Sep 2, 2010 20

Avoca Coffee headed to Magnolia

By: Kevin Buchanan

At long last, a local coffee shop is headed to Magnolia Avenue in the Near Southside.  The former Sundance Scooters building at Magnolia & 6th will soon be home to Avoca Coffee, a new indie coffee shop by owners Jimmy Story and Garold LaRue.  For context, the site is across the street from Magnolia from Spiral Diner, Lili’s, and Panther City Bicycles, a block east of Nonna Tata and The Usual, and a block west of the Chat Room.

Avoca hopes to be far enough along to host artists during Arts Goggle on October 2nd, and they’re shooting for a November grand opening.  The building will serve double duty, with the eastern half (on the left) serving as the roasting facility (yes, they’re roasting their own beans), while the western half on the right will function as the actual coffee shop.  Haven’t heard too many details of the renovations yet, but I’ve heard some talk of bringing the western end of the building out closer to Magnolia, as well as an outdoor patio on the Magnolia frontage.

A local coffee shop has been a missing piece of the Magnolia puzzle for a long time, so this is a great development.  Increasing the variety of businesses on Magnolia, and giving people places to do more than just come in and dine, will help with Magnolia’s pedestrian and bike activity as well, since people will spend more time if there’s more than just restaurants.  Can’t wait to see how Avoca turns out.

Aug 30, 2010 7

Spiral Diner Up For Best Vegan Restaurant In Country

By: Kevin Buchanan

Survey.  Click over to this Survey Monkey survey and cast your votes for many VegNews Magazine awards.  Of interest to Fort Worthians, our very own Spiral Diner is once again up for Best Vegan Restaurant in the country.  Click and do your civic duty.  Following Ellerbe’s recent award, we have the chance to have two “best in the United States” award-winning restaurants on Magnolia.  Voting ends tomorrow (8/31), so get your vote in.

Aug 17, 2010 1

Finn MacCool’s Expands

By: Kevin Buchanan

Finn MacCool’s Expands | Fort Worth Weekly – Kudos to the fine folks at 8th & Allen in the Near Southside.

Aug 12, 2010 4

The Canopy at 8.0

By: Kevin Buchanan

A quick note:  there’s the new translucent canopy structure Sundance Square installed over the patio at 8.0 in Downtown.  Not too bad looking, though I hear it causes something of a greenhouse effect.  It’ll allow concerts in the rain while still letting the trees get sunlight.

Aug 12, 2010 2

Blue Sushi Sake Grill Progress

By: Kevin Buchanan

Looks as though Blue Sushi Sake Grill is rolling right along in its future home – the ground floor of the Museum Place Flatiron, where 7th, University, Camp Bowie, and Bailey come together, across the street from Eddie V’s.

Blue is, oddly, an import from Omaha, Nebraska.  There are three locations in Omaha, with the Museum Place location being its first venture out of that area.  So, if anybody out there has been through Omaha and dined at Blue, what did you think?

Aug 6, 2010 Comments Off

First Friday on the Green Tonight

By: Kevin Buchanan

First Friday on the Green, the free live music series at Magnolia Green Park in the Near Southside, rolls out a big three-act lineup tonight.  Starting at 7:00 PM, head to Magnolia Green Park (Lipscomb between Magnolia and Rosedale) to see performances by Quaker City Night Hawks, Fate Lions, and Chatterton.  Admission is free, though Southside Church of Christ is this month’s charity and will be accepting donations of school supplies.  And remember, no outside coolers or containers – food and drink sales, via Chadra Mezza & Grill, help support the concert series.

Jul 23, 2010 6

An Urban Jack in the Box, Because Why Not?

By: Kevin Buchanan

That, believe it or not, is a new-from-the-ground-up Jack in the Box.  It’s located on Berry Street, across from the GrandMarc and just down the street from places like Fuzzy’s and the new TCU bookstore.  It replaced a more typical suburban-style Jack in the Box on the same site.

