Fort Worth Magazine - February 2023 by fwtx

THE MAGAZINE THAT INSPIRED BLACK PROGRESS (AND ITS COWTOWN ROOTS)

TCU WINS: Frogs Capture Hearts and Minds / FOOD ACCESS: Where the City Falls Short

You think you know TIM LOVE. You don't.

the fort etc.

: know

10 Buzz

Yeah, that national championship game wasn’t what we wanted, but TCU’s football team won hearts and minds in 2022 and taught us a little something about ourselves. Thank you, Horned Frogs. You won’t be forgotten.

16 Calendar

You can start the month with Ryan Bingham at the world’s largest honky-tonk and close it with a 26.2-mile jaunt around town at the Cowtown Marathon. The 5K works, too. Or, OK, you can come out and just cheer on these foot soldiers (insert one of those raising-hand emoticons here).

18 Fort Worthian

One-time U.S. Olympic judo competitor Nikki Kubes is still fighting, only now it’s taking on bad guys as a Fort Worth police detective.

: live

20 State Lines

Oxbow Bakery’s luscious pecan praline pie is worth the trip to Palestine alone, but we further explore this small town, a two-hour-and-somechange drive southeast.

22 Music

Will Rakkar, the lead singer and guitarist of local surf rock band, Phantomelo, talks about love, genre bending, and, yes, sea monsters.

24 Art

As a veritable Orville Peck of the Fort Worth art scene, Dizzy Orbit conceals her true identity in photos under a rotating series of masks that she crocheted. She takes our questions.

26 Closet Raid

Jackie Chieffalo, owner of clothing boutique Chieffalo Americana, invites us in to rifle through her closet. Remember: “Every woman needs a little leopard in her life.”

: eat

30 4 Courses

Tasha Monticure, owner and maker of delectable sandwiches at Bodega South Main, shares four dishes for cold-weather dining, with quite the coda: molten chocolate pie. Yes, please.

34 Restaurant News

Hao Tran, who has played an integral role in Fort Worth’s food and restaurant scene as part of a team, is going solo. Hao’s Grocery & Café has opened in the space formally known as The Table. And Lao Che Lounge is on the horizon.

: snaps

60 Dinner, dancing, and dazzling jewels kept attendees entranced at the Jeweler Party, an annual event benefiting Cook Children’s Medical Center.

CLOSE

160 Tate Lee perfectly captures the “good vibes” from a day hanging out on the Trinity.

DREAM STREET

152 A Q&A with publisher Hal Brown.

No More Love Puns

Ihad a phrase I started saying around the office the morning I completed this issue’s cover story. I would find any excuse, even if they were simply asking me how my day was going, to say, “Tim Love is the most difficult easy person to write about.” Though I might have been drunk in both my exhaustion and exuberance for completing the 5,000word piece, it still makes sense to me. But, having received a fair share of perplexed looks when I said this, I’m supposing an explanation is required.

When I initially pitched the piece during last June’s editorial retreat, I posed a single question, which I used as the working title: Why Does Everyone Hate Tim Love?

Now, I didn’t know Tim Love. In fact, I still don’t really know Tim Love — I wouldn’t say a one-sided interview over the course of a few hours warrants “I know you” status. So, I don’t have a dog in the fight. I’ve eaten at his restaurants, where I’ve had great experiences, and I’ve met him a couple times for quick interviews, when I found him pleasant and affable. Honest is a word I’d use to describe him. And I always appreciated that.

Yet, whenever I would bring up his name, a barrage of negativity would ensue. And some of it seemed strangely personal. And I’m not talking about people who have had legitimately bad experiences with regard to Tim. I’m talking about people who have never stepped foot in the same room as the man.

Brian Kendall EXECUTIVE EDITOR

I never got it. I never understood it. But I wanted to.

But people’s opinions of Tim are so intense (and it does go both ways), that I couldn’t help but see my writing from both perspectives. When I initially took to my keyboard, I was timid and concerned with my word choice. I was trying too hard to strike a middle ground as to avoid any puff or hit-job labels. It took hours before I was able break free of this anxiety. Like any writer with zero vendetta and nothing to gain, I just want the article to be a fair and accurate portrayal of the subject matter.

When it comes to Tim, his story is a bottomless well of content. But how one approaches it can be difficult. Thus, he is the most difficult easy person to write about.

With that said, I’d like to thank Malcolm Mayhew for helping me out on the majority of the research and serving as a soundboard with whom I had a few late-night phone chats.

Thank you, my friend. The piece wouldn’t have come together without you.

ON THE COVER:

Hitting up Tim Love’s new(ish) tavern and music venue in the Stockyards, Tannahill’s, our photographer, Crystal Wise, photographed the celebrity chef on stage at 9 in the morning. While there were some poses, a candid portrait ultimately won out, of course.

Corrections? Comments? Concerns? Send to executive editor Brian Kendall at bkendall@fwtexas. com.

The Baker Hotel Fashion of the Sunflower

Saloon City: The Best Bars in the Fort

Man

Fast. Friendly. Fair.

AUTO GROUP

Here's the deal.

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A few words from our readers

This is a bad article on the “best steakhouse” in Fort Worth due to not ordering the same thing at each place at the same time of day. You can’t compare apples and oranges. Different cuts of meat cook differently and taste differently no matter who makes it. So this isn’t a realistic comparison.

Todd Haggard

This is great and all, but I literally thought the article was highlighting some innovative concept about how the duo might reuse or repurpose or recycle these items in an unprecedented way. Nope. Just about a baker and a photographer doing cakes mash shoots.

Alyssa DelaCruz Ingle

owner/publisher hal a. brown

president/director of sales mike waldum

EDITORIAL

executive editor brian kendall

contributing editor john henry

digital editor stephen montoya

contributing writers hannah barricks, shasta haubrich, malcolm mayhew, jessica strange, shilo urban

copy editor sharon casseday

ART

creative director craig sylva

senior art director spray gleaves

advertising art director ed woolf director of photography crystal wise

ADVERTISING

advertising account supervisors gina burns-wigginton x150, marion c. knight x135

account executive tammy denapoli x141 territory manager, fort worth inc. rita hale x133

client services manager julia martin x116

MARKETING

director of digital robby kyser

marketing director sarah benkendorfer

content marketing specialist grace behr events & partnerships manager melissa mitchell

marketing intern kiana nemati

CORPORATE

chief financial officer charles newton founding publisher mark hulme

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©2023 Panther City Media Group, LP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher. Fort Worth Magazine (ISSN 1536-8939) is published monthly by Panther City Media Group, LP, 6777 Camp Bowie Blvd., Suite 130, Fort Worth, TX 76116. Periodicals Postage Paid at Fort Worth, Texas. POSTMASTER: Send change of address notices and undeliverable copies to Panther City Media PO Box 213, Lincolnshire, IL 60069. Volume 26, Number 2, February 2023. Basic Subscription price: $23.95 per year. Single copy price: $4.99

DIGITAL EDITION: The virtual editions of both current and previous issues are available on our website. Flip through the pages to read more about the great city of Fort Worth by visiting fwtx.com.

Thinking bigger to get better.

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During heart health month and beyond, we’re committed to giving you the know-how you need to help protect your heart. Get care now if you experience any of the following heart attack symptoms:

Uncomfortable chest pressure, squeezing or pain

Discomfort in one or both arms, back, neck, jaw or stomach

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Shortness of breath

We’re Smiling That It Happened

There’s

no crying in this office. TCU won hearts and minds in 2022.

BY JOHN HENRY

Long before TCU found itself opposite the riled fire ant mound that was Georgia on the second Monday night of the year, another Horned Frogs legend found himself in a situation much the same.

Sammy Baugh, the famed

quarterback who stamped his entry into the Pro Football Hall of Fame through a highly successful career with Washington, was, as the story goes, asked by a reporter whether a dropped pass to a wide-open Charley Malone in the end zone would have made any difference in Washington’s 73-0 loss to

Chicago in the 1940 NFL championship game.

“Yes,” Baugh purportedly said, “it would have been 73-7 instead of 73-0.”

In other words, no one was beating Chicago that day.

And, no one — not any of the other 128 FBS schools — was beating Georgia this year. No one, not even one granted the power to part the Red Sea, was touching Georgia. Certainly, TCU probably played its worst game of the year, but the Frogs could have played a perfect game and would not have beaten Georgia.

The No. 1 Bulldogs, generally a very docile breed but now growling back-toback champions, were simply that good and that dominant in a victory, by a score that will remain unsaid, over TCU in the College Football Playoff National Championship game at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.

This so-called Hollywood ending turned out to be a horror flick and a bummer of a way to end a magical, almost spiritual, season.

This shortcoming, of course, brought out the Twitter analysts, who crowed,

saying, in essence, “See, I told you TCU didn’t belong.”

This is, in reality, the Twitterverse, better known as the loser class.

“It is not the critic who counts,” Teddy Roosevelt famously wrote, “not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Cold and timid souls. In other words, the guys sitting on their couches playing Twitter, exercising some petty jealousy that TCU broke through.

“Tonight did not go the way we wanted it to,” quarterback Max Duggan said. “Disappointed in that aspect. But tonight isn’t going to take away from this season and what we were able to do as a program. I don’t think that’s going to define all the good memories and all the success that we had this season to project and put this program in the right direction.”

In truth, TCU left a lasting legacy, becoming the school that “didn’t belong,” and a small private school at that, to break through among the so-called, self-described elites. The Horned Frogs proved they belonged by besting one of college football’s most elite (for some reason) blue-blood programs, Michigan.

In nine CFP tournaments, seven schools have won games. TCU is one of those. The others are Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, LSU, Ohio State, and Oregon.

Not on the list are the likes of Michigan’s Wolverines or Notre Dame’s Four Horsemen.

Also not on the list is Texas or Texas A&M. Add Texas Tech and Baylor for good measure. Oklahoma has been in the tournament but never won. (One

day, Sooners. Well, maybe one day. The grass ain’t greener in the SEC.)

That, of course, ruffles feathers and offends senses of dignity. Hurting the feelings of the football entitled is a capital crime in Texas.

It goes without saying that many openly hollered with glee at what happened in Inglewood.

Georgia was good, and everybody who had watched them knew it. What happened on that rain-drenched evening also wasn’t totally surprising for another reason.

The score was typical.

Many of these games in the CFP are not competitive. TCU was not the first to be, in the words of Sonny Dykes’ father Spike, whipped like a tied-up goat.

Georgia beat Michigan a year ago in the semifinals 34-11. In the same round, Alabama defeated Cincinnati 27-6. Ohio State two years ago beat Clemson by three touchdowns. Alabama won the 2020 title by beating Ohio State by four touchdowns.

Three years ago, LSU scored 63 in rolling past Oklahoma, which has never advanced past the semifinals. Notre Dame has been to the CFP twice and been thumped each time. In the first CFP, Oregon dumped Florida State 59-20. Ohio State won the first title by three TDs over the Ducks. It makes you wonder what is in store for the expanded 12-team playoff when Georgia or Alabama see Tulane or Troy in a first- or second-round game.

In competition, these things happen. Sometimes the other guy is simply better. And have you ever tried to stop an avalanche?

But being in the arena means something, and TCU climbed into the arena in 2022.

They did it the way all the rest do it, with a set of core values they’re dedicated to, starting with a passion and respect for the game and for each other.

They were positive with a belief and faith in each other, despite no one outside their locker room believing in them. The Frogs were picked to finish seventh in the Big 12 under a new coach, Dykes, after finishing 5-7 a year ago.

The Frogs were also resilient.

TCU came back from double-digit deficits five times this season. Teams

that have these kinds of seasons don’t quit. They don’t quit on themselves and they don’t quit on each other. You’d be surprised how many teams don’t have these kinds of characters.

And they did it with great leadership, both on the coaching staff and with seasoned players with diverse backgrounds and experiences.

Anybody who tries to tell you TCU didn’t belong on this stage is simply full of, ahem, it.

The Frogs beat both Oklahoma and Texas for perhaps the second time in the same season in school history while going unbeaten in conference play, which included the otherworldly finish at Baylor. They became the first team from Texas to advance to the CFP and first Big 12 program to win a game in the postseason tournament.

Their pièce de résistance was that national semifinal game, a beatdown of Michigan. TCU crashed the party of the elites by dismantling the Wolverines in a game that thoroughly entertained the masses, from coast to coast, on New Year’s Eve.

It ranked among the best CFP semifinals ever played.

For all of this, we’re grateful to you, Horned Frogs. You’ve told us something not only about you but about ourselves: Trust in your values, trust your teammates, and trust yourselves. And, lastly, don’t pay attention to what someone says about you who doesn’t know you.

We’re not crying that it’s over or how it ended.

We’re smiling because it happened.

Last Call

John Denton closes out TCU football radio career.

BY JOHN HENRY

TCU’s loss in the national championship game marked the end of an era at TCU.

John Denton worked his final football game as color analyst in the Horned Frogs Sports Network radio booth. After 35 seasons, Denton is stepping aside to become the executive director of the Flying T Club, a name, image, and likeness collective supporting TCU student-athletes. It is not associated with the university.

If my math is correct, the Frogs’ national championship game was Denton’s 414th. In all, Denton has been part of TCU for 42 years, beginning as a student athlete with the football program in the fall of 1980. He has been calling TCU basketball for the past 22 years and will continue those duties until the end of the season.

He worked games with play-by-play guys Scott Murray,

Bill Coates, and, since 1998, Brian Estridge.

Denton officially retired from the university on Jan. 4. Now, what’s really funky is how this part of his career is coming to a close.

Denton’s first game on Sept. 10, 1988? Georgia, between Sanford Stadium’s legendary hedges.

Some would call that a weird coincidence. Others would term it destiny.

That stuff is above my pay grade.

However, that first game was a 38-10 Georgia victory. It was obviously a different time and place for TCU, then under coach Jim Wacker and still limping back from calamitous NCAA sanctions that set the program back several years. The Frogs had only recently begun to creep back into legitimacy after years of losing. Denton was a part of that, too, as a walk-on punter and kicker from Dallas Bishop Dunne.

Denton played at TCU under F.A. Dry and Wacker, from 1980-85. He redshirted in 1980 and was part of the Frogs’ “unbeeeelievable” 1984 season, TCU’s second winning season in 21 years, which ended in an appearance in the Bluebonnet Bowl.

In that 1988 season, TCU went onto finish 4-7 and 2-5 in the Southwest Conference with victories over Rice and Baylor.

Georgia was a top-10 team and overwhelmed an underwhelming TCU defense, not unlike, well, never mind. Best wishes, John, on your new endeavor.

John Denton, right, worked alongside play-by-play man Brian Estridge since 1998.

Building a future without cancer

Pamela Kessler had always been healthy, so when she woke up one morning and couldn’t move, she was understandably alarmed. Diagnosed with a brain tumor, she turned to UT Southwestern Simmons Cancer Center for treatment – a decision that saved her life.

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“When I got to Simmons Cancer Center, they investigated my cancer and knew how to approach it. They diagnosed me properly, and that is the key,” Pamela says.

Today, Pamela has her health back, supported by her team of experts.

UT Southwestern Simmons Cancer Center. Building a future without cancer.

Hurrah, Paschal High

Paschal High School cheerleaders win state title.

BY STEPHEN MONTOYA

Paschal High School achieved a first in its 130-plus years: a state cheer competition title.

The event was met with, well, enthusiasm.

The Panthers cheer squad bested each of its competitors in the Class 6A Division II division last month at the UIL state tournament at the Fort Worth Convention Center.

“We are all still in kind of a state of shock,” says an ecstatic Alex Saenz, Paschal’s cheer coach. “We just had a great team this year that executed the routines we worked hard on, and the work definitely paid off.”

Tears of joy were the motif post-win for the cheer team after they were announced as the first-place winners, Saenz says with a combination of humility and pride.

“I think we just went limp and had to be pushed onto the mat because we were in a state of shock when they were handing us our trophies.”

What made this year different from past years, Saenz says, was the addition of new choreographer Ashley Johnson, who arrived from San Antonio in September and “since then she just inspired the kids in a positive way.”

The team of more than 30 cheer participants had a chance to learn the basics of how cheer is supposed to inspire team spirit in spectators.

“The kids just bought into this right away and that was something different we hadn’t implemented in the past,” Saenz says. “That’s what I am attributing to this year’s success. [Johnson] just brought a new life into us.”

Much like football, the cheer season begins in August with special attention being placed on homecoming and weekly pep rallies. It’s only after these functions begin to wind down toward the end of the semester that the cheer squad begins UIL prep.

During regular season sports, cheer teammates usually have an hour-long practice. But just before a competition, they put in four-hour-plus practice routines to perfect the many categories they will be judged on. Some of those categories include band chant, crowd leading, and fight song.

“During our off-season in the spring, we utilize the weight room, and throughout the year we just do our best to keep up with the maintenance of our technical skills like tumbling and stunts,” Saenz says. “Then from there, it’s just reps to keep cheer participants’ stamina up for things like stretching, jumping, and mental work.”

That’s right — mental work. The cheer team also watches a lot of film throughout their practices to see how routines look in transition.

“We watch a lot of slow-motion films so we can see who exactly is off and know where we can improve visually,” she says.

JAM SESSIONS

Inaugural live music networking event comes to the Stockyards. By

Stephen Montoya

The inaugural Fort Worth Music Festival & Conference at the Stockyards is coming in March.

This musical conference, set to take place at multiple venues March 2-4, will include panel discussions, workshops, networking opportunities, and, oh, yes — live performances.

Produced by Live Nation, in partnership with chef Tim Love and Larry Joe Taylor, the forum is designed to generate awareness surrounding the Texas music scene while working to build an infrastructure in which artists can establish and grow their careers, according to a press release.

“Our vision is to celebrate the musical heritage and history of the Stockyards and to create an experience that unites this landmark district in the heart of Texas,” said Love. “The Stockyards is home to so many iconic venues, it couldn’t be a better time to showcase the destination through the lens of live music.”

Event passes for the conference are available at ticketmaster.com. One pass will get attendees into all panel discussions, attend workshops with established artists, network with industry experts, and see new, emerging Texas-based talent in the heart of Fort Worth.

Some of the artists scheduled to perform include Mike Ryan, Kevin Fowler, Radney Foster, Graycie York, and Josh Weathers, just to name a few.

CONFIRMED KEYNOTE SPEAKERS INCLUDE:

Eddie Kolesel - Why & How Management

Artists Josh Abbott and Brendon Anthony of the Texas Music Office

Martha Taylor - Promoter and Attorney for LJT Festival

Artist Radney Foster

Artist and festival promoter Larry Joe Taylor and Quinn Donahue of C3 Presents

Henry Glasscock - booking agent from WME

Ray Johnston, former professional basketball player, cancer survivor, and now artist

…and more to be added.

This festival is slated to begin with a VIP Party at Tannahill’s on March 1, followed by three days of panels, workshops, and performances. A special acknowledgment of Texas Independence Day is planned for March 2.

For more information on tickets and availability, go to fortworth.com/fwmf.

FEB. 2 – 3

Ryan Bingham

The part-time actor and full-time musician returns to Fort Worth fresh off receiving the Stephen Bruton Award at this year’s Lonestar Film Festival for a two-night stint at the world’s biggest honkytonk.

Billy Bob’s Texas 2520 Rodeo Plaza billybobstexas.com

FEB. 3 – 5

Twist and Shout: Music of the Beatles

The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra gives concertgoers a front-row (or mezzanine, depending on your ticket) seat through the history of the ’60s British invasion. The show will visit some of the Beatles’ most renowned American performances.

Bass Performance Hall

525 Commerce St. basshall.com

FEB. 7

Pretty Woman: The Musical

The Pygmalion/classstruggle tale of a prostitute falling in love with a high-powered corporate raider has long been a natural choice to become a Broadway musical. The show, with music from ’80s crooner Bryan Adams, had its New York debut in 2018 and finally heads on national tour after delays due to COVID-19.

Bass Performance Hall

525 Commerce St. basshall.com

FEB. 7 – 18

Unchain My Heart: The Music of Ray Charles

We like to think it isn’t a stretch to assume the music of Ray Charles, which blends almost every genre under the sun, is universally adored. This musical, which debuted on Broadway in 2010, will present some of Charles’ most recognizable numbers while telling his life story.

Casa Mañana

3101 W. Lancaster Ave.

casamanana.org

FEB. 9

Sushi and Sake Party

Few things are more culinarily impressive than one who rolls his or her own sushi. While this class is perhaps deceptively called a “party,” it’s really more of a class — with sake. The grade-A chefs at Central Market will lecture attendees on the proper way to make rice, the varieties of sushi, and which condiments enhance the flavors of uncooked fish. Central Market 4651 W. Freeway centralmarket.com/cookingschool

A Gala Evening with Yo-Yo Ma

What Michael Jordan is to basketball, Yo-Yo Ma is to the cello — one of the greatest ambassadors for classical music. Ma will be performing for what’s sure to be a sell-out crowd at Bass Hall, where Robert Spano will conduct Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 2 before the cellist takes the stage. Black-tie gala dinner to follow.

Bass Performance Hall 525 Commerce St.| basshall.com

FEB. 10 – MARCH 5

Spaceman

Leave it to Amphibian Stage to take on the mission of sending its audience into outer space. Based on a play by Texan Leegrid Stevens (whose mother-in-law happens to be a Fort Worthian), this performance follows one woman’s solo mission to Mars following her husband’s failed attempt at landing on the red planet. Amphibian Stage 120 S. Main St. amphibianstage.com

FEB.

FEB. 11

Lone Star Murder Mystery Dinner and Show

It’s a classic whodunit — in Western wear. Horace Grimsby, the wealthiest cattle baron in the Lone Star State, has been found dead, and the apprehension of his odious perpetrator rests on the audience’s detective skills. The interactive show comes with a brisket dinner; whether the meat is courtesy of Mr. Grimsby himself, we cannot say.

Billy Bob’s Texas 2520 Rodeo Plaza billybobstexas.com

FEB. 11

Taste the Love (Valentine’s Dinner and Fundraiser)

With Valentine’s Day falling on a Tuesday, we suggest avoiding the agony of dressing to the nines after work and opting for a Saturday celebration. For such an occasion, Taste Community is offering a delectable five-course meal prepared by chef Jeff Williams, which includes Parisian gnocchi, scallops, and a poached pear. Taste Community Restaurant

1200 S. Main St. tasteproject.org

FEB. 12

The Harlem Globetrotters

The world’s most famous basketball team (sorry, Lakers) comes to Dickies Arena, where they’ll undoubtedly defeat the opposing (sacrificial lamb) Washington Generals with a litany of trick shots and behind-the-back passes.

Dickies Arena

1911 Montgomery St. dickiesarena.com

FEB. 16

Rumours ATL: A Fleetwood Mac Tribute

Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks will reunite (at least via a tribute band) at the Stockyards’ hip new music joint. Expect a retrospective of some of the group’s most popular tunes; it’ll be like that band-butchering love triangle never happened.

Tannahill’s Tavern and Music Hall

122 E. Exchange Ave., Ste. 200 tannahills.com

FEB. 16 – MARCH 5

The Play That Goes Wrong

Performances don’t get more meta than this — a play about a play about a murder mystery. As the title suggests, things go very poorly in this classic romp that evokes the comedies of Buster Keaton and Jerry Lewis. And literal miscues and forgotten lines will fit seamlessly with the play.

Stage West Theatre 821 W. Vickery Blvd. stagewest.org

FEB. 24

Andy Shauf

The Saskatchewanian singer/songwriter whose silky-smooth midtempo indie pop has amassed tens of millions of Spotify clicks heads to the Lone Star State in support of a new album, Norm. Nashville-byway-of-Texas artist Katy Kirby will kick things off at 8 p.m.

Tulips

112 St. Louis Ave. tulipsftw.com

FEB. 24 – 26

The Cowtown Marathon

For those with an impressive level of endurance (and lack any cardio hindrances), this is the best event of the year. For those who prefer a lounge lizard lifestyle, be sure to join in and cheer for runners aiming to clock 26.2 miles.

Will Rogers Memorial Center

3401 W. Lancaster Ave. cowtownmarathon.org

FEB. 12 – APR. 20

The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth 3200 Darnell St. | themodern.org

Nikki Kubes

U.S. Olympian, police officer

BY HANNAH BARRICKS

PHOTO

CRYSTAL WISE

It’s hard to imagine Nikki Kubes, a beautiful, tall blonde — lithe yet solid — growing to the 170-plus pounds necessary to compete in the heavy-weight division of judo. “It’s not exactly the dream of every young girl to lift weights every day and choke down creatine to bulk up,” the former Olympian and current Fort Worth police officer jokes. “But in judo, every pound matters.”

Despite having a last name associated with a premium jeweler (yes, Nikki is part of that same Kubes family), Nikki avoided the normal fixation on fashion trends or getting weekly manicures and, instead, spent the majority of her adolescence training for the Olympics — a goal that requires a work ethic and commitment seldom seen adults, much less kids.

It was Nikki’s father, Joe Kubes, who introduced her and her sister, Brigette, to judo when Nikki was only 7. “My father was in law enforcement for 30 years,” Kubes says. “He had two daughters, so he wanted us to know how to protect ourselves.” The girls started attending the Fort Worth Judo Club, where both Brigette and Nikki met prolific champion and coach Tommy Dyer. Dyer, an alternate for the Olympics himself, shared his connections and resources with the two Kubes girls and even sent the pair to Japan for training.

