THE COUNTRY (ERR, ROCK?) STAR TURNS A PAGE, EVEN IF IT'S THE SAME CHAPTER AND BOOK.
(Front row) Steve Kahn | Susan Rickert and Rebekah Gilbert (The RG Real Estate Group) | Tom White
(Second row) Jeff Smith | Michele Hunt and Melanie Hunt (The Melanie Hunt Team) | Xu Johnson | Sarah Gunnip | Amber Traylor | Jeane Dees
(Back row) Dave Bowman | Maribel Ramos | Michael Avidon | Wilene Norris | Lia Karanian | Joe Funari | Wendy Dusek | Fernando Ramsey | Stephanie Barnes | Yvonne Wilson | Nick Van Der Gaast | Quan Thang | Michelle Carrasco | Mike Bowman | Linda Peterson
Not Pictured Keith Beasley (Beasley Team), John Lucas, Craig Nielson, Cindy Plano, Shea Reeves, and Kerry Zamora
$630 Million IN SALES VOLUME #1 OFFICE IN TEXAS SINCE 1993 OUR TOP 21 AGENTS AND TOP 5 TEAMS AWARDS IN THE CENTURY 21 SYSTEM® A TRADITION OF EXCELLENCE IN DFW SINCE 1971
1,442 TOTAL SALES
US OFFICE CLOSED UNITS
TOP 100 PLACES TO WORK IN DFW
US OFFICE SALES VOLUME
TOP 1.5% OF MORE THAN 200,000 BROKERAGES NATIONWIDE, REALTRENDS
BAD
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HOW TO SURVIVE A NIGHT OUT WITH A ROCK STAR
Debauchery and deep conversations went hand in hand when our editor spent 24 hours in Nashville with Koe Wetzel. 52
62 ‘A Tedious Thing’
No matter what they thought about the content or the author more than 80 years ago, Jim Phillips left us a fantastic work of literature with The Inheritors.
82 Top Realtors List
A listing of the top-producing real estate agents in Greater Fort Worth.
DEPARTMENTS
THE FORT
18 City Dweller
Fort Worth developer working on a vision for Woodhaven.
24 Calendar
Former Mouseketeer Justin Timberlake makes a run through Dickies Arena.
26 Fort Worthian
Classical cowboy spreads joy through his art and the uplifting messages he conveys in public places.
24 History
Mack McCormick’s tormented journey in the down-home Texas blues.
30 State Lines
A visit to Granbury, pop. 11,424.
36 Cowhand Culture
Cross Plains Barbarian: The “Conan” legacy of Robert E. Howard.
40 The Reverie Musings, commentary, and insights about the people, places, and things that make our city.
THE
Writer’s Bloc
When you’re writing about a writer, you better make damn sure it’s good. So, this could be the most nerve-racking editor’s letter I’ve ever written. The truth is, writers, which I think is the torture of many artists, have a tendency to envy other writers when the others’ work is excellent or clearly superior to one’s own work. We compare and become competitive when it’s not warranted. Keep in mind, I’m not talking about freaking Hemingway or Vonnegut over here. Of course, I could only be speaking for myself.
I bring up this natural competitive spirit because, with regard to the writer I’m writing about, it doesn’t exist. Again, I don’t speak for him, but I acknowledge how incredible a writer he is. He’ll deliver lines in articles that I no doubt wish I had written — he’s a brilliant wordsmith and crafter of sentences. But rather than feeling even the slightest inkling of jealousy, I feel congratulatory.
Maybe we can chalk this up to workplace camaraderie.
Yes, I’m talking about my fellow editor, John Henry, whom I can only write about at this time because he elected to take today, the day I’m writing this, off. Thus, he doesn’t have to proof a saccharine article about himself.
And it all worked out beautifully. You see, John saved my ass this week, and it’s not
the first time he’s done it. In the print world, nothing is predictable. Things fall apart and editorial is forced to pivot. Of course, we’d prefer such things didn’t happen only a few days before we go to press. But it did.
“A Tedious Thing,” the feature John wrote on page 62, is a story about “The Inheritors,” a controversial book published in 1940 that railed against Cowtown’s elite. It’s a story John had before mentioned wanting to write, but my holding the book hostage (he had leant it to me over a year ago) might have slowed the process to a halt. But when we had a feature fall through, John was right there, ready to write and deliver an incredible story — one worthy of envy — within just a few days.
I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who enjoys writing and reporting as much as my coworker. And his endless well of witticisms, knowledge of U.S. presidents, and willingness to help are incredibly appreciated. Thank you, my friend.
Brian Kendall EXECUTIVE EDITOR
ON THE COVER:
We went to musician Koe Wetzel’s home in Weatherford with little knowledge of what we would shoot. The moment we saw the pool, our gears were turning, hoping Koe would agree to get a little wet. Sure enough, he was down, and the magazine is no doubt better for it.
CORRECTIONS? COMMENTS? CONCERNS?
Send to executive editor Brian Kendall at bkendall@fwtexas.com.
What is the best concert experience you’ve ever had?
I was 17 and had never been to a concert I’d define as mind-blowing — no offense, Righteous Brothers. My big brother took me to see Dave Matthews Band, and I was floored. And by floored, I mean dancing horribly and uncontrollably.
Paul McCartney. There’s an aura of history that envelops him. His cultural significance can’t be quantified.
Neil Diamond singing “Sweet Caroline” with the audience singing along at his 1988 concert at the Houston Summit. He was spectacular. I forgot how much I loved his songs.
Seeing Paul McCartney recently was one of my all-time favorites, but I attended a concert at the Cotton Bowl a long time ago with Blue Oyster Cult, Boston, Heart, Nazareth, Sammy Hagar, and Van Halen. Now that was a concert!
owner/publisher hal a. brown
president mike waldum
EDITORIAL
executive editor brian kendall
contributing editor john henry
digital editor stephen montoya
contributing writers malcolm mayhew, michael h. price, charlotte settle, shilo urban copy editor sharon casseday
ART
creative director craig sylva senior art director spray gleaves
advertising art director jonathon won director of photography crystal wise additional graphics lauren deitzer
ADVERTISING
advertising account supervisors gina burns-wigginton x150 marion c. knight x135
account executive tammy denapoli x141 account executive jim houston x158 territory manager, fort worth inc. rita hale x133
senior production manager michelle mcghee x116
MARKETING
director of digital robby kyser marketing manager grace behr events and promotions director victoria albrecht
I know I’m dating myself when I say this, but seeing Stone Temple Pilots at what was then the CocaCola Starplex in Dallas. In a year’s time, I went from taking the offering at church to skipping church to attend band practice in my friend’s garage.
Toss up. Paul McCartney was amazing while Rod Stewart’s concert felt like a glitzy Las Vegas show.
On April 1, 2023, amidst a sea of dedicated Swifties in elaborate costumes, I found myself at The Eras Tour, a concert that not only left me speechless but also changed my life forever.
In high school, I went to The Flaming Lips concert in Oklahoma City with my stepsister and some friends. We were up front by the stage, and the drummer came down and hugged us. It was just an all-around great concert and experience.
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.
FortWorthMagazine(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 Group, PO Box 213, Lincolnshire, IL 60069. Volume 27, Number 6, June 2024. Basic Subscription price: $23.95 per year. Single copy price: $4.99
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October 2013
If ever our magazine printed a story that could serve as a treatment for a Hollywood screenplay, “Rough Waters” would be it.
The story, originally published sans byline in October 2013 for fear of retribution by gang members, follows an undercover police officer, Tegan Broadwater, who was hot on the trail of one of the nation’s most notorious gangs, the Crips.
The Crips, we’ll have you know,
once did business in an area of southeast Fort Worth known as “The Fish Bowl” — so named as it had one entrance and one exit, making any new arrival obvious. Here, the local kingpin was known for buying and selling $250,000 worth of cocaine each week. And because of these well-guarded entrances, the area, also known as the Poly area, was largely considered impenetrable to surprise
raids by police. “Basically, if you were inside that perimeter, you were being seen,” Broadwater told the article’s writer, Jennifer Casseday-Blair.
Broadwater spent 18 months undercover in what was referred to as “Operation Fish Bowl,” posing as a drug dealer named “Tee” who claimed he provided drugs for rich clientele at local country clubs. He would patiently make connections and earn the trust of drug suppliers and gang members until he made his way up the ranks. But when dealing with career criminals, hazards abound.
During the operation, Broadwater had guns pointed in his face, threats made, and even a hit put on him for being a potential snitch — which he rectified by severely beating a man.
In 2005, an end-all deal took down the gang’s kingpin, and in 2006, 41 Crips were federally indicted. The series of events would receive national coverage, and Broadwater would receive the U.S. Attorney Commendation Award and the Fort Worth Police Department’s Officer of the Year award. In 2008, Broadwater left the police department and founded Tactical Systems Network, a security firm still in operation today. And, in 2013, he published a book that detailed his experiences undercover, Life in the Fish Bowl.
A large portion of the proceeds from the book go toward HOPE Farm, an organization that mentors at-risk boys.
According to the article, a year after the federal convictions, Broadwater returned to the Fish Bowl, where he posed as a reporter, interviewing families for a follow-up on the police operation. “The area had changed for the better times 10,” Broadwater told Casseday-Blair. “I noticed that houses were fixed up, flowers had been planted, fences repaired, fresh paint on siding. People either didn’t know about the operation or had only heard about what had happened. It took a massive transformation and remains a place that is much safer than it ever has been.”
photography by Jason Kindig
Tegan Broadwater’s time as an undercover police officer was chronicled in a 2013 Fort WorthMagazinearticle.
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PASCHAL HIGH SCHOOL
COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES LISTED REPRESENT A PORTION OF THE INSTITUTIONS TO WHICH OUR 520 SENIORS HAVE BEEN ADMITTED:
Abilene Christian University
Adelphi University
American University
Amherst College
Angelo State University
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Columbia University in the City of New York
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Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University
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Georgia Institute of Technology
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Iowa State University
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Loyola Marymount University
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Marist College
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Miami University
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Morehouse College
New York University
North Carolina A & T State University
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Old Dominion University
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Pepperdine University
Prairie View A&M University
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Rice University
Rochester Institute of Technology
Rutgers University
Sam Houston State University
Samford University
San Diego State University
Savannah College of Art and Design
Seattle University
Southern Methodist University
Southern New Hampshire University
Southwest University of Visual ArtsAlbuquerque
Southwestern University
St. Mary’s University
Stephen F. Austin State University
Stevens Institute of Technology
Tarleton State University
Tarrant County College District
Texas A&M University
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301 COLLEGES where students were admitted
$66.7 MILLION awarded in merit-based scholarships
5 National Merit Finalists
10 National Merit Commended Students
85 AP Scholars, AP Scholars with Distinction, and AP Scholars with Honors
62 Seniors
Completing AP Capstone Program (AP Seminar & AP Research)
Photo by Goldbeck Company
EXHIBITS
Journey
THE FORT
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW AND THE THINGS YOU NEED TO DO
and
back in time to Rome before, during,
after the devestating eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 at “Pompeii: The Immortal City,” a new multimedia, interactive exhibit at the Arlington Museum of Art.
by John Henry
We’re No. 12!