Whatever one’s opinion of Jack in the Box as a place to eat, we have to give them kudos for building a store that actually fits into the more pedestrian-oriented goals of the Berry Street makeover.  This new store is right up on the sidewalk, has street-facing entrances, patio dining out front, plenty of windows on the street, and an at least somewhat interesting street facade design.  It’s not perfect (we’d have preferred it be more level with the sidewalk at the corner), but given the typical fast food box, it’s darned near miraculous.

We’re guessing a lot of city and neighborhood pressure was needed to get this result, but we’re glad to see a company like Jack in the Box willing to build something pedestrian-oriented.  We’ve said many times that the programming of the retail spaces isn’t as important as getting the form of the building right, and this is a great example – a lot of our readers are probably not big Jack in the Box fans, but by building a properly urban structure the restaurant is at least being a good citizen of the streetscape and helping to create a better, pedestrian-enticing public realm.

Jul 14, 2010 4

MK’s Sushi Headed to West 7th

By: Kevin Buchanan

MK’s Sushi, which looks to have gotten its start in Bedford, is headed for Cypress Equities’ West 7th development.  It’s been added to the West 7th web site, with an address of 2801 W. 7th – that’s roughly in the ground floor of the office/retail building at 7th & Foch, according to Google Maps.

MK’s menu appears to be pretty well-rounded, including several vegetarian options.  No word just yet on an opening date.

Jun 21, 2010 3

New Public Market Pursuing Weekly Farmers Market on Magnolia Avenue

By: Kevin Buchanan

The New Public Market, which we wrote about recently in a larger post about urban agriculture & local food culture in Fort Worth, has an eventual goal of leasing the historic Public Market building on Henderson to serve as a market once again.  So far, they’ve been holding a monthly market day at Into the Garden on Camp Bowie, but after speaking with Sally Birthisel from the group, it turns out they’ve got another project in mind – one that would be very cool for the Near Southside.

If they can get together $2,500 in funds for permits and the initial food purchase, the group plans a weekly Farmers Market on Magnolia Avenue in the Near Southside.  The market would be held on the lot between the Chat Room and JJ Robb Real Estate, on Magnolia between Lake and 5th Avenue.  We can only imagine how popular such a market would become with Near Southside residents, especially right in the heart of one of the most active parts of Magnolia.

Obviously, one of the ways they do this is membership, which starts at $25 per year.  For more information, check out the New Public Market site.  We wish them luck – we’d love to see a Farmers Market every week in a location that’s easily walkable and bikeable.

Jun 17, 2010 3

Food Carts (of a Sort) in the Near Southside?

By: Kevin Buchanan

We got an interesting e-mail from a reader today letting us know that a food cart (or more accurately, a food trailer) has come to the Near Southside.  Here’s JP’s letter about the new food cart next to Gordon Boswell Florist that’s been created by the Chef Point restaurant from Watauga:

Are you familiar with Chef Point (Watauga’s popular restaurant inside a gas station)?  In an effort to expand their business to Ft. Worth, they are experimenting with a food cart (well… “trailer” actually) in the Near Southside every Wednesday afternoon for lunch from 11:00 – 3:00.  They are occupying that parking space next to the Gordon Boswell Florist, across from Harris Hospital on Pennsylvania Avenue.  Today was their first day, and without doing much advertising, business was relatively quiet when I popped by a little before 1:00.

They offer many of the same items you can find inside their original restaurant:  burgers, sandwiches, fried chicken, chicken fried steak, pastas, salads, and soups (although neither lobster bisque nor clam chowder seemed appealing in the 100 degree + parking lot today).  They also have their delicious bread pudding for dessert.  I wish patrons would petition that they bring their vegetable quiche to the mobile restaurant.  It’s definitely one of the best meals I’ve ever had… from a gas station, no less.

I thought Chef Point’s food truck might have been in response to last month’s Food Network extravaganza where all those food carts stopped off in Ft. Worth on their race across the country (part of a new reality show).  Actually, according to their chef, this mobile restaurant project has been in the works for nearly a year.