But if you’re worried such devotion caused Nikki to miss out on defining adolescent milestones, think again. “I took a year off to be a normal teen, and I was miserable,” Nikki laughs. “Everything felt pointless.”

Following this shortlived break, Nikki, at

the age of 17, made the 2004 Olympic team and was one of the youngest competitors hitting the mats in the host nation of Greece — barely eked out by Ronda Rousey, who was the youngest judo Olympian and Kubes’ roommate. The two remain friends to this day, by the way. “I didn’t really understand what I was getting involved in or the extent of my capabilities,” Kubes says. “I just knew I loved the sport.”

At the end of the competition, Kubes finished ninth. And while she didn’t bring home any hardware, Nikki did depart with some impressive new stats.

“I had the fastest throw of the entire Olympics,” Nikki says about the grappling technique that involves throwing an opponent to the ground. “It was a powerful feeling.”

My children, Mikah Jane (4) and Westin Joseph (1)

Making the 2004 Olympic team

ippon (punch) at

Nikki would continue training under Dyer while attending TCU, but a knee injury would sideline her from competing in the sport for good. Following the misfortune, Kubes followed in her father’s footsteps in law enforcement and joined the Fort Worth Police Department, where she now serves as a detective. And while her judo skills do, in fact, come in handy, it’s not always in the way you’d expect.

Through the police department’s Police Athlete League (PAL) program, an athletic league sponsored by the FWPD that teaches children self-defense and selfempowerment, Nikki supports burgeoning judokas. Nikki hopes this will enforce resilience among the children, another common thread between her and her father. “Nobody can teach that,” Nikki says. “All those years of [my father] sacrificing and working hard. It taught me what it takes to be NIKKI’S GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENTS

1. With her father, Joe Kubes, after graduating from the academy. 2. The Kubes family during the 50th wedding anniversary of Nikki’s parents, Joe and Yvonne, at Fred’s Texas Cafe. 3. With her daughter Mikah and longtime friend and fellow Olympian Ronda Rousey. 4. Thanksgiving with her children, Mikah (left) and Weston (right). 5. Supporting her alma mater, TCU, with her co-workers. 6. Head coach Tommy Dyer holding Nikki’s son, Weston, during the younger’s first visit to the Fort Worth Judo Club. 7. Nikki’s children visit Santa Claus in Clearfork. 7

Palestine, Texas

Population: 18,756

BY SHILO URBAN

Secret fairy gardens, goat yoga, and African markets stocked with smoked snails aren’t what you usually find in smalltown Texas. But Palestine isn’t your average small town. Situated about two hours southeast of Fort Worth, this Piney Woods outpost blends rich railroad heritage with quirky pops of personality. Sculptures shaped like bizarre 2D creatures add fantastical splashes of color to the historic downtown. La Croix cross stitch kits

for sale share shelves with American flag etiquette books. You can check out the chuckwagon races or source your own pie filling at the pick-yourown blueberry farm. Local festivals celebrate hot peppers, dulcimer music, and dogwood trees, whose lacey white flowers fill the air every spring.

The story of Palestine (pronounced Pal-es-TEEN) runs parallel to the railroad tracks that arrived in 1872, four years earlier than Fort Worth. The onehorse town soon transformed itself into a bustling hub of transportation, home

to a major depot and the general offices of the International & Great Northern Railroad. Tens of thousands of passengers traveled north, south, east, and west through the city while railroad execs and new-money merchants built elaborate Victorian houses. Many of these boom-time relics still stand today, including beautifully well-preserved Queen Anne and Classical Revival mansions. Palestine boasts more than 1,800 historic Texas homes within its city limits; only Galveston has more.

Just east of town, the area’s biggest tourist attraction immerses you in its locomotive legacy: the Texas State Railroad. Stretching the 26 miles

between Palestine and Rusk, the state’s official train line (built in 1881) journeys through forests of tall pines and hardwoods, across bridges and back in time. Steam and diesel engines pull refurbished passenger cars, which range from open-air bench seating to glass-top dome viewing and a swank VIP caboose. In addition to the standard four-hour trip, themed excursions depart throughout the year, like wine-tasting trips and the jingly Polar Express during the holidays.

You’ll experience a different perspective at Palestine’s Railroad Heritage Center, which showcases a massive model train display that measures 37 feet by 17 feet — it fills an entire room. Donated by a Dallas businessman, the diorama’s delight-inducing details include a two-story outhouse and a Boy Scout patrol on the heels of Bigfoot. If you can’t locate the tiny stegosaurus or the skunks rifling through garbage cans, the museum’s curators will point you in the right direction. In fact, everyone in Palestine seems more than happy to help you out and to suggest a shop or bakery not to miss. Stick around a few hours, and you’ll start running into people you’ve already met — and they might even wax poetic about city politics.

But most of all, everyone just wants to talk about the Palestine they love, a classic Texas railroad town that’s just the ticket for down-home charm.

Savor: Oxbow Bakery’s luscious pecan praline pie is worth the trip to Palestine alone. But show up early, because once they’re out — they’re out. Queen St. Grille dishes out upscale ambience and service to match, with treats like bacon-wrapped quail and house-smoked salmon. Find your caffeine fix at Cream and Coffee and pick up a bottle of local whiskey at TahWahKaro Distilling Company (a Grapevine transplant). Eilenberger’s Bakery (the oldest in the state) has been cramming its fruitcakes full of Texas pecans since 1898, and Pint & Barrel slings crowdpleasing pub fare like pulled pork sandwiches and blue cheese fondue fries.

Shop: Most retailers cluster around the downtown core where it’s easy to shop-hop between boutiques and gift stores. Twisted Texas is a fun stop for clothes and sassy accessories with a youthful glow, like fringed fanny packs and pink Converse lace-ups. Color bursts from The Gallery at the Redlands, an engaging whirl of regional artwork. The exterior of Wells Creek Crossing is a bit overwhelming with its maximalist approach, but inside resides a trove of handmade souvenirs and well-priced antiques. If you’re more interested in building your own treasures, duck into Bralys Ace Hardware, which is housed in a converted 1938 elementary school (keep an eye out for the pencil sharpener still attached to the door jamb).

Enjoy: Palestine’s signature event takes place each spring (March 17 to April 2 in 2023):

the Texas Dogwood Trails Celebration, which coincides with the Old Time Music & Dulcimer Festival (March 23 to 25). Dainty dogwood tree blossoms decorate the town and the woodland trails at Davey Dogwood Park, where hidden fairy gardens tempt you to look closer. Palestine hosts dozens of special events during the festival, including an art walk, a chili cook-off, tasting dinners, themed train rides, and a live performance at the 1930 Spanish Colonial Texas Theater. Architecture lovers can download a historical driving tour on visitpalestine.com, which starts at the silver-domed Beaux Arts courthouse.

Snooze: For history in the heart of town, The Redlands Hotel evokes the romance of the railroad era. Owner Jean Mollard runs the iconic inn (originally opened in 1915) with a keen aesthetic sense and a decades-long dedication to its preservation. Rooms are all suites with unique floor plans and kitchens or kitchenettes, and each is adorned with a Christmas tree during the holidays. About six miles north of Palestine is Sabor a Pasion Estate & Vineyard, a secluded B&B with rustic-chic cabins and cottages. It’s also the home of Restaurant Aubergine, an osteria-style establishment headed by the award-winning chef and New Zealander Simon Webster, who brings a creative flair to handmade pasta, rib-eye steaks, and melt-in-your-mouth New Zealand lamb.

How to Get There: Palestine is about 2 hours and 15 minutes southeast of Fort Worth (135 miles). There are multiple routes to choose, but the shortest follows U.S. Highway 287. Simply hop on U.S. 287 heading south from downtown Fort Worth, Interstate 20, or Loop 820. Follow U.S. 287 through Midlothian and Corsicana all the way to Palestine.

Riding a Strange Wave

We talk with Will Rakkar, the lead singer and guitarist of local surf rock band Phantomelo, about love, genre bending, and sea monsters..

BY BRIAN KENDALL

The way the crow flies, Fort Worth is 300 miles from anything that might resemble a coast. That coast, of course, being the murky-watered seashores that rest just outside of Houston. If you want to experience the palm-tree laden, white-sand scenes that inspired the likes of the Beach Boys and Dick Dale & His Del-Tones, you’ll have to trek a solid 1,400 miles. But such daunting distances haven’t stopped engaged couple Amanda “Panda” Cuenca and Will Rakkar — a pair of Fort Worthians, along with drummer Jeff Gerardi, who make up Phantomelo — from diving head-first into surf rock. Or surf-rock-inspired indie electro pop punk — or whatever category fills your heart’s desire — I should say.

“Back in 2017, I really, really, really wanted to start a surf rock band,” Rakkar says over a phone chat. He tells me that his favorite band at the time was Wavves, a San Diego-based rock band for the unaware. “Their lead singer, Nathan Williams, comes up with some of the most catchy, most melodic songs that I’ve heard in a really long time. And he puts it on top of a surf rock soundscape. So, when I initially started, I brought [the music] to Panda, who’s the bassist as well as my fiancé, and said, ‘I wanna do something like this.’”

After winning Cuenca’s enthusiasm, the pair recruited a drummer, Gerardi, who’s more pop and electronic focused. When the three instruments combine, it creates a sound that “dillies and dallies throughout the spectrum of rock.” Seeing the band live can seem like a Spotify playlist on shuffle as the band dabbles in indie, punk, electronic, and gothic.

“I’m kind of proud of the fact that we’ve defied genre so far,” Rakkar says. Heck, he tells me they even wrote a bossa nova song that appears on some of their setlists.

And on the stage is where the band has garnered a substantial local following. Playing the metroplex circuit of hip music venues that include Tulips, Lola’s, Denton’s Rubber Gloves,

and Dallas’ Double Wide, the performances are high energy and frenetic yet undeniably tuneful. The distorted guitars and quick palpitating rhythms can get flat-out metal. But the band will quickly course-correct with a mid-tempo ballad about a seductive killer on the run. They have the bounce of a garage band and the stage presence of rock stars, all emphasized by Cuenca’s flair.

“For our live shows, Panda brings an element of dance,” Rakkar says. “If you ever come out, she’s swinging her hips and doing one-legged squats on stage with her Rickenbacker up in the air. The crowd goes crazy.”

Rakkar grew up in the Plano area and moved to London — yeah, England — when he was 18 to escape a few bad habits (mostly smoking too much weed). “Some people join the Army. Me? I move to London and do construction.” But his childhood included plenty of stints on large bodies of water — oceans and lakes — sailing a 40-foot boat his dad had bought in Texoma. Something that led to his affinity for surf rock.

“I always sort of had this balance between love for the ocean and just complete terror,” Rakkar says. “Because there’s two miles of pitch black salty, briny unknown below you. Probably full of sea monsters.

“I find my mind is at the beach, you know? Frequently, it’s on the ocean.”

Rakkar would return stateside, take a few college courses, and eventually move to the Arlington area, where he started Phantomelo with Gerardi and Cuenca, who was then just a bandmate. As Rakkar puts it, their attempts to keep things strictly platonic ended abruptly following a Pearl Earl show in Deep Ellum.

“I thought it would be tough,” Rakkar says of being in a band with his significant other. “And I think for a lot of people, it would be. But for us, I think it’s cemented the whole relationship as both romantic partners and bandmates.”

In 2019, a torrential rainstorm destroyed the band’s house, flooding the jam room. This act of God led to

TOP FIVE ALBUMS

(TAKEN FROM HIS “BRAIN PILE,” NOT HIS SPOTIFY PLAYLIST)

1 In Rainbows by Radiohead

2 King of the Beach by Wavves

3 America’s Most Wanted by Ice Cube

4 Parachutes by Coldplay

5 Lonerism by Tame Impala

the band taking refuge to Fort Worth, thanks to the recommendation of his former bandmate, Sam Culp of local electronic duo Yokyo.

“Fort Worth has a great scene,” Rakkar says. “People here have your back. Other artists have your back. It’s not all cutthroat like it is in a lot of scenes across the nation. So many places that you expect to have great scenes are kind of underwhelming. Fort Worth is this amazing surprise.”

The band has had a steady stream since its debut EP, Pet Your Dog More, in 2019 — with phenomenal music videos to boot. And with near-monthly appearances at some of the metroplex’s best venues, the DIY band is unlikely to slow down any time soon. Yet, all of this still begs the question: Can you be in a surf rock band in a place where there’s no beach to, I don’t know, surf? “Well, we surf the internet every day,” Rakkar tells me. “So that’s our beach.” Touché.

RAKKAR’S

Take 6: Dizzy Orbit

Meet the masked crocheter

BY SHASTA HAUBRICH

Don’t underestimate it, the act of crocheting is a powerful thing. Sure, it’s productive in the sense that one creates items useful in a utilitarian sense: blankets, beanies, scarfs, etc. But it’s also therapeutic, meditative, and one hell of a shot in the arm for the yarn industry. Those who partake in this addictive and surprisingly modern art form seem to have a leg up in the area of mindfulness.

Prolific artist Dizzy Orbit takes the art of crochet to a new level by creating ornate

masks and partnering with local photographers to snap images of her work. For Dizzy, collaboration is a consistent factor in her process. In August of 2022, local music venue Tulips served as a venue for her work with photographers Q the Filmer and Viktor Villanueva. Titled “Human Statues on Break,” the Southside spot showcased the photographs on its walls. Then, in November, the newly formed group, Black Balloon Collective, held its premiere event in November at Smokestack 1948. As a veritable Orville Peck of the Fort Worth art scene, Dizzy Orbit conceals her true identity in photos under a rotating series of masks. In this month’s Take 6, she talks about how her recent collaborations and what she hopes to accomplish next.

FW: So, in your art making, is the art piece the mask or the photographs created with people wearing the masks?

Dizzy Orbit: Both. Definitely both. Because I could put the same mask on someone different, and it looks different. The mask is my style and color schemes. I feel like I resort to the same color schemes and personas, but whoever wears it brings a different vibe. I’ve photographed the same mask a bunch of different times, and they always look different. Each picture looks different. So, it’s interesting and it’s fun to play around and see what it looks like to someone.

FW: You’ve collaborated often with Viktor Villanueva and Q the Filmer — how did that start?

DO: At first, I would make the masks and Quique [Q the Filmer] was out and about taking photos, so, I said “Hey, if I give you a bunch of masks and you’re hanging out and feel like shooting, will you put these on your skater chick friends?” He’s like, yeah, totally. So, I dropped off 10 masks in a bin, and I sent him all these fabrics to lay in the background and all these things. I had all these grand ideas, but he really brought this cool street element to the work. I loved what he did with it. Then, I started working with Viktor when I

Self-described crochet addict, Dizzy Orbit, teams with photographers and models to create her art.

I had a residency in Dallas at TX Studio. They give you certain dates to work in the space, but they give you the whole day. So I had seven hours in the studio, and I invited people who said they would model for me. I don’t want it to be just me. I get really camera shy. I asked Amira [Belmashkan] and Viktor to come out to model. One time Quique overslept so he was super late to the studio, and I was like, I guess I’m doing the photography, which is cool. I can do photography, too, but I don’t have all the expensive gear that everybody else has. Then Viktor says, “Oh, yeah, I brought a little bit.” So, I’m like, “Hook it up!” It turned into all these great photos, and he has a good vision. It’s like a party with all the masks, and I bring clothes for everybody to try on. We have a vintage rack where we’re styling it all up, and there are all different sizes and we’re playing around. It’s fun. It’s like playing dress-up or a movie montage.

FW: Where do you get the inspiration for your mask designs?

DO: It is usually free form. If I like an organic shape — for example, flowers — I crochet them and put ‘em together, like little puzzle pieces. But I also have a graveyard of stuff that I abandoned. Like, if I had this idea that it was gonna work out and then it didn’t. So, I just put it in that bin and then try to come back to it later. The masks are often made up of a bunch of mixed pieces that I started and then I came back to. I respond to the colors. I’m constantly buying yarn. I see a different orange, and I think, “I don’t have this color yet!” My husband’s like, “Oh, my gosh, more yarn?” But every color is different, every material is different. There’s cotton, there’s acrylic, there’s wool, polyester, there’s all kinds of different stuff.

FW: What do you want to do next?

DO: The thing I would love to do is have an installation. I would love an immersive room where I can put any-

thing I want up. I would love to do an installation and have a wall of heads, and I have these two crocheted little children, so I would make some more of those and make it more immersive. But then have the fine art photography section and an interactive section with big crocheted hands. I have so much work. I’m constantly crocheting something. I have that graveyard of stuff that I know that I can turn into this or that. I just don’t necessarily have a reason yet.

FW: What do you like most about the Fort Worth art scene?

DO: I love the Fort Worth scene. It’s just a community. Like they all support each other. There are so many people that you meet, and they’re all positive and they want you to succeed. It’s kind of like everybody in Fort Worth wants you to win. They’re like,“Hey, you are an artist. I wanna give you a platform.” Then we go to each other’s shows and stuff like that. I think it’s a pretty active scene. Something about being an artist is, I always want to

participate and not be an observer. There’s always something going on where you’re like,“Oh, I can try out for this.” Or there are the markets, like Wandering Roots. There’re ways to get your feet wet.

FW: What advice do you have for artists?

DO: You gotta try everything. I feel like finding your style is the hardest thing. You don’t necessarily need to mimic anybody, but you try a lot of different things. That’s something that was hard for me because you expect your art to look a certain way or you think the people you look up to or you wanna be really realistic. Also, go to shows. You never know who you’re gonna meet. I think that’s the key. Every show that I’ve been in, it is because I’ve met someone through being at another show. If you want to be in the art community, you have to be out in the community. You can’t just watch. You have to actually go out and talk to people.

Cape: Vintage ‘70s cashmere cape (from some vintage store in Dallas she can’t recall)

Top: One of a kind reworked snap “Willie” shirt by Aquarius Cocktail, Los Angeles

Jeans: MOTHER

Boots: Lavender suede platform boots by Charlottes

Shoes

Hat: Custom from Capital Hatters

Closet Raid: Jackie Chieffalo

The owner of clothing boutique Chieffalo Americana invites us to peruse her closet.

BY BRIAN KENDALL

Someone once told Jackie Chieffalo that her house looks like the way she dresses. Don’t worry, she didn’t totally get it either, but there was a speckle of validity to the peculiar observation. “I think it means I’m consistent with what makes me comfortable,” Chieffalo says. “You know how sometimes someone has a certain fashion style, but then you go to their house and it’s all minimal, and it doesn’t match their clothing? With me, fashion extends to my home.”

The Illinois-born Chieffalo, who came to Fort Worth two years ago by way of Los Angeles, effortlessly combines a traditional aesthetic with vintage accessories to make

surprisingly modern and bold fashion statements. It’s Western, chic, retro, and, well, artistic all rolled into one.

Growing up wearing hand-me-downs from her four older brothers — flannel, jeans, and hiking boots — Jackie says her inspiration is a blend of her mom’s practicality and her Chicago-based stepmom’s chicer fashion sense. “I know it’s trendy to say high/low, but I literally lived it.”

While you don’t have to visit Jackie’s house to get a sense of her distinct style — just pay a visit to her clothing boutique, Chieffalo Americana — the magazine was fortunate enough to check out her beautiful home and, more importantly, peruse her closet full of extraordinary threads and accessories.

Style Tips:

1. “Always have a red shoe or red boot.”

2. “Every woman needs a little leopard in her life.”

3. “Learn how to wear a belt.”

4. “Keep your base classic and then have fun with accessories.”

Top: Blue check top by Travota Skirt: Pencil skirt by Noble 31, Dallas Hat: Zuma straw American hat designed by Jackie.

Top: Satin fringe top by Ganni (resale from Vestiaire) Pants: Super-sized cuffed trousers by ALC (resale from Vestiaire)

Shoes: Western Pumps Gianvito Rossi

Fashion Tips:

1. Avoid trends

2. Avoid fast-fashion and anything made in an unethical way

3. Figure out what makes you feel confident and smile

Blazer: One of a kind upcycled punk blazer by Love Worn, Santa Barbara

Top: Vintage “Larry“ work shirt from Dolly Python, Dallas Belt: Gucci Loved Western belt by Gucci Jeans: MOTHER

Boots: Upcycled vintage Dan Post booties by Canty Boots, Montana

4 Courses

The owner and maker of delectable sandwiches at Bodega South Main shares four dishes for cold-weather dining.

BY TASHA MONTICURE

CREAM OF CREMINI SOUP

(Serves 4 to 6)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sliced shallots

• 6 cups sliced cremini mushrooms

• 6 sprigs of fresh thyme taken off stem

• 8 cups beef stock or broth

• 2 cups cream

• salt

• pepper

• white wine

Instructions:

1. Sautee mushrooms, shallots, and fresh thyme for 7 to 10 minutes on medium high heat.

2. Add 1/2 cup white wine and continue to cook additional 5 minutes (if you would like thicker soup, you may add 3 tablespoons of flour at this point).

3. Add beef stock or broth, salt and pepper to taste, and simmer for 10 minutes.

4. Finish with 2 cups of cream. Stir until incorporated and warm. Serve.

Tasha Monticure

PHOTOS

ARUGULA SALAD WITH ROASTED BEETS AND PECANS

(Serves 4 to 6)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound quality arugula

• 3 cups roasted pecans

• 2 cups crumbled goat cheese

• 3 cups roasted beets cubed

Instructions:

1. Combine arugula, pecans, goat cheese in a bowl, tossing with pomegranate vinaigrette.

2. Divide into 4 to 6 portions and then sprinkle evenly with cubed roasted beets.

Pomegranate Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup pomegranate molasses

• 1/2 cup olive oil

• Juice of 1 orange

• Juice of 1 lemon

• 1/4 cup rice vinegar

• 3 tablespoons honey

ROASTED TENDERLOIN

Ingredients:

• 4- to 6-pound tenderloin, pat dry with paper towel

• 1 stick room temperature unsalted butter

• 6 tablespoons Dijon mustard

• 2 cups chopped Italian parsley

• Kosher salt

• Pepper

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 500 F.

2. Rub and coat tenderloin evenly with softened butter, the Dijon mustard, and salt and pepper on both sides. Finish with parsley.

3. Roast tenderloin 25 minutes or until temperature is 125 degrees for medium rare.

4. Remove from oven and let rest for 30 minutes before slicing

CREAMY POLENTA

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 white onion diced

• 1 red bell pepper diced

• 3 cups dry polenta

• 6 cups chicken stock

• 4 teaspoons kosher salt

• Ground black pepper

• 8 cups whole milk

• 2 cups Parmesan cheese

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter

Instructions:

1. Add olive oil, onion, red pepper, and polenta to large stock pot.

2. Brown for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. Add hot chicken stock, salt and pepper, and stir, cooking at medium high temperature.

4. When the polenta appears to thicken and lose liquid, begin adding whole milk a cup at a time, stirring and adding liquid while cooking for approximately 30 minutes.

5. Test polenta to make sure it is soft and not al dente after 30 minutes of cooking and stirring.

6. Add Parmesan and butter at end. Serve warm.

BALSAMIC ROASTED ZUCCHINI

Ingredients:

• 3 large zucchinis rough chopped or cut into thick strips

• Olive oil

• Kosher salt

• Pepper

• Balsamic vinegar

Instructions:

1. Roast in 400-F oven for 20 minutes.

MOLTEN CHOCOLATE PIE

Ingredients:

• 1 homemade pie crust prebaked (recipe below)

• 4 large eggs

• 1 1/2 cups sugar

• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

• 2 teaspoons instant coffee granules

• 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt.

• 10 tablespoons salted butter melted

• 2 teaspoons vanilla

• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Whisk eggs and sugar together; add cocoa powder instant coffee and salt.

3. Whisk in melted butter; fold in chocolate chips

4. Pour into prebaked crust and bake 45-55 minutes until top is puffed up but still wiggly in center

5. Let cool 15 minutes and serve warm or chill and serve later with whipped cream

Pie crust:

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cup flour

• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1 cup salted butter cut into small pieces

• 1/2 cup cold water

Instructions:

1. Mix flour and salt

2. Cut butter into flour mixture and use pastry blender to form pea-size mixture

3. Add cold water one tablespoon at a time

4. Form into a ball and divide into two equal parts, rolling one part into a pie crust and the other to form a braided crust if desired

5. Prick the bottom of the pie pan with a fork and bake at 375 F for 10-15 minutes until set.

Going Solo

With a new grocery store and café, and another concept on the way, expert dumpling maker Hao Tran strikes out on her own.

BY MALCOLM MAYHEW

Hao Tran has opened an Asian market in Fort Worth and will soon follow it up with a culinary studio named after an Indiana Jones character.

For years, Hao Tran has played an integral role in Fort Worth’s food and restaurant scene but usually as part of a team.

Under the banner of Hao & Dixya, she and business partner Dixya Bhattarai made a name for themselves for creating ridiculously inventive — and delicious — Asian dumplings. When she delved into the world of restaurant ownership, she did so as one of four partners in The Table, a market and culinary studio on the Near Southside. And, most recently, she and another business partner, Natasha Bruton, opened The Pantry, a quaint café on Magnolia Avenue that serves a mix of Asian and New Orleans cuisine.

But after years of being in a band, so to speak, Tran has gone solo. In mid-January, the 54-year-old Fort Worthian opened Hao’s Grocery & Café in the space occupied by The Table, which closed earlier this year after her partners decided to focus on another concept. And she’ll soon open Lao Che Lounge. Named after a villain in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” and located next door to Hao’s Grocery, Lao Che will be a gathering spot for pop-up dinners, cooking classes, and other special events.