Fort Worth’s population continues to go boom
Fort Worth, with a population of 978,468, has regained its status as the 12th-largest city in the U.S., moving past San Jose, California, according to estimates released last month by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The city is a mere 1,400 behind No. 11 Austin and 7,300 behind No. 10 Jacksonville, Florida.
Dallas, at 1,302,868, is the ninthlargest city in America. Big D added 5,500 people, a 0.42% increase.
Fort Worth enjoyed the second-largest increase for cities with populations more than 20,000 between July 1, 2022, and July 1, 2023, gaining 21,365. San Antonio, population 1,495,295, experienced the largest increase at 21,970.
Of the top 10 cities with the largest increases, five were in Texas, including Houston, Georgetown, and Celina. All 10 were in the South, including Jacksonville. Moreover, eight of the 15 fastest-growing cities were in Texas, including five in North Texas.
“Thirteen of the 15 fastest-growing cities were in the South, with eight in Texas alone,” said Crystal Delbé, a statistician in the Census Bureau’s Population Division.
Celina’s population grew by 26.6%, more than 53 times that of the nation’s growth rate of 0.5%.
Texas’ 2023 estimates stood at 30.5 million, up almost 475,000 people from 2022.
In 2020, census analysts projected Fort Worth to reach a population of 1 million by 2028. Since 2010, the city has added more than 237,000 people.
In Fort Worth, it’s not just the population that is growing. New projects the City Council has incentivized are expected to add 4,000 jobs this year.
“Our success as a city is contingent upon our commitment to quality-oflife policies and investments,” Mayor Mattie Parker said in May at the United States Conference of Mayors meeting in Fort Worth. “People are quite
literally voting with their feet. When people could live anywhere, they’re choosing to live in Fort Worth.”
Amid notable examples of growth in the South, other fast-growing cities saw their rates of population change slow. For example, population growth in Georgetown slowed by more than one-fourth its population growth in 2022, from 14.4% to 10.6%.
New York (8.3 million) remained the most populous city in the U.S., followed by Los Angeles (3.8 million), Chicago (2.6 million), Houston (2.3 million), and Phoenix (1.6 million).
Los Angeles lost only 1,800 people last year, following a decline in the 2020s of almost 78,000 residents. Chicago, which has lost almost 82,000 people this decade, only had a population drop of 8,200 residents last year.
And San Francisco, which has lost a greater share of residents this decade than any other big city — almost 7.5% — actually grew by more than 1,200 residents last year.
For the first time in 66 years, Detroit grew in population, a fact that Mayor Mike Duggan said was cause for “a day of celebration” for Michigan’s largest city.
Detroit gained 1,852 people, putting the city’s population at 633,218. It marks the first time the city has gained population year over year since 1957.
The nation’s housing stock grew by about 1.6 million units between July 1, 2022, and July 1, 2023, reaching a total of 145.3 million. The 1.1% increase was nearly the same as the 1.2% increase between 2021 and 2022.
Tarrant County was among the top 15 in the country with 17,194 housing units added. Denton and Dallas, 14,296 and 13,644, respectively, earned spots, as did Collin County, which had the fifth most added in the country at 18,000.
California had the largest number of housing units (14.8 million), followed by Texas (12.4 million) and Florida (10.5 million), while Wyoming (280,000) and Alaska (330,000) had the fewest housing units.
by John Henry
East Side Renaissance?
Fort Worth developer is working on a future for Woodhaven
Will Northern has an affinity for big, complex projects. He loves the challenge of pulling deals together — regardless of how complicated.
On the brokerage side, he helped assemble real estate in Pretlow Riddick’s vision for Criterion on Race Street. For his work there, he was recognized by his peers.
Now, Northern is about to take on the biggest deal of his life.
Northern, who co-manages Northern Crain Realty, has founded Crescendo Development, a sole proprietorship, which, according to its mission statement, is an “entrepreneurial, community-centric real estate development company creating value through land planning, adaptive reuse, and historic preservation of complex projects in Fort Worth and surrounding communities.”
The name “Crescendo” is a nod to Northern’s lifelong avocation as a drummer and the building increase of volume and sometimes tempo of a piece of music that grows to an apex.
Well, Northern’s first deal has certainly reached a point, quite a point. It’s a whopper with lots of intrigue.
But it could be a catalytic moment for a part of the city that needs one.
Last week, Crescendo acquired more than 160 acres in Woodhaven on Fort Worth’s East Side in a foreclosure auction for $8.5 million.
Investors in the original Woodhaven development in the early 1970s included Perry and Sid Bass, as well as former Texas Gov. John Connally. It featured a club and a hilly, 18-hole golf course. It sat on ranch property formerly owned by the Boaz family.
There has been a decrescendo at Woodhaven in recent years.
About 92% of Woodhaven’s homes are multifamily or townhomes. Yet, many of the neighborhood’s 22 apartment complexes are deemed substandard. Crime statistics, which have spiraled over the decades, are clearly showing there is work to be done.
Northern, a TCU graduate in business administration and entrepreneurial management, learned real estate by managing and redeveloping his family portfolio of a dozen historic buildings around the San Saba courthouse.
In his former role as chair of the Fort Worth Zoning Commission, he was involved in more than 1,500 zoning cases. He always liked the front seat vantage point of learning how projects and proposals are done well and not so well. Northern says he doesn’t think he would be as prepared for his Woodhaven project without the expeience.
Fort Worth Mayor Pro Tem Gyna Bivens, who represents the area, says the project’s timing is perfect. She recently convened several meetings with Woodhaven stakeholders eager to see positive redevelopment.
There is already much wondering about Woodhaven Golf Course. Will Northern reopen it? His answer: It’s a question that is complicated and challenging.
“The best uses of the properties will be fully explored in the coming months. I will soon be reaching out to hear what residents and property owners think about the current conditions here. I would like to understand their experiences, viewpoints, and even dreams.”
Badge of Honor
Decorated Fort Worth civil rights champion Opal Lee received the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House on Friday, May 3.
Lee, 97, was one of 19 recipients who received the honor, the highest distinction a U.S. civilian can receive. The Presidential Medal of Freedom was presented to those individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.
“These 19 Americans built teams, coalitions, movements, organizations, and businesses that shaped America for the better,” the White House said in a press release. “They consistently demonstrated over their careers the power of community, hard work, and service.”
Lee was the Fort Worth Inc. Person of the Year in 2022. In June of the year before, Lee personally witnessed President Joe Biden sign the bill making Juneteenth the 11th federal holiday. Years earlier, Lee undertook her walk from Fort Worth to Washington, D.C., to raise awareness of her campaign to make Juneteenth a federal holiday and gather signatures to take to the federal capital city.
She was 89 at the time.
In 2022, a Congressional delegation led by U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Fort Worth) nominated Lee for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Lee is also an advocate for the homeless and affordable housing. Last year, officials joined Lee in breaking ground on The Opal, an affordable housing endeavor of the Fort Worth Housing Solutions in the 3300 block of Keller Haslet Road.
The Immortal City
The
Arlington Museum of Art brings ancient Pompeii back to life.
The city of Pompeii, destroyed in the catastrophic volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D., was preserved in an almost ghostly 3D snapshot of ancient history that was discovered in 1748 by archeologists.
The volcano wiped out a bustling metropolis of nearly 10,000 people overnight, covering their remains in a blanket of ash. Through the study of excavations, which are still going on today, scientists have been able to figure out almost exactly what happened on that day.
The Arlington Museum of Art has brought to North Texas many of these finds in its exhibit “Pompeii: The Immortal City.”
The museum is exhibiting more than 100 artifacts on loan from the Naples National Archeological Museum.
Says Chris Hightower, president and CEO of the museum: “It really did take a huge team to get this exhibit here.”
The exhibit is one of three for the Arlington Museum of Art’s grand reopening after moving into Esports Stadium and Expo Center — the city of Arlington’s former convention center in the Entertainment District — in late March.
“What’s so amazing about this exhibit is all of this stuff was lost to time for a thousand years,” Hightower says. “So, I think seeing the exhibit really kind of amplifies and puts a spotlight on the people, technology, and art that existed so long ago.”
The exhibit runs through June 23.
The exhibit’s centerpiece is a plaster cast of a woman lying on the ground with her hands on her face. This eerily quiet space evokes a sense of reverence given the nonverbal expression she was frozen with during the time of her death.
This section of the exhibit is breathtaking.
“The common misconception is that there was a lava flow, which there really wasn’t,” Hightower explained. “It was a pyroclastic flow that was like the vapors and all the chemicals in the air that got to people’s respiratory systems. That was the big problem that killed them off.”
Authentic artwork, glass-blown objects, and examples of engineering are all part of the exhibit.
“The thing that’s the most surprising to me is this civilization’s technology,” says Hightower. “It was 2,000 years ago, and they still built large structures using ancient technology that is astounding to study.”
A 180-degree digital theater illustrates what the city of Pompeii looked like before, during, and after the eruption. The exhibit also offers a glimpse of what everyday life was like for these ancient Romans in the form of several fictional Pompeiians.
There’s even a burnt loaf of bread on display that was discovered in an oven.
Around Cowtown in 8 Seconds
A smattering of things you might’ve missed
1. Pick Up the Papers and the Trash A bevy of missed trash pickups, an average of 1,600 per month, courtesy of Waste Management subcontractor Knight Waste Services, prompted the City Council to take action with a sevenstep plan.
2. Hi Hi Birdie A project of FWISD, which had individual schools make compelling arguments for specific avians, online voters selected the notvery-Western-sounding Eastern Bluebird as the official city bird, which Fort Worth made official May 14.
3. Bomb of a Celebration
Westsiders were perplexed by a barrage of thunderous, bomb-like noises in midApril that, according to sources, turned out to be a fireworks display in celebration of Mercedes Bass’ 80th birthday and the socialite’s gift of $5 million to the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.
4. Swim at Your Own Risk
Two alligators were spotted in Eagle Mountain Lake, which experts at Texas Parks and Wildlife say is nothing out of the ordinary since the reservoir, along with Lake Worth, has had a small gator population for hundreds of years.