Here’s hoping it leads to more of the same!  As you’ve mentioned on your blog several times, I think our city is ready for more mobile food vendors.  I’ve really enjoyed them in walkable cities like Portland — as well as larger sprawls like L.A.  It’d be great to see people supporting Chef Point in an effort to promote the food cart culture here in Fort Worth.

So – has anybody else out there stumbled across the Chef Point trailer while out and about in the Near Southside on Wednesdays?  We can’t help but imagine that food carts might attract more of a draw somewhere on Magnolia, where there’s at least some foot traffic from more than just one hospital, but it’s still an interesting development.

May 24, 2010 7

Patrizio, Fireside Pies Progressing at West 7th

By: Kevin Buchanan

Two Italian eateries, Patrizio and Fireside Pies, are headed for the West 7th development, across Crockett Street and the central plaza space from each other.  Work on Patrizio is much farther along – a recent update on the Patrizio site indicated an “April 2010″ opening for the restaurant, which is obviously not true, but it looks close nevertheless.

Work on Fireside Pies has been underway for a short time.  There’s not yet an opening date that we’ve seen, but things are definitely moving forward for these two new West 7th tenants.

May 21, 2010 19

Walkable DFW/Fort Worthology Car-Free Happy Hour – Guess The City

By: Kevin Buchanan

Time for the “free beer” part of the first ever Walkable DFW/Fort Worthology join Car-Free Happy Hour tonight at Houston Street Bar & Patio.  The first person to comment with the identity of this city and arrive at the Happy Hour car-free (walking, bicycling, transit, or some combination of the three) gets a free beer.  Everybody else – still have to pay for beer, but we hope you stop by anyway.  It’s from, oh, say, 5:30 until whenever, Houston Street Bar & Patio in Downtown near the Convention Center.

Not getting a lot of hints today on this city.  It’s in Europe (obviously), and is a beautiful example of human-scaled walkable urbanism.  Plus, they love their bikes.  Guess the city!

May 20, 2010 Comments Off

Tomorrow’s Walkable Dallas-Fort Worth/Fort Worthology Car-Free Happy Hour

By: Kevin Buchanan

Tomorrow marks the first joint Walkable Dallas-Fort Worth/Fort Worthology Car-Free Happy Hour, and it’s being held in Fort Worth.  Downtown, more specifically, due to the proximity of the ITC and timing of trains for Dallas visitors.  Bonus points:  it’s a place that’s outside of the gaping maw of Sundance Square – the Houston Street Bar & Patio, on Houston Street (of course) in “SoDo” near the Convention Center.

Tomorrow, both sites will post images from traditional urban cities and ask commenters to guess the city being shown.  First to correctly guess and to arrive at the Happy Hour location car-free gets a free beer.  Otherwise, join us for urbanism/transit/walkability/bicycle/etc. chat.

Details on the TRE for people headed from Dallas, from Walkable Dallas-Fort Worth:

Departure times from Union Station in Downtown Dallas (if you are catching it somewhere else, you are on your own…fortunately, I have the link):

Westbound from Union Station:
4:35 pm
4:55 pm
5:15 pm *
5:35 pm *
5:55 pm *
6:22 pm
6:57 pm

* recommended

Where we will get off at the second to last stop along the line.

…

Departure times to get back to Dallas unless you drank too much to catch the train and decide to stay on the street in a downtown Fort Worth hotel (you know who you are). And if that is the case, then you are doin’ work and I salute you:

Eastbound from Fort Worth Intermodal:
7:46 pm
9:12 pm
10:38 pm

Fare information:
We will be traversing through 2-zones in the TRE lexicon which equates to a one-way fare of $3.75 or $7.50 for a day pass.

Apr 30, 2010 5

WalkableDFW/Fort Worthology Joint Happy Hour May 21st

By: Kevin Buchanan

From time to time, it can be useful to set aside the ages-old feud between Fort Worth and Dallas and have some fun.  That’s why we’re happy to announce that we’re joining forces with Dallas-based fellow urbanism/transit blog Walkable D/FW to bring you a special edition of their customary Friday Happy Hour meetups on May 21st.