Tran’s two high-profile concepts come after a shaky year that found her at odds with Bruton, who, like Tran, is also a schoolteacher by day. The Pantry opened last August, but by the end of October, Tran had left.

“There’s always challenges to having business partners,” she says. “But this was affecting my love and heart for the food itself. I decided it might be time for me to do something by myself.” (Bruton has continued running The Pantry on her own.)

Tran has transformed The Table space into a culinary market with an emphasis on Asian cuisine, local and regional foods, and specialty items you might not find elsewhere.

Of course, Tran’s dumplings are up for grabs. “Our standards have been lemongrass pork and curry potato, but

the menu will rotate with seasonal ingredients,” she says. “Recently, I’ve done vegan kimchi; beef and chive; purple potato, our TCU tribute; and black garlic shiitake and water chestnuts.”

An avid traveler, Tran sometimes dreams up recipes based on foods she’s had in other parts of the world.

Tran was born in Saigon in 1975 during an especially turbulent time in the country’s history. To say the least, it was a difficult time for her family. “We left Vietnam on the day of the fall of Saigon, April 30, 1975,” she says. “My mother, who was an only child, did not want to leave my grandmother. My grandmother said she was too old to go anywhere and would stay to watch over the house. Before we left, she had sown seeds in the hem of my mother’s shirt, pearls in my brother’s shirt, and cyanide in mine and my sister’s shirt.

“We could grow food, and if we got separated, my brother could live on selling the pearls, and as for my sister and I, she could not think what would happen to young girls in the hands of the Viet Cong, hence the poison. After my father passed away in 1983, my mother told me this story and took out the pearls. She had put them back as two strands and said she would give them to me and my sister when we got married. Each pearl is a year of my life that I got from not having to resort to the alternative and my mother and my grandmother’s sacrifices to give me strength when I need it.”

Her family was able to escape. “It was chaos, but we managed to get on a C-130 cargo airplane,” she says. “I remember it was so hot, we were packed in there like sardines.”

She and her family were transported to refugee camps in Thailand, then California, before Catholic Charities stepped in and sponsored them, moving the family to Arlington. “We were the first Vietnamese refugees to be brought to Arlington,” she says. “I remember my mother cut out this article from the Arlington Gazette. They had interviewed my father about leaving Saigon and how our experiences had been so far. In the

Menu items at Tran’s new spots will include soup dumplings, Chinese hot pot and Vietnamese tapioca dumplings.

photo he was barefoot and wearing a T-shirt with a frog on it. He didn’t care what he looked like. He was just happy to be here.”

Food became an important part of Tran’s life by way of her extended family in Canada, whom Tran would sometimes visit.

“My aunt owned a French Vietnamese restaurant in Old Montreal, where there are cobblestone streets lined with ethnic restaurants,” she says. “My uncle would pick up fresh lobsters at sunrise from the boats at the port to make their house special — garlic and cheese fried lobster.

“My grandmother also had an influence on me. I watched her cook on a wood-burning stove, preserving duck eggs or making soy milk from beans,” she says. “I would go with her to open-air markets, where I’d see live chickens, colorful fruits, and street foods. I can still smell the aromas of grilled meats.”

After graduating from Texas A&M in 1991, she moved to Fort Worth, where she spent three decades as a teacher in the Fort Worth ISD; she has also raised two daughters here.

“I would have to say, without a doubt, that they are my proudest accomplishment,” Tran says. “Their hearts, their kindness, and their laughter are what I’ll take with me wherever I go. And they will get the pearls when I’m gone.”

The Sausage King of Fort Worth

Sausage Shoppe continues its three-decade run at an East Side spot that previously housed Wilson’s BBQ and Big Boyz BBQ.

BY MALCOLM MAYHEW

In barbecue circles, not that long ago, mind you, sausage was often considered an afterthought — the third wheel to brisket and ribs. Many barbecue restaurants, short on time and know-how, would skip making their own and instead opt for selling commercial links. Making sausage takes patience, and most barbecue restaurants would rather spend theirs on fine-tuning their brisket and ribs.

The craft barbecue movement currently sweeping over Fort Worth has, of course, been a game-changer for sausage. It’s now front and center on various barbecue menus, and pitmasters like Trevor Sales of Brix BBQ and Dayne Weaver

of Dayne’s BBQ take great pride in making their own and coming up with various flavor combinations.

But for the local Chambers family, sausage has always been a way of life. For the past quarter century, Ivy Chambers and now his son, Alandres, have run a quaint soul food restaurant called Sausage Shoppe, in which the restaurant’s namesake is the star dish.

“Some places do great burgers, some do great pizza,” Alandres says.

“Our calling card is sausage. It’s what’s kept us in business all these years.”

The family recently moved Sausage Shoppe to a new location at 3329 Alta Mesa Blvd., their third location in 25 years. Alandres now runs the restaurant after Ivy passed away last year.

A native of East Texas, Ivy used to sell sausage out of his home, then out of a small restaurant on East Seminary, where legions of in-theknow neighbors would line up for his links, which he grinded, stuffed, and smoked himself.

“He learned how to make it from

The handmade sausage at Sausage Shoppe, one of the oldest barbecue joints in Fort Worth.

his father,” Alandres says. “And that’s how I learned how to do it, by watching my father. The recipes and techniques have all been handed down.”

In 2009, when Ivy turned the business over to Alandres, the restaurant expanded its footprint considerably, moving into a larger spot on McCart Avenue in far south Fort Worth. As a result of the higher profile, barbecue chasers began to take notice, including Daniel Vaughn, aka the BBQ Snob, who posted a favorable review.

“The Star-Telegram had always been kind to us, but we started noticing new faces after Daniel wrote about us,” Alandres says.

In December, they moved once again to the Alta Mesa location, once home to Taste ‘N See, a chicken and waffles spot. “There’s a bigger dining room, a drive-through window, more space to park, a patio,” Alandres says. “There’s a church next door, a doctor’s office. A lot of built-in foot traffic.”

Sausage is served in a very plain and simple and straightforward way — on a plate by the whole link (roughly a pound), with pickles and onions and a couple pieces of white bread. You can slice it (novice!) or wrap the bread, onions, and pickles around it and tear into it using only your hands and teeth.

There are also sausage sandwiches, made with your choice of beef, pork, or a blend of the two. Sandwiches are

a less expensive way to sample each of the three sausages; each comes with about a quarter pound to half a pound of meat.

Though sausage is the restaurant’s signature item, there’s also a full menu of soul food.

There are turkey wings as big as the State Fair’s, chicken spaghetti, chicken-fried steak, pork chops, meatloaf, oxtails, beef tips, and what may be the restaurant’s second favorite dish, smoked chicken. It shares smoker space with the sausage, occupying the lower rack of a tall cabinet smoker, where it sops up fat juices sweated out by the sausage, essentially basting it.

Sides include mashed potatoes, collard greens, black-eyed peas, cucumber salad, french fries, potato salad, and candied yams made with brown sugar and marshmallows. Alandres’ mom, Mary, often makes desserts.

On a recent Saturday, the dining room was buzzing with energy. Alandres alternates between working the cash register, the drive-thru line, and the kitchen. So does, essentially, everyone else who works there.

A picture of Ivy hangs nearby.

“I know he’d be proud,” Alandres says. “He built this, and we’re carrying it on. Third generation of sausage-makers. Yes, I know he’d be proud.”

Sausage Shoppe, 3329 Alta Mesa Blvd., soulfoodfortworthtx.com

Bits and Bites

The long-awaited Fort Worth location of the Truck Yard has finally opened in far north Fort Worth, at 3101 Prairie Vista Drive. In the works for years, but delayed by the pandemic, the spacious indoor/ outdoor venue features food trucks, a honky-tonkthemed bar, a Ferris wheel, and enough rustic décor to open an antique shop; it’s dog- and family-friendly, to boot. The Fort Worth location joins three others in Dallas, Houston, and The Colony. There will be at least three food trucks on site, all day, every day. For a schedule of trucks, visit truckyardalliance.com.

The first location of the long-running Texas BBQ chain Soulman’s BBQ has opened in far south Fort Worth, at 4500 Sycamore School Road. Soulman’s serves old-school barbecue, not the newish craft stuff, with an emphasis on St. Louis-style pork spareribs, baked potatoes topped with your meat of choice, BBQ bowls stuffed with meat, fries, creamed corn and Fritos, and of course just regular ol’ sandwiches.

Soulman’s original location opened in 1974 in Pleasant Grove. Still family-owned by founder Don Hallett, the chain is now 19 locations strong, with stores in Allen, Cedar Hill, Forney, Red Oak, Rockwall, and other Texas cities. Smartly, they’re typically located right off the interstate. Especially in East Texas, where there are several locations, their highway-side billboards are practically Texas landmarks. soulmans.com

A Chicago-based restaurant will soon move into a space where a ridiculous number of other restaurants have fallen. Goat & Vine Restaurant + Winery is slated to open this spring at 2600 W. Seventh St., in the seemingly cursed end-cap spot where nearly a dozen other restaurants have failed, including Mac’s Steaks & Seafood, Bite City Grill, M Bistro, and the two-restaurants-in-one, Barrel & Bones Craft Bar & Smokehouse and Bourbon Street Oyster Bar & Grill.

Goat & Vine is an upscale concept with its own line of wines, available by the glass, bottle, or in flights. The food menu is a mix of Italian and American, with sandwiches, steaks, pastas, and soups and salads. Entrees include lobster ravioli, squid ink pasta, a burger topped with goat cheese, fig jam and kale, and gorgonzola gnocchi. Part of the We Are Hospitality restaurant group, Goat & Vine entered the North Texas market in 2021 with a location in Plano. Another store is opening in Allen, according to the restaurant’s website. For more info, visit goatandvinewinery.com.

Restaurant news written and compiled by Malcolm Mayhew. You can reach Malcolm at malcolm. mayhew@hotmail.com or on Twitter @foodfortworth.

Alandres Chambers inherited the Sausage Shoppe from his parents, Ivy and Mary Chambers.

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EAT. SLAY. LOVE.

Tim Love, the celebrity chef about whom we all have strong feelings, is going to keep on being Tim Love, thank you very much.

BY BRIAN KENDALL PHOTOGRAPHY

CRYSTAL WISE

WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY

MALCOLM MAYHEW

TIM LOVE IS SITTING ALONE AT THE BAR. IT’S EARLY IN THE MORNING, JUST BEFORE 9 A.M., AND HE’S DOING A LITTLE WORK, SO THE BARSTOOLS AND GREEN MARBLE COUNTERTOP SERVE AS HIS MAKESHIFT DESK.

His back is to me, but I can tell he’s crouched over some papers, coffee cup within reach. He seems busy. We have an interview scheduled, so I would normally just go up and say hi. Yeah, but still, I shouldn’t bother him. He seems really busy. Besides, I’m a few minutes early. Just hang out on the side, get on your phone, and wait for him to notice you.

Right?

Sure.

A few seconds pass, and we make eye contact.

“Hey, want some doughnuts?”

“You have doughnuts?”

“Oh, yeah. We got doughnuts and coffee right over here,” Love points to the other side of the bar. “Help yourself.”

They’re the fancy kind — in other words, not a box of glazed — and they’re neatly placed on a platter. Probably the nicest display of a deep-fried breakfast confections I’ve ever seen. And not knowing my palate, he (or his people) clearly got the doughnut party pack; no

two are the same. Straddled with a choice too early in the morning, I nervously grab the one with blue icing and what I think are Oreo crumbles. I don’t know, I never ended up taking a bite out of it.

“You got all of this for us?” I ask halfjoking.

“Oh, yes.”

He’s dead serious.

“We’re all about hospitality, man. If I know some people are going to be here in the morning, we make sure we got something sweet and savory for everyone.”

It’s a line, but I like it.

General salutations and hi-how-areyous follow, and he shows me what he’s

working on — a revamped menu for Woodshed, his patio eatery on the Trinity. The wheels are turning. I can sense it. He’s thinking hard, and his creative juices are flowing; then a writer comes along and builds a dam around this flow with a bunch of questions. But it’s all good. He’s game and clearly kind enough to grant me an entire day to get to know him for this profile. After all, when you’re opening restaurants at a clip of three a year (he opened Caterina’s, Paloma Suerte, and Tannahill’s all in 2022), creating music festivals (Fort Worth Music Festival), and boutique hotels made from shipping crates (Otto), you’re always working. You’re always ideating, conceptualizing, and ruminating. At this point, for Love, it’s a necessity to survive.

I find a way to steer the conversation toward something that’s fresh on my mind: “Iron Chef”. Yeah, I watched the episode featuring Love the night before to prepare for the interview. I start telling him that I used to be an avid watcher of “Iron Chef America” — the cooking show credited with kicking off the chef/food reality show craze of the early- to mid-aughts. Back when the Food Network was a default channel to which I consistently flipped, and chefs became larger-than-life figures. Their concoctions, light years ahead of pan-seared poultry with garlic powder, became primetime television and successfully put the public’s viewing habits under its spell. And Tim Love was, and is, one of those people. A celebrity chef. And, more than that, he was the chef from Fort Worth. The cowboy chef. It might’ve seemed a little shticky, but it also wasn’t a stretch, and Love appeared more than happy to lean into it.

And it all started with a 2007 appearance on “Iron Chef America”

when he challenged original Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto and came out the victor.

I probably remember three episodes of “Iron Chef,” I tell him. I used to watch it all the time, but my recall is strongest with those three. And the one that might stick out the most to me was watching these dudes in Stetsons taking whiskey shots throughout the competition, defeating the original Iron Chef.

“We drank a whole bottle before the show,” Love laughs. “[Morimoto’s] restaurant was at the bottom floor of the Chelsea Market, so they’ve got this big home-field advantage bringing in shaved ice machines and stuff. Meanwhile, it’s just me and my two guys over here, and we were just trying to have a good time.”

Love goes on to wax lyrical about the famous tuna rib dish he’d prepared for the show and his continued friendship with Mario Batali. And I’m realizing, damn, this is good stuff. The things he’s sharing. What he’s saying. It’s not what I

expected. Wait. Has the interview started? I don’t know. My tape recorder’s not running; I start taking notes. I’m nervous about asking the question. I kind of saw it as the crux of the story, but I worry what his reaction might be. I mean, how would you feel if someone asked why some didn’t like you? I wanted to do this story in an attempt to find out why so many people are divided in their opinion of Love. That’s not to say he’s universally disliked. Far from it. One couldn’t be this successful if they had to routinely live among such vitriol. In fact, I would argue he’s liked. But bring up Tim’s name in passing, and everyone in Fort Worth seems to have an opinion.

Is it because people find him arrogant? Is it because people find him surly? Is it because he’s difficult to work with? Is it because people don’t like his businesses?

Anecdotally, I’ve heard all of the above. On the record? None of the above. So, I should move on. But I want to get Tim’s take. I want to know how he feels about it and how it affects him.

Two things that are universally accepted about Mr. Love: He loves his family, and he’s an incredibly talented chef with a strong creative streak. A streak that began at the turn of the century when Love opened his first restaurant, Lonesome Dove — a fine-dining Western bistro in the Stockyards and the epitome of what one might consider a Fort Worth staple.

Today, Love’s diversified portfolio of experiential brands includes Austin and Knoxville locations of Lonesome Dove, six additional restaurants in Fort Worth, a saloon, a doughnut shop, a steakhouse in Denton, a music venue, and a hotel.

“What Love has figured out, and he did this on his own, is how to build equity in your name — that way, people will follow you from place to place,” Mike Micallef, owner of Reata, where Love once worked as executive chef, says. “The other thing he’s figured out, and this goes along with building equity in your name, is how to make each of his places an experience. A lot of chefs get hung up on the food, and that’s important, but for Love it’s also about the decor, the service, the location, the entire experience from beginning to end. Look at his places — they’re all Instagrammable.”

But not every concept Love touches has turned to gold.

Love’s first attempt at expanding beyond Fort Worth was not a success. In the fall of 2006, he opened a second location of Lonesome Dove Western Bistro in New York. The New York media, unforgiving and merciless in criticism, wasted little time picking apart every aspect of the restaurant. Hell, picking apart aspects I didn’t know existed (the front rug?).

But, to give Love a quick defense, not everyone agreed. “Tim’s smartest early move was to open a Lonesome Dove in New York, even if briefly,” Bud Kennedy, food critic for the Fort Worth StarTelegram, says. “It was a good restaurant and made a great impression on a lot of folks.” Regardless, the following March, less than a year after it opened, Lonesome Dove NY closed.

And, as is the fate of almost any restaurateur, this wouldn’t be the sole instance of bad press or a restaurant closing. Love also closed a tapas bar called Duce on the west side, on Camp Bowie Boulevard. He also tried to revive one of Fort Worth’s most cherished dive bars, the Oui Lounge on Bluebonnet Circle, in 2012. But his revamp was too polished for regulars, and a year later, it closed. Love Shack, Love’s cleverly named string of burger joints, has had limited success. Locations at the Fort Worth Stockyards and DFW Airport are open while three other North Texas stores closed. Then, there’s the infamous Colonial debacle, where his poorly received catering at the Crowne Plaza Invitational lives in Fort Worth lore. In August 2022, CultureMap reported

that Love had shuttered three Houston restaurants: the Houston locations of Woodshed Smokehouse and Love Shack, plus a Houston location of his doughnut concept, Side Dough, itself an offshoot of his doughnut shop connected to Queenie’s Steakhouse, his steakhouse in Denton. All three Houston concepts opened at the worst time imaginable, on March 12, 2020, as the pandemic held the state in its grip. A week later, Governor Greg Abbott closed Texas restaurants for in-person dining.

So, yeah, Tim Love has had his hits and taken some licks. You have part of the picture now.

Tape recorder clicked on. We start the interview.

guy to talk to.

His voice changes, however, when the conversation shifts to his wife’s accident in late February of 2019 — a near-fatal injury that almost cost her the use of her legs. His voice gets lower and feels on the edge of trembling or falling off the edge completely.

“My wife (Emilie) is the strongest most phenomenal woman, literally on the planet. I mean, I don’t know if you know about her accident or any of that stuff she went through.”

“Yeah,” I tell him. “I actually wanted to ask you about that.”

“Talk about the darkest days of my life: 2019 to 2021, markedly the two toughest years of my life.”

Love likes to talk business. He likes to talk ideas. It’s his comfort zone, and he’s damn good at it. Whether he’s chatting about his big, experiential schemes — of which there are many — or the management of his employees, there’s a clarity to his words and an excitement in his voice.

And when you get him going, when he starts riffing, his twangy timbre can resemble Matthew McConaughey. And, similar to his fellow Texan, he occasionally speaks in playful proverbs — “I always say I walk with a 100-foot circle of fun around me. Get in or get out. I wish you’d get in” — and intersperses these aphorisms with musical references (clearly a love of his), stories (usually about his friends and family), and pithy cooking pointers (“Just throw a damn egg in it,” or “The death of Italian restaurants is salt in the water”). When speaking, Love occupies that vast area between down-to-earth and ostentatious. At times, he teeters on both, but I wouldn’t describe him as either. He has a tendency to casually mention celebrity names — his reputation as an outstanding cook and stints catering musical festivals have made him plenty of famous friends — which rattles me into remembering that he too is a celebrity. Regardless, he’s a fun

“I always say I walk with a 100-foot circle of fun around me. Get in or get out. I wish you’d get in”

For a man whose parents got a divorce when he was 11, grew up the youngest of seven in a single-parent’s household, and whose wife was once on weeks of bedrest following the premature birth of twin daughters, this statement, which I don’t suspect has any recency bias, has a lot of weight. Now, I’m not attempting to paint Love’s life as difficult. I could. But he’ll be the first to tell you otherwise. It’s as though Love speaks in dichotomies. One moment, he’ll tell a story about his family not being able to afford heat, so they burned dining room chairs to stay warm during a cold snap. A few sentences later, he’ll unironically talk about how blessed he’s been throughout his life. And it’s not as though he’s happygo-lucky. In some ways, it’s simpler: He just doesn’t like to talk about or remember bad things.

When I first asked him how old he was when his parents got a divorce — I did get an answer the second time I posed the question — he filled me in on one of his peculiarities.

“You know, I was thinking about this yesterday, ’cause you had said you wanted to get into my childhood. And, I don’t know if it’s a good or bad trait of mine, but anything negative that happens in my life, I just kind of, I just forget about it, really. I mean, I learned from it. And that’s it.”

Eventually, later in the day after we had had a couple drinks, I apologized for my

negative string of questions. The way I remember phrasing it: “Sorry. It’s my job to bring up shitty things.”

“That’s fine. Sorry. Listen, that ain’t the first time, you know? And it ain’t gonna be the last time. People love to talk about the negative things that I do. And it’s fine. I prefer to stay on the positive side.”

While Love isn’t a Fort Worth boy in the sense that he was born here, his hometown is still solidly in the North Texas plains. Love was born and raised in Denton. He was the first and only Texas-born kid of his brothers and sisters, and his mom wanted to name him Breckenridge, after the city where he was conceived. His dad was a doctor, “a damn good doctor,” and the family had only recently moved to the Lone Star State from Wilmington, Delaware. As mentioned before, he was the youngest and is, by his own admission, a mistake. “My brothers and sisters go right in a row from 14 down to 7. One every year. Then, all of a sudden, there’s a big gap.”

years ago. Gemelle, which means twin in Italian, is named for his twin daughters, Anna and Ella. And Queenie’s is named after his mother.

But, even if he doesn’t like talking about it, his family did have hardships during his formative years.

“Sometimes, when I’m telling stories, I feel like I’m telling tall tales. Like, when I look back on it, it just doesn’t make sense.”

“We literally ate mustard and cheese sandwiches every day. Yeah, my dad was a doctor, but when you have seven kids and your parents get divorced, it’s just rough. I mean, my dad did all the right things. He never missed a payment of child support. But my mom was stuck with this big house and seven kids. My mom cries every time I tell these stories, but it’s, like, ‘Mom, it’s not that big of a deal. We’re all still here.’”

they had into it.

Love recalls, in the days leading up to the opening of Lonesome Dove, a time when he ran into Kennedy, the StarTelegram food critic, at Milano’s Pizza in Arlington. Love, then an unknown to Mr. Kennedy, introduced himself and told him about his plans to open a fine-dining restaurant in the Stockyards. According to Love, Kennedy replied, “You know three or four people have already done that, right? You can’t do fine dining in the Stockyards. No one can do fine dining in the Stockyards.”

“Ask Kennedy about that, and he’ll tell you the same thing.” We did, and Kennedy told us a similar story.

Love’s animosity for the media is well documented — making the shoes I currently occupy a little scary. But he’s also taken a beating — some fair, some not — so I understand his skepticism. Regardless, I sensed he likes to wear his refute of Kennedy as a badge of honor.

To say Love is close to his family feels like an understatement. The way he talks about his loved ones (which encompasses not just his immediate family, but his extended one, too) makes the whole brood seem conjoined. Knotted together. But not in an annoying way, rather in a we-wantto-continue-making-great-memoriestogether way. Love talks frequently and enthusiastically about cooking for everyone. “Is it a lot of work for me? Of course, but I don’t care. I love hosting it.” And he smiles anytime family is brought up in conversation, as though he’s tapping into his memory bank and thinking of something funny.

To get a sense of their importance in his life, you need look no further than the names of his restaurants. While his sometimes-grandiose ideas come straight from his imagination, it’s his family who influences what everyone calls them. The new tavern and music hall, Tannahill’s, is named after his son. The recently opened Caterina’s is named for his sister, Kathleen, who passed away two and half

We’ve now clocked a few hours at our first spot, Tannahill’s — Love’s new music venue/tavern/ social club/fill-in-the-blank — and we get antsy for a change of scenery. He now has six brick-andmortar spots in the Stockyards, an area of town that’s bustling, expanding, and synonymous with the chef.

There’s no denying Love’s impact on the way the Stockyards have taken shape. When Love opened Lonesome Dove in 2000, you likely had one of either two popular reactions: a yawn or a sneer. Today, it’s one of the hottest pieces of real estate in all of Texas.

“Years ago, if you wanted to go look for a fight, if you wanted to smart off to someone and get in a fistfight, you could very easily find that at the Stockyards,” Micallef says. “But Tim’s concepts and the development of Mule Alley have brought back an important element to the Stockyards. He’s been instrumental in turning that area into a destination.”

His prophesying Mule Alley or Hotel Drover the moment he spotted the rundown building that would soon house Lonesome Dove is highly unlikely. At that moment, he was only focused on his small restaurant succeeding. He had no choice. He and his wife put everything

We decide to head across the street to his new Italian spot, Caterina’s, that caused a stir thanks to a no-cell-phone policy. For some, this is where Love’s obsession with atmosphere and experience crossed a line. Detractors cried such havoc that one could’ve mistaken their mobile devices for something sacred. Granted, others found the policy inspired.

Inside the dimly lit restaurant, I started quizzing Love on why he wanted to become a chef.

“Well, to pay for college.”

Love had worked since he was 12 when he did his neighborhood paper route and even flexed his business acumen by letting the Denton Record-Chronicle in on a little secret: It makes more sense to bill first and deliver later.

His father got a farm in Cookeville, Tennessee, where Love spent his summers and would eventually enroll in the nearby University of Tennessee. Once there, he applied at a Knoxville restaurant, Kotsi’s Grill and Spirits to be a bartender, server, or host because he wanted “to meet chicks.” Curtailing Love’s libido, the owner offered him a job making salads for $5.23 an hour.