5. Why’d It Have to Be Snakes?
The Fort Worth Zoo, in a move that is both humane and horrifying, released 75 Louisiana pine snakes into the wild. Luckily for Fort Worthians, the endangered nonvenomous reptiles were unleashed in Kisatchie National Forest in Louisiana.
6. New Sheriff in Town Cole Hauser, whom many a Fort Worthian may know as Rip from “Yellowstone,” was made an honorary Fort Worth Police Officer by Police Chief Neil Noakes, who called it a “small token for [Hauser’s] respect and support for the men and women in blue.”
7. Cleveland Rocks The Fort Worthborn Jameela, a cesarean section-born gorilla that successfully won the hearts of Cowtown residents after her birth mom showed no maternal interest, has found a new home (and new mom, Fredrika) at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.
8. Long Train Runnin’ The Forest Park Miniature Railroad, the 65-year-old train that journeys five miles through Forest Park, will stay on its tracks for another 20 years after the City Council approved a new lease through 2044.
photo and words by Stephen Montoya
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4
Justin Timberlake
Former Mouseketeer, *NSYNC frontman, and boyfriend to a plethora of blonde celebrities brings tunes from his latest solo album, Everything I Thought It Was, to Dickies Arena.
Dickies Arena dickiesarena.com
6 – 18
SparkFest ’24
A two-week event that celebrates all things performance art, with events that include standup comedy, community storytelling, acting competitions, and performances of new plays.
Amphibian Stage amphibianstage.com
6 – 23
‘Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Elusive Ear’
A new caper featuring the world’s most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes, has the pipewielding Englishman meeting Vincent van Gogh and Oscar Wilde to uncover a Post-Impressionist conspiracy.
Stage West stagewest.org
11 – 23
‘Hamilton’
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s popular musical about one of our nation’s founding fathers became a cultural phenomenon in 2015 and returns to Bass Performance Hall after a 2022 engagement.
Bass Performance Hall basshall.com
14
Sister Hazel
While best known for the radio-friendly “All for You,” which came out over 25 years ago, the Florida-based quintet has continued to create new music, including a new single released earlier this year.
Billy Bob’s Texas billybobstexas.com
15
Taste of Juneteenth
Dive into some barbecue and soul food at this event to celebrate Juneteenth - and raise a rib to Fort Worthian Opal Lee, whose efforts helped Juneteenth become a federal holiday. Sycamore Water Park juneteenthftw.com
21 – 22
Midland
The prolific Texas country trio — they’ve released new music every year since 2017 — swings by the world’s biggest honkytonk, where they’ll no doubt croon about their “Drinkin’ Problem.”
Billy Bob’s Texas billybobstexas.com
22
Margarita Festival
Sample margaritas made by some of the city’s best bars and res taurants at this boozy festival, which is sponsored by Patron. Other festivities include live music, street tacos, and an adult playground — whatever that may be. Panther Island Pavilion texasfests.com/fort-worthmargarita-festival
25
Blink-182
The pop-punk outfit known for three consecutive chart-topping albums has had a resurgence since the return of co-lead singer Tom DeLonge in 2022, including a headlining show at last year’s Coachella. Dickies Arena dickiesarena.com
June 7
The Cactus Blossoms
Single-handedly carrying the torch for Everly Brothers-esque harmonies and midtempo ballads, this musical duo stops by Tulips to serenade Fort Worthians for the second time in as many years.
Tulips | tulipsftw.com
photos
provided by Dickies Arena
Nate Krieger
Opera singer, cowboy with a sign
By Charlotte Settle
Photo by Crystal Wise
Nate Krieger proudly embodies Fort Worth’s unconventional combination of Western culture and world-class art. If you ever stumble upon a 6-foot-4 redhead in a cowboy hat singing opera, there’s a solid chance it’s him.
Krieger inherited a love of music from his father — a professional organist and pianist — and ultimately earned a vocal scholarship to TCU. During school, he worked for the late Mary D. and Howard Walsh, whom he credits for introducing him to Fort Worth’s rich history. “I fell in love with the city and how it not only prides itself on cowboys and rodeo, but also on music, culture, and art,” he says.
After college, Krieger simultaneously worked as backstage manager at Billy Bob’s and director of sales for Smith Music Group, where he helped facilitate iconic events like Willie Nelson’s Fourth of July Picnic and Cross Canadian Ragweed’s Red Dirt Roundup. Krieger also spent a decade as the marketing director for Cowtown Coliseum, after which he founded his own marketing firm and took on a number of Stockyards businesses as clients.
Word of Krieger’s unmatched Fort Worth insight spread quickly, and around 2017, business owners started approaching him about showing their clients and friends the ultimate Cowtown experience. Since then, he has offered exclusive VIP tours of the city, taking participants on adventures customized to their unique interests. Along the way, he earned the nickname “Mr. Stockyards” for his decades-worth of insider knowledge of the iconic neighborhood.
In 2022, when a client asked Krieger to sing while he was giving a tour of Bass Hall, he was reminded of how much he loves sharing his voice with audiences. Around the same time, he noticed a number of people downtown holding up signs with what he describes as hateful messages. From that point on, he committed to using his gifts to spread love and encouragement.
In the last couple of years, Krieger has relentlessly pursued his passions
and uplifted others along the way. He started creating and holding signs with heartening phrases in downtown Cowtown, wearing a smile while actively combatting hate. He landed a soloist role in Fort Worth Opera’s recent production of “La bohème” at Bass Hall. He even began working on his first-ever album, on which he will sing frontier ballads in an operatic style.
Earlier this year, Krieger accompanied friends to Pitti Uomo — a menswear fashion show in Florence, Italy — where he sang in various public plazas. “I was this 6-foot-4 redheaded cowboy singing opera in the middle of the street in Italy,” he laughs. “People immediately started whipping out their phones.” After receiving overwhelmingly positive responses to both his signs and public singing, Krieger decided to combine his initiatives into a personal brand — Cowboy With Sign. Under the handle @cowboywithsign across all social media platforms, Krieger shares smile-inducing content — photos of his signs, videos explaining their messages, and posts of him singing throughout different parts of the city. A website and merchandise — featuring themes of compassion and, of course, his signature white cowboy hat — are in the works.
Cowboy With Sign represents a leap of faith for Krieger as he puts his greatest passions — music and cultivating kindness — on display for the world to see. “The brand is cowboys, culture, art, and music,” he says. “It’s me presenting to everybody what Fort Worth has created in me.”
Above all, Krieger hopes his work lets people know they matter. “I want to combat hate with love,” he says. “Anger takes too much energy. Love is easy.”
BY THE WAY....
Ideal day in Fort Worth?
“I’d grab coffee with good friends, followed by a morning walk through the Amon Carter, Kimbell, or Modern Art Museum. I’d have lunch with some buddies at Fred’s and dinner with my wife, Brittani, at a great Mexican food spot. To top off the night, I’d head to Tulips for some incredible live music (I’m seeing Sean McConnell there in June), then enjoy a cocktail downtown or in the Stockyards.”
1. Giving a private ghost tour to a cool group of friends.
2. With cowboy legend Steve Murrin at the FWSSR. 3. Backstage at Billy Bob’s with B.B. King, Robert Gallagher and Wendy Wharton. 4. In costume for the Fort Worth Opera. 5. Blocking with kindness. 6. With his wife in Florence, Italy’s Piazza della Repubblica, where he sang in public. 7. Singing the national anthem at the Texas Trail of Fame induction ceremony.
Gain easy access to the good life when you choose The Stayton at Museum Way. Discover new interests in a community that caters to the curious and reignite old passions as you stroll through the cultural center of Fort Worth. Fine dining, fine art and finer friendships are always moments away at The Stayton
by Shilo Urban
Granbury, Texas
Population: 11,424
Bougie wine bars, sassy shops, and spiked milkshakes await those who “make the square” in Granbury these days — along with effervescent festivals and bold new boutique hotels. It’s a far cry from the quaint and sleepy ambiance that once attracted visitors from Fort Worth, located less than an hour away. Live music bubbles out of almost every restaurant on the weekends, attracting a buoyant crowd
of young families and fresh-faced bar hoppers. Major events — like the 4th of July celebration — transform the courthouse square into an open-air marketplace with handcrafted treasures and the feeling of a funfair.
All this revelry is juxtaposed against timeworn limestone architecture and soaring Victorian facades that evoke Granbury’s heyday in the late 19th century. Restored in the
1970s, the square retains its throwback charm and character; almost every building bears a Texas historical marker. The 1890 Hood County Courthouse flaunts its original clock, and the Hood County Jail Museum preserves an Old West cellblock and gallows.
Dig into Granbury’s past and you’ll encounter a jumble of outlaw appearances and conspiracy theories. John Wilkes Booth, Jesse James, Billy the Kid, and Bonnie and Clyde all purportedly passed through, hid out, or invented new identities in Granbury after faking their deaths. David Crockett, surprisingly, isn’t on this list, despite the fact that his wife Elizabeth is unquestionably buried nearby in Acton State Park. A poignant statue of the frontierswoman tops her tombstone, scanning the southwestern horizon for a husband who will never come home.
Dusty mysteries mingle freely with modern pleasures on the square and environs, like oxygen-infused facials at Serenity on the Square day spa and three wine tasting rooms (D’Vine Wine, Bull Lion Ranch, and Barons Creek Vineyards). Indulge in 40 flavors of craft ice cream like TX Honey Whiskey at Silver Saddle Saloon or sip a boozy concoction like a rum and root beer float. Retail therapy remains the primary diversion in town, and most boutiques and decor stores have a feminine slant that falls somewhere
Ryder & Scout
Victorian homes are abundant in Granbury.
Truly Local, Truly Expert
Susanna Bartolomei is a real estate agent affiliated with Compass. Compass
between upscale flash, cutesy cowgirl, and “Jesus, Take the Wheel.” You’ll find everything from oil paintings by local artisans and gourmet popcorn spice blends to porch swings with built-in drink tables.
The colorful beach bags and boat-shaped cookie cutters on sale are a reminder that there’s more to Granbury than the square: The town’s namesake lake provides over 100 miles of shoreline to enjoy, including a pretty white sand beach just three blocks from the courthouse. Cocktail cruises, canoes, and charter boats ply the waters of the long and winding lake, created in 1969 by damming up the Brazos River. Stocked with bass and catfish every year, the lake brings out a bevy of pontoon boats as well as jet skiers and stand-up paddleboarders.
Whether you go for the day or stay for the weekend, sink a line in the lake, or shop until you drop, Granbury gives you plenty of reasons to go out and explore.
