Fort Worthology » Food & Drink

An Urban Jack in the Box, Because Why Not?

Kevin Buchanan — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:48:06 +0000

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.

MK’s Sushi Headed to West 7th

Kevin Buchanan — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:41:40 +0000

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.

New Public Market Pursuing Weekly Farmers Market on Magnolia Avenue

Kevin Buchanan — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 16:57:49 +0000

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.

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

Kevin Buchanan — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:31:00 +0000

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.

Patrizio, Fireside Pies Progressing at West 7th

Kevin Buchanan — Mon, 24 May 2010 16:30:27 +0000

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.

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

Kevin Buchanan — Fri, 21 May 2010 17:56:03 +0000

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!

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

Kevin Buchanan — Thu, 20 May 2010 17:50:22 +0000

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.

WalkableDFW/Fort Worthology Joint Happy Hour May 21st

Kevin Buchanan — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 16:53:05 +0000

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.

New Happy Hour Deals At The Usual

Kevin Buchanan — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 16:33:25 +0000

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.

Sushi Restaurant Headed To Museum Place Flatiron Building

Kevin Buchanan — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 13:41:14 +0000

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.