For the first time, Walkable D/FW plans to bring their Happy Hour to Fort Worth, and we’re going to be helping out.  At a drink spot somewhere in urban Fort Worth to be announced, we’d like to see Fort Worth urbanists/bike lovers/transit folks/anybody interested in walkable, livable neighborhoods to join us for drinks and chat.

Now, usually, Walkable D/FW offers a free beer to…well, here’s how they put it:

It is also often orchestrated with a free beer from me to the first person who guesses the City shown in various imagery and hints of the City’s history, origins, demographics, morphology, yadda yadda.

The rules typically state that one must be the first person in the comments to correctly identify the city shown *and* arrive at the event car-free to claim your free beer.  What is perhaps being hinted at here is that in honor of this newfound, alcohol-fueled spirit of camaraderie between our two cities, there might be TWO cities to guess and TWO free beers on the offering – one from Walkable D/FW, and one from us.

Perhaps?  Maybe?  We’ll find out!  We’re giving people some lead time to allow Dallasites the planning time to get to Fort Worth car-free.  Stay tuned for more details to come.

Apr 16, 2010 12

New Happy Hour Deals At The Usual

By: Kevin Buchanan

The Usual, everybody’s favorite Prohibition-era/modern-design cocktail bar, has sent word that they’ve got some new deals going on, and because we think they’re a pretty awesome group of folks, we thought we’d pass it along:

Happy Hour:  4:00 PM to 7:00 PM, Monday-through-Friday
1/2-price cocktails from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM
$2 off cocktails from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM
$1 off mixed drinks, beer, and glasses of wine

The Usual is located at 1408 W. Magnolia in the Near Southside, just a couple of doors down from Nonna Tata and about halfway between Spiral Diner and Benito’s.

Mar 30, 2010 2

Sushi Restaurant Headed To Museum Place Flatiron Building

By: Kevin Buchanan

The Business Press is reporting that Blue Sushi Sake Grill is headed to the ground floor of the Museum Place Flatiron Building:

Blue Sushi Sake Grill leased the ground floor at 3131 W. Seventh St., known as the Flatiron building, in Fort Worth’s Museum Place mixed-use development. The building is located at the intersection of University Drive and Camp Bowie Boulevard. Blue Sushi Sake Grill inked a lease for 5,560 square feet with plans to open in fall 2010.

We’re not familiar with Blue, and a quick Google search seems to indicate that there are three locations – all of them in Omaha, Nebraska.

Mar 18, 2010 11

VegFortWorth – The First iPhone App From Fort Worthology

By: Kevin Buchanan

The Fort Worth vegetarian dining guide that’s always with you.
We’re vegetarian.  We realize the irony of being vegetarian or vegan in a city best known to the world as “Cowtown,” and we saw the lack of info out there for our fellow veg-eaters living, working, and playing in Fort Worth.  That’s why we set out to change things.  To make it easier, more satisfying, and more fun to go veg in Fort Worth.

So we thought about how we might go about it, and we thought that it would be cool if you could always have a vegetarian dining guide for urban Fort Worth in your pocket.  Then we realized that we’ve all got our iPhones or iPod touches with us all the time anyway, so we set to work on taking advantage of that.

VegFortWorth is the result.   Read the rest of this entry »

Mar 16, 2010 4

Sammy’s Pizza Taking Over Picchi Pacchi

By: Kevin Buchanan

Something of a reshuffling in the Downtown restaurant biz is underway.  After 15 years, Picchi Pacchi – the Italian eatery at 5th & Main, in the ground floor of the gorgeous Sinclair Building – has been sold.

They’ve been sold to another Downtown restauranteur:  none other than Al Muric, the man behind late-night Italian fav Sammy’s Pizza a couple of blocks away in the heart of Sundance Square.  Sez DFW.com:

Muric says the name Picchi Pacchi will still hold, but “I’m changing the whole atmosphere.”

Look for a menu nearly identical to Sammy’s, which serves pizza, spaghetti, gyros, chicken piccata and heckuva lot more.