Explore Granbury
Savor: Only one word describes Baked’s flaky chocolate croissants, dreamy danishes, and slow-fermented sourdough bread: perfection. The European-style bakery isn’t on the square, so you’ll want to stop there on the way into town — and maybe again on the way out. Preorders are required on Saturdays. Standouts by the courthouse include fish and chips at Fisherman’s Corner, Wiener schnitzel at Ketzler’s, and anything at Christina’s. The downstairs bar is always packed at 1890 Grille, a go-to for tender steaks. Next door at 1890 Marketplace, you can sample flavored olive oils and white balsamic vinegars. If you’re looking for casual lakefront eats, locals swear by the fish tacos at Stumpy’s — and for the finest of fine dining, book a table at Restaurant Anise.
Shop: One of the newest fashion stores on the square, Ryder & Scout has a hip Western aesthetic and a “Make Your Own Trucker Hat” bar. You’ll feel like you’re inside a pink champagne cocktail at Pug on a Pontoon, an irreverent boutique with frivolous finds like tinsel-fringed dish towels and “Shut Up & Zen” green tea. At St. Helen’s shop, a tiny dog with giant ears keeps an eye on the rustic-chic collection of holiday doodads, scented candles, and vintage-inspired glassware. Browse local topics and ghost stories at Arts & Letters Bookstore and admire the windmill ceiling fans at Wagon Yard, one of the few stores around that skews masculine. Just east of the square, The Pearl and Lake Granbury Mercantile are two more gift/home/ apparel stores worth a look.
Enjoy: Catch Broadway musicals at the landmark 1886 Granbury Opera House, an intimate 309-seat theater restored with aplomb. This year’s calendar includes “Newsies,” “Oklahoma!,” “Annie,” and “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” The nearby venue Granbury Live is even smaller (270 seats) and hosts a variety of musical performances and tribute bands along with the odd comedian. During the Halloween and Christmas seasons, Brian Clowdus Experiences takes over the Langdon Center with immersive theatrical escapades that invite you to participate in spellbinding stories
like “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “The Christmas Carol.” And every Saturday, the family-owned Revolver Brewing throws open its doors for lawn games, music shows, and plenty of specialty beers on tap.
Snooze: Weekenders will encounter an abundance of charming retreats in Granbury that are ideal for romantic interludes or girlfriend getaways. With an unbeatable location right on the courthouse square, N on the Square offers seven suites with exposed stone walls, wood beam ceilings, and French country elan. Four blocks away near City Beach, Hotel Lucy feels glamorous and indulgent — and every suite is one of a kind. Get even closer to the water at the Inn on Lake Granbury (two blocks from the square), an oasis of true luxury with wine, iced tea, or lemonade delivered daily.
How to Get There: From downtown Fort Worth, you’ll hop on the Chisholm Trail Parkway from E. Sixth Street for 4.6 miles and then exit onto Interstate 20 W. In 3.4 miles, take the exit for US-377 S and follow it all the way to Granbury, about 26 miles. Take a slight right onto US-377 BUS S/E Pearl Street to reach the courthouse square, which is straight ahead in 1.6 miles.
Granbury Live
The Jailhouse Museum
Marlene Treviño
Amber Butcher
Brad Crouch
Cassandra Hughes
Sarah Hardy
Chris Shortino
Roxann Taylor and Dan Nicoloff
Silvia Mendes
Dan Holmes Kelly Cawyer
by
Michael H. Price
Cross Plains Barbarian
The ‘Conan’ legacy of Robert E. Howard
Robert E. Howard, who based a prolific pulp-fiction career of the 1920s and ’30s at a backwater west of Fort Worth, is known today as the creator of Conanthe Barbarian,a mythical warrior whose exploits symbolize Howard’s distaste for the industrialization of rural Texas.
His novelistic Conan series and its modern-day transmedia spinoffs are the most prominent outcropping of a
wealth of rambunctious storytelling, including Western-frontier adventures and a terrifying selection of Southern Gothic horrors that made Howard a favorite among readers of an influential magazine called Weird Tales.
Howard’s posthumous fame has come full circle with Cross Plains’ Robert E. Howard Days festival, scheduled June 7-8. Cross Plains lies
two hours’ drive from Fort Worth, via Interstate 20.
Howard Days, an annual tradition, represents a belated process of honoring a literary artist who might have made his adoptive hometown more secure — if only he had been granted a measure of localized respect during his lifetime. Howard (1906-1936) has long since become a titanic figure of adventurous storytelling on a worldwide scale.
Certainly, Cross Plains has known times more economically productive than the recurring occasion known as Robert E. Howard Days, but the boon of tourism is what a region makes of it. The event coincides with the occasion of Howard’s suicide at age 30.
Visitors come from around the world to take part in discussions of Howard’s writings and study the very environment — his family’s residence — in which he worked. The Cross Plains Library offers for sale copies of original typescripts.
Robert Ervin Howard was a native of Peaster — son of a physician who ranged from town to town, chasing prosperity, during the turbulent oil-boom days. The family settled for the long term in 1919 at Cross Plains. Howard’s surviving correspondence expresses gratitude for the overdue anchorage of a hometown, tempered with resentment at his being considered an outsider. Only since the 1980s has Cross Plains grown to champion Howard as one of its own, made good, as if astonished that anybody from Cross Plains, Texas, might have any business making good outside the jurisdiction of the Chamber of Commerce.
To the world at large, Howard was a bestselling pulp-magazine author. To the locals, he was a prominent eccentric who held no conventional job. Howard is most widely known for his most extravagant creation, the battle-stoked Conan of Cimmeria: “a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth,” per Howard’s description. Conan has survived via perpetual reprints, new
yarns by come-lately authors, and a handful of movies to which Arnold Schwarzenegger probably owes his Hollywood image.
Howard eventually became a character in a movie called “The Whole Wide World” (1996), adapted from a memoir by a schoolteacher who might have become Howard’s wife. Her name was Novalyne Price, and she was close enough kin to my branch of the Welsh-immigrant Price family that I’ve always felt some kind of bond there. The film features Vincent D’Onofrio as Bob Howard, with Renée Zellweger as Novalyne Price.
Not that I require bloodlines to cinch an affinity with any fellow West Texan devoted to making up stories and writing them down in case they might entertain somebody. The beauty of Howard’s writing — hardly a flawless or highfalutin’ body of work — lies in its sense of locale, its colorful speech, and its ferocious surges of emotion. One senses autobiography, however fanciful, between those lines of bloodand-thunder mayhem and self-amused hooliganism.
Howard’s mythical kingdoms might as well be the Western frontier (still clinging to the 19th century, in Howard’s day) where he couched many another story of roughhouse bravery, apart from the Conan series. His vivid wordiness was a sign of his narrative generosity and a strategy calculated to earn more money per yarn. (In “The Whole Wide World,” a character asks Howard how he can afford to write for magazines that pay only chump-change on a per-word basis. Howard grins in reply: “I’m ver–bose!”)
A nearer ancestor of mine in the writing business, the pulp-magazine author E. Hoffmann Price, was a cousin of my dairyman grandfather, A.A. Price of Canyon, Texas — and one of the few professional wordsmiths whom Howard actually met, face-to-face. In a memoir of 1936, Hoffman set the stage decisively: “To say that Texas is a large state is not a crisp observation,” Hoff-
man Price wrote as a visitor from Oklahoma, where he worked as an industrial-plant foreman while launching his own mass-market career within the Weird Tales circle. However, the words get a pointed meaning for anyone who has driven from out of state and into Cross Plains. Geography, and lots of it, kept Robert Howard isolated to a degree which his fellow writers can hardly appreciate. He owed nothing to the guidance or encouragement of veteran authors; he never met any.
“The post oak belt does not have the [literary] tradition of Boston or Providence,” Hoffman continued.
“A writer is regarded as a harmless freak. That Robert earned considerable sums right from the start, merely made him conspicuous.”
Howard’s self-murder in 1936 had nothing to do with his career, which was going great guns on several fronts. His Conan stories were sure-fire crowd-pleasers for Weird Tales magazine. His Western and seafaring yarns commanded prominence in other pulpwood-paper publications. And his tales of ghostly terrors (such as “The Dead Remember,” a retribution piece with a frontier setting) captivated yet another readership.
A master at portraying the approach of death in fiction, Howard could not handle such a prospect in his immediate orbit. His mother’s imminent death, following a lingering illness, drove Howard to suicide. And upon that grim closure, Cross Plains let its memories of Bob Howard lapse without comprehending his greater cultural impact. Beyond a prominent obituary notice in the local newspaper, the local impression proved fleeting until the 1980s.
The rest of the whole wide world, however, would not allow Howard’s spirit to fade. And eventually, Cross Plains began to attract visitors intent upon seeing where the creator of the Conan books had performed such feats of tale-spinning.
Only after Cross Plains had fallen into economic despair, though, did
some of its citizens begin wondering how the town might exploit that Howard mystique. The family’s homestead, gone decrepit under a succession of ill-attuned owners, was purchased during the late 1980s by a local-boosterism coalition known as Project Pride. The modest property stands restored today as the Howard House Museum — a shrine ripe for pilgrimages.
Cross Plains’ Project Pride website (howarddays.com) will yield the particulars of the event. Enthusiasts can gain as much enjoyment from the stories: “A Man-Eating Jeopard” is Howard’s most rousing Western yarn, thick with jolly mayhem and ghastly mirth. “Pigeons from Hell” is his most gripping tale of supernatural menace, descended from generations of nightmarish folklore. Howard’s Conan saga begins with “The Phoenix on the Sword.” The works have remained in print and inspired newer talents, including Joe R. Lansdale and Timothy Truman in the present day, to compose additional stories in the Howard style.
But then, of course, the opportunity for any devotée to visit the town that had provided a practical springboard for such a talent is not to be missed.
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by John Henry
My Brush With This Mysterious Piano Man
Imust have been all of 4 or 5 years old that evening when the doorbell rang.
My father opened the door. Bounding into the living room was a middle-aged man with a charisma, energy, and passion for living wholly unfamiliar to this relative newbie.
He took a beeline path to the piano that sat maybe 15 feet away. He began banging on its keys, churning out note after note of what I guess all these years later was classical music. What day or even time of year it was, or what his business there was that evening, I couldn’t say.
But I had just been introduced to Dr. Feliks Gwozdz, the Tarrant County Medical Examiner who knew my parents as the choir director at St. Andrew Catholic Church. He was the choir. He was its personality. He was its maestro.
I never much knew him. He died prematurely at age 58 in 1979, but medicine and music held equal shares of his affection. Music perhaps a greater share, I don’t know.
Dr. Gwozdz, though, is a significant figure in Fort Worth’s past. A street near the John Peter Smith Hospital complex bears his name.
“We just lost one of the greatest men I’ve ever known,” an investigator with the medical examiner’s office said at the time of Gwozdz’s death.
