission) and open to the public.

It's the second year in a row for Hauser to appear at FWSSR; in 2022, he and fellow cast mates drew huge crowds.

Sheridan, a Paschal High School graduate, is no stranger to Fort Worth; he lives in a ranch near Weatherford and filmed 1883, the prequel to Yellowstone, in and around Fort Worth. Currently, another spinoff, 1883: The Bass Reeves Story, is filming in North Texas.

The Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo is winding up its 2023 run on Saturday, February 4.

These are the 12 must-see shows in Dallas-Fort Worth theater for December

Theater Critic Picks

It's here: holiday show time. Many of them opened at the end of November, so we're including them here for your planning ease.

Whether you're looking for something family-friendly, a play the in-laws will love, or a performance that has nothing to do with the holidays at all, read on.

In order of start date, here are 12 local shows to watch this month:

Jada Bells - A Holiday Extravaganza
Uptown Players, through December 10
Dallas drag performer Jada Pinkett Fox, aka Lee Walter, will show off her charisma, stage presence, and voice as she brings her unique blend of glamour, humor, and talent to the stage. Jada will be joined by musical guests, each bringing their own flair and style. The holiday-themed extravaganza, written and directed by BJ Cleveland, features classic holiday favorites and contemporary hits.

Black Nativity
Bishop Arts Theatre Center, through December 17
For 19 years, Bishop Arts Theatre Center's annual holiday production of Black Nativity, inspired by Langston Hughes's iconic 1960 Broadway show, is back with a mesmerizing display of hand-clapping, toe-tapping, and finger-snapping theatrical wonderment like never before.

Poor Clare
Stage West, through December 17
Meet Clare: a stylish teen living in medieval Italy, trying out the newest hairstyles, and keeping up with the latest fashions and juicy town gossip. But everything changes when she meets a man named Francis who has started ranting in the streets. Her mother, sister, and maids don’t understand it, but this man’s ideas are, like, totally starting to make sense – and now she can’t unsee the world he has shown her.

Scrooge in Rouge
Theatre Three, through December 17
After a widespread case of food poisoning wipes out the majority of The Royal Music Hall Twenty-Member Variety Players, three surviving members of the company soldier on through a performance of A Christmas Carol that abounds in bad puns, naughty double-entendres, and witty songs.

A Charlie Brown Christmas
Dallas Children's Theater, through December 23
Rediscover the true reason for the season while sharing laughs with the Peanuts Gang along the way. Accompanied by a live combo, Charles Schulz’s classic special will make audiences nostalgic for days gone by.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever: The Musical
Casa Mañana, through December 23
Based on the best-selling book and play by Barbara Robinson, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever: The Musical is the story of the Herdmans, who are the worst kids in the history of the world. They lie, they steal, they bully other kids, and they smoke smelly cigars. There used to be only one place where you’d never see them: church.

A Gospel Black Nativity
Jubilee Theatre, through December 24
Black Nativity is an adaptation of the Nativity story by Langston Hughes, performed by an entirely Black cast. Hughes was the author of the book, with the lyrics and music being derived from traditional Christmas carols, sung in gospel style, with a few songs created specifically for the show.

A Christmas Carol
Dallas Theater Center, through December 30
Three spirits have come to visit the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, and to take him on a fantastic journey through Christmases past, present, and future. Brimming with joyful songs, magical spirits, and holiday cheer, this holiday classic embodies a story of joy, redemption, and the spirit of Christmas.

Safe at Home
Kitchen Dog Theater, December 7-10
An engaging and provocative site-specific work designed to be performed inside a baseball stadium, the second-ever professional production of Safe at Home examines the complex intersection between baseball, politics, and the American Dream. Lead by tour guides, pods of audience members travel throughout the stadium to nine different spaces, ranging from a luxury suite to the men’s room to the dugout, as the patrons — not the cast — move from scene to scene.

Deathtrap
Theatre Three, December 7-31
Without a success to his credit for some years, Sidney Bruhl receives a new potential hit script called Deathtrap that was written by his student. Sidney plots with his reluctant wife Myra about how best to plagiarize the play and the evening takes a hilarious and dangerous turn.

The Cher Show
Broadway at the Center, December 14-16
Superstars come and go but Cher is forever. The Cher Show is the Tony Award-winning musical of her story, and it’s packed with so much Cher that it takes three women to play her: the kid starting out, the glam pop star, and the icon.

Les Miserables
Broadway Dallas, December 20-31
Set against the backdrop of 19th-century France, the production tells an enthralling story of broken dreams and unrequited love, passion, sacrifice and redemption — a timeless testament to the survival of the human spirit. The epic and uplifting story has become one of the most celebrated musicals in theatrical history.

Director Todd Haynes tackles inappropriate relationships in May December

Movie Review

Director Todd Haynes has pushed buttons throughout his career, starting with his acclaimed short film, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, which used Barbie dolls to illustrate the late singer’s anorexia battle. He’s at it again with his latest, May December, which tackles the idea of highly inappropriate relationships through a lens that itself has the potential to be upsetting.

Elizabeth (Natalie Portman), an acclaimed actress, has traveled to Savannah, Georgia to shadow Gracie (Julianne Moore) in preparation for a movie in which Elizabeth will play Gracie. That movie tackles the beginnings of Gracie’s relationship with Joe (Charles Melton), when he was a 13-year-old seventh grader and she was a 36-year-old pet shop worker. The shocking tryst resulted in much controversy, a child, and a jail stint for Gracie, but the couple professed their love for each other through it all.

Twenty years later, they’re still together, having added two more kids to their family, children who happen to be the same age as Gracie’s grandkids from her previous relationship. Elizabeth wants to experience it all, bouncing from person to person to try to understand exactly who Gracie is and was. Striving for authenticity in her performance, however, soon takes her down a Method acting rabbit hole.

Directed by Haynes from a script by Samy Burch, and loosely based on the story of teacher Mary Kay Letourneau and her 12-year-old student, Vili Fualaau, the film treats Gracie and Joe’s relationship in a relatively straightforward manner. It details a benign life in which they have the love of their kids and some neighbors, even if they occasionally get a box full of poop on their doorstep.

It’s the arrival of Elizabeth that sends things spiraling, as her various conversations trigger responses from both Gracie and Joe that they seem not to expect. Haynes alternates between being serious and being campy, with not enough of each for either for them to seem to be the goal. The score gives off a less-than-serious vibe, and an early scene in which a mundane thing is treated as if it were happening in a soap opera points in the campy direction, but those type of moments are few and far between.

In casting Portman as the obsessive actor, Haynes may have been trying to offer up echoes of her Oscar-winning role in Black Swan. It’s no small irony that the person who comes off as the most craven in such a sordid story is the actor who everybody wants to be around, not the woman who became a pariah because she is a sex offender. In that and other ways, Haynes upends expectations, keeping the film interesting even through its slower moments.

Portman and Moore are ideal for their respective roles, Portman because she has a knack for portraying confidence and guile, and Moore due to her ability to manipulate at will. Melton, best known for playing Reggie on Riverdale, pales in comparison due to his less showy role, but he complements the story well. Special notice goes to Elizabeth Yu as Gracie and Joe’s daughter Mary, who shines in her limited scenes.

The story of May December contains elements that will creep certain viewers out, whether it’s the subject matter itself or the performances of the two great lead actors. Haynes has a way of getting under the skin with his storytelling, and this film is yet another great example.

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May December will debut on Netflix on December 1.

Photo by François Duhamel / Courtesy of Netflix

Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore in May December.

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