As one might say, the rest is history.

“I fell in love with it. I fell in love with the competition of it. It’s like war back

there — people yelling at me the whole time, telling me how terrible I am. And I was like, ‘To hell with that; I’m not gonna be terrible, I’m gonna be great.’”

A year later, Love was running the kitchen.

From there, Love did some restaurant hopping in Knoxville and transitioned to running a hotel. Yes, running a hotel. Oh, and this was all in a three-year span; he hasn’t even graduated college, where, by the way, he was involved in crew.

Hell, it even baffles him.

“Sometimes, when I’m telling stories, I feel like I’m telling tall tales. Like, when I look back on it, it just doesn’t make sense.”

Not sure why he’s saying it at this moment. There’s much more to come. He was working at the Radisson when he graduated with a double major in finance and marketing from Tennessee. It’s a job he summarily left after he graduated to go hike the Appalachian Trail by himself.

was a manager.

For Love, who had grown his hair past his shoulders — down near his lumbar — it was love at first sight. But young love, in all of its turbulence, is often unrequited.

“I’d say it was love at second glance,” Emilie says. “We worked together, and then we became such good friends. I do remember he had long hair, and that just wasn’t my thing. Yeah, I didn’t even think much of anything until he cut his, and

he saw a yard umbrella hit the restaurant window, 488 feet above the ground.

Love admits that he used the tornado to leave Reata, where he felt restricted and unable to flex his culinary skills. So, at the age of 28, and having been in Fort Worth for only two years, Love opened a finedining establishment in the Stockyards.

Emilie, meanwhile, kept working at Del Frisco’s. After all, she was the safety net. She was the safeguard. If anything happened to Tim, she could hold them up. This is what made her accident in 2019 so devastating, because she’s the one who fell.

Following this 2,200mile hike through the mountains, he took a job washing dishes in Breckenridge, Colorado, because, well, he wanted to ski. Or, snowboard, really. “I was a skater, and snowboarding was the cool thing and shit.” He would teach handicapped kids how to ski to earn his lift pass, and he would end up snowboarding professionally for a company called Nerve. “They’d pay me, like, 20 grand a year, and I’d use all their gear.”

But once restaurateurs discovered Love could cook, and cook well, his dishwashing days were over. He would hop around a little bit, taking over a kitchen and then partnering with someone to open his own kitchen, but neither panned out. He’d ultimately find a home at Uptown Bistro, the owners of which also owned Blue River Bistro, where Emilie

then I was like, ‘Oh, wait, who’s that?’”

According to Emilie, things moved pretty quickly. The next thing she knew they were living together and doing laundry. They would date for about 18 months before the pair moved to Fort Worth in May of ’98.

Love would famously get a gig at Reata in 1999, becoming their head chef and quickly making a name for himself, and Emilie started working at Del Frisco’s. When the 2000 tornado struck Fort Worth, the funnel seemed to zero-in on Bank One Tower (now The Tower), where Reata occupied the top space. The tornado happened on a Tuesday. Reata is closed on Tuesdays, but Love was in the restaurant doing finances in the kitchen. He didn’t recognize the twister was coming until

“So, what exactly happened?” I ask.

I can tell, once the story of the 2019 incident kicks off, how demanding it is for either of them (I interviewed Tim and Emilie separately) to tell it.

Love was in Knoxville doing a charity event on the same weekend Emilie was running the Cowtown HalfMarathon. “She had gotten the best time she’s ever had,” Love says. “It wasn’t anything crazy, but it was the best time she had ever had.” The two planned on meeting in Nashville following the race, where Love was presenting an award to the Kings of Leon, whom he happens to be good friends with (like, really good friends. Like, godfather-of-one-of-their-children good friends). Of course, the way Emilie puts it, “He had driven to Nashville, where we had some meetings, and he was giving an award and yada yada.”

When Emilie’s plane lands in Nashville, she’s “texting him, ‘Hey, landed, getting an Uber.’ So, my Uber comes, and I’m putting my little carry-on in, and the car behind me never stopped, and it pens me between the two car bumpers.

“So, my knees to my ankles, my legs, are crushed.”

As Love puts it, her legs are dangling from the skin, and all of her bones are broken. It’s a multiple bilateral fracture.

“I thought someone had pushed me to try to steal my purse,” Emilie says. “Like, I didn’t even know what was happening. But when I looked at my legs, they were literally zig-zagged everywhere.”

Once Love gets the news via a number he didn’t recognize, he races to the Vanderbilt Trauma Center and, actually, beats her there. After a wait, the first person he sees is a social worker.

“Well, the social worker coming out in the hospital means whoever you’re concerned about, he or she is dead. That’s the only reason a social worker comes out and not the doc. So, I tell her, I’m not talking to you. I wanna talk to the doctor. But the reason the ER doctor didn’t want to talk to me was because he didn’t know what to tell me. He had never seen anything like it.”

Love managed to see Emilie while she was in the trauma unit. “Her legs were in these plastic troughs, and there’s blood all over the floor, and they couldn’t give her any pain meds because her blood pressure was so low because she’s bleeding profusely.”

It’s difficult to use the word “fortunate” in such a situation. But being at the Vanderbilt Trauma Center, which happens at one of the best trauma units in the world was, at least as Love puts it, lucky.

Following a great deal of commotion, Dr. Alex Jahangir, an orthopedic surgeon and executive medical director of Vanderbilt Center for Trauma, assured Love that, “though she may never walk again, I’m going to put her back together. And that’s all I need to know,” Love says. “I love a good cocky doctor. And I said to him, if you put her back together, she’ll walk.

“And that whole thing, man. Everything that happened after is like a 10-episode series.”

He’s not lying. Emilie’s had 11 surgeries, and she’s nearly lost her legs multiple times over the last three years. While she has proven Tim’s lofty assertion in the hospital correct — she’s walking again — the incident has been life-altering.

“When your wife can’t walk for six

months, and she almost loses her legs three times, and she can’t even sleep in her own bed — she’s sleeping in a freaking dining room. And you gotta change her toilet every day. It changes your life. It’ll fuck you up.”

Emilie continues to make progress. She’s playing pickleball, going on walks, and can even lightly jog. But it’s clear the whole thing is, to put it bluntly, something that shook them. Something that, in an instant, flipped their world upside down. But the world appears to be right-side up again.

We’re back at Tannahill’s. This time we’re on the Tavern side. We’ve had a plate of grilled oysters and two cocktails. The stories are getting longer and the voices hoarser.

I’m still contemplating the question I want to ask. Whether I want to ask it anymore and whether I should ask it. I manage to bring it up in the natural flow of the conversation; we’re talking about how people used Caterina’s no-phone policy to attack Love personally. “So why?” I ask. “Why do they make it about you. Why do you think many people find you so polarizing?”

“It’s funny ’cause what I do is not about me. Although people seem to wanna make it about me. My job, in my opinion, is to create wonderful experiences that create memories for wonderful people. And that’s not just the guest, but it’s the employees’ team and the management team. I’m the luckiest person on the planet. I think I make a lot of my own luck, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that I’m lucky. Right?

I’m humbled. I’m humbled by all of them, frankly.”

Love begins talking about his moral compass and how we’re all humans who make mistakes. He then says he probably shouldn’t bring the following up, but he does anyway.

“You mentioned Colonial,” Love says. “There’s 700 reasons I could give you to explain what happened. The No. 1, I’ll give you: It didn’t work out. It’s only one person’s fault. It’s mine. So, I can blame anybody I want to. That’s easy. But who does that? Shoot me. Don’t shoot my team. It’s still lonely at the top sometimes.

“Only person I got to answer to is God. Right? And he’s pretty hefty.”

“Are you a faithful person?” I ask.

“You know, I’m not a really church-going person, but I am a very faithful person. I have my own ways. I mean, if you don’t have anybody to answer to, you’re never gonna do anything.”

“I fell in love with it. I fell in love with the competition of it. It’s like war back there — people yelling at me the whole time, telling me how terrible I am. And I was like, ‘To hell with that, I’m not gonna be terrible, I’m gonna be great.’”

The interview ends with a shot of tequila and an immediate rumination over our seven-hour conversation. And I begin to wonder: Am I attempting to make Tim Love a tragic and misunderstood figure when, perhaps, there’s no “there there”? He clearly has things figured out and is content with who he is, where he is, and what he’s doing. Is that arrogance? Perhaps, but it’s likely just confidence. Has he changed? I didn’t know him before; I only know the way people perceive him. Is my perception being tainted? But by who? As Tim told me, none of those people know him, anyway. And, really, neither do I.

That said, I’ll leave you with Mr. Bud Kennedy’s measured approach.

“I mean, amazing family. Badass mom. Cool little dog. Three kids who love me — at least, I think. I mean, I could name all of these things that people dream about.

“Readers complain all the time that I write too much about Tim. But a lot of his negative reputation is outdated and undeserved. He’s grown up and so have his restaurants, and I’m excited to see what he does next.”

In Black and White

The unlikely story of Fort Worth’s most renowned magazine and how it influenced a generation.

BY BRIAN KENDALL

George Foreman is on the cover. He’s got a big smile — portraying the grill maker we’ve come to love more than a fearsome boxer — and is wearing a gaudy “World Heavyweight Champion” belt and a red velvet suit. The cover copy reads, “‘I

AM BLACK AND I LIKE BEING BLACK’ … HEAVYWEIGHT

CHAMP

GEORGE FOREMAN IN EXCLUSIVE SEPIA INTERVIEW.”

I’m trying to be careful as I take the magazine out of its tooflimsy crystal-clear protector. Despite having various pen marks and every other page being dog-eared, this thing is still out of my budget. I won’t relay the current sticker price, but I’ll say it’s astronomically more than the 75-cent tag printed on the cover. After all, this is a collector’s item. A rarity. Something akin to a blue moon in the publishing world.

The issue says September 1974.

The following month, Foreman would fight Muhammad Ali in Kinshasa, Zaire, in what’s dubbed The Rumble in the Jungle, one of the most famous boxing matches of all time.

For the vast majority of publications, to print an exclusive interview with one of the world’s most famous and popular athletes a month before a championship bout would be a coup worthy of industry gloating. And it’s not to say that writers and editors weren’t high-fiving and popping champagne corks in the Sepia offices following the publication of this edition. But to look through the archives of this Fort Worth-based and -founded magazine, having someone as iconic as Big George on the cover was far from unusual.

THE BEGINNING

In 1945, publisher John H. Johnson went to press with the first-ever magazine to target a primarily Black audience. The publication, Ebony, started in the not-so-segregated city of Chicago and was an instant success, selling out its initial press run of 25,000 copies. Two years later and 900 miles south, Horace Jefferson Blackwell, an ice cream and second-hand goods salesman, responded to Johnson’s achievement by creating two magazines, World’s Messenger and Negro Achievements, with an unabashed Black target audience. Blackwell created the latter title to shed a light on African American culture, religion, civil rights, education, and leadership. World’s Messenger’s editorial focus was more niche, printing real-life Black experiences written in the language of the Southern working-class.

At the time, Blackwell’s publishing company was the only selfcontained Black magazine publishing firm in the U.S. The offices for both magazines were located in, as local historian Richard Selcer put it, “the heart of Jim Crow country”: Fort Worth.

In 1947, like most of the U.S. south of the Mason Dixon line, Fort Worth was a segregated city. Attempting to dodge the 14th amendment’s equal protection clause by enforcing a “separate

but equal” way of life, Black Fort Worthians and White Fort Worthians used separate bathrooms, drank from separate fountains, and had different movie theaters, restaurants, and even hospitals and ambulances. A brief, 200-word story on the 26th page of the April 7 edition of the Star-Telegram reports on a Black soldier stationed at then Carswell Air Force Base getting into a physical altercation after refusing to sit in the “Black area” of the bus. According to the article, the soldier was charged with attempted murder.

Despite the unrest and obstacles, Blackwell’s magazines would continue to hit newsstands every month. Only two years after the first issue of Negro Achievements went to press, Blackwell died, leaving the future of his publications in limbo.

He did make one thing clear, however. In a farewell column, Blackwell expressed hope that his debt-ridden magazines would not end up in the hands of a White publisher. “There is not a White man in the United States who can publish a Negro magazine,” Blackwell wrote.

THE MIDDLE

In June of 1950, a federal judge ordered nearby Euless Independent School District to stop bussing Black students to racially segregated Fort Worth to receive schooling. You see, at the conclusion of the 1948-49 academic year, the school district’s board of trustees elected to close the town’s sole Black school due to disrepair and announced that Black students would be transported back and forth to Fort Worth’s all-Black schools.

After a group of outraged Black parents sued the district, the judge ruled that, under the equal protection clause, Euless had to provide all students, regardless of color, the same education — segregated or not. The Euless School Board attempted to fund the repairs for the Black-only school by putting a $25,000 bond to a vote. But the bond was summarily defeated, and the school became worse for wear when the building was significantly damaged by vandals after improvements began.

At the same time, districts were working tirelessly to get all-Black school accreditation, as this was the only way to keep schools segregated and constitutional (“separate but equal”).

The same year the above took place, a decade and a half before Jim Crow would finally relinquish his stranglehold on the state of Texas, Blackwell’s dying wishes were not granted. Ultimately, a White Jewish plumber named George Levitan purchased the two titles and renamed the company Good Publishing.

“He didn’t have a publishing background,” Selcer says. “He came out of the plumbing business. He was a plumbing contractor. What the hell motivated him to buy these magazines?”

Despite extensive research, to this day, no one really knows why Levitan bought this cache of Black magazines. But one could certainly argue that he might have proved Blackwell wrong. Heck, he might’ve proven that anyone can publish a magazine. While opinions on his choices of content are subjective, and a topic from which I will refrain, Levitan not only kept the magazine afloat until his death in 1976 — 26 years after its purchase — but he doubled the company’s products by adding two publications

and increasing the flagship’s circulation.

While Levitan had lived in Fort Worth for over 20 years, he came by way of Michigan, where he was born in 1905. Before entering the plumbing industry — and long before he entered the publishing industry — Levitan had worked as a sewing machine salesman.

Though Levitan quickly changed the name of World’s Messenger to Bronze Thrills — and stuck to the magazine’s penchant for longform narrative pieces — it would take him three years to change the name of Negro Achievements to Sepia.

Operating a diverse, desegregated, and intensely loyal staff, Sepia, which Selcer describes as the publishing company’s crown jewel, would take off. In the decades that followed, Sepia would rival the likes of Ebony and Jet as a household name within the Black community. As the publication introduced more photojournalism, its coverage and featured increasingly more prestigious celebrities (Ray Charles, the Jackson 5, Marvin Gaye), Sepia became an influential page-turner.

“Sepia was supposed to be the Black version of Look magazine,” Selcer says. “In the sense that it was photojournalism. Beautiful photography along with the stories.”

But that’s not to say Levitan didn’t take risks or dip his toes in controversy. Sure, the magazine reported on the civil rights movement — “No African-American magazine could’ve survived the sixties without reporting on civil rights,” Selcer says — but he also funded creative and investigative pieces to stir debate.

Serving as both the magazine’s most famous and infamous moment, in 1959, Mansfield-based writer John Howard Griffin approached Levitan with the idea to chemically darken his skin and live for six weeks in the segregated South as a Black man.

While, at the time, Griffin was living in Mansfield, he was raised in Fort Worth, growing up in the Fairmount neighborhood and briefly attending Paschal High School before moving to France to study psychiatry. Getting swept up in World War II, Griffin joined the French Resistance as a medic, smuggling Jewish children to England. After his name showed up on a Nazi death list, Griffin returned to Fort Worth and enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps, serving as a radio operator in the South Pacific. A few months before the end of the war, Griffin would go blind following an enemy air raid that blasted pieces of shrapnel into Griffin’s eyes. Then, in 1955, spinal malaria paralyzed his legs. He was blind and paraplegic.

Somehow, someway, for reasons that can’t be explained, within a year, Griffin would recover from malaria and regain the eyesight that abandoned him over a decade earlier.

Having already published two books based on his war-time experiences, Griffin was a known commodity — an established and talented writer. And with his health restored, he became inspired to show that civil rights was more than a “Southern problem.” It was a human problem.

“It’s a crazy idea,” Levitan told Griffin after approaching him with his idea. “You’ll get yourself killed fooling around down there.” But he nonetheless gave Griffin the green light, funding his trip and expenses for medical procedures. In return, Sepia published his first-hand account in a six-part series in 1960, titled “Journey into Shame.”

The articles received international attention, with both praise and condemnation being directed Johnson’s way. The following year, he would expand his initial six-part series into a book, Black Like Me, that would quickly become a staple on required-reading lists for high school students. And, in 1964, the book would turn into a major motion picture starring James Whitmore.

While his ambitious ruse can make a modern eye wince, there’s no denying its cultural and educational impact.

In a retrospective review, Bruce Watson of Smithsonian Magazine wrote, “Fifty years after its publication, ‘Black Like Me’ remains a remarkable document. John Howard Griffin changed more than the color of his skin. He helped change the way America saw itself.”

THE END

Through drastic shifts in race relations and multiple iterations of Sepia nameplates, Levitan kept the magazine afloat with largely the same arsenal of employees. Kicking to the curb any notion that the publishing industry is a revolving door of writers, graphic designers, and sales reps, the average length of service for an employee at Good Publishing was 16 years. This is six times the average length of employment at a magazine today.

In 1969, one of Sepia’s employees, Lucille B. Smith, who served as the first food editor for the magazine, also became the first Black woman to become a member of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce. Beatrice Pringle, who worked at the company since 1960, took over publisher duties following Levitan’s death in 1976. Griffin, the man whose story gave the magazine international attention, would die four years later, in 1980, from complications caused by diabetes.

While the magazine kept an impressive six-figure circulation number into the early ’80s, the publishing company’s offices on Harding Street would close its doors in 1983, seven years into Pringle’s term as publisher.

With the digital edge still decades away, one can’t blame touchscreens or small attention spans for the demise of Sepia. Selcer has a different hypothesis for why this print publication went belly-up. Since society was no longer forcibly segregated, the public was no longer interested in segregated media. Black people in the 50s and 60s had no choice, the only way they could get relatable content or unflinching stories about people within their own community was to have their own magazine.

“At some point, if you were interested in music, no matter the genre — soul, funk, psychedelia, James Brown — you read Rolling Stone Magazine,” Selcer says. “You didn’t read Sepia or Jet or Ebony.”

Despite printing presses no longer rolling out their content, with 434 issues printed and thousands of stories told, there’s little doubt Sepia has left an indelible mark on readers and the publishing world alike. Exhibits across the nation routinely images from their massive photo archives and below-mint magazines are selling on eBay for upward of $100.

“They’re collectors items,” Selcer says. “At the time [the magazines] came out, you’d have a hard time giving ‘em away. And now, if you happen across one, it’s a collector’s item that’s money.”

Geraldine Williams, Ms. Jherre to everyone who knows her, first moved to the Historic Southside neighborhood 50 years ago as a child. Back then, she says, there were two grocery stores for people to shop at — one at the corner of Bessie and New York avenues and another one on Kentucky Avenue. She said they had butcher counters, fresh seafood, and all different kinds of produce.

As an adult, she moved around but relocated to her childhood neighborhood 20 years ago. Now, all the grocery stores have left, and there’s not a single place to purchase fresh, healthy food near her.

“We didn't have to go across town,” she says. “We didn't have to catch a bus. We had two grocery stores right here in this area. But now, corn, carrots, fruit, vegetables … we don’t have stuff like that.”

In Tarrant County, 22% of households have no vehicle and live more than a mile from a full-service grocery store or supermarket. That’s nearly 1 in 4 (a statistic provided by the Tarrant Area Food Bank) households for whom access to a variety of fresh and affordable foods like fruits and vegetables is a struggle.

But the issue of low food access is not going unnoticed. Tarrant County groups like the Tarrant Area Food Bank, Tarrant County Food Policy Council, Blue Zones Project, and other grassroots efforts are all working to bring healthy, affordable food to these underserved neighborhoods.

WHAT’S IN A NAME

Researchers, media, and legislators have commonly referred to low-income areas with limited access to fresh food as “food deserts” since the early 1990s, but the term itself is a misnomer. The buzzword paints a picture of barren, desolate places lacking value due to nature's acts. So, some are abandoning that term, saying that calling neighborhoods like Historic Southside “food deserts” ignores the fact that vibrant communities live here and their lack of access to healthy foods is a systemic socioeconomic issue, not a natural occurrence.

Using the right language while talking about food insecurities is hugely important, says Funkytown Fridge founder Kendra Richardson, who uses the term “food apartheid” when discussing the issue that disproportionately affects Black and Hispanic communities.

“When we say food apartheid, we're saying that to highlight all of the systemic issues, instead of blaming the people that are living in those neighborhoods who don't necessarily have the power to change their living conditions,” she says.

THE NUMBERS

The USDA identifies areas with low food access based on certain criteria thresholds of census tracts.

They qualify as "low‐income communities" based on having a poverty rate of 20% or greater or a median family income at or below 80% of the area median family income.

Additionally, tracts qualify as "low‐access communities" based on the determination that at least 500 persons and/or at least 33% of the census tract's population live more than one mile from a supermarket or large grocery store (10 miles in the case of nonmetropolitan census tracts).

In 2013, the United States Department of Agriculture declared 11 ZIP codes as low-income/low-access food areas. According to TAFB, that translated to an estimated 280,000 Fort Worth residents who didn’t have reliable access to fullservice grocery stores at the time.

Many ZIP codes, like Historic Southside’s 76104, remain without a single grocery store. As a result, communities like these are faced with a difficult choice: to rely on convenience stores and fast-food restaurants prevalent in the area that offer mainly processed foods, like chips, candy, and sodas, low in nutrients or travel (often by bus or on foot) to grocers outside their neighborhood.

But on Ms. Jherre’s block, buses aren’t even an option, and the area isn't pedestrian-friendly.

“The transit system here in this area has been cut,” she says. “I remember when I could go to the end of the block at Tennessee or up on New York and catch a bus. There are no buses that come through here now.”

FOOD ACCESS & HEALTH

A study by UT Southwestern found that residents of the 76104 ZIP code have the lowest life expectancy in Texas at 66.7 years compared to the Tarrant County average of 78.7 years. The second lowest in the state is neighboring ZIP code 76105, which encompasses the Stop Six and Polytechnic neighborhoods, whose residents have an average life expectancy of 70.6 years.

It’s no coincidence that lack of access to fresh, healthy food leads to poor health. Conditions like high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity are all food-related health issues that contribute to the people in these communities living, on average, 12 years less than their neighbors in other areas of the county with greater food access.

“It’s stressful living here,” Williams says.

IT’S

THAN JUST DISTANCE

By focusing too closely on proximity, the issue of food access can be oversimplified. For example, if the problem is simply that a neighborhood doesn’t have a grocery store, then the easy solution would be to open one in the area. But the answer is far from easy.

“Grocery stores are in the business of making money, and margins are very, very slim already,” Tarrant Area Food Bank President Julie Butner says. “Sometimes cities and municipalities will give them tax incentives to put in a grocery store. But as soon as those tax incentives are gone, they pull back out again because they can't be profitable.”

On top of profitability, a 2021 report from Congressional Research Service says that policies focused on providing more supermarkets detract from other initiatives like domestic food program benefits, incentives for farmers markets, or addressing other barriers like income, employment, education, and mobility.

THE EFFECTS OF COVID-19 & INFLATION

COVID-19 and inflation have only exasperated the issue of food insecurities over the last few years.

Butner says it’s harder than ever for TAFB to operate.

“We have been spending unbudgeted dollars on food,” she says about the current cost of operating the food bank. “What happens during high-inflation times is your donors don't have as much surplus to donate. So, financial contributions go down due to inflation.”

There’s a greater need for resources, too. With the rising cost of living and stagnant wages, more people are turning to organizations like the food bank for help.

“Just for the basic things needed to live — rent, utilities, gas, and food — just those four things in Tarrant County today you need [to make] $20 an hour,” she says.

With an increase in needs and a decrease in donations, Butner says they may not have enough food available.

But things weren’t improving before the pandemic, either. As the population of Tarrant County grows, so does disparity — things just get worse.

TAFB Vice President of Community Impact Vicky Martinez, who grew up in a low-income area of Northside, Houston, and experienced food insecurities herself, says the situation is bad right now.

“Food supplies are less,” she says. “Government giving is less. Retail giving is less, you know, it's just less. And then the need is more. So, it's hard. It's very hard. It has not gotten better. It has gotten worse.”

WHAT’S BEING DONE

Tarrant Area Food Bank

The Tarrant Area Food Bank is the primary source of donated food for hunger-relief charities and feeding programs in Tarrant and 12 surrounding counties, serving 1 million meals each week. Butner says the most food goes to the areas with the highest need.

“I distribute the food equitably,” she says. “So, if 6% of my total food insecure population is in 76104, then 6% of my food is going to that ZIP code so that I'm addressing food insecurity in the best, most equitable way that I can.”

She goes on to say that government programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a

program that provides low-income individuals and families an Electronic Benefits Transfer card to purchase eligible food in authorized retail food stores, are the most impactful in the fight against food insecurities, but that Tarrant County has statistically low enrollment in these assistance programs.