Said another: “He was above all else a humanitarian.”
He was Tarrant County’s second medical examiner, from 1969-79 — and before that deputy medical examiner — succeeding Dr. T.C. Terrell. Since the establishment of the
medical examiner’s office in 1965, four men have served as its chief. In addition to Drs. Terrell and Gwozdz, Nizam Peerwani and Kendall Crowns have held the job on a permanent basis.
During his tenure, Gwozdz administered thousands of autopsies, the final word on how thousands had met their deaths.
“He always said that body on the slab is someone’s mother or brother,” the investigator said. “He always insisted they be treated with respect.”
Said Gwozdz in an interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “I essentially feel sorry for every lost human being.”
He was a regular at the courthouse, testifying in hundreds, maybe thousands, of criminal trials of homicide victims in Tarrant County. The most notable of those was likely in Amarillo in the case of the State of Texas v. Thomas Cullen Davis in 1977.
The most fascinating part of Dr. Gwozdz, however, is indisputably his backstory, still relevant after all these years.
He was born in the ancient Polish capital of Krakow in 1920. In 1939, his father was taken hostage by the German army, never to be seen again. While studying medicine in Krakow, he was drafted into the Polish army. Not quite a year later, the Wehrmacht blitzkrieg hit Poland. Gwozdz was taken prisoner and sent to Stalag XXI, a camp in Schubin, Poland.
After a year in captivity, Gwozdz was released along with thousands
of other POWs to make room for prisoners taken at Dunkirk and Paris.
He returned to Krakow, earning a living as a pianist. In 1941, he married Eugenia Nelke.
In 1942, he was rearrested, accused of taking part in underground, guerilla-warfare bombings, an allegation he denied. But he was sent to a concentration camp at Flossenburg and later Dachau. Eugenia was sent to another prison.
When Gwozdz was liberated at the end of the war, he weighed 80 pounds with an enlarged heart and 37 ulcers on one leg. He was so weak he could barely talk.
It wasn’t until a few years after her father’s death that their daughter learned her parents were Jews.
“My parents were Catholic,” Donna Gwozdz Farwell told the Valdosta Daily Times in 2012. “I thought they were political prisoners from Poland in the concentration camps.”
Desiring to move to the U.S. in 1951 and concerned they would be denied a visa and worried their children would one day confront a second Holocaust, Feliks and Eugenia Gwozdz converted.
When they became American citizens in 1954, they both held tightly their “displaced persons” cards, no doubt as a reminder of how they were no longer displaced but now part of the American family.
At Dr. Gwozdz’s funeral, Fr. Don Miehls called him “the closest thing to a genius I have ever known,” noting that he often did the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle in under 50 minutes.
Miehls told the story of Gwozdz’s philosophy of life.
“I asked him what his secret was.”
The priest said that Dr. Gwozdz looked at him and answered: “Life is never yesterday. You drown in yesterday. Life is now.”
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HOW TO SURVIVE A NIGHT OUT WITH A ROCK STAR
BY BRIAN KENDALL
PHOTOS BY CRYSTAL WISE
[Editor’s
Tip 1:
Stay hydrated
The high-pitched ping of a text message wakes me up a little after 10 a.m. I’m not happy about it — I’ve been asleep for only two hours — but I also have to check out of my hotel room by 11 and prepare for a third and final interview with Koe Wetzel, the very guy with whom I was up all night drinking Casamigos and listening to old country hits very loudly. So, I accept the unplanned and unwanted alarm as a blessing in disguise.
“Did you survive???” it reads.
The text is from someone I met the night before, one of the many people who work with Koe — a rock star takes a village. It’s someone who’s in Koe’s circle, has Koe’s trust, and likely earned his stripes living through nights like the one I just experienced. In this world, the occasional dip into tequila and turpitude is a rite of passage.
“Jury’s still out,” I respond, “but I think I’m gonna make it.”
He slaps a heart on the text bubble. I realize I have two more unread messages, which my ears must’ve ignored in an act of self-preservation — I desperately needed sleep.
“Mannnn, it got pretty wild there at the end, haha,” read the first text.
The other is from Koe.
“No interview today, brotha, I’ll catch ya back in Texas next week! Good f***** hangs, bruh, take care.”
And for the first time in my career as a journalist, I’m relieved about an interview cancellation. Not because I don’t enjoy Koe’s company. Quite the opposite. He wasn’t lying about it being a good hang. I sincerely like the guy. And it’s not because I’m in desperate need of some ibuprofen and failed to pack any. Truth is, I’m happy about the cancellation because I’m not sure what more I would ask. A scheduled interview with one person asking questions and one person answering is already a stuffy circumstance. And when one adds the backdrop and recency of last night/this morning, it
becomes downright stiff. Unbearable.
Last night did the trick. While unpredictable, the concert, bars, shattering of half-full whiskey bottles capped off by a liquor-infused chat was also an education. After a night hanging with Koe, it’s not hard to understand why tens of thousands flock to his live shows with a rabidity that borders on mania. Or why so many embrace and feel empowered by his don’t-give-a-shit attitude and hillbilly bro disposition.
I got everything I need, and I don’t wanna mess with it.
Tip 2:
Lean in, embrace the moment, and don’t ask questions … even if you are a journalist “Could be me; maybe I’m just sober,” Koe says into the microphone to the live audio engineer. He’s having some issues with his vocals; they’re just not sounding right, and Koe half-jokingly — emphasis on the half — suggests his current unaltered state might be to blame.
He and his band, the Konvicts, are doing soundcheck for a show. It’s a show being filmed for a new PBS live music series, “Recorded Live at Analog,” and I’m told Koe will be the finale of the first season, which will air this fall. Koe and his publicist sent me an invite to tag along — a previous attempt to see a concert of his in San Diego fell through thanks to thunderstorms over DFW Airport — and I accepted.
Koe seems nervous. But this anxiety is not the result of the Public Broadcasting Channel, cameras, or his current sobriety. No, he’s nervous because the venue seats roughly 200 people. Koe’s not used to a smaller room. He’s used to sell-out stadiums and amphitheaters complete with pyrotechnics and crowds of 10,000-plus.
“You give me 10,000 people, I’ll show out,” Koe told me later that night. “You give me a hundred people, and I’m gonna be shy.” Yeah, the most rock star quote to include the word “shy” that I had ever seen. But it’s true, Koe is admittedly not
big on small social gatherings and would rather “be at the house smoking a joint and watching a movie.”
The band finishes soundcheck, and Koe grabs a drink, a tequila and soda, I think, and proceeds to shake hands and engage in chitchat with whomever he needs to greet. I don’t suspect making such rounds is easy on him. It was clear from the first time I met him, a week prior, he’s not one for pretenses. In fact, I’d say he’s the antithesis of an affectation.
Koe wears his East Texas roots on his sleeve. He unabashedly speaks with a heavy Texas twang unscathed by time spent in dense urban populations — he’s pure small-town. And his large stature, 6-foot-plus and built like a linebacker, will remind you that he was, indeed, once a linebacker at Tarleton State. He’s also in possession of long, thick brown hair, which on more than one occasion elicited words of envy from some women who were around. He speaks simply but poetically, something I can’t help but suspect has influenced others with whom he communicates. When I asked anyone to speak about Koe, they’d practically bust out into verse as though anxiously awaiting their turn at an open mic. Of course, Koe’s poetic statements come with their fair share of profanities. He manages to throw an expletive between most breaths, but it never feels forced or strained. He isn’t doing it for comedic effect. It’s simply ingrained in his vernacular. Interestingly, it’s also clear Koe grew up with manners. So, I could easily see him unironically throwing an f-bomb in a sentence that includes the word “sir” or “ma’am.” Of course, the comedy wouldn’t be lost on him.
One of the most shocking things about him is his initial shyness, something that’s remedied by either a cocktail in his hand or a mass of people in front of him. You see, on stage — at least the ones in front of large crowds — is where he’s pumping on all cylinders. It’s where the country charm, cowboy deviousness, and rock star charisma all collide.
But this venue is just, well, different. The drummer, Jared Easterling, is talking
about playing quieter, barely hitting his drums. And the whole band is concerned that their typically energetic live show won’t translate in a venue this size.
The venue is in Nashville, by the way, the Tennessee town long crowned the Country Music Capital of the World. It’s the hub of twang and home to the industry’s well-oiled music machine that spits out Billboard topper after Billboard topper. And Koe’s no stranger to the city. He co-wrote and recorded a few songs off of his new album, 9 Lives, in the town’s iconic RCA Studio A — along with producer Gabe Simon. After all, for a country star, Nashville is unavoidable, with many an established and aspiring musicians moving to the city to ensconce themselves in the industry’s epicenter. All country roads lead to Nashville.
I think it is country. Listen to “Creeps” on his 2022 album, Hell Paso, and tell me that’s country.
Despite plenty of evidence suggesting Koe rests outside the scope of the genre, he readily admits that growing up on ‘90s country, Allen Jackson, Garth Brooks, George Strait, has resulted in each of his tunes having a “country feel.”
Of course, this is assuming Koe is country, a word he’d rather not use to describe his music.
“We haven’t stuck to one genre,” he tells me. “It’s either country and rock, or country and alternative, or indie and country. All of it has a country vibe, but I don’t think it’s country, and nobody can figure out what the f*** it is. So how can you put a genre on it?”
Koe’s voice, which is objectively phenomenal, by the way, while at times raspy and dark in its timbre, always possesses that quintessential twang and clarity that defines country music. Take that away, and Koe is right, the music fluctuates between rock, punk, and indie. In place of pedal steel, the band’s barrage of guitars (they have four of them) use a healthy dose of overdrive pedals and effects. And the clever melodies and hooks clearly embrace pop sensibilities. The more I listen to Koe’s complete repertoire, the less
“I like to think of it as hillbilly punk rock,” Koe’s manager, Jeb Hurt, tells me. “Unfortunately, I can’t find that one on the dropdown menu when I’m looking to search for genres. But it is tough to box them into a genre. Koe is a country kid from rural East Texas who grew up with traditional family values in a traditional setting with a family that believes in what the country fanbase believes in. So, he is authentically country. And his music is authentically Koe Wetzel. Whether it’s country, alt country, or outlaw country, it’s Koe Wetzel.”
Jeb went on to say, “While he doesn’t want to be necessarily labeled any certain way, it is a country audience. And country’s become such a multifaceted genre these days that I don’t know which is harder to say: what Koe is or what country is.”
While I made the mistake many times calling Koe a country musician, something he would correct me on, I also just made the error of calling it “his music.”