What’s more, the new Picchi Pacchi will adopt Sammy’s hours, which is a great sign for those of us who like having some late-night/early morning activity in our urban areas.  The new hours will be 11:00 AM to 9:00 PM Monday through Thursday, and 11:00 AM to 3:00 AM Friday and Saturday.

We liked Picchi Pacchi, but we’ve also long had a soft spot for Sammy’s, and it’s great to see Al’s success growing.  Remodeling is already underway after hours, and it looks as though the new place launches around April 1st.

Feb 23, 2010 3

Terra Mediterranean Grill Open This Week

By: Kevin Buchanan

The newest eatery in the West 7th development is opening this week.  Terra Mediterranean Grill, the newest offering from the Chanaa family, has been chatting up their opening this week on their Twitter feed, and the Star-Telegram’s great Eats Beat man himself, Bud Kennedy, also mentioned the opening:

Now, the next major opening in the West Seventh area is days away:Terra Mediterranean Grill, a Lebanese restaurant from the owners ofAli Baba in Dallas.

The Chanaa family expects to open Terra next week.

Look for garlic chicken, gyros and hummus, maybe as soon as Monday at 2973 Crockett St., one block east of University Drive.

Feb 12, 2010 6

Rahr Brewery Roof Collapses From Snow

By: Kevin Buchanan

(Photo from Bike Friendly Fort Worth)

The roof of the Rahr Brewery in the Near Southside has collapsed due to the record snowfall.  Not a lot of information just yet.  When we hear more from Rahr, we’ll post it (obviously, the Saturday brewery tour is off).  Here’s what out friends at Bike Friendly Fort Worth had to say:

For those of you who have not heard, a Bike Friendly business suffered a lot of damage when their roof collapsed under the weight of last night’s record snows.

Rahr Brewing is temporarily closed and has halted production, and the timing is difficult for them, as they have several beers in the middle of the brewing process.

Rahr was bike friendly before being bike friendly was cool. They have donated beer to every bike event I have ever put on. They are current sponsors of a mountain bike race put on by the Fort Worth Mountain Bikers Association. And they have always happily allowed bicycle riders to park their bikes indoors on brewery tour day.

Please keep the Rahr Brewing family in your thoughts. Buy their beer wherever you find it available. And stay tuned; if there is an opportunity for BFFW to help this bike friendly business, we will let you know.

Feb 1, 2010 3

Yofé Fresh Fruit & Yogurt Cafe Now Open

By: Kevin Buchanan

We finally had the chance to check out Yofé Fresh Fruit & Yogurt Cafe, freshly opened in the ground floor of one of the buildings of the West 7th mixed-use development.

One of the complaints about the Cultural District’s mixed-use developments is that their ground-floor tenants are almost all national chains or Dallas-based outfits.  There’s a lot of that, sure (we argue that the most important step is to first get the form of the buildings correct in a walkable style, and that the tenant mix shakes out over time), but it’s not all big names.

Yofé is, in fact, a Fort Worth-born-and-raised business.  Yofé aims to offer a fresh, healthy alternative to the typical ice cream, gelato, or Pinkberry knock-off by serving up real yogurt, fresh fruit, and more.  The main attraction is their live, active probiotic yogurt, available in three varieties – vanilla, fat-free vanilla, and plain.  The stars of the yogurt menu are undoubtedly the parfaits, available in three size with a wide variety of ingredients like mixed seasonal berries, blueberries, bananas, strawberries, vanilla wafers, honeydew and cantaloupe, and more.  Order up a pre-sorted style or create your own.  We tried the “banana pudding” parfait, with fat-free vanilla, bananas, and vanilla wafers, and we topped it off with granola.  The granola is in fact a Fort Worth-produced brand.  It was very flavorful and fresh-tasting, and a refreshingly unique change from the six million Pinkberry frozen yogurt knock-offs that crowd for attention these days.