“My 13 counties are some of the highest counties where we have people who are eligible for that assistance, but they are not enrolled,” she says. “It's not easy to enroll. It takes about an hour. You have to have technology to do it. Some languages are not covered. So, unless you speak English or speak Spanish, you might have difficulty filling out the information. But it's a beautiful benefit because it's a federally funded program, and the dollars have already been appropriated to our counties and to our cities. It's not an added expense to anybody who lives here locally.”

So TAFB’s three R.E.D. (Resources Education Delivered) buses travel around the food bank’s service areas with iPad stations and translators to help the community enroll in benefits. Sometimes, eligible community members can have benefits on their cards as early as the same day.

But the food bank does so much more than just distribute food. From organizing community learning gardens to senior and youth programs to hands-on job training programs for aspiring chefs, TAFB has a multifaceted approach to addressing food insecurities in the community.

FARMERS MARKETS AND COMMUNITY GARDENS

In White Settlement, another area with low access to fresh

Funky Town Fridge

foods, Cowtown Farmers Market sets up tables of colorful fruits and vegetables, proteins, and more for the community to buy directly from local farmers. It's the longest-running farmers market in Fort Worth and one of the few in the area that accepts WIC and SNAP benefits to purchase food. And to stretch benefits further, the Double Up Food Bucks program, funded by Blue Zones Project, will match dollar for dollar of benefits up to $30 a day.

When relocating last August, it was important to the market to find a location with a need.

“In the city of White settlement itself, there's not a lot of access to healthy food,” Cowtown Farmers Market Manager Becca Knutson says. “So, they were excited to be able to bring something there to help their residents.”

All of the food at the market comes from farmers within a 150-mile radius. But, similarly, teaching and supporting people to grow food in their own backyard is a way to address food access, too.

Grow Southeast is an initiative that provides resources to launch new community-owned and operated urban farms in southeast Fort Worth neighborhoods like Ms. Jherre’s. Since 2018, they’ve worked to develop four farms — Opal’s Farm (named after Opal Lee), Mind Your Garden, Tabor Farm, and Maudia Farms.

“People get an experience when they participate in a community garden,” Knutson says. “They learn how to grow their own food. They might learn about different vegetables they want to try. So, I think it's a valuable experience.”

BLUE ZONES PROJECT

In 2015, the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce and Texas Health Resources kicked off the Blue Zones Project, a community-led initiative to improve the well-being of Fort Worth, residents. Although the scope of their work over the years has been broad, much of it focuses on providing healthy food to underserved communities.

With initiatives like Double Up Food Bucks, Good for You Pantries that distribute fresh foods in schools, and the Fresh Access program that provides produce to children, families, and seniors at neighborhood community centers, Blue Zones Project aims to make healthy choices easier.

“We are focused on systems change to improve access to fresh food for all residents,” Vice President Mike Dufrene says in their 2022 impact report. “We support nutrition education and school and community gardens, and we've delivered over 665,850 pounds of fruits and vegetables to communities in need.”

TARRANT COUNTY FOOD POLICY COUNCIL

Knutson is also the current chair of the Tarrant County Food Policy Council, a volunteer-run nonprofit organization of representatives from all aspects of Tarrant County's food system.

“It's meant to be a place where we can network,” she says. “We can have conversations about what's happening in our

county, in our food system. We can share resources, we can learn from each other, help each other, get our organizations to work together, and try to improve the healthy food system on a larger collaborative scale.”

The council has working groups that focus on specific areas of the food system. The groups work on projects and resources for community gardens, children's health, food recovery, and food policy.

The working groups and bimonthly networking meetings are open to anyone who is interested in attending.

COMMUNITY FRIDGES

Community members are also taking their own initiatives, without any government assistance, to help provide access to healthy food in low-access areas. Richardson, who grew up in Stop Six, learned about the impact of community fridges and decided to start Funkytown Fridge in September 2020.

She now operates three fridges in underserved areas of Fort Worth (two in the Polytechnic neighborhood and one at the regional Goodwill on Campus Drive), with three more fridge locations planned for later this year. When considering where to set up each fridge, Richardson says the area must have a need.

“They don't have access to grocery stores or healthy food,” she says of the fridge locations. “There’s a really big houseless population around, and a lot of kids and families.”

Since starting Funkytown Fridge, Richardson says she’s seen great support. The group receives donations from all over the country. Local community members stop by and fill the fridges with any approved food items, and people who live further away donate money or items through the organization’s Amazon wish list.

She hopes the fridges inspire people to be creative in how they show up for their community.

“Even if it’s not through Funkytown Fridge, what is it that you have that you possess that you can give?’ she asks.

REVITALIZATION

In April 2020, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded Fort Worth Housing Solutions a $35 million Choice Neighborhoods Implementation grant. The Stop Six Choice Neighborhood initiative leverages the grant to revitalize the southeast Fort Worth neighborhood with mixedincome housing, community resources, and infrastructure.

Revitalization is met with mixed feelings, though. While mixed-income housing would make Stop Six more desirable to businesses like grocery stores, residents like Richardson are skeptical and worry that the revitalization is just gentrification.

When the Stop Six project started, Richardson says, residents were offered vouchers to move during the construction of the new housing development. Not only did she say the vouchers weren’t enough to cover relocation expenses, but she was also concerned that the cost of the new housing wouldn’t be affordable for old residents to move back.

“They say they want to make the neighborhood better,” she says. “They want to increase, and they want to build. Okay. Then you can do that while I’m living in my own home,” she said of the revitalization.

Ms. Jherre is concerned about revitalization, too, and what it would mean for her property taxes.

“I don’t want my taxes to go up just because you decided to come out and build a house,” she says.

WAYS TO HELP

Richardson says a strong community is key to solving complex problems like food access. Whether it’s volunteering, donating money, or advocating for policy change, getting involved can make a difference.

VOLUNTEER

TAFB has many opportunities for individuals and groups to volunteer their time. Whether planning a teambuilding activity with coworkers to sort food donations or giving time to help with one of their mobile markets, volunteers are the organization's backbone.

“I don't think we could afford to do it if we didn't have the volunteers,” says Butner.

People interested in helping out with community fridges can register as a volunteer online at funkytownfridge.org. They also regularly post calls to action on their Instagram @ fridgetalktv.

The Food Policy Council also lists several different volunteer opportunities in the area online.

DONATE

Both Funkytown Fridge and Grow Southeast have wish lists on their websites.

Anyone can stop by and fill a fridge with approved food items at any time.

And of course, donating money directly to all of the organizations above, no matter the amount, is always impactful.

ADVOCATE

Whether it’s at the local, state, or federal level, make your voice heard.

The food bank and Food Policy Council both share advocacy resources on their websites.

LOOKING FORWARD

Butner says the last three years have been “incredible in terms of new initiatives” and is excited to keep up the momentum.

The food bank has big plans for 2023, including a plan that’s in the works to offer home delivery options to SNAP recipients, a produce sorting facility that will be able to process and distribute fresh fruit and vegetables, more pantry locations inside of schools and medical facilities, more partnerships, and helping more people.

Blue Zones Project plans to expand its efforts with school gardens, Good for You Pantry locations, Fresh Access, Double Up Food Bucks, and many other important community initiatives.

And Funkytown Fridge is excited about the three new fridges it plans to set up this year.

Ms. Jherre, who is secretary of the History Southside Neighborhood Association, says her community knows what her community needs. The association meets the second Sunday of every month at Southside Community Center to discuss issues impacting residents.

She says to fix issues like food access, people need to do a better job of listening to community members. With enough resources and better communication from city leaders, she says neighborhoods like hers could revitalize themselves effectively, and she’ll continue to advocate for that.

“I'm always, always for my neighborhood because I live here,” she says, with no intentions of ever leaving.

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James & Cami Thompson, Liz & Russell Fleischer

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CONFLUENT SOLUTIONS

PRINT IS MEMORABLE.

Print creates an emotional connection. Print builds relationships.

Physical material is more “real” to the brain, involves more emotional processing, is better connected to memory, with greater internalization of ads—all important for brand associations. (FORBES)

Every gift is one step closer to the next child’s wish.

ntx.wish.org/donate

Tarrant Area Food Bank needs your urgent support. Hunger has soared with inflation while dona food from the grocery industry have plummeted. Your donation will be used to purchase food for hungry families.

Beyond the Bag Men’s Event

Baylor Scott & White All Saints Health Foundation

After a two-year hiatus, the Baylor Scott & White All Saints Health Foundation was thrilled to host the annual Beyond the Bag Men’s Event on Nov. 10 at Blackland Distillery. Guests enjoyed cocktails made with award-winning spirits and delicious bites from Bonnell’s Fine Cuisine. Guests had exclusive access to the Blackland Distillery production facility and imagination alley while purchasing raffle tickets for the chance to win a 2023 Lexus RX generously donated by the DFW Lexus Dealers Association. Proceeds from the sale of the raffle tickets will support the addition of an animal-assisted therapy program to the continuum of nonmedical services offered at the Joan Katz Cancer Resource Center.

Debbie Dolins Hyde, Alton Adkins, Amy Adkins, Molly Snyder

Day Herd, Jim Herd, Mike Sanborn

Keith Young, Ken Evans

Hal & Camille Brown

Lance Cook, Joe Cook, Toni Geren Young, Joan Katz, Kristi Evans, Jay Cook

Nick Kypreos, Mike Palmer

Arnie Gachman, Mike Sanborn, Paul Dorman, Doug Cook

2023 FACES FORT WORTH of

Pioneers in their fields, the following pages feature some of Fort Worth’s finest. Those spotlighted in “Faces of Fort Worth” want to share their expertise in various industries from medicine and retail to professional accomplishments, personal pastimes, and so much more.

The

Face of Custom Pools, Spas, and Outdoor Living

The Complete Backyard Inc.

The Complete Backyard creates meticulously designed pools, sustainable outdoor living spaces, kitchens, exotic fire features, decks, cabanas, and more. We are passionate about building complete backyards for families in the North Texas area. With over 20 years’ experience helping customers in North Texas, there’s no project we can’t tackle. We pride ourselves on supplying our clients with the perfect blend of aesthetics and quality. Whether you’re looking for a clean post-modern swimming pool or a Caribbean backyard oasis, we are your team. We believe that actions speak louder than words, and we apply the “golden rule” to every project we undertake, treating our clients as we would like to be treated. We take responsibility for our work and provide constant communication with our customers from the beginning of their project until the end. PICTURED: Ross and Laura Woerner.

201 E. Oak St. | Aledo, Texas 76008 | 817.441.6878 thecompletebackyard.com | consult@thecompletebackyard.com

The Face of Plumbing Services

Pro Serve Plumbing

Pro Serve specializes in both residential and commercial new construction. Our current operations consist of custom and volume production in residential plumbing including multifamily and the latest niche — build to rent. Our commercial division focuses on industrial structures, accommodations, and sports facilities. We have experienced tremendous growth over the years and have forged many relationships that continue to contribute to our success, along with community involvement. We believe and operate under servant leadership. We believe in empowering our team to achieve all they seek personally and professionally. Our leadership team focuses on encouraging and empowering individuals to engage, explore, and initiate growth for themselves and the company. Continued education, skill improvement, integrity, and quality service are what set us apart from the rest.

11255 Camp Bowie West Blvd., Ste. 120 | Aledo, Texas 76008 | 817.244.0614 | proserveplumbers.com

The Face of Cosmetic Surgery

Accent On You

Y. Anthony Nakamura, M.D., F.A.C.S., P.A. Staying humble and enjoying the combination of my love of science with the artistry of cosmetic surgery make Accent On You unique. We take the time to explore with our patients their individual needs and concerns. With over 30 years of experience, we work hard to find a surgical plan that is both realistic in expectation while achieving beautiful aesthetic results. We understand that each patient comes to us by choice and consider this a privilege. We are continually self-evaluating and improving the pre-, intra- and post-operative experience for our patients. Our biggest WOW factors are my facility and my wonderful staff. They all love what they do, and it shows. They work closely with me to create a safe, inviting, and individualized plan of care for each of our patients.

Accent On You

303 South Cooper St. | Arlington, Texas 76015 817.417.7200 | accentonyou.com

The Face of Wealth Management Argent Trust Company

You, first. That simple phrase says everything you need to know about how we approach client relationships at Argent. As fiduciary wealth managers, we understand that each client’s situation and challenges are unique, and we strive to serve each excellently and according to what’s in their very best interest. Clients choose Argent because we listen first and then have the competence to confidently recommend the best course of action. We are approachable, accessible, and highly responsive. Furthermore, our experience with complex trusts and wealth management needs, our objectivity, and our integrity are second to none. Call us today to discuss how we might meet your needs for wealth and investment management, wealth transfer and estate planning, and oil and gas management. PICTURED: Travis Gist, Mineral Manager; Jonathan Berry, JD, SVP; Patrice Parks, VP & Trust Administrative Officer; and Kathy Christoffel, Market President. 4200 S. Hulen St. | Fort Worth, Texas 76109 | 817.502.3586 | kchristoffel@argenttrust.com

The Face of Eye Care

Bass Eye Care

John L. Bass, Doctor of Optometry, has been working in Fort Worth and Southlake with top eye care professionals since 1995. With hard work, excitement, and prayer, Bass Eye Care opened its doors in November 2021. Same doctor, just a new name and location in the center of TCU and The Shops at Clearfork. At Bass Eye Care, individual comprehensive vision evaluation is based on each patient’s unique concerns and needs. As an independent Doctor of Optometry, not tied to any given wholesaler or supplier, Dr. Bass and his team have the freedom to dispense glasses and contacts using quality labs for lenses that suit the needs of their patients. The wow factor that keeps bringing customers back is their exquisitely designed optical with experienced caring staff, as well as state-of-the-art equipment for diagnosis and treatment of eye disease.

The Face of Counseling and Therapy Vervewell

Vervewell (previously Beth Lewis Therapy Group) has quickly become the go-to counseling and therapy group in Fort Worth. Due to its confident and welcoming therapy style, as well as beautiful offices, the best and healthiest families rely on Vervewell for comfort and very smart therapeutic conversation. While the Vervewell therapists are experts in their field, with education and certification always in their back pocket, diagnostic or clinical verbiage is not their language. They pride themselves in bringing an intelligent, real, and warm tone to each client’s session, which honors the human condition first, textbook verbiage a far second. PICTURED: (from left, clockwise) Jason Leito, Ashli East, Shani Kratz, Blake Overstreet, Allison Anderson, Beth Lewis.

1814 Eighth Ave. | Fort Worth, Texas 76110 | 817.781.3735 | bethlewistherapy.com

The Face of Refined Real Estate

Ashley Black – Williams Trew Real Estate

With almost 20 years in the industry, Ashley Black takes an innovative approach to real estate. By effectively combining proven principles and practices with the latest in techniques and technology, she is providing industry-leading service to her clients and delivering quality results. She has refined the process of buying and selling homes to make it an enjoyable and rewarding experience by providing creative solutions for clients and ensuring that she is always one step ahead of the competition. Today’s market requires proactive, aggressive marketing with an excellent understanding of the overall market. Ashley is diligent in keeping her clients apprised of changing market conditions. She attributes her sales success to four factors: pricing homes properly, marketing effectively, negotiating aggressively, and building long-term relationships. She is a multi-award-winning agent who prides herself in providing high-quality service and delivering quality results. 3707 Camp Bowie Blvd., Ste. 300 | Fort Worth, Texas 76107 817.966.7904 | ashley.black@williamstrew.com | williamstrew.com

The Face of Motorized Screens

Blinds Brothers

Blinds Brothers has been in business for 17 years. The team of expert designers and installers offer high-quality products and installations that redefine the industry standard. Their commitment to clients is reflected in their online reviews. Blinds Brothers operates based on the idea that happy customers will lead to success. Its quality is reflected in the sales team, customer service, and installation teams. Installation is not subcontracted. Instead, all installers are directly hired and trained by Blinds Brothers. This results in consistent, clean, high-quality installations. Customer service and these high-skilled installers keep customers coming back again and again. Aaron Sorrells, president of Blinds Brothers and resident of Fort Worth, does everything in his power to ensure your experience with Blinds Brothers will leave you satisfied. PICTURED: Aaron Sorrells, President. 535 S. Nolen Drive, Ste. 200 | Southlake, Texas 76092 | 682.727.0044 | blindsbrothers.com | info@blindsbrothers.com

Something I don’t talk about often is my journey. I grew up in extreme poverty. I’ve lived through some pretty horrific events in my lifetime, and I worked extremely hard to get where I am today. What I think is unique about me is my ability to empathize with my clients. Often, the events surrounding their lives are traumatic or downright scary. It’s important for my clients to know that they’re not just a paycheck to me. Their lives, their stories, their well-being … it matters to me and my team. It’s sometimes hard to make a difference being one person in a world of billions, but I’ve found that making a difference to the people I represent is more fulfilling than words can convey. 1008 Macon St. | Fort Worth, Texas 76102 | 817.768.6468 lawofficelaurenboysen.com | lauren@lawofficelaurenboysen.com

The Face of Fort Worth Real Estate

Burt Ladner Real Estate

Burt Ladner Real Estate is a woman-owned brokerage that prides itself as being plugged-in and connected, being in-the-know of all things real estate and all things Fort Worth. A distinctive locally owned agency, it takes pride in delivering exceptional service, going to great lengths to make sure that its agents are experts in their field and have access to everything cutting-edge so they can best serve their clients. The agents’ personalized approach, combined with experience matched with professionalism, is only exceeded by the desire to create an ideal and specialized atmosphere for buying and selling properties for clients. It is their belief that when you are making one of the biggest financial decisions of your life, you want someone to have your best interest at heart, and that is what Burt Ladner Real Estate does — puts you first. PICTURED: Suzanne Burt and Laura Ladner. 1600 Montgomery St., Ste. 200 | Fort Worth, Texas 76107 | 817.882.6688 burtladner.com | info@burtladner.com

The Face of Commercial Banking

Courtney Lewis, EVP and Senior Managing Director Cadence Bank

Courtney Lewis has spent most of her 23-year career in Fort Worth, where she has served on several boards including Ronald McDonald House of Fort Worth, Leadership Fort Worth, Camp Fire First Texas, and the Rotary Club of Fort Worth. Working for large regional and small community banks, her diverse career experience sets her apart from her competition. Beginning her career in New York as an investment bank analyst for a large money center bank after graduating from SMU with a finance degree, she then moved into commercial banking and has worked in large and small institutions, giving her well-rounded experience in lending. Her extensive math and science education helps her understand complex business quickly to provide solutions for clients. She pursued a career where she could help people, and banking has been the perfect fit.

111 NW 24th St. | Fort Worth, Texas 76164 | 817.870.9727 | cadencebank.com | courtney.lewis@cadencebank.com

The Face of Authentic Italian Cuisine

Café Bella

Cooking has been a part of Eli Golemi’s family for generations. Eli takes pride in preparing authentic Italian cuisine, knowing the ingredients necessary to provide classic yet innovative dishes for her Café Bella customers. Serving the Fort Worth area for over 23 years, Eli is grateful and “very appreciative” of her loyal customers who have been a part of Café Bella’s dining experience through the years. When customers walk through the doors, they know they can consistently expect excellent Italian cuisine, exceptional service, and a cozy welcoming environment. Café Bella is unique, not only in serving delicious authentic Italian dishes, but also offering the option to bring your own wine to enjoy with your exceptional dinner. Eli welcomes you with a smile and wants every customer to know how grateful she is for their love of Café Bella. PICTURED: Eli Golemi.

Westcliff Shopping Center | 3548 S. Hills Ave. | Fort Worth, Texas 76109 817.922.9500 | cafebellaftw.com

The Face of Chevrolet

Gilchrist Automotive: Platinum Chevrolet; Pegasus Chevrolet; Spur Chevrolet Buick GMC

As part of Gilchrist Automotive, we strive to continuously deliver excellent service and treat our customers as if they were family. We value these relationships and aim to grow them through consistent customer service. The ease of doing business with us sets us apart from the competition; we make the buying experience quick and easy. You can purchase your vehicle completely online, and it will be delivered to your doorstep at no extra charge. We are grateful to our loyal customers who keep coming back because of the “everyone is family” culture. We invite you to come Drive the Difference.

PICTURED: Stephen Jimenez, GM, Spur Chevrolet Buick GMC; Justin Rudd, GM, Platinum Chevrolet; Stephen Gilchrist, Dealer Operator, Gilchrist Automotive; Gary Walker, GM, Pegasus Chevrolet.

Pegasus Chevrolet | gwalker@gilchristautomotive.com | pegasuschevytexas.com |

Platinum Chevrolet | jrudd@gilchristautomotive.com | platinumchevytexas.com | 469.652.7379

Spur Chevrolet Buick GMC | jjimenez@gilchristautomotive.com | spurchevybuickgmc.com |

The Face of Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram

Gilchrist Automotive: SouthWest Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram; Pegasus Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram; Platinum Chrysler Dodge Ram Jeep; Spur Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram

Personalized service is paramount at all our stores, and we believe that the customer relationship does not end with the sale. Our customers are central to our core values, and we strive to do what is right in order to earn their business and, more importantly, their trust. Our teams and dedication to customer service set us apart from our competitors. We invite you to come Drive the Difference and come see why they are ranked Top 100 Dealers in Region.

PICTURED: Gary Walker, GM, Pegasus CDJR; Stephen Gilchrist, Dealer Operator, Gilchrist Automotive; Andrew Beck, GM, Platinum CDRJ; Mike Brown, GM, SouthWest CDJR; Stephen Jimenez, GM, Spur CDJR.

Platinum Chrysler Dodge Ram Jeep | platinumcdrjtexas.com | abeck@gilchristautomotive.com |

SouthWest Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram | southwestcdjrtexas.com | mbrown@gilchristautomotive.com |

Pegasus Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram | pegasuscdjr.com | gwalker@gilchristautomotive.com | 469.988.5635

Spur Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram | spurcdjr.com | sjimenez@gilchristautomotive.com | 254.223.6252

The Face of Audiology and Hearing Aids

Cityview Audiology & Hearing Aids, Inc.

With over 24 years of experience in helping patients with hearing needs, Dr. Diane Blaising, owner and founder of Cityview Audiology & Hearing Aids, Inc., is the Face of Audiology and Hearing Aids in Fort Worth. Dr. Blaising and the staff at Cityview are well known and greatly appreciated for taking the time to listen to each patient’s needs and concerns. Treatment plans are customized with the latest, cutting-edge technology available to fit seamlessly into each patient’s lifestyle. A full range of audiometric tests and evaluative instruments, including tinnitus assessment, is available to meet each patient’s unique needs. Cityview Audiology & Hearing Aids, Inc. is devoted to providing the best care and service to each patient for quality living in the world of sound. PICTURED: Dr. Diane Blaising.

7801 Oakmont Blvd., Ste. 109 | Fort Worth, Texas 76132 | 817.263.1800 | Fax 817.263.1802 | DrBlaising@CityviewHearing.com

The Face of Fine Jewelry

Collections Fine Jewelry

For 40 years, Collections Fine Jewelry has been anchored in one primary philosophy — provide exquisite jewelry at prices everyone can afford for the communities we love. Just as we value our clients and the exclusive pieces we create, Collections also holds a place in our heart for our greater community. This is why Collections is especially honored to serve as the featured jeweler of the 2023 Jewel Charity Ball, an event that provides for the health and well-being of the precious patients at Cook Children’s Medical Center. Thank you for letting Collections be a part of your life’s most memorable moments. From our family to yours, we look forward to servicing your family for generations to come. PICTURED: Stephen Bost and Jim Sissen, family members and managing partners.

708 S. Saginaw Blvd. | Fort Worth, Texas 76179 | collectionsfinejewelry.com |info@cfjmfg.com

The Face of Minimally Invasive Spinal Surgery DFW Center for Spinal Disorders

Dr. Jason Tinley has a passion for optimizing spine surgery outcomes through development and utilization of new techniques and materials. On the forefront of new technology, Dr. Tinley has become a leader in instruction and research in avoidance of fusion (disc replacement) where possible and minimally invasive fusion when necessary. He has spoken around the world on these techniques and is involved in several FDA trials. Frequently these procedures are outpatient surgeries with minimal recovery times (one-two weeks.) Though his specialty is in addressing surgery for spinal stenosis, spondylolisthesis, and degenerative and herniated discs, nonsurgical management is almost always directed through him first, and only 15% of patients require surgery. Dr. Tinley attended Medical College of Georgia on full scholarship and completed his training at the prestigious H.H. Bohlman Spinal Surgery Fellowship in Cleveland, Ohio. PICTURED: Jason Tinley, M.D. 6900 Harris Parkway, Ste. 310 | Fort Worth, Texas 76132 | 817.916.4685 | dfwspinecenter.com

The Face of Enchiladas Enchiladas Ole

What makes Enchiladas Ole the Face of Enchiladas is that our popular restaurant is based solely on enchiladas. Our enchilada sauces are all unique and bold in their individual flavors. Even during the worst time in our industry’s history, we opened two locations and plan on opening more. Enchiladas Ole has brought back the enchilada! All of our food is made to order, rice is cooked every 45 minutes, beans cook all day long, and enchiladas are made to order. So that the stoves never are off, I work with every one of our cooks to ensure consistent and excellent flavors. Our wow factor is freshness, made to order. Yes, our food takes longer to prepare, but that’s what keeps our customers coming back! PICTURED: Mary Perez. 2418 Forest Park Blvd. | Fort Worth, Texas 76110

The Face of DFW Real Estate

Sarah Hardy Engel & Völkers

Sarah Hardy, global real estate advisor with Engel & Völkers DFW, provides personal, precise, and discreet service in the Dallas-Fort Worth and surrounding areas. She works to understand her clients’ needs and stays laser-focused to deliver premium residential and commercial real estate, yachting, and aviation services, helping clients live the life they aspire. Her proven process leads to successful results from the beginning of a transaction all the way to the closing table. Clients refer her and keep coming back because they want to work with someone they can trust who is competent about the market, is a strong negotiator, and works passionately on their behalf. Sarah stays ready, ready to help with what is typically the biggest purchase clients will ever make. They know they have partnered with someone professional and completely in touch with local real estate opportunities.