Something I noticed, whether intentional or not, Koe always uses the plural pronoun “we” when talking about music. “When we tour.” “Our music.” So, regardless of his music’s genre or lack thereof, he never takes sole credit.
Then there’s the subject matter: drinking, drugs, incarcerations, and girls. Koe has few songs that don’t mention one
of either whiskey, wine, or weed (or all three). When I mentioned he and his band had a song with a lyric about a certain illicit drug, Koe snapped back, “There are 40 songs.”
Koe’s lyrics are explicit. Rated “R” if music were to have an MPAA system and no doubt marked with a “Parental Advisory” label if that was still a thing. Gary Dale Wetzel, Koe’s dad, jokingly said that, while mom and dad don’t disapprove, he can’t say the same for grandma and grandpa.
But he’s found a niche, and for five albums, he’s leaned in and embraced the image of a lovelorn man wielding whiskey bottles who can’t seem to get out from under the thumb of Johnny Law. Again, there’s very little pretense to the man. So, how close is this to the truth?
“For a while, I was just balls to the wall, not really having any remorse,” Koe says. “But growing up, that’s not how I was raised. I mean, I’m a redneck dude. I grew up in East Texas. I come from a low-income family and shit like that, but that’s not how I was raised. But I have a wild streak in me, dude. It kind of runs in the family, and you have to own it. But the way I was doing it was going about it the wrong way.”
So, yes, it seems the outlaw is there, and, in one capacity or another, is likely there to stay. But it’s not so black-andwhite, not so Jekyll and Hyde. Much like the difficulty in categorizing Koe’s music, the same can be said for him as a person.
Tip 3:
If there are rules, break them … and the Glass bottles
It’s 20 minutes before Koe and the Konvicts take the stage. The band, Koe, and a plethora of people who I can only assume are friends of the band are in the green room. There are about 12 halfdrunk Miller High Lifes around the room, and Koe asks if he can get a spit cup on stage. I don’t recall if he ever got one.
Cody Maldonado, who works with Koe’s management team, enters the green room wielding tape and points at the hat worn by guitarist Josh Serrato. The white baseball cap has a logo on it that needs
Julie Wetzel and baby Koe
to be covered up with white tape. PBS, as it turns out, has a strict policy against allowing any logos on any clothing appear on their television programing.
There’s confusion as to what Josh should do.
“That’s f****** stupid,” Koe says. “Don’t do that. That’s f****** stupid. Damn, I shoulda dressed as Mr. Rogers.
“You know what you should do? Write PBS and draw their logo on the white tape.”
He’s serious. Very serious.
Koe wasn’t planning on wearing a hat that night. I remember him deciding he was going to go with a paisley-patterned bandana. But he quickly grabs his black Bass Pro Shops hat and is in need of some black tape and a white or gold marker. And Cody returned with all necessary materials a couple minutes later.
After covering the logo, Koe starts writing PBS in what looks like a bold Comic Sans.
offense to the antic.
Turns out, I’m both overthinking and gutless. Koe took the stage in front of the cameras and the sell-out crowd donning the PBS logo to wild cheers from the young crowd. I’m not saying this act of defiance is akin to the Doors blowing off Ed Sullivan’s orders to change the lyrics of their song “Light My Fire” or Johnny Cash showing the literal middle finger to a camera, but I still categorize it as a rock star move. Now, I don’t know how much this did or didn’t upset PBS, but everyone in attendance who knows Koe, shrugged, smiled, and said, “That’s Koe.”
For five albums, he’s leaned in and embraced the image of a lovelorn man wielding whiskey bottles who can’t seem to get out from under the thumb of Johnny Law.
“Anyone know what the PBS logo looks like?” he asks. I look it up on my phone and show him. “You good at drawing?” he asks. Nah, we’ll just go with the letters. That gets the point across. And what is the point, exactly?
Well, some people never waste an opportunity to ironically flip something back in the faces of the powers that be. To give a proverbial middle finger to dumb rules. It’s also funny as hell.
I’m not sure if he’s going to go through with it, if he’s actually going to wear the makeshift PBS hat. I left the green room 10 minutes before the band was to take the stage, so I’m absent from any subsequent debates about the hat. Sure, it’s a funny idea by Koe and got a lot of laughs, but, eventually, the reality of the situation sinks in, and one falls in line. I mean, Koe wouldn’t want to upset PBS, the station that’s about to give him a national audience, would he? The heads of the station could easily be thin-skinned and take
Fred Barnett, Koe’s business partner and bar and venue owner, theorizes that moments like this, Koe’s unpredictable nature, is one of the main reasons he’s amassed such a large, cult following. “Nobody wants to miss what Koe is going to do next,” Barnett says. “They don’t want to miss the show where he does something and they have to hear about it from their friends. That fear of missing out drove people to the concerts, and they started following him wherever he went.”
According to Barnett, who owned Thirsty Armadillo, where Koe first played in Fort Worth, Koe just has a way with audiences. Through his debauchery, antics, and foul-mouthed banter — all of which are good-natured — he’s able to connect with concertgoers. And some of his performances have become the stuff of legend.
In 2019, Koe performed at The Great Texas Balloon Race, a family event that failed to properly vet Koe Wetzel. Following his performance, a routine gig with countless swear words and the guzzling of whiskey, the event released a statement apologizing for Koe’s performance and claiming they communicated to Koe the need to refrain from colorful language and that he “willfully decided to disregard their wishes.” I have zero doubts
their statement is 100% accurate. And to add salt on the wound, Koe set a new attendance record at the event.
Yes, it was Koe Wetzel being Koe Wetzel at a Koe Wetzel show. Family festival promoters beware.
Koe is also known for having a large female fan base — not something one would assume of an artist who sings about throwing whiskey under car seats and lighting cigarettes so cops don’t smell weed.
“He’s off limits,” Jeb Hurt says when explaining Koe’s appeal to women. “That’s what your parents would say, no?
“And I think he’s the first person from this regional scene to come with an authentic, counterculture mentality that really has been a very attractive, charming piece of his whole brand from early on. He is unapologetically authentic. And the funny thing we’ve always said —in the interest of using family language — all the girls typically want to hang out with him, and all the guys want to be him.
“And that dynamic just brings this cultlike energy to his fan base.”
I won’t pretend to understand the psychology behind Koe’s general appeal, but having spent a little time with Koe, Barnett isn’t wrong. Wherever Koe is, something interesting has to be going down. And my curiosity, while perhaps unhealthy, would lead me to a Wetzel show as if it were a homing device.
“When you say, ‘I’m going to a Koe Wetzel concert,’ you know that chances of you having a great time and partying your ass off are 99%,” Barnett says. “That is going to happen.”
The show in Nashville, at least for the Wetzel veterans, is comparatively subdued. But Koe’s still sliding his Koe Wetzelisms in there — the PBS hat and occasional profanity (“Oh, shit, I wasn’t supposed to say shit”). But the band feels restrained, something I’m figuring might be Koe’s least favorite feeling in the world. Later that night, he vented a bit and shared his secret method to putting on a great live show.
“We’re a garage band, man. We play music the way it should be played: f****** loud and f***** crazy.”
Tip 4:
Chauffeur > Uber
It’s post show, and the band’s hitting up a few bars. Plural.
There’s a group of us — all of Koe’s people, each of whom I really like — and we travel in a motorcade: a van and a couple of black SUVs. Each bar we visit has an area roped off for Koe — a corner or upstairs area where we’re ushered — yeah, real rock star-type stuff. And I can’t deny feeling slightly more significant as a person just by extension.
For this night, yes, I’m with Koe Wetzel. I later find it interesting that, despite Koe being a self-described red neck from modest beginnings in East Texas, I disagree with any notion that he’s an “ordinary guy.” My impressions of him are anything but ordinary. It’s admittedly strange to say someone “should” be famous, but I’d say Koe fits whatever criteria for famous there may exist. And his dad saw it coming.
“Koe was a kid that I knew was going to do something good,” Gary, Koe’s dad, told me. “I don’t know how to say this, or if it’s even the right thing to say, but he was always talented in everything he did.”
Koe was born Ropyr Madison Koe Wetzel in Pittsburg, a town of a little over 4,000 in East Texas in 1992, arriving nine months and three days after his parents, Gary and Julie, wed. His parents named him Ropyr Madison Koe when they couldn’t decide between the three names. Both his mother and his father were from the same area, or no more than a town away, and their respective families go back generations in East Texas. Gary worked, and still works, in construction and was, by his own admission, a strict disciplinarian and “hard on Koe.” “I tried to keep him on the straight and narrow as best I could, but he never gave me any problems at all. He was the sweetest kid.”
Koe’s mother, Julie, worked as a bank teller before getting a job at the Pittsburg Independent School District, where she’s now the district’s business manager. Julie is also from whom Koe received his natural proclivity for music. “She would always sing at old opry houses back when
that was a thing,” Koe says. “She’d sing old country songs.”
The family lived in a double-wide, which now graces the cover of Koe’s new album, 9 Lives. But with both parents working, Koe would notch many childhood hours with his grandparents, who lived 200 yards away.
“My grandparents didn’t raise me, but pretty much raised me,” Koe says. “I mean, I had a good childhood. I didn’t have everything I wanted in life, but I had everything I needed in life. My parents made sure of that.”
Koe would learn how to sing while attending Southern Baptist services, where his grandmother led the choir. “Heavenly Highway Hymns is how I started, man.” When he was in eighth grade, his parents bought him his first guitar, which he taught himself how to play. “Every day after school, he’d come in, get his guitar, and he’d play until he’d go to bed.” Koe was also working. Every summer between eighth grade year and sophomore year of college, Koe would work construction with his dad. “[While working with my dad], he was rough, but he did that so I would know that wasn’t what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. He was hard on me for a reason, and I thank him for that to this day.”
at football. He’d enter Tarleton State in Stephenville in 2011, but his college football career was short-lived when injuries started piling up. He’d eventually drop out of college but stayed in Stephenville, where he’d work odd jobs at oil change shops and the like (none of them lasting more than five months) while picking up live music gigs. According to Koe, he wasn’t big on having a boss.
In early 2013, he’d meet Mason Morris, his current bass player on the Konvicts. The first time they met, Morris remembers Koe having just socked two guys in the face right before he greeted him with a handshake. “He was on the Tarleton football team, and I guess they and the basketball team didn’t get along,” Morris explains. “I think the basketball players were being inappropriate to girls, and that’s something we don’t stand for. And he just two-pieces these dudes. And I was like, damn, that’s one hell of a man right there.”
In high school, Koe would compete, singing and playing the guitar, in the Future Farmers of America talent competition, where he would twice make it to the state championship. Videos of his 2011 performances still exist on YouTube.