If you do want frozen yogurt, they’ve got that as well.  Beyond the yogurts, there are breakfast options like cold cereal and oatmeal with fruit toppings, specialty smoothies ranging from chocolate & peanut butter to banana, orange, and pineapple, fresh soups & salads, sandwiches (though, disappointingly, none of the sandwiches are vegetarian), fruit & veggie cups, coffee, and a wide assortment of other drinks such as various teas and coconut water.

Yofé is located at 817 Currie, just around the corner from Movie Tavern in the West 7th development.  They’re open Monday through Thursday from 6:30 AM to 9:30 PM, on Fridays from 6:30 AM to 11:00 PM, on Saturdays from 10:00 AM to 11:00 PM, and on Sundays from 11:00 AM to 9:30 PM.

Jan 15, 2010 1

So7 Bistro Location Spotted, Further Sidewalk Improvements

By: Kevin Buchanan

The So7 Bistro, the new restaurant from Jean Michel Sakouhi (owner of The Vault in downtown), is underway and as a result, its actual location in the So7 development has been revealed.  So7 Bistro will be going in on the south side of the loft/retail building up on 7th Street, along Stayton/Museum Way and one of the new interior streets.  There’s not much to see just yet – there’s a TABC permit application, and a small “coming soon” sign.  The web site URL on the sign, www.so7bistro.com, is active but not showing anything but a generic web server placeholder page.

Further improvements to the development are underway – along with the new sidewalks around the shops & lofts, a sidewalk is at last being poured around the Residence Inn.  This will improve connectivity between the townhomes and condos at the back of the development and the shops & lofts along 7th – previously, the hotel had no sidewalks at all.

Jan 11, 2010 7

Yofé, others now open at West 7th, more coming soon

By: Kevin Buchanan

Ground-floor tenants have been opening up left and right in the West 7th development out in the Cultural District area.  We noticed that Yofé Fresh Fruit and Yogurt Cafe has now opened in the ground floor of the Movie Tavern building, and next door to it will soon be Sweet Sammies and Pure Bliss.  Over on Crockett, besides Tillman’s Roadhouse there’s also Flirt Boutique, Toni & Guy, and Paciugo now open.  LA Fitness and Movie Tavern round things out currently.  Elsewhere in the development, interior work is underway on several more tenants, including Bailey’s Prime Plus Steakhouse, Delaney’s Irish Pub, Chef Casey Thompson’s Brownstone, Terra Mediterranean Grill, and Teskey’s Uptown.

It’s fun to watch as the “bones” of West 7th finally come to life with bright signs, merchandise, and activity.  We see people out enjoying the new urban form of the development even in the chilly weather, and are noticing several occupied lofts upstairs as well.  It’s amazing to see these developments all built up, especially once you take a look back at what the site looked like when construction first got underway – check out this post from August 2007, with a photo of one block of the site just as the demolition fences were going up.

Jan 9, 2010 5

Mamma Mia Opens on Magnolia

By: Kevin Buchanan

Mamma Mia Italian Grill & Pizza on Magnolia in the Near Southside

Mamma Mia Italian Grill & Pizza on Magnolia in the Near Southside

We noticed this morning that Mamma Mia Italian Grill & Pizza, in the former Palermo’s space on Magnolia (between College and Washington) in the Near Southside, now has a banner up proclaiming their opening.  We checked the sign in the window, and Mamma Mia’s hours of operation are listed as 11:00 AM to 10:00 PM, Monday through Saturday, and closed on Sundays.

This is Mamma Mia’s second location – the first is located in the historic McAdams Building in the Six Points urban village to the northeast of downtown.

Jan 5, 2010 2

Cat City Grill Posts Menu

By: Kevin Buchanan

Via Eat This Fort Worth, it looks like Cat City Grill (the new eatery opening soon at 1208 West Magnolia in the Near Southside) has posted its menu on its web site.  Go there and check it out.  For the uninitiated, Cat City Grill is a new spot on Magnolia between 5th & Henderson that is the creation of Lili’s Bistro’s Vance Martin and former Del Frisco’s chef Martin Thompson.

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Browse the Fort Worthology Linklog - interesting and cool urbanism, transit, and bicycle links that aren't necessarily Fort Worth-centric.

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