5120 Monahans Ave. | Fort Worth, Texas 76109 | 817.602.4027 | sarah.hardy@evrealestate.com | sarahhardy.evrealestate.com

The Face of Ford

Gilchrist Automotive: SouthWest Ford; Platinum Ford; Triple Crown Ford; Platinum Ford North

Not only will you find quality new and used Ford models at SouthWest Ford, Platinum Ford, Triple Crown Ford, and Platinum Ford North, but you will also find friendly and accommodating staff eager to assist you. You can purchase your vehicle completely online and never set foot in our store; we will deliver your vehicle to your doorstep at no extra charge. Being a Top 100 Ford Dealers in the Nation, we keep customers coming back by going above and beyond their expectations and anticipating their needs. We invite you to come Drive the Difference.

PICTURED: Chris Bonnett, GM, SouthWest Ford, Weatherford; Jonathan Franco, GM, Platinum Ford North; Stephen Gilchrist, Dealer Operator, Gilchrist Automotive; Dustin Rodgers, GM, Triple Crown Ford and Lincoln, Terrell; Adam Vincze, GM, Platinum Ford.

Platinum Ford | avincze@gilchristautomotive.com | platinumford.com | 469.595.0099

SouthWest Ford | cbonnett@gilchristautomotive.com | southwestford.com | 817.596.5700

Triple Crown Ford | drodgers@gilchristautomotive.com | triplecrownford.com | 254.968.7000

Platinum Ford North | jfranco@gilchristautomotive.com | platinumfordnorth.com | 940.686.2236

The Face of Women’s Health

Fort Worth Obstetrics & Gynecology

Privia Medical Group of North Texas Compassion. Advocacy. Respect. Empathy. These are the cornerstones of our practice. We are humbled to not only guide but journey along with our patients on the many adventures and trials in which life may find us. Empowering women to be their own champion is our passion. We are a diverse group of providers who welcome the opportunity to show you our commitment in raising the bar for women’s health care in the greater Fort Worth area. PICTURED: Ashita Gehlot, MD, and Cynthia English, DO. 6317 Harris Parkway, Ste. 400 | Fort Worth, Texas 76132 | 817.423.2002 | fortworthobgyn.com

The Face of Snoring and Sleep Apnea Disorders

Fort Worth Snoring and Sleep Center

Dr. Mitch Conditt practiced cosmetic dentistry for 25-plus years in Fort Worth. Over the last 10 years, he focused on saving lives and marriages by treating snoring and sleep apnea. As a board-certified sleep dentist, he is one of the few dentists in Texas that has limited his practice to this type of treatment. Fort Worth Snoring and Sleep Center focuses on treating those who are intolerant of the CPAP or prefer something more current and comfortable. What continues to wow us and our patients is what a huge difference these appliances can make in someone’s life. Let us help you get your life back together by reducing your snoring, improving the quality of your sleep, and decreasing your daytime fatigue.

PICTURED: (left to right) Candra Lawrence, Brandi Kapka, Dr. Mitch Conditt, Jackie Henning, Bethany Montoya. 451 University Drive, Ste. 102 | Fort Worth, Texas 76107 fortworthsnoringandsleepcenter.com | office@fortworthsnoringandsleepcenter.com

The Face of The Symphony Orchestra Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra

Dr. Keith Cerny serves as the president and CEO of the remarkable Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. He works for the FWSO board of directors, chaired by the renowned Mrs. Mercedes T. Bass, and collaborates closely with the exceptional FWSO musicians and hard-working staff. Dr. Cerny says the FWSO really distinguished itself during the pandemic by being one of the first orchestras in the country to resume live audience performances in September 2020. The FWSO board chairman and Dr. Cerny made a special priority of continuing to pay the musicians and staff in full during the crisis, which many orchestras were not able to do. They have just recruited an acclaimed new music director, Robert Spano, who joined the FWSO in September 2022 and is already leading the orchestra to even greater artistic excitement. PICTURED: Dr. Keith Cerny, President & CEO. 330 East Fourth St., Ste. 200 | Fort Worth, Texas 76102 | 817.665.6500 | fwsymphony.org

The Face of Countertops and Facets

Galvan Floors LLC

Galvan Floors has the passion and expertise to get the job done. We truly enjoy seeing tile/stone on vertical applications, on surfaces that are not typical and what it all entails to truly make a 100% custom home. Our training and substantial amount of experience completing out of the ordinary projects set us apart from our competition. We enjoy meticulous projects and understand the demands custom fabrication requires. We’re always up for the challenge and enjoy finding creative ways to execute the clients’ creation. Our quality craftsmanship and attention to detail are what our customers love about us. Galvan Floors LLC | 3140 South Freeway | Fort Worth, Texas 76110 | 817.920.0931 | galvanfloors.com | info@galvanfloors.com

The Face of Future Entrepreneurs

Girl Scouts of Texas Oklahoma Plains

Each January brings Girl Scouts to storefronts across the area selling famous Girl Scout Cookies. To a Girl Scout, that package of cookies means opportunities. Girl Scouts learn the necessary skills to run a business of their own and reap the rewards from a successful cookie program. As entrepreneurs, Girl Scouts use the proceeds from their Cookie Program to travel throughout Texas, the U.S., and even the world. They give back to their community through Cookies for Heroes, donating cookie packages to local first responders and hospital staff. Young women are learning to run a successful business. As the Girl Scouts grow older, they begin to understand their cookie business and goals in a more detailed way. You will be amazed about the adventures, projects, and service work Girl Scouts have planned. PICTURED: Jillian Neisler, Maile Naredo, Riley Lynch, and Eleanor Jack. 4901 Briarhaven Ave. | Fort Worth, Texas 76109 | 800.582.7272 | gs-top.org | customercare@gs-top.org

The Face of Health Insurance

Hawkins Insurance Group

Born and raised in Fort Worth, Jonathan Hawkins has seen the growth of the city firsthand and takes pride in helping continue the expansion of Fort Worth-based businesses by navigating health insurance and employee benefits. At Hawkins Insurance Group, we specialize in helping small- to mid-sized businesses choose the best benefit options for their needs. We handle the full scope of employee benefits from creation to implementation. Our relationships with the major carriers allow us to find the best custom solution for your company’s needs at a price that fits your budget. Employee benefits are a company’s greatest asset. We show you how to take the next step and leverage your noncash compensation to attract the right talent and expand for the future.

PICTURED: Dennis Stieben, Traci Patterson, Jonathan Hawkins, Emily Hawkins, Kasey Weadon. 101 Summit Ave., Ste. 215A | Fort Worth, Texas 76102 | 817.800.4253 | hawkinsig.com

The Face of Stone & Tile

Interceramic

Interceramic has been an industry leader in manufacturing innovative ceramic and porcelain tile in North and Central America for over 40 years. Its Durabody ceramic tile is a revolutionary hybrid technology that fuses the technical characteristics of ceramic and porcelain tile. The result is a ceramic tile that features all the benefits of porcelain tile, twice as strong as the industry standard, at an affordable price. Interceramic’s tenured sales staff can provide personalized on-site service or dedicate design sessions in its showroom, available by appointment only. Interceramic believes that tile matters — and that it has the unique ability to lay a foundation of beauty that can help any home be at its best…for a lifetime. Interceramic. Crafted for Life. PICTURED: Bret McIntire, Branch Manager; Don Scruggs, Territory Manager. 6318 Airport Freeway, Ste. A | Fort Worth, Texas 76117 | 817.834.8491 11935 N. Stemmons Freeway, Ste. 130 | Dallas, Texas 75234 | 972.243.4465 interceramicusa.com

The Face of Sport Coach Referee Training

iREF2

iREF2 is committed to working with communities and organizations to offer the opportunity for development of sports officials, so together the needs of future youth and adult officials will be successful. iREF2 has worked with many partners throughout the DFW metroplex to help develop new officials. Its mentoring program emphasizes personal relationships that are built around the teaching-learning process. Formal training sessions tend to have a one-size-fits-all approach, while mentoring is tailored to the specific needs of the people involved — usually when it’s a teachable moment. iREF2 listens to the needs of its partners and focuses on placing the official in the location that allows both the official and the consumer to grow. iREF2 strives to build a partnership with the consumer through communication and evaluation processes. Its mentoring programs are a great example of a win-win situation for both the official and consumer partners. 2600 Alemeda St. | Fort Worth, Texas 76108 |

The Face of Professional Painters of DFW

J & V Painting

The J & V Painting crew is what makes us the face of Fort Worth painting. Our guys are polite, clean, and professional, and it shows in the dedication and pride they take in their work. Our teams have a track record of being respectful of your time, money, and home. Seventy-five percent of our teams have been with the company for over a decade, and, therefore, have a vested interest in the company. We have been in the painting business since 1975 and have painted thousands of homes, businesses, and industrial jobs. As a family-owned business, our name is important to us, and our work is a direct reflection. Providing top-quality work with a dedicated, timely workforce and peerless knowledge of cutting-edge materials and techniques makes J & V the right choice for painting services. PICTURED: Jon Nappier. 4429 Birchman Ave. | Fort Worth, Texas 76107 | 817.994.3277 | jandvpainting.com

The Face of Personal Injury Law

Greg Jackson Law

Greg Jackson is the Face of Personal Injury Law in Fort Worth. You won’t find a better lawyer to handle your injury case. Trained in the famed Practice Court Program at Baylor Law School, Greg has exclusively handled injury cases for more than 25 years. He founded Greg Jackson Law in 2004 to help injury victims. Greg has unique experience — nine years as an injury defense lawyer and 18 years as an injury victim lawyer — to represent his clients. He works hard for his clients and treats them like family members. He represents them to the limit of the law, but at the same time deals with his opponents in a courteous and professional manner. You can trust him to handle your case the right way: “Turning Wrongs Right.” PICTURED: Greg Jackson. 201 Main St., Ste. 600 | Fort Worth, Texas 76102 817.926.1003 | Fax 817.886.3653 gjackson@gregjacksonlaw.com | gregjacksonlaw.com

The Face of Family Law Specialists

KoonsFuller Family Law

As one of the largest family law firms in Texas, KoonsFuller Family Law offers an unmatched level of clout and range of resources, earning the firm numerous accolades. Whether your case calls for informal negotiations, mediation, collaborative law or court proceedings, KoonsFuller is equipped to handle cases of all sizes and issues and has been doing so for over 40 years. Our Tarrant County attorneys pride themselves on the compassion, skill, and thoughtfulness they bring to each case. They understand that every family is unique, and every family’s concerns are different, especially when divorce, custody issues, and finances are involved. PICTURED: (left to right) Drew Williamson, Dana Manry,* Heather King,* Rob McEwan,* Jessica Janicek*, Paul Leopold, and Courtney Harbaugh Walker. *Board Certified in Family Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. 550 Reserve St., Ste. 450 | Southlake, Texas 76092 | 817.481.2710 | Fax 817.481.2637 | koonsfuller.com *Principal office in Dallas

The Face of Board-Certified Truck Accident Lawyers

Law Offices of Laird & McCloskey, P.C.

Laird & McCloskey is a premier injury law firm helping individuals and families who have suffered catastrophic injury or loss in trucking and car collisions cases. The lawyers at Laird & McCloskey are Board-Certified in Truck Accident Law through the National Board of Trial Advocacy and in Personal Injury Trial Law through the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. We are two of only eight lawyers in the state of Texas with specialty certifications in commercial motor vehicle collisions. Our firm has more Board-Certified Truck Accident Law attorneys than any other law firm in Texas. Our firm consistently achieves some of the highest verdicts and settlement values of any law firm in the DFW area. We get clients referred from judges, other lawyers, and past clients. Helping people build back their lives after a permanent injury or death is what we do. PICTURED: Steve Laird and Seth McCloskey. 1119 Pennsylvania Ave. | Fort Worth, Texas 76104 | 817.531.3000 | texlawyers.com | info@texlawyers.com

The Face of Lincoln

Gilchrist Automotive: Triple Crown Lincoln

As a part of Gilchrist Automotive, we strive to continuously deliver excellent service and treat our customers as if they were family. We provide a vast selection of new and used vehicles, exceptional car care, and customer service with a smile. Here at Triple Crown Lincoln, it is our mission to be by your side whenever you need any car service or repair work done. We are proud that our customers are loyal, and the biggest testament is they refer their friends and family. Our red-carpet treatment and willingness to always go the extra mile for our customers set us apart from our competition. Triple Crown Lincoln delivers and offers valet pickup and delivery service, a personalized experience that gives you back your most important asset – time. We invite you to come Drive the Difference.

PICTURED: Dustin Rodgers, GM, Triple Crown Lincoln; Stephen Gilchrist, Dealer Operator, Gilchrist Automotive. 2975 W. Washington St. | Stephenville, Texas 76401 | 254.968.7000 | triplecrownlincoln.com

The Face of Farm & Ranch

Talia Lydick

Williams Trew

Longtime Fort Worth native Talia Lydick has sold some of the most prominent residential and farm and ranch properties in Fort Worth and the surrounding areas. Her knowledge of real estate ranges from being a seller’s agent, giving her clients confidence in their representation, to being the buyer’s agent, finding the perfect home or property. One of Talia’s interests is the equine industry, having owned and shown many horses over the years. Her experience in the equine industry has broadened her network to the farm and ranch community. Talia’s energetic personality and love for working with people enhance her capabilities in communications, sales, negotiations, and ability to maintain satisfied clients. All indications show that 2022 is going to be an active year for farm and ranch properties. If you have any questions about the market or your property, give Talia a call.

3707 Camp Bowie Blvd., Ste. 300 | Fort Worth, Texas 76107 | 817.692.4821 | williamstrew.com | talia.lydick@williamstrew.com

The Face of Pizza

Mama’s Pizza

Mama’s Pizza has been serving the best pizza in town since 1968. Our pizza is made from scratch, and the dough is made daily. Our East Coast-style crust separates us from all other pizza. The crust is rolled over so the inside is chewy while the outside has a little crunch. Finished off with garlic butter, our crust truly separates Mama’s from all others. We use 100% mozzarella cheese and the best ingredients in the industry. Combine all that with great customer service — that’s why we’ve been in business for more than 55 years and have won over 100 awards for best pizza in DFW publications during that time. Mama’s Pizza has 10 DFW locations with two more opening in 2023. PICTURED: Cole Durham, General Manager; Jordan Scott, CEO; Wes Hall, General Manager. 5800 Camp Bowie Blvd. | Fort Worth, Texas 76107 | 817.731.6262 | fwpizza.com | mamaspizzacorp@gmail.com

The Face of Custom Bedding Manufacturers

The Original Mattress Factory

A 126-year-old, Fort Worth family business, the Original Mattress Factory manufactures quality bedding and sells directly to the public nationwide. We are focused on innovating the best way to give our customers a great night’s sleep at a low price. Not settling for anything less, we believe that we need to own and control the production process to make sure quality is second to none. A Texas original since 1896, our family takes pride in continuing the tradition of excellence, quality and value in our products that the generations before us established. Our employees, customers, and vendors are our lifeline for our success. We are proactive in our approach to making sure everything from ordering the raw materials, to production, to delivery is done in a timely manner and with top quality and integrity.

900 East Vickery | Fort Worth, Texas 76104 | 817.334.0361 | originalmattress@gmail.com | themattressfactory.com

The Face of Family Law Law Office of Gary L. Nickelson

The firm has been handling complicated matrimonial cases in the trial or appellate courts throughout Texas for more than 40 years. Founding attorney Gary L. Nickelson is board-certified in Family Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

Gary has been the chair of the Family Law Section of the State Bar, president of the Texas Academy of Family Law Specialists, American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers — both the Texas Chapter and national organization and is a former director of the State Bar of Texas. He is also a diplomate in The American College of Family Trial Lawyers, which is by invitation only and limited to 100 Family Law attorneys nationwide. He holds many prestigious awards in Family Law and has been named a “Texas Super Lawyer” in Texas Monthly magazine every year since the program began in 2003. PICTURED: Gary L. Nickelson.

5201 W. Freeway, Ste. 100 | Fort Worth, Texas 76107 817.735.4000 | garynickelson.com

The Face of Nissan

SouthWest Nissan

Gilchrist Automotive

Experience VIP treatment while selecting from an incredible lineup of vehicles at SouthWest Nissan. Our team is dedicated to providing you with great customer service, and our family-friendly atmosphere shows we are committed to really “Drive the Difference” in our community. We listen to our customers’ wants and needs and then work hard to get them what they want in a timely fashion — with a touch of extras they did not expect and try to make it fun! Sometimes we can even do things that customers themselves are surprised we do — like obtaining great payment plans for them. We take care of our customers before, during, and after the sale. Bottom line is that we want customers for life, and people are quick to pick up on that feeling when they deal with us. We invite you to come Drive the Difference. PICTURED: Chad Shelton, General Manager, SouthWest Nissan; Stephen Gilchrist, Dealer Operator, Gilchrist Automotive. 817.596.3811 | southwestnissantx.com | cshelton@gilchristautomotive.com

The Face of Home Appliance Sales and Service

Oliver Dyer

Growing up in a family business performing service in customers’ homes, I always considered my customers to be my best source of new customers. Whether it’s service or delivering new appliances into thousands of homes, I’ve seen how my customers react when a worker respects their home. Everyone at Oliver Dyer Appliance knows his or her customer will refer friends, neighbors and family members, so they go out of their way to create a satisfied customer. We only sell appliance brands where the manufacturer backs our efforts to do whatever necessary to satisfy every customer. If it’s not good enough to be in our homes, it isn’t good enough to be in yours. My name, email address and personal cell phone number are on every invoice. In over 40 years, I’ve only had a handful of calls with a problem, but I’ve received thousands of calls complimenting my employees.

8320 Camp Bowie W. | Fort Worth, Texas 76116 | 817.244.1874 | oliverdyersappliance.com

The Face of Breakfast

Ol’ South Pancake House

Founded in 1962 and celebrating over 60 years in business. Voted Best Breakfast in Fort Worth many times, Ol’ South Pancake House has become known as THE spot to go to for breakfast in Fort Worth. And, except for Christmas Eve, we don’t close. Ever! Owner Rex Benson continues to carry on the same tradition of serving homestyle cooking that his father, late co-founder David Benson, started over 60 years ago. And Rex has started some of his own traditions, such as the Mega Pancake Challenge and a beautiful, fully equipped catering trailer for events. Now, we have added a brand-new location that’s open in Burleson to that list! We always welcome families and children, hungry TCU students craving some homestyle cooking, tourists looking to grab a bite from a true local joint, and everyone in between. So, try us out — see how sweet life can be, the Ol’ South way!

1509 South University Drive | Fort Worth, Texas 76107 | 817.336.0311 | olsouthpancakehouse.com

The Face of Orthopedic and Sports Medicine

Michael H. Boothby, MD

The Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Institute

To Dr. Michael H. Boothby, the most important aspect of being an excellent orthopedic surgeon is to improve his patients’ lives. He established The Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Institute in 2011 to deliver cutting-edge sports medicine and orthopedic care to everyone. Based on listening and creating opportunities to get to know his patients, Dr. Boothby builds trusted relationships. The recommendations by patients to their own family and friends are a testament to his care and excellent results. For 2023, Fort Worth’s Panther City Lacrosse Club, a National Lacrosse League team, continues to engage OSMI and Dr. Boothby as its official orthopedic and sports medicine provider. Whether student or amateur athlete, or an “athlete of daily living,” everyone needs to achieve their best physical function. Dr. Boothby’s philosophy is to provide professional athlete level of care to all who seek it.

The Face of Electric Bikes

Pedego Fort Worth

At Pedego Fort Worth, we are passionate about helping you find the perfect electric bike and getting the most out of it for years to come. Pedego is the leading brand of electric bikes in North America. Along with sales and service, we also offer rentals and tours. The Bike & BBQ guided tour is a fun ride to the Stockyards to watch the cattle drive and eat Texas barbecue. Service after the sale sets us apart from other brands, along with Pedego’s five-year warranty, and network of 200-plus stores. Fort Worth MedStar bike medics now ride Pedegos. Pedego is not just a brand; it’s a lifestyle. The Pedego Owners Group makes it easy to connect with other fun lovers by joining group rides, attending fun events, and sharing stories and advice. PICTURED Marco Morales, Travis Perry, Keely Peden Morales, Vicki Peden, and Neal Peden. 129 W. Leuda | Fort Worth, Texas 76104 | 682.305.8304 | pedegofortworth.com

The Face of Screen Printing

Printed Threads

It’s not just about custom merchandise or T-shirts. For us, it’s about cultivating creative community. What started in the Bowden family garage in 2010 has grown into a space where artists, makers, dreamers, and innovators from all over the world can come together and learn from each other. We’re now a national leader in the screen-printing industry — yet our love for Fort Worth remains. We’re not just a print shop; we’re a hub where Fort Worth creatives and local businesses can collaborate, spark ideas, and grow alongside us. There is truly no other place like Printed Threads — just like there is no other city like Fort Worth. PICTURED: Brett Bowden. 210 South Freeway | Fort Worth, Texas 76104 | 817.601.7116 | printedthreads.com

The Face of Pool Experts Pulliam Pools

As a third-generation pool builder, Andrew Fluty’s family has deep roots in the pool industry. Everything he knows about the pool industry is mostly from experience. He began his career with Pulliam Pools just out of college in the late ‘90s. Starting as a laborer, he worked his way up through each department, learning every aspect of the company. While working in sales and design, he sold over $30 million before he was promoted to sales manager in 2015. In 2021 he took over all aspects of the company as general manager. His career with Pulliam has allowed him to grow and learn in an industry that he loves. Pulliam Pools has been recognized by Pool & Spa Magazine as one of the Top 50 Pool Builders in the nation for 20 consecutive years. PICTURED: Andrew Fluty, General Manager. 2725 Altamesa Blvd. | Fort Worth, Texas 76133| 817.346.4778 | pulliam.com | andrew@pulliam.com

The Face of Family Dentistry

Rodeo Dental & Orthodontics

Rodeo Dental was founded in 2008 with the mission to change the face of dentistry! Our offices create a wow experience ― from entering our exciting lobbies until the moment you see our seasoned doctors, you’ll experience our focus, dedication, and commitment to your comfort and service. You’ll see how we celebrate our patients, and the joy that delivers! We pride ourselves on personal care and attention to each patient and to addressing their individual needs. Every patient is different, and our team is sensitive to those differences and committed to exceptional care. Rodeo’s welcoming and warm atmosphere sets us apart. This unique approach has garnered us over 50,000 five-star reviews across Google and Facebook! Our dynamic and lively culture is the benchmark of Rodeo’s comprehensive, award-winning approach. PICTURED: Rodeo Dental Doctors.

3204 N. Main St., Ste. 120 | Fort Worth, Texas 76106 | 817.380.5574 | rodeodental.com

The Face of Retirement Plans

Rogers Wealth Group, Inc.

Rogers Wealth Group is the face of retirement plans in Fort Worth. Beginning in 1973, Dale C. Rogers was an early retirement plan pioneer who specialized in solving companies’ plan problems. Years later, he added a fee-only investment firm built on integrity, trust, and impeccable service. Today, Craig C. Rogers continues to offer Fort Worth a true one stop for retirement plans. Rogers Wealth Group offers both 3(16) and 3(38) fiduciary services so that it can manage retirement plans and let you concentrate solely on running your business. From hometown startups to publicly traded firms and companies nationwide, it is Rogers Wealth Group’s mission to make your retirement plan as efficient and effective as possible while achieving the best possible outcomes for you and your employees.

PICTURED: Melissa Childs, SVP; Chris Moore, SVP; Craig Rogers, CEO; Chris Manross, VP; Matt Lankford, CIO. 1330 Summit Ave. | Fort Worth, Texas 76102 | 817.334.0351 | rogerswealthgroup.com

The Face of Global Real Estate

The Schweitzer Group – Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Realty

Selling or purchasing a home can be a big and overwhelming decision. The Schweitzer Group is committed to partnering with its clients every step of the way. These real estate advisors provide the highest level of service, professionalism, and expertise to make buying or selling a home a truly positive experience. When a client chooses The Schweitzer Group, they will get a group of professionals with various strengths and backgrounds that work well together to find or sell a home. They have access to their own construction company to help clients create their dream home no matter what their budget is. They have a proven listing process that is tailored to each client’s needs, with a project plan of everything that needs to be done prior to listing the home on the market. PICTURED: Thurman Schweitzer, Barbara Schweitzer, Trey Young, Shelly Forrest.