Koe also played baseball and football for Pittsburg High School. Gary, saying Koe could “hit the ball a mile,” thought he’d pursue baseball. But Koe, who always wanted to play some sort of professional ball, elected to try his hand
A couple months later, Koe would invite Morris to fill in for an ailing bass player, and soon after, he’d become a full-time member. And the rest of the current lineup, Odis Parrish, Shyloh Powers, Jared Easterling, and Josh Serrago, each from different towns in Texas, would slowly join the lineup over the next few years. As Morris puts it, “We’re a band from everywhere, Texas.”
The early iteration of the band would grind, playing bars, patios, and anywhere with a stage and an outlet to plug in an amp and turn it to 10. They’d slowly and steadily build a following in the Stephenville area and release a couple of independent records — an EP, Love and Lies, in 2012, and Out on Parole in 2015. The following year, they released Noise Complaint, an album whose introductory track
announced it was made for one purpose, “to get chicks,” and featured the single “Something to Talk About.” Blastoff.
With the release, Koe and the band would start selling out every venue they graced and gain a reputation as an unhinged (in the best way possible) live act full of unpredictability. Didn’t hurt that the songs were good, too. Six months later, they’d sign Jeb Hurt as their manager.
In 2019, the band released their followup to Noise Complaint, Harold Saul High, named after an uncle and a childhood friend who Koe had lost in two separate motor vehicle accidents. The album would become Koe’s first Billboard-charting album, peaking at 20 on Billboard 200 and 10 on the country charts. The following year, Koe would sign his first major record deal with Columbia Records and release the aptly titled Sellout.
“I remember whenever we announced that we had signed [with Columbia], it was, like, ‘There goes another one from Texas that’s going to Nashville.’ And Columbia’s out of New York. But it’s hard to explain that to the majority of people. So, I was, like, f*** it. We’re calling it sellout.”
Jeb Hurt had similar sentiments, “Koe just felt like, oh, why don’t I just double down on what the one percenters are already saying about me?”
He’d follow up Sellout with Hell Paso in 2022, which included the hit single, “Creeps,” along with six additional charting singles on the US Rock Charts. And, being a prolific artist, Koe is releasing yet another full-length on July 19, the aforementioned 9 Lives, which features an image of his childhood home on the cover. The album’s lead single, “Damn Near Normal,” tied “Creeps” for the singer’s highest charting song. More reently, Koe’s been diversifying. And he’s been diversifying in Fort Worth. In January 2023, Koe Wetzel’s riot room opened on West 7th in Fort Worth. In case you didn’t know, yes, Koe Wetzel, who’s
lived in Weatherford for the last three years, has a namesake bar/club in our city. Packed to the brim almost every night, the thumping bar opened in January 2023 in the spot once occupied by Dogwood. And the space has gotten some recent celebrity attention, with Post Malone stopping by. No one ever refers to Koe as “Fort Worth-area musician Koe Wetzel” … but maybe we should start.
Tip 5:
Just because you’re only halfway done with your drink, doesn’t mean you don’t need more Casamigos
We’re in Koe’s hotel suite. There’s a small group of us hanging in there. The nocturnals, wringing as much out of the experience as we possibly can. I’ve been nursing the same glass of Casamigos for at least a couple hours, but the drink continues to grow as Koe occasionally pours me a helping as if the glass is empty. I never object.
The early iteration of the band would grind, playing bars, patios, and anywhere with a stage and an outlet to plug in an amp and turn it to 10.
And, at some point, I pull a Koe, say “F*** it,” and down as much of it as I can.
It’s 4:30 a.m. and Koe lights a cigarette inside the hotel room, and we start listening to his new album, 9 Lives, while continuing to chat about music, clout chasers, and people who suck at their jobs. The album’s supposed to signal a change for Koe, who partnered with Nashville producer Gabe Simon.
Koe’s referred to the sessions with Simon as therapy. “[Simon] said, ‘Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty.’ So, I started telling him stuff that I would never tell a stranger. And he’d write stuff down, and it helped create this record.”
The bulk of the album was written and recorded in El Paso all within a 48-hour span. “Koe makes a joke that it was his first time going to therapy when he worked with me,” Simon says. “All I want to do in this job is help uplift people. I want to make Koe the best version of himself. And the only way I know how to
do that is by listening.”
I don’t like using the word “mature,” but there’s certainly a level of growth with the album that’s apparent. Koe’s taking me song by song, revealing the inspiration behind each one. My recorder is on, but the music is so loud, I won’t possibly make out anything we’re saying.
We listened to the whole album, all the way through before turning to some old country gems that Koe calls his favorites.
“I mean, he’s a genius,” Ben Maddahi, an executive at Columbia Records says about Koe. “That high caliber of music [on 9 Lives] is extremely rare. I’ve never seen it before. And that may speak to the fact that he was opening up through the music a bit more. He’s definitely had certain songs that were introspective on his prior projects for sure. But maybe he was saying things on this one that struck a different chord.”
As the night turns to morning, our music conversation continues. I can honestly say I’ve never seen someone speak so passionately about the subject. And his wishes are simple: I want good music. And by whatever means necessary, make it.
Later on, Koe throws a joke my way by pointing at a tattoo on his leg and tells me, “I’m making friends with the one motherf****** that I’m not supposed to make friends with.” The tattoo reads “Almost Famous,” a reference to the Cameron Crowe film about a music journalist who loses his neutrality when he befriends the band he’s covering. I think it’s a joke. I suspect it’s a joke. Maybe it’s not a joke.
I’m about to leave, my eyelids have gained an exponential amount of weight in the past 30 minutes, but I’m doubting Koe’s going to sleep anytime soon. We say our goodbyes, and I notice an orange glow as the sun peeks through the clouds.
“The damage that we’ve done to ourselves, it will come out later on,” Fred Barnett told me one week after this night. “But, yeah, that night, we survived.”
Tip 6:
The next day, smile. You’re alive.
‘A TEDIOUS THING’
James Phillips’ ‘The Inheritors,’ a novel that railed against Fort Worth’s high society, was shunned 84 years ago. Today, we’ve inherited a masterpiece that can still leave a mark.
BY
JOHN HENRY
Art and design by Lauren Deitzer
A TEDIOUS THING
I’ll be the first to admit that even more than 80 years after its publication, The Inheritors hits a little close to home for a guy, a Fort Worth native, who has mixed with all of the divisions of Fort Worth society.
Whether those divisions are based on differences of wealth, inherited rank or privilege, profession or occupation, or race, I’ve associated with them from one degree or another, in business or as friends, perhaps even a little debauchery.
“Let no one think that the group herein described was atypical of youth,” says George Bellamy Jimble III, the lead protagonist of the book The Inheritors. “We were only a fringe, but there were a few of us everywhere. Many of our contemporaries, in the middle thirties of the 20th century, led admirably sane lives and had a brisk YMCA outlook. These are the ones who will undoubtedly save the country when the going gets toughest, but, as Cavin Jarvis said, they were damned uninteresting. I suppose the formation of character is a tedious thing.”
With that preamble, there begins the story of The Inheritors, a quite good, no, actually a great novel written by James Young “Jim” Phillips under the pen name “Philip Atlee,” which he used for good reason.
Like, for example, in case of some fatwa decree, though it didn’t take long for the city to know his true identity.
Published in 1940 by Dial Press of New York — though set in 1935 — the young Phillips takes the offensive with the most biting kind of commentary on the elite class he lived with in River Crest Country Club, what he identified as “the dollar aristocracy,” and his obvious distaste for both, as well as “country club Christianity.”
It’s as well-written a novel as you will find, a product of its time in the use of the language.
“The overlords of Fort Worth inhabited the quietest streets. Their large homes fringed the golf courses and had three- or four-car garages in back of them. The interiors of these homes were lightened by pictures the owners did not understand or care to understand, and, in some cases, actually disliked. The wives of the owners were well tended and usually apprenticed to the intelligentsia. They were women who bought Shakespeare in handsomely bound volumes. … The pages were usually uncut.
“Their husbands did nothing but make money, but they could not be blamed for that. It was all they had been taught to do, and most of them were experts in the field. They were, for the most part, patient men who had been so strongly indoctrinated with the virus of the dollar aristocracy that they could not enjoy themselves fully even when they were financially able to do so.”
Phillips was way before his time, a Fort Worth counterculture, revolutionary figure long before those were en vogue. If Marx had been as clever or witty, not to mention fun, communism would have had a better head start, albeit doomed to failure, nonetheless.
A.C. Greene included The Inheritors among his list of “The Fifty Best Texas Books,” initially published by Texas Monthly in 1981 and updated through the years. The Inheritors has remained on the list.
Greene said the book was “30 or 40 years before its time.”
“Few Texas books have been able to repeat the harsh dismay, the inspired brutality, of ‘The Inheritors.’”
But that it found its mark — and left a welt — there is no doubting as the West Side’s upper crust, many of them
And
set
“ ”
down in the heart of the town were the children of the country-club bludgeoners, the children who were being readied to catch
the torch of Business. Not all of them were like us. We were well taught, but we were taught too much, and not of the right things. We drove fast cars and we drank too much. The inference was given us, by well-bred curlings of the lip, that it was neither good nor desirable to be skilled in a trade. Instead, we were taught to prize the professions, which insisted on the profit motif in every conscious act of life.
The
Inheritors , James Phillips
descended from the cattle barons or the new-age oil tycoons, used its power to subdue its influence by suppressing its distribution, mostly by buying up all its copies.
In the parlance of the day, Phillips and his prose pissed off a lot of people.
Add The Inheritors to the list of literary works sacrificed by book burnings, so obsessed and single-minded were they to kill the book. So, we’re told. The Fort Worth Public Library was said to have kept its copy under lock and key, so vulnerable was it to theft and sabotage. I was also told that Phillips’ own mother, by 1940 a notable face in the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, went around town buying up copies so as to limit its reach. That story was more likely the convention of a would-be propagandist out to misinform and deceive.
Even his own mother wanted the book off the streets.
Hollace Weiner, author of River Crest Country Club: The First 100 Years, 1911-2011, included it in her book because “it’s part of the club’s lore.”
At the time she was researching and writing the book,
Weiner says, “I spoke with women in their 70s and 80s who remembered reading it by flashlight under the bed covers. It was scandalous. Everyone at the club tried to guess who the protagonists might be.”
Its later reprintings in the 1950s left out the preface describing Fort Worth and River Crest. And it’s indeed true that this book could have been written in any urban setting with the backdrop being any country club.
1It has become the stuff of legend, The Inheritors, first brought to my attention by Judy Conrad a few years ago over rounds of cocktails at Oscar’s Pub, a popular gathering place for the subjects on the West Side.
I had never heard of it.