4828 Camp Bowie Blvd. | Fort Worth, Texas 76107 | 817.821.2694 briggsfreeman.com/realestate/agent/the-schweitzer-group | bschweitzer@briggsfreeman.com

The Face of Weight Loss and Nutrition SciFit Center

Owned and operated by health and wellness practitioner Dr. Bryce Calvillo and nutritionist Angela Calvillo, SciFit Center offers one of the most unique and successful weight loss programs in the industry. The center provides weekly one-onone appointments that address all the components of a healthy lifestyle including nutrition, exercise, stress management, food addiction, and balancing healthy habits, while still indulging in the foods you love. No pills, powders, or packaged meals, SciFit Center uses a real-life, whole foods approach that helps you transition into a sustainable new normal. By incorporating weekly appointments, body composition scanning, and DNA & Food Sensitivity Testing, they treat your body and lifestyle as a whole, which provides the most efficient and effective results possible. PICTURED: Dr. Bryce Calvillo, Health & Wellness Practitioner; Angela Calvillo, B.S., B.A, Nutritional Psychologist; Ashley Randall, Holistic Nutritionist. 2408 Forest Park Blvd. | Fort Worth, Texas 76110 | 817.975.7583 scifitcenter.com | healthylife@scifitcenter.com

The Face of Custom Home Building

Sean Knight Custom Homes

For more than 35 years, Sean Knight Custom Homes has been recognized as a premier homebuilder in North Texas. Sean Knight is a certified master builder and remodeler and has a reputation for delivering luxury, quality, and elegance. We are dedicated to growing relationships through trust and respect. At Sean Knight Custom Homes, we continually aim to go above and beyond. Vast experience in the industry and a reputation for superior quality, attention to detail, honesty, and integrity make us unique. We believe that our expertise, dedication to quality, and strength of communication set us apart from many in the industry. We do more at Sean Knight Custom Homes than just build superior homes; we build long-lasting client/contractor relationships focused on service, detail, and trust.

109 S. Ranch House Road, Ste. 107 | Aledo, Texas 76008 | 817.560.0828 | sknight@flash.net | seanknightcustomhomes.com

The Face of Interior Design

Susan Semmelmann Interiors

Susan Semmelmann is a designer on a mission. Susan says her mission is to use her gifts and talents “for the greater good of everyone in her reachable sphere.”

Semmelmann Interiors’ mission statement reads “The spirit of living is in the giving.” To Susan, those words are much more than a tag line beneath a logo. She strives to make clients’ dreams a reality with custom crafted furnishings and accessories created in-house and manufactured drapery and bedding directly from fabric mills. Semmelmann Interiors has its own workroom for clients that allows it to turnkey any project in a timely manner and accommodate every style. “Our wow factor is definitely the eye for design and the client relationships. Over the years the clients come back because they had a great experience. Customer service is the highest priority for us, and we make every client a VIP.” 4374 West Vickery Blvd. | Fort Worth, Texas 76107 940.577.1000 | semmelmanninteriors.com

The Face of Custom Door and Window

Silverado Custom Door & Window

In business since 1987, Silverado Custom Door & Window works with homeowners, interior designers, builders, and architects to produce client-specific custom wood doors and windows, with no size or wood species restraints. Owner Rick Parrilla has studied wood and its properties, as well as European architecture and proper finishing techniques, to produce products that will last for decades to come. Silverado Custom Door & Window also offers various brands of door and window hardware. With the belief that things made by hand have more natural splendor than short-lived, factory-built objects made from preprocessed materials, the skilled artisans at Silverado Custom Door & Window make sure every door is made from solid hardwood, using no veneers, and is created to last for decades. As handmade pieces age with character, they soften, get richer, and are cherished even more. PICTURED: Rick Parrilla. 940.362.4571 | silveradodoors.com | info@silveradodoors.com

The Face of Community Banking

Simmons Bank

At Simmons Bank, Lori Baldock leverages her 35-plus years of industry experience and the Fort Worth team’s combined 150-plus years of experience to become a trusted advisor to some of Tarrant County’s most successful and well-recognized entrepreneurs, families, and businesses. Simmons Bank offers comprehensive financial solutions delivered with a clientcentric approach with over 200 branches in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas. As a community bank, it realizes helping the community pays countless dividends at all levels. It regards social and civic responsibility as an inherent part of everything it does. This is evidenced prominently in Fort Worth through its commitment to the realization of Dickies Arena with Simmons Bank Plaza and its support of TCU and TCU women’s athletics. Earning trust, creating value, and building relationships are the focus at Simmons Bank. PICTURED: Lori S. Baldock, Market President.

2200 W. Seventh St., Ste. 212 | Fort Worth, Texas 76107 | 817.916.6110 | simmonsbank.com | lori.baldock@simmonsbank.com

The Face of Fort Worth Title Insurance

Simplified Title Company

Title is my life. I entered this business at the age of 19 and have not looked back, experiencing the following in the last 16-plus years: multiple economic downturns, getting my law degree in 2012, and being an owner/partner in two different startup title companies. I pride myself in being able to navigate complex residential and commercial transactions that take a unique set of skills and expertise of Texas law, and my clients would echo those sentiments. No real estate transaction is built the same, and not all title companies are built the same either. My clients place a lot of trust in me and know that I’ll get the job done effectively, efficiently, and ethically. Folks know they can rely on me to get a deal to the finish line. PICTURED: Martin A. Garcia. 3108 W. Sixth St., Ste. 222 | Fort Worth, Texas 76107 | 817.945.6398 texas-title.com | simplifiedtitleco.com | martin@simplifiedtitlecompany.com

The Face of Cosmetic and Reconstructive Plastic Surgery

Matthew H. Steele, M.D.

Dr. Matthew Steele’s attention to detail and extensive experience in cosmetic and reconstructive plastic surgery ensure excellent patient outcomes and satisfaction. Dr. Steele is one of a handful of plastic surgeons in the DFW area that is double board-certified in otolaryngology (ENT) and plastic surgery. We pride ourselves on our small, intimate office where patients are treated like family. Dr. Steele devotes substantial time during consultation to provide an individualized treatment plan with the patient’s goals in mind. Our practice is the only office in Fort Worth offering awake in-office liposuction with BodyTite. Finally, Jennifer, our aesthetician, brings her extensive experience in skin care, injectables, and noninvasive facial rejuvenation. Jennifer has 20+ years of experience in aesthetics and is classified as a Master Injector for Allergan. PICTURED: Dr. Matthew Steele, Keri Steele, Jessica Garcia, Erica Ramos, Jennifer Geyer, and Victoria Puff. 5656 Edwards Ranch Road, Ste. 202 | Fort Worth, Texas 76109 | 817.731.5330 | drsteeleplasticsurgery.com

The Face of Labor and Employment Law Tanner and Associates, PC

Tanner and Associates, PC, has been recognized by U.S. News & World Report as a Tier One law firm in three areas: Labor Law – Unions, Employment Law –Individuals, and Labor and Employment Litigation. Rod Tanner, the firm’s founding shareholder, is a Fellow in the prestigious College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, and he is widely recognized as one of the state’s preeminent labor and employment attorneys. Texas Super Lawyers (Thomson Reuters) named Mr. Tanner one of the state’s Top 100 Super Lawyers in 2019-2020. Noting that the purpose of our labor laws is to establish justice in the workplace, Mr. Tanner has said that “our passion for accomplishing this vision is matched only by our dedication to our clients’ interests.” PICTURED: Rod Tanner.

6300 Ridglea Place, Ste. 407 | Fort Worth, Texas 76116 817.377.8833 rodtannerlaw.com | rtanner@rodtannerlaw.com

The Face of Graduate Business Degrees for Working Professionals TCU Neeley School of Business

Traci Larrison leads recruitment of dynamic leaders who are ready to transform their careers at the prestigious TCU Neeley School of Business and strategizes with business entities for ways to retain and refine their top talent. With 20 years living and working in Fort Worth and eight years at TCU, Traci Larrison is the pipeline in North Texas to empower executives to earn their advanced business degrees while working full time, in order for them to reach the next level of professional excellence. TCU Neeley graduate degrees are the premier metroplex programs to unleash your potential through leadership, innovation, and experiential learning for career advancement. Explore our degrees and contact Traci for an exploratory conversation and next steps: Executive MBA, Professional MBA (online or in-person), Energy MBA, MS in Supply Chain Management. 2900 Lubbock Ave. | Fort Worth, Texas 76129 | 817.257.4369 | neeley.tcu.edu/comparegradprograms

The Face of The Most Trusted Bank in America

Texas Capital Bank

Newsweek named Texas Capital Bank the No. 1 most trusted bank in the country in 2022, according to surveyed consumers. “Being named the most trusted bank in the country is an honor and testament to the hard work and dedication of our employees on behalf of our clients,” says Rob Holmes, President and CEO of Texas Capital Bank. Creating trust involves three factors: Our commitment to our clients, investors, and employees. Our retention program focuses on recruiting and retaining people for their commitment to our core values of transparency, accountability, candor, and trust. PICTURED: Fort Worth Relationship Management team - Paul Hissin; Rusty Anderson, Group Manager; Michael Grace. Texas Capital Bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of Texas Capital Bancshares, Inc. We are headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and work with clients across the country. All services are subject to applicable laws, regulations, and service terms.

300 Throckmorton St., Ste. 100 | Fort Worth, Texas 76102 | 817.852.4000

The Face of Arts and Academics

Texas Center for Arts + Academics

Texas Center for Arts + Academics (TCA+A) is a fine arts nonprofit serving over 1,000 students annually by providing high-quality, arts-based education to ages 3-18. What began as the Texas Boys Choir is now the place for all students with creative minds to learn, grow, and train in a supportive environment 77 years later. TCA+A’s public charter schools, Fort Worth Academy of Fine Arts and Texas School of the Arts, provide free education to students grades K-12. In addition to our schools, TCA+A has three premier choirs, three conservatories, and reaches over 220 youth in our summer camp programs each year. Research shows that fine arts education models like ours assist students by promoting self-discipline, goal-oriented learning, creative problem-solving, and self-confidence. TCA+A schools consistently outperform other schools in the area in math and reading and receive A rankings from third-party organizations like Niche. 3901 S. Hulen St. | Fort Worth, Texas 76109 | 817.766.2390 | artsacademics.org | info@artsacademics.org

The Face of Executive Terminal and Private Aircraft

Texas Jet

We are frequently asked why pilots routinely rank Texas Jet at Meacham Airport the No. 1 or No. 2 Best Independent FBO (private aircraft terminal) out of 3,500 FBOs in the U.S. Well, here are seven reasons why. The Texas Jet team members pictured above have all been with us between 10 and 20-plus years. They deliver exceptional service to our customers every day and have a great time doing it! Our 40 team members live our “Culture of Excellence” and earn smiles from pilots and passengers alike. Experience Texas Jet’s service yourself and see why our customers are considered friends! 200 Texas Way | Fort Worth, Texas 76106 | 800.776.4547 | 817.624.8438 customerservice@texasjet.com | texasjet.com

The Face of Elegant Dining

The Capital Grille Fort Worth

At The Capital Grille, we pride ourselves on building relationships with our guests. We believe that each contact with our guests is an opportunity to provide excellent service that always exceeds expectations. The elegant experience begins at the front door. Our goal is always to impress you with team-oriented, friendly, gracious, and attentive service. We specialize in 18-24 day, dry-aged steaks, fresh seafood, and personalized, anticipatory service. Only the finest, freshest ingredients are used in our masterfully prepared classic, yet elegant dishes. With more than 300 Old and New World selections, we have 2,500 bottles of acclaimed world-class wines. The Coravin wine-preservation system is used to offer our guests rare access to highly rated, exclusive wines by the glass. We take pride in being a part of and positively contributing to the beautiful community of Fort Worth. PICTURED: Team Elegant Dining.

800 Main St. | Fort Worth, Texas 76102 | 817.348.9200 | thecapitalgrille.com | gstarling@tcgdine.com

The Face of Funeral and Cremation Services Thompson’s Harveson & Cole

Thompson’s Harveson & Cole, established in 1911, has maintained through the years a goal of providing exceptional personal and compassionate service at what can be a most difficult time. These core values have earned THC a revered reputation within the communities served and throughout the industry. As a family-owned and managed firm, Martin and Jon are actively involved in all aspects and always available. They strongly express that the employees of THC are the “wow” factor. They are kind, helpful, and extremely knowledgeable regarding all aspects of funeral and cremation services. The newly renovated facilities are a source of pride and enable THC to offer options not frequently found nor expected. These include a large chapel and reception area complete with kitchen for receptions.

PICTURED: Martin Thompson, Jon Thompson, and Harveson. 4350 River Oaks Blvd. | Fort Worth, Texas 76114 | 817.336.0345 thompsonfuneral.com | martin@thompsonfuneral.com

The Face of Cannabis Thrive

Apothecary

Board-certified physician Dr. Lisa Gardner and her husband, retired Fort Worth Police SWAT team leader, Trey Phillips, brought cannabis to Fort Worth in 2018 with the launch of their award-winning cannabis store, Thrive Apothecary. Thrive Apothecary continues to dominate the DFW market with three retail locations as well as the launch of Thrive Medical Cannabis. Dr. Gardner is the No. 1 physician licensed by the state to prescribe medical marijuana to Texans who qualify. Prospective patients from anywhere in Texas can book a free online eligibility consultation to qualify for a medical marijuana prescription. They also offer free prescription appointments to veterans, public safety personnel, medical staff, and teachers. The size and scope of their product offering is unmatched and, when combined with their vetting process, makes them the only cannabis retailer you can truly trust.

Thrive Apothecary

The Face of Higher Education

UTA Fort Worth Center

As an incubator for innovation and a champion of student access, UT Arlington is a national model for urban institutions. Designated as a Texas Tier One university, UTA has established itself as a top-choice destination for education in Arlington and downtown Fort Worth. UTA Fort Worth offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs, professional certificates, student support services, and tailored training opportunities to students and employers in North Texas. Fort Worth students can pursue an Executive MBA or MBA or degrees in nursing, social work, health care administration, real estate, public administration. Two new graduate degrees in engineering are coming in fall 2023. Smaller class sizes maximize networking in the classroom, and convenient evening and weekend classes make it easier to balance career, school, and life. PICTURED: Betty Mutai, UTA Fort Worth Events Manager and UTA alumna. 1401 Jones St. | Fort Worth, Texas 76102 | 817.272.5988 | fortworth.uta.edu

The Face of Flooring

Vintage Floors

With a culmination of over 200 years of flooring and design experience, Vintage Floors is the Face of Flooring in Fort Worth. It is this vast industry experience that sets us apart. When making selections for the largest asset in your life, where you live, entertain friends, and raise your family, it’s important to choose a trusted company that’s been providing flooring for many years in the community. The staff at Vintage Floors cares about your 100% satisfaction. We believe that our teamwork approach, superior customer service, and solid commitment to our clients are the key to our company’s success. Quality products and exceptional customer service keep our satisfied customers coming back and recommending us to their friends and family. PICTURED: Bryan Page (President).

5136 Camp Bowie Blvd. | Fort Worth, Texas 76107 | 817.877.1564 | Fax 817.882.1162 | vintagefloorstx.com

The Face of Architecture

VLK Architects

Since 1984, VLK Architects has made its mark on Fort Worth, from designing extraordinary spaces with our clients to being recognized year after year as a top place to work. Fort Worth’s Southside neighborhood is home to our new headquarters, and from here we provide our clients uncompromising excellence every day. We work here, live here, and serve the community on many levels. Today, VLK has five offices to serve clients across Texas, but Fort Worth is always our home. At VLK, we are driven to build strong relationships. That means we are passionate advocates for our clients, putting their needs before our own. We’re collaborative, responsive, and receptive to their input. Over time, that kind of devotion results in trust and respect — in short, an authentic partnership — which in turn often results in a repeat client. There is no higher honor. PICTURED: Sloan Harris, CEO and Partner.

1320 Hemphill St. , Ste. 400 | Fort Worth, Texas 76104 | 817.633.1600 | vlkarchitects.com

The Face of Volkswagen

SouthWest Volkswagen

Gilchrist Automotive

Buyers choose SouthWest Volkswagen because of the hassle-free buying experience. At SouthWest Volkswagen, we are a one-touch store, meaning the business manager handles your purchase from start to finish. This makes the process quicker as well as not having to be introduced to several people during the car buying process. We make it a fun experience for you to get the car you want at a fair price with no hidden adds or fees. Our wow factor that keeps customers coming back is the genuine care and appreciation we have for our customers. We treat you like you are part of the family … because you are! Whether it’s sales, service, or parts, we are all under one rooftop and ready to fulfill all your automotive needs. We invite you to come Drive the Difference. PICTURED: Stephen Gilchrist, Dealer Operator, Gilchrist Automotive; Chad Shelton, General Manager, SouthWest Volkswagen. SouthWest Volkswagen | southwestvolkswagen.com | cshelton@gilchristautomotive.com | 817.458.5400

The Face of Mohs Surgery

Molly M. Warthan, M.D.

Dr. Molly M. Warthan has performed over 8000 skin cancer surgeries in her career. Specializing in Mohs Micrographic skin cancer surgery, she excises skin cancers from the face and neck mostly and does frozen tissue sections on the skin cancer to ensure that the skin cancer is completely removed before suturing the area. A board-certified dermatologist, Dr. Warthan had the unique opportunity to do her fellowship for Mohs skin cancer surgery with a Mohs surgeon and a plastic surgeon who did all the skin cancer surgery repairs. She is able to ensure skin cancers are removed prior to patients leaving the office. The Warthan Dermatology Mohs Skin Cancer Surgery Center wants its patients to feel comfortable with the staff and the physician and offers its patients a warm, friendly environment while they are having surgery.

Warthan Dermatology Mohs Skin Cancer Surgery Center 5751 Edwards Ranch Road, Ste. 101 | Fort Worth, Texas 76109 817.923.8220 | mohsdermatology.com | info@mohsdermatology.com

The Face of Commercial and Residential Roofing

Weathershield Roofing

At Weathershield Roofing no roofing job is too big or too small. You come first whether the roofing project is commercial roofing, residential roofing, roof inspections, roof repairs, or roof replacement. We protect your investment and care for your property. We are a local company servicing DFW and provide incredible customer service — every company says this, but we really do! Our project managers and roofing professionals are the backbone of our company. As members of NRCA, we’re up to date on the latest industry standards and training. Weathershield specializes in difficult jobs in difficult places with impossible time constraints and takes on roofing jobs other roofing companies are not capable of doing. The Weathershield team thrives on unusual and challenging circumstances, and we do what we say we are going to do. PICTURED: Doug Boyd, Brandon Flowers, Cole Thompson, and Dave Sonnier.

377 Savage Lane | Aledo, Texas 76008 | 817.441.1446 | weathershieldroofs.com | office@txroofer.com

The Face of Residential Real Estate

Martha Williams Group

What sets the Martha Williams Group apart is its dominance in the Fort Worth real estate market and its dedication to customer service and customer relationships. “We know and understand the intricacies of Fort Worth, and we have over 80 years of combined experience.” Martha Williams, Amanda Massingill, Patricia Williams, and Trey Freeze were born and raised in Fort Worth. They are actively engaged in and connected with the Fort Worth community and truly appreciate the rich culture and arts that our great city has to offer. Clients return to the Martha Williams Group because of its history of success. Attentive to its clients’ needs, it is committed to providing extraordinary service. Fort Worth is Home.

The Martha Williams Group | 3707 Camp Bowie Blvd., Ste. 300 | Fort Worth, Texas 76107 | marthawilliamsgroup.com

Martha Williams | 817.570.9401 | martha@williamstrew.com

Amanda Massingill | 817.570.9451 | amanda@williamstrew.com

Patricia Williams | 817.504.2410 | patricia@williamstrew.com

Trey Freeze | 817.559.5529 | trey.freeze@williamstrew.com

The Face of Luxury Real Estate

John Zimmerman

Compass Real Estate Fort Worth

What makes John Zimmerman the No. 1 agent in Fort Worth? A relentless pursuit of excellence and dedication to providing the best results for his clients across every price point. Innovation and hard work are not just taglines but an obsessive pursuit that inspires fierce client loyalty. As the founding agent for Compass Real Estate’s Fort Worth office, Zimmerman combines over 30 years of residential real estate experience with Compass’ best-in-class data and technology to optimize the client experience. 817.247.6464

john.zimmerman@compass.com jzfortworth.com

A Wish with Wings awww.org

Children

817.469.9474

ACH Child and Family Services achservices.org

Children

682.432.1112

Academy 4 academy4.org Education

817.332.5070

AIDS Outreach Center aoc.org

Health and Wellness

817.916.5224

Airpower Foundation airpowerfoundation.com

Military

817.682.0767

All Saints Health Foundation allsaintsfoundation.bswhealth. com

Health and Wellness

817.922.7706

Alliance for Children allianceforchildren.org

Children

817.348.1173

Alzheimer's Association alz.org

Health and Wellness

817.336.4949

American Cancer Society acshpfw.ejoinme.org

Health and Wellness

817.570.0634

American Diabetes Association

diabetes.org

Health and Wellness

972.392.1181

American Heart Association heart.org

Health and Wellness

817.698.5443

American Lung Association lung.org

Health and Wellness

214.631.5864

American Paint Horse Association apha.com

Wildlife and Animals

817.834.2742

American Warrior Association americanwarriorassociation.org

Military

682.350.5003

Amon Carter Museum of American Art cartermuseum.org

Arts and Culture

817.738.1933

Amon G. Carter Foundation agcf.org

Arts and Culture

817.332.2783

Arise Africa artisafrica.org Education 877.360.9151

Arlington Life Shelter arlingtonlifeshelter.org

Poverty and Hunger 817.548.9885

Art Bridges Inc. artbridgesfoundation.org

Arts and Culture

Art Tooth arttooth.com

Arts and Culture info@arttooth.com

Artisan Center Theater artisanct.com

Arts and Culture

817.284.1200

Arts Fort Worth artsfortworth.org

Arts and Culture

817.738.1938

Autism Treatment Center atcoftexas.org

Disabilities 469.872.7720

Association of the United States Army (AUSA) ausanorthtexas.org

Military ntam@ausa.org

Ballet Frontier of Texas balletfrontier.org

Arts and Culture

817.852.6887

Big Brothers Big Sisters bbbstx.org

Children 817.566.7424

The Big Good thebiggood.org Community

Black Dog Charity blackdogcharity.com

Health and Wellness

817.924.4236

Bobby Norris Roundup for Autism roundupforautism.org

Disabilities

817.312.5845

Botanical Research Institute of Texas brit.org

Wildlife and Animals 817.332.4441

Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Tarrant County bgcgtc.org

Children

817.834.4711

Boy Scouts of America Longhorn Council longhorncouncil.org

Children

817.231.8500

Bras for a Cause

Cheryl's Voice cherylsvoice.org Domestic Violence

682.325.9307

Child Care Associates childcareassociates.org Children 817.838.0055

Children's Charities of Fort Worth childrenscharitiesfw.com Children 817.269.0332

Chris Kyle Frog Foundation chriskylefrogfoundation.org Military and First Responders 844.336.2533

Christ’s Haven for Children christshaven.org 817.431.1544

Clayton Youth Enrichment claytonyouth.org

Health and Wellness

Camp Fire First Texas campfirefw.org

Children

817.831.2111

Camp John Marc campjohnmarc.org

Family

214.360.0056

Cancer Care Services cancercareservices.org Health and Wellness 817.921.0653

Children 817.923.9888

Colleyville Garden Club colleyvillegardenclub.org Wildlife and Animals 817.798.3058

Colleyville Woman's Club c-w-c.org Volunteer Service 817.300.5902

Community Enrichment Center cechope.org Poverty and Hunger 817.281.1164

Cancer Research Foundation cancerresearchfoundation.org Health and Wellness 817. 261.7654

Cancer Support Community North Texas cancersupporttexas.org Health and Wellness info@cancersupporttexas. org

Carroll Education Foundation carrolleducationfoundation.org Education 817.999.3281

Catholic Charities Fort Worth catholiccharitiesfortworth.org

Poverty and Hunger 817.413.3924

Center for Transforming Lives transforminglives.org Poverty and Hunger 817.332.6191

Community Food Bank food-bank.org

Poverty and Hunger 817.924.3333

Community Frontline communityfrontline.com Special Interest 817.755.0605

Communities in Schools Greater Tarrant County cistarrant.org Education 817.446.5454

Community Healthcare of Texas chot.com

Health and Wellness 817.870.2795

Community Storehouse communitystorehouse.org Children 817.431.3340

Cook Children's Health Foundation cookchildrens.org

Health and Wellness

682.885.6245

Cornerstone Assistance Network canetwork.org

Religious 817.632.6000

Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) speakupforachild.org

Children

817.877.5891

Cowtown C.A.L.F. Program cowtownmarathon.com

Children

817.207.0224

Cowtown Warriors cowtownwarriors.com

Military and First Responders

760.699.1813

Chron’s & Colitis Foundation, North Texas/Oklahoma Chapter chronscolitisfoundation.org/ chapters/ntexas

Health and Wellness

972.386.0607

Creel Family Philanthropies creelfamilyphilanthropies.com

Health and Wellness

Cuisine for Healing cuisineforhealing.org

Health and Wellness

817.921.2377

Cystic Fibrosis Foundation cff.org

Health and Wellness

817.249.7744

Development Corporation of Tarrant County devcorptc.net

Poverty and Hunger

817.870.9008

DNAWORKS dnaworks.org

Arts and Culture

212.765.4914

Don’t Forget to Feed Me dontforgettofeedme.com

Wildlife and Animals

817.334.0727

Double Eagle Charities doubleeaglecharities.com Community 817.928.3260

Down Syndrome Partnership of North Texas dspnt.org Disabilities 817.205.5094

Downtown FW Initiatives Inc. dfwi.org Community 817.870.1692

DRC Solutions drc-solutions.org Poverty and Hunger 817.810.9797

Easter Seals easterseals.com

Disabilities 512.615.6800

Family Pathfinders of Tarrant County pathfinderstc.org

Poverty and Hunger

817.731.1173

Fellowship of Christian Athletes fca.org

Religion 817.205.2334

First Tee Fort Worth firstteeftworth.org Children 817-420-9370

First United Methodist Church fumcfw.org Religion 817.281.5254

Foodie Philanthropy foodiephilanthropy.org Special Interest

Fort Worth Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology Coalition fwaya.org Health and Wellness 855.664.2922

Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce fortworthchamber.com

Community and Business

Fort Worth Ducks Unlimited fortworthdu.com

Environmental

Fort Worth Classic Guitar Society guitarsociety.org Special Interest 214.236.0783

Fort Worth Community Arts Center fwcac.com

Arts and Culture

817.738.1938

Fort Worth Garden Club fortworthgardenclub.org Wildlife and Animals 817.392.5510

Fort Worth HOPE Center fwhope.org Poverty and Hunger 817.451.6288

Fort Worth Museum of Science and History fwmuseum.org Arts and Culture 817.255.9300

Fort Worth Opera fwopera.org Arts and Culture 817.731.0833

Fort Worth Police Foundation fwpolicefoundation.org Military and First Responders 817.885.7765

Fort Worth Promotion and Development Fund thepartyinfortworth.org Government 817.451.8740

Fort Worth Public Library Foundation fwlibraryfoundation.org Education 817.871.8022

Fort Worth Save Our Children Learning Center fwsoc.org Education 817.536.2364

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra fwsymphony.org Arts and Culture 817.665.6500

Fort Worth Youth Orchestra fwyo.org Arts and Culture 817.923.3121

Fort Worth Zoological Association fortworthzoo.org Wildlife and Animals 817.759.7555

Fortress YDC fortressydc.org Education 817.335.1007

Friends of the Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge naturecenterfriends.org

Wildlife and Animals 817.932.7335

Gary Patterson Foundation pattersonfoundation.org Education info@pattersonfoundation. org

Gill Children's Services gillchildrens.org Children 817.332.5070

Girl Scouts of Texas Oklahoma Plains gs-top.org Children 817.735.5311

Girls Inc. of Tarrant County girlsinctarrant.org Children 817.259.1050

Gladney Center for Adoption adoptionsbygladney.com Children 817.922.6000

Goodwill Industries of Fort Worth goodwillfortworth.org Disabilities 817.332.7866

The Greatest Gift Catalog Ever tggce.org Special Interest 817.922.8297

Grapevine Relief and Community Exchange gracegrapevine.org Poverty and Hunger 817.488.7009

Guardianship Services, Inc. guardianshipservices.org Disabilities 817.921.0499

Happy Hill Farm happyhillfarm.org Education 817.692.4495

Helping Restore Ability hratexas.org Disabilities 817.469.1977

Historic Fort Worth Inc. historicfortworth.org Special Interest 817.336.2344

Hope Center for Autism hopecenter4autism.com

Disabilities

817.560.1139

HOPE Farm hopefarmfw.org

Religious hope@hopefarmfw.org

Hope Prison Ministries hopeprisonministries.org

Religion 817.323.7686

HSC Foundation unthsc.edu/give Health and Wellness

817.735.5044

Humane Society of North Texas hsnt.org

Wildlife and Animals

479.461.6034

International Rhino Foundation rhinos.org

Wildlife and Animals 540.465.9595

JDRF

jdrf.org/northtexasoklahoma

Health and Wellness

214.373.9808

Jewel Charity jewelcharity.org

Health and Wellness

817.810.9849

Jordan Elizabeth Harris Foundation jordanharrisfoundation.org

Health and Wellness

682.207.5250

Junior Achievement of the Chisholm Trail chisholmtrail.ja.org Education

817.731.0838

Junior League Of Arlington jlarlington.org

Special Interest

817.277.9481

Junior League of Fort Worth juniorleaguefw.org

Special Interest

817.332.7500

Kids Who Care kidswhocare.org

Arts and Culture

817.737.KIDS

Kimbell Art Foundation kimbellart.org

Arts and Culture

817.332.8451, ext. 224 or 293

KinderFrogs kinderfrogs.tcu.edu

Education 817.257.6828

Ladder Alliance ladderalliance.org Education 817.834.2100

Ladies’ Auxiliary of Arlington cinderellacharityball.com Special Interest

Leadership Fort Worth leadershipfortworth.org

Special Interest 817.888.8468

Lena Pope lenapope.org Children 817.255.2500

Leukemia & Lymphoma Society lls.org/rdrv Health and Wellness 817.288.2630

Leukemia Texas leukemiatexas.org

Health and Wellness 214.265.7393

LinkED link-ed.org Education 817.336.0808

Lone Star Film Society lonestarfilmfestival.com/joinfilm-society Special Interest

LTVRise lvtrise.org Community 817.420.9741

John Wayne Foundation johnwayne.org 949.631.8400

JPS Foundation jpshealthnet.org/foundation Health and Wellness 817.702.7310

LifeGift lifegift.org Health and Wellness 817.870.0060

Lighthouse for the Blind of Fort Worth lighthousefw.org

Health and Wellness

817.332.3341

Make-A-Wish North Texas wish.org/ntx Children 817.336.9474

MANNA Worldwide mannaworldwide.com

Poverty and Hunger 817.346.3641

Mansfield Women's Club themansfieldwomensclub.com Special Interest

March of Dimes marchofdimes.org

Health and Wellness

817.451.9174

MaskOffPanel maskoffpanel.com

Health and Wellness 817.264.7250

Meals on Wheels of Tarrant County mealsonwheels.org

Poverty and Hunger 817.336.0912

MHMR Foundation mhmrtarrant.org

Health and Wellness 817.569.4300

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth themodern.org

Arts and Culture 817.840.2115

Moslah Shrine moslahshrine.org

Special Interest 817.335.9469

Muscular Dystrophy Association mda.org/office/north-texas

Health and Wellness 972.480.0011

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) namitarrant.org

Health and Wellness

817.332.6677

National Charity League –Fort Worth nationalcharityleague.org/ chapter/fortworth

Special Interest

National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame cowgirl.net

Arts and Culture

817.336.4475

National Cutting Horse Foundation nchafoundation.org

Special Interest 817.244.6188

National Kidney Foundation kidney.org/offices/nkf-servingtexas

Health and Wellness 214.351.2393

National Medal of Honor Museum mohmuseum.org/the-museum Military 817.274.1861

Opening in Fall/Winter 2024

National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum and Hall of Fame cowboysofcolor.org

Arts and Culture 817.534.8801

Near Southside Inc. nearsouthsidefw.org Community 817.923.1649

New Day Services newdayservices.org Children 817.926.9499

Nicholas & Louella Martin Charitable Fund northtexascf.org Education 817.877.0702

NICU Helping Hands Foundation nicuhelpinghands.org Health and Wellness 817.668.5191

North Texas Community Foundation northtexascf.org Community 817.877.0702

Northside Inter-Community Agency, Inc. nicaagency.org

Poverty and Hunger 817.626.1102

Once Safe Place onesafeplace.org Domestic Violence 817.916.4323

Once Upon a Time Foundation onceuponatime.org

Health and Wellness

Operation Relief Center orctexas.org

Housing 972.643.3243

Paslay Foundation paslayfoundation.com

Education

Performing Arts Fort Worth basshall.com

Arts and Culture

817.212.4300

Presbyterian Night Shelter journeyhome.org

Poverty and Hunger

817.632.7400

PRSA fortworthprsa.org

Special Interest gfwprsapresident@gmail. com

Pure Adventure pureadventure.org

Special Interest

817.999.7634

Rainwater Charitable Foundation rainwatercharitablefoundation. org

Education information@rainwatercf. org

Read Fort Worth readfortworth.org

Education

817.258.8130

Real Estate Council of Greater Fort Worth recouncilgfw.com

Special Interest

Recovery Resource Council recoverycouncil.org

Health and Wellness

817.332.6329

Rivertree Academy rivertreeacademy.org

Education

817.420.9310

Ronald McDonald House of Fort Worth rmhfw.org

Children

817.820.8988

Rutledge Foundation rutledgecancerfoundation.org

Health and Wellness

682.312.5514

SafeHaven safehaventc.org

Domestic Violence

817.536.5496

Samaritan House samaritanhouse.org

Poverty and Hunger

817.332.6410

Santa Fe Youth Services yapinc.org/santafeyouthservices

Children 817.492.4673

SCORE fortworth.score.org

Business 817.871.6002

Sid W. Richardson Foundation sidrichardson.org Community 817.399.7245

Sixty & Better sixtyandbetter.org Seniors 817.413.4949

South Central Alliance of Churches fwscac.org

Poverty and Hunger 817.923.0486

Southlake Women's Club Foundation (Art in the Square) artinthesquare.com Special Interest info@artintheSquare.com

Spark Worldwide sparkworldwide.org

Children 817.295.7671

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (ALSAC) stjude.org

Health and Wellness 800.822.6344

Streams and Valleys, Inc. streamsandvalleys.org Special Interest 817.926.0006

Susan G. Komen Greater Fort Worth komengreaterfortworth.org Health and Wellness 817.735.8580

Tarrant Area Food Bank tafb.org

Poverty and Hunger 817.857.7100

Tarrant Coalition for Environmental Awareness dpjc.org/teca

Special Interest

lonburnam@gmail.com

Tarrant County Homeless Coalition ahomewithhope.org

Poverty and Hunger

817.509.3635

Tarrant County Medical Society Alliance tcmsalliance.org

Health and Wellness alliance@tcms.org

Tarrant Literacy Coalition tarrantliteracycoalition.org Education

817.870.0082

Texans Can Academy - Fort Worth

texanscan.org Education 817.735.1515

Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association tscra.org

Special Interest 1.800.242.7820

Texas Angus Association texasangus.com Special Interest 817.740.0778

Texas Ballet Theater texasballettheater.org Arts and Culture 817.763.0207

Texas Center for Arts and Academics artsacademics.org Arts and Culture 817.766.2390

Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame tchof.com Arts and Culture 817.626.7131

Texas Girls' Choir texasgirlschoir.org Arts and Culture 817.732.8161

Texas Health Foundation texashealth.org/en/foundation Health and Wellness 682.236.5200

Texas Women’s Foundation txwf.org Community 214.965.9977

The Art Station theartstation.org Arts and Cultures and Culture 817.921.2401

The Fort Worth Foundation thefortworthfoundation.org

Poverty and Hunger

817.887.9207

The Homes for Children thehomesforchildren.org Children 682-626-5228

The Jewish Federation of Tarrant County and Fort Worth tarrantfederation.org Religion 817.569.0892

The Miles Foundation milesfdn.org Education 817.293.5555

The Morris Foundation themorrisfoundation-fw.com Community 817.363.2000

The National Leadership Foundation nationalleadershipfoundation.org Military 817.923.4527

The Net thenetfw.com Human Trafficking 682.233.4283

The Parenting Center theparentingcenter.org Children 817.332.6348

The Salvation Army of North Texas salvationarmyntx.org/northtexas Poverty and Hunger 1.800.SAL.ARMY

The Saving Hope Foundation saving-hope.org Wildlife and Animals 817.336.7232

The WARM Place thewarmplace.org Children 817.870.2272

The Welman Project thewelmanproject.org Education 817.924.4000

The Woman's Club of Fort Worth thewomansclubfw.com Special Interest 817.335.3525

The Women's Center of Tarrant County, Inc. womenscentertc.org Domestic Violence 817.927.4039

Christ's Haven For Children is a non-profit organization providing a trauma-informed, family model of care for displaced youth.

Residential Program (0-18 yrs old)

College & Career Readiness Program (18-24 yrs old)

Family Resource Center

Food Pantry Resale Shop

FAMILY MODEL TRAUMA INFORMED NORMALCY DIGNITY

Trinity Habitat for Humanity trinityhabitat.org

Poverty and Hunger 817.926.9219

Tunnel to Towers Foundation t2t.org

Military and First Responders fortworth@t2t.org

Unbound North Texas unboundnorthtexas.org

Human Trafficking 817.668.6544

Union Gospel Mission of Tarrant County ugm-tc.org

Poverty and Hunger 8173322922

United Community Centers unitedcommunitycenters.org

Special Interest 817.927.5556

United Way of Tarrant County unitedwaytarrant.org

Special Interest 817.258.8000

Volunteers of America Texas voatx.org

Poverty and Hunger 817.529.7300

Wings of Hope wingsofhopeequitherapy.org

Health and Wellness 817.783.3805

Women's Policy Forum womenspolicyforum.org

Special Interest womenspolicyforum@gmail.com

WPI Firefighters' Fund wpiff.org

Military and First Responders 817.872.1500

YMCA of Metropolitan Fort Worth ymcafw.org

Health and Wellness 817.335.9622

Young Life fortworth.younglife.org

Children 877.438.9572

9th, 2023, at The Ostreum.

WE help CHANGE LIVES

The MHMR Foundation raises funds and fosters community support for the people and programs of My Health My Resources (MHMR) of Tarrant County.

Over 11,000 people receive each year with help

Mental Health

Addiction Services

Early Childhood Intervention

Child and Family Services

Disability Services

Veteran Services

of your donation goes directly into the programs and services in our community

Babies reach developmental milestones

Youth participate in therapeutic activities

People with mental health and intellectual and developmental disabilities receive community supports

Veterans with mental health and substance use disorders participate in various programs

Camp Fire First Texas invests in North Texas communities by providing out-of-school time and outdoor learning programs for children and youth while also offering workforce development programs for early childhood educators.

We are uniquely focused on the two periods of greatest brain growth and early childhood and early adolescence. Our

We leverage the impact of the outdoor environment the brain to educate and connect children to each other and the world around them.

We intentionally maintain a continuous improvement loop through the Camp Fire Program Quality Assessment to maximize community impact.

Save the date! Join us for a special cocktail reception on Thursday, May 18 for a celebration of Fort Worth Inc.’s 400 Most Influential People in Fort Worth. Each year, Fort Worth Inc. provides this comprehensive list of individuals who have shown significant influence within their careers and lives to make Fort Worth better. Purchase tickets to the event by scanning the QR code below or by entering this URL in your browser

: dream street

THE BUILDERS

Dream Street 2023: A Q&A with Hal Brown

As construction on this year’s Dream Street begins, we sit down with Fort Worth Magazine publisher Hal Brown, who’s seen the Dream Home concept grow exponentially over 23 years.

BY BRIAN KENDALL

Hal Brown, a Fort Worth native, TCU grad, and publisher of Fort Worth Magazine (yeah, our boss), has witnessed the construction of more Dream Homes than you could count on your fingers and toes. So, to call him an authority on the matter would be an understatement.

With touring slated to begin on the Dream Street in the Oak Alley development in Colleyville later this year, we figured an interview with the best expert we could find was logical. Hal gives us a rundown of the program’s history, why we do it, and what it means for the community.

FW: What was the initial concept of the original Dream Home? Why did it become an annual thing for Fort Worth Magazine?

Hal Brown: The first one was in 2000 in Mira Vista, and we did it for two reasons. One, it was editorial content that our readers identified with. We’re a lifestyle magazine, and one of the categories in lifestyle is shelter. People love to know what the latest and greatest in-home design is all about. It was also both a revenue opportunity for us and a way to give back to the commu-

nity through charities. We’ve worked with a number of charities over the years, and the home’s touring revenue goes toward their causes.

FW: How did the idea of expanding Dream Home into a Dream Street with three homes come about?

Brown: Credit goes to one of our builders, John Atwood of Atwood Custom Homes. He was also a builder in the inaugural Dream Street, and he built our Dream Home in 2015 in Southlake. And that was one of our more successful houses that we have done. So, we went back to him and asked him if he’d be interested in doing another Dream Home. He then brought the idea [of doing three homes at once], and we thought it was a great idea.

Having three is the perfect mix. And having them all side by side, which is what we have again in Montrachet this year, makes it amazing. So that is our new structure, and it works.

FW: With the Fort Worth housing market, how do you see this growing?

Brown: Well, Tarrant County isn’t going to stop growing anytime soon. Unlike Dallas, we have annex ability to move out. And so more developments are going to continue to come, which provide opportunities. So, it exposes

new neighborhoods. That’s one of the benefits of the program — it exposes new neighborhoods to homeowners, and it highlights builders. So, we celebrate growth in Fort Worth. Our objective is to celebrate the city and make it better.

FW: So, beyond the revenue, why keep doing it every year?

Brown: It’s great editorial content. Our readers tell us it’s great. They love it. There have been people that have been to every single Dream Home since we’ve started. I talked to a guy two and a half years ago at a Jewel Charity Ball function, and he said, “I have every single copy of Fort Worth Magazine since 2000.” He literally has every copy of every one of our Dream Homes. I don’t even know if we have every copy here. So, we have people who love it.

FW: What personally is your favorite part of the process?

Brown: I think the touring itself. When it all comes together and you’re able to walk through this incredible home, there’s a definite wow factor. It’s just really cool. I mean, I can’t wait to see the houses. So, when it all comes together and you’re able to walk through them, you hear people on the tour say things like, “Wow, I want that in my house.”

FW: Why is a Wish with Wings such a great charity for Fort Worth Magazine to partner with?

Brown: Some people don’t know it’s a Fort Worth organization, a Tarrant County organization. It’s like MakeA-Wish on a local level. They grant wishes to kids with life-threatening illnesses. It could be a trip to Disneyland. It could be meeting their favorite athlete … whatever their wish is. When you read the stories, you get choked up. They also do an incredible job of training people that work the house. When you go into a house, someone with a Wish with Wings meets you at the door, and if you have a question, they know what the answer is. They don’t say, “Oh, I have no idea. I’m just volunteering.” They’re able to tell you something about the house. They’ll be able to tell you about how this works.

Dream Street 2023 Project Partners

FortWorthMagazine’sDream Street wouldn’t be possible without the partnerships of local home industry professionals. Our project partners bring talent, passion, and experience to the project and are an integral part to bringing the homes to life.

HERITAGE HOMES

Appliances: The Jarrell Company

Architect: Arch House Collaborative

Artificial Grass: Wintergreen Synthetic Grass

Cabinets Kitchen: The Kitchen Source

Cabinets Closets: Closet Factory

Countertop Fabrication: Absolute Stone & Tile, Inc.

Countertop Materials: Klz Stone Supply, Inc.

Drywall And Texture: Alliance Drywall Inc.

Fireplaces Interior: Fireside Hearth & Home

Flooring Wood & Carpet: Premier Designs Flooring

Flooring Tile Material: Daltile

Framing: Lone Star Framing & Construction LLC

Garage Doors & Openers: Open Up Garage Doors

Glass (Shower-Mirror-Etc): Galactic Glass

Gutters: Loveless Gutters

HVAC (Materials And Labor): Interior Climate Experts

Insulation: Texas Insulation

Interior Designer: Susan Semmelmann Interiors

Landscape/Irrigation/Grade: Guardado Landscaping

Lighting: Passion Lighting

Low Voltage/Security/Av: Multimedia Solutions

Painting: J&V Painting

Patio Furniture: Yard Art Patio & Fireplace

Plumbing Fixtures: Expressions

Plumbing Labor & Supplies: Pro Serve Plumbing

Roofing/Flashing: Tarrant Roofing

KENSINGTON CUSTOM HOMES

Appliances: The Jarrell Company

Architect: Heritage Design Studio & Interiors

Cabinets Kitchen: The Kitchen Source

Countertop Fabrication: Absolute Stone & Tile, Inc.

Countertop Materials: Klz Stone Supply, Inc.

Drywall and Texture: Alliance Drywall Inc.

Electrician-X: Prewitt Electrical Services

Fireplaces Interior: Overhead Door Company of Fort Worth

Flooring Wood and Carpet: Vintage Floors

Flooring Tile Material: Daltile

Front Door & Gate: Silverado Custom Door & Window

Garage Doors & Openers:

Overhead Door Company of Fort Worth

Glass (Shower-Mirror-Etc): Galactic Glass

Insulation: Texas Insulation

Interior Designer: Heritage Design Studio & Interiors

Landscape/Irrigation/Grade: Guardado Landscaping

Low Voltage/AV/Security: H Customs

Patio Furniture: Yard Art Patio & Fireplace

Plumbing Fixtures: The Jarrell Company Pool: Claffey Pools

Roofing/Flashing: Texas Tile Roofing

Stairs and Railings: Aaron Ornamental Iron Works

BRIAN MICHAEL DISTINCTIVE HOMES

Appliances: Expressions

Cabinets Kitchen: The Kitchen Source

Countertop Materials: Levantina

Drywall and Texture: Alliance Drywall

Fireplaces In/Out Isokerns: Fireside Hearth & Home

Fireplaces Interior: Fireside Hearth & Home

Flooring Wood & Carpet: Galvan Floors

Flooring Tile Material: Daltile

Glass (Shower-Mirror-Etc): Galactic Glass

Insulation: Texas Insulation

Interior Designer: Elements Of Design

Landscape/Irrigation/Grade: Guardado Landscaping

Patio Furniture: Yard Art Patio & Fireplace

Plumbing Fixtures Expressions

Plumbing Labor & Supplies: Pro Serve Plumbing

Pool: Blue Water Pools

Give Back

There’s nothing more rewarding than giving back and making a difference in the lives of people in this great community. As the city’s magazine — which has the eyes and ears of some of Fort Worth’s most affluent and philanthropic citizens — we feel a responsibility to give back to the people of the city that is our namesake, which is why Philanthropy is one of our core values.

Every year, Fort Worth Magazine sponsors more than 100 charity events, which range from luncheons to black-tie galas. The following promotional section is devoted to these charities and their fundraisers. We invite you to consciously peruse and consider lending a helping hand by either making a donation or attending these events.

MAR. 3

Street Style Fashion Show and Luncheon

Colleyville Woman’s Club

MAR. 4

Jewel Charity Ball

Jewel Charity (Cook Children’s Foundation)

MAR. 9

An Evening of Great Conversation

TCU Library

MAR. 30

The Big Party

The Big Good

MAR. 31

Roadhouse

Ronald McDonald House of Fort Worth

MAR. TBD

Dinner Party for Life

Cuisine for Healing

MAR. TBD

ABLAZE

Alzheimer’s Association

the 68 th

Jewel Charity Ball

AMON G. CARTER JR. EXHIBITS HALL 3 • 4 • 2023

BECOME AN AND JOIN US

Angel

Expect an evening of elegance and celebration with surprising details around every corner. Since 1954, the Jewel Charity Ball has honored the hearts of Angel donors. Their generosity helps us provide for the patients at Cook Children’s. Please visit our website to learn more.

The The Medicine Medicine Ball Ball

Cocktail Reception Sponsor

13th Annual Charity Ball

Omni FORT WORTH Hotel

April 1, 2023

Benefitting:

Vaccines Defend What Matters

Allied Health Scholarships

Project Access Tarrant County

Hard Hats for Little Heads

LIVE BAND

LE FREAK LE FREAK LE FREAK

Media Sponsor

Wayne and JoAnne Moore Charitable Foundation

Vaccines Defend What Matters

Dr. David and Angela Donahue

Hard Hats for Little Heads

Photo albums, once a cherished item often thumbed through over holidays to spark nostalgia, are now accessed with thumb drives and iPhone camera rolls. Leather-bound three-ring binders are a thing of the past. While the process of taking and viewing photos have changed, the purpose of a pic has not — they’re here to stir our memories. And that’s exactly why Tate Lee (who simply goes by Tate on Instagram) snapped the above photo. “We were having a good time hanging out and hammocking at the Trinity, having an amazing day and good vibes,” Lee says. “I wanted to capture the moment of everything to keep that memory of the day with me forever.”

Get your photo on this page and win a $100 gift card to Fort Worth Camera. Just tag Fort Worth Magazine (@fwtxmag) and Fort Worth Camera (@fwcamera) and use the hashtags #fwtxmag and #fwcamera on all your amazing Cowtown images. main line 817.560.6111 | subscriptions 817.766.5550 | website fwtx.com

| fwtx.com

PHOTO BY TATE LEE

Power & Poise

Euless residents Muneer Malik and Dr. Nadia Malik are constantly on the run. She is in demand as a physician in internal medicine and medical bariatrics, and he as a software architect/engineer who enjoys teaching coding to kids and adults at Ivy Coder. When it came time to purchase a vehicle that would suit their needs, the Maliks selected a 2022 Lexus GX 460 from Park Place Lexus Grapevine.

With its massive grille, the Lexus GX 460 is stately and alluring. It features camera technology that enhances both off-road and on-road capabilities and a powerful V8 engine. The cabin is an oasis of comfort with heated and ventilated 10-way power driver’s seat, dual-zone climate control, and a plethora of driver-assist features. New tech features include a 10.3-inch touchscreen infotainment display with Apple CarPlay

and Android Auto connectivity — one of the features Muneer especially likes — “just plug it in, and it works!”

Park Place Lexus Grapevine customers for more than 16 years, the Maliks are quick to praise the dealership. When asked what sets it apart, Muneer and Nadia say it’s “excellent service — especially Matthew Hernandez and Becky Gustafsson.” “Park Place is My Place because of its excellent customer service and luxury cars,” Muneer says. “We just know for a fact — we will always get a car with quality, reliability, and service that goes on after you have bought the car.”