Google provided some of the answers I needed as well as the name of a distributor. The book is nearly impossible to find. In fact, when I purchased a copy for a mere $30, I was informed I had committed an act tantamount to armed robbery through the weapon that is a smartphone. The law of supply and demand favors the seller. Prices for it, if you can find it, reach heights only an airline pilot can get to.
My copy is most certainly not an original.
It was printed and bound, perhaps in the 1950s or 1960s, in India by an outfit called Pranava Books. Where or how Pranava Books got its hands on the copy of The Inheritors, who knows? But in all probability, they merely typeset it, printed it, bound it, and just waited for a cease-and-desist notice.
The company name, however, is full of irony.
Pranava translates to “cosmic sound” in Sanskrit, the classical language of India and of Hinduism. In the Hindu world, pranava is the name for the sacred “Om.” Meditating on pranava leads to liberation because it brings about unity with Brahman — a member of the highest Hindu caste, that of the priesthood — the ultimate reality.
The absolute truth.
Local writer E.R. Bills beat me to The Inheritors. He has done some really good research and writing on the book.
Bills uncovered a letter by Phillips to his mother, explaining the manuscript.
Phillips writes: “The characters are principally composite, but some situations are grounded on fact. I shall, in all possibility, create a tidy little corps of antagonists, and it may even be that you will not like what I have done. But remember that I write no line, salacious, embittered or pornographic, that I didn’t write truly.”
Om.
Well, his corps of antagonists were more than just a little irritated band of affluence.
Though The Inheritors received favorable reviews in the New York Times and New Republic, every newspaper in Texas panned it, if it mentioned it at all.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram jumped on it like a mockingbird on a June bug, publishing a highly critical and, at times,
harsh evaluation.
“As a first novel by a somewhat immature and confused young man, bewildered by his own task, The Inheritors is a flaming story of a group of overage adolescents, afflicted by their overstimulate instincts, their amorality, and a rather stupid, cruel inheritance not of their own making. Three youths revolt against an artificiality in life to which their elders have completely capitulated. Sins of the flesh and intoxication become inevitably a compensatory refuge for old and young alike.”
The story is really a fascinating pre-war contrast in the legend of the Greatest Generation, acclaimed for its perseverance during the Great Depression; its ridding the world of the great despots during WWII and later the Soviets; and its contributions to the greatest economic boon in world history.
Rather than a story of austerity and call to duty, this is one of overabundance and hell-raising.
George Jimble and his best friend, Cavin Jarvis, and their band of ne’er-do-wells reject the largess and expectations handed to them for what they believe is actual living.
“Now we are moving into tomorrow, and before too many tomorrows, we will have inherited. You may pass us on the street or shoulder us in the elevator. We will be wearing the sack suits of business and thrusting our necks rebelliously inside tight collars as we join the dollar hunt. We will be whispering hosannahs to executive vice presidents, and we will be fretting over taxes. But our eyes will not be smiling. Too many Whitneys went down for that, too many evidences of cheating termites in the American woodwork. Too many senators have beamed their phoney benedictions on us, and a few too many unctuous prayers have been chanted over us. The times are bad, but the times are changing. Something has begun to move and go forward beneath the trim fit of the deacon’s coat and the banker’s choker collar and the old Weems’ cherry tree fable. Something … we are not smiling.”
Bills made note of The Inheritors being the perfect bookend to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s portrayal of the Roaring ’20s.
“If we seem foolish,” Jimble says, “remember that we were young. Most of us were born with silver spoons in our mouths,
Three men were tugging at something through a partially opened door, and one of them cursed as his hat fell off. … The barehead man got a crank and “
Cars lined each side of the road, and their headlights flung out brilliance, stabling lanes of light that people were hurrying through. The wrecked car was on its side, and in the glare of the headlights, it looked like a smashed black bug. One wall was caved in, and the motor was in the front seat. It was a wellwrecked car, and the index to its condition was readable and simple. The road had turned, but the car had not.
smashed away at the windows, a task rendered difficult by the starred and shattered safety glass. After a few more minutes of breaking out the pin-pointed knives of glass, two of them lifted the driver out.
It was a limp body and small, in dress clothes. … The body was twisted a little, knees drawn up and shoulders flat, and half of the face belonged to Mumford.
I didn’t recognize the other half. “Mother ’a God,” breathed Jarvis behind me, “it’s the Hot Horse!” His tone was amazement, but it seemed to me his tense was wrong. “Cavin,” I said, “it was the Hot Horse.”
The Inheritors , James Phillips
Not all of this ends well. Rather than glorify, the story is grounded in more than hangovers. The wayward living leads often in dead ends and/or trouble and even tragedy, including the death of one of the guys, “Hot Horse” Mumford, on West Seventh Street. The book even addresses abortion, certainly a third rail topic in those days forbidden and dangerous to broach in social settings.
The crew also spends time at the expense of the county in jail after a rambunctious party.
Jimble’s mother instructs, paraphrasing only slightly: “Some people can drink and not get in trouble. You aren’t one of those people.”
One poignant early scene is Jimble and Jarvis, with “whiskey warming” the belly, watching and offering commentary on an outside dining scene at River Crest.
One was a man named George Sorrels, an attorney, “not a forensic flame before juries, and he was no genius in the more difficult matter of preparing cases for trial.
“Indeed, he was something considerably less, but he had a vague air of authority that comes to successful barristers, those
surgeons of people’s affairs who operate with scalpels of paper writs and subpoenas.”
He had married a “cunning visitor from Virginia … who had managed for many years to spend at least twice what George made over any given period of time.”
“Think you’ll ever be a big man like George?” Jimble asks Cavin.
“Not if the Lord loves me at all,” Cavin replies.
In addition to Phillips as George Jimble — “a decadent Tom Sawyer” — E.R. Bills, the local writer and researcher, identified Roy Harris as Cavin Jarvis — “a chromium-plated Huck Finn.”
Harris went on to become a Hollywood actor under the name of Riley Hill. Bills says that Harris actually presented a volume of The Inheritors as part of his acting resume.
Harris acted in 19 films under his given name but adopted “Riley Hill” after the war. Altogether, he appeared in more than 70 films and was a steady presence in TV classics such as “The Lone Ranger,” “Dick Tracy,” and “The Gene Autry Show.”
If Phillips, the author, seemed angry — the Star-Telegram review said of Phillips, “a poet who cannot quite turn realist without
being nasty about it” — he might have been. By the time of the book’s publication, Phillips was no longer in the inheriting class.
His father, Edwin T. Phillips, an oil and gas attorney, died in 1928. Phillips, born in 1915, would have been about 13. Phillips had three brothers: Edwin T. Phillips Jr., James Olcott Phillips — both later Fort Worth attorneys — and the youngest, David Atlee Phillips. The four have been described as “ruggedly handsome.”
Their mother was Mary Louise Phillips, the namesake of the elementary school on the West Side, and prominent in business, civic, and social circles. She left the University of Texas after her junior year to marry Edwin Phillips.
When asked what she thought about the book, Mary Louise Phillips told the Star-Telegram that, “I didn’t know he knew such words.”
After Edwin’s death, she took a job with the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, eventually rising to manager of the civic affairs department. At the time, she was the only woman in the U.S. serving in such a commercial post. Moreover, she earned national distinction when in 1933 Eleanor Roosevelt and Newton Baker, the onetime Secretary of Defense and sometime aide to FDR, named her to the national women’s committee for the Mobilization for Human Needs. She was the only Texas woman on the national committee and later she was the state chairperson.
In 1934, she was appointed a member of the Fort Worth Board of Education.
According to David Atlee Phillips, Edwin left the family a portfolio of oil stocks which “turned to ash in the market crash of 1929.”
“We were the poorest rich people in Fort Worth,” David Atlee Phillips recalled in The Night Watch: 25 Years of Peculiar Service, a book detailing his days in the CIA.
However, as a founder of River Crest, Edwin also left us “a life membership and the deed to a house on the fourth green.”
“He put his flying skills at the service of the Allies, but it is difficult to tell exactly what he was doing. One source puts him with the Tahitian Free French forces in North Africa; another with General Claire Chennault’s Flying Tigers in China. He may well have been in both places. For a while he ran the Chinese national airline, Civil Air Transport’s, offices in Rangoon, and then he took a job with a Burmese airline, Amphibian Airways.”
Weiner, the author of the River Crest centennial book, describes Phillips as a “pulp-fiction writer, a pilot, and a Marine … who never settled down.”
Though he went to three universities, including TCU, he never graduated, though he was obviously influenced by at least one experience. He dedicated The Inheritors to acclaimed TCU English professor Lorraine Sherley.
He met Joyce Clayton in 1938 while working in the oilfields of Jack County. They married and had a son, Shawn Phillips, who became a folk-rock musician of note. The marriage ended after 17 years. Phillips married twice more.
At the time of his death in 1991 at age 76, Phillips had written 30 novels, including 22 as part of “The Contract Series” that dealt with mystery and espionage. Those were all written under the name “James Atlee Phillips.”
He also had written a series of poems about the oilfields called the “Metal Forest” and the screenplay for the 1958 movie “Thunder Road,” which starred Robert Mitchum. He had also worked in public relations for the Billy Rose agency in New York.
Whatever one thought of him or his book, Phillips was quite clearly able, a giant among us in the realm of words.
“When he was working, he was traveling,” son Shawn said at the time of his death. “He would be here one week and Hong Kong the next because he always wrote his novels on location. He didn’t want someone to write him and tell that the hotel in his book was on the other side of the street.”
David Atlee Phillips rose from a $50-a-month CIA contract agent to the title of chief of the Western Hemisphere. His name has turned up in JFK conspiracy theories, something he steadfastly denied up until his death in 1988. David has also been identified as “Maurice Bishop,” the man supposedly working with counterrevolutionary elements seeking to dethrone Fidel Castro in the 1960s and 1970s.
There is some speculation that Jim Phillips, later a writer of spy novels, might also have been an agent. Whether he was or he wasn’t, Phillips’ life was unmistakably mysterious.
Historian Lonn Taylor a few years ago tried to tackle the elusive figure that was Jim Phillips. Though he made no connection with Phillips and the CIA, he noted that Phillips’ career during WWII and in the postwar years “is hard to document.”
In 1954, Phillips made a pass through Fort Worth to visit his family. He was then living in one of the remotest places on the planet, the Canary Islands. The group of islands off the northwest coast of Africa are not easily accessible.
He was living there with his second wife. He noted to the StarTelegram that brandy sold for 70 cents a quart and fine table wines could be bought for only a few cents a bottle.
It was in the Canaries that Phillips crossed paths with another Fort Worth author, John Graves. Graves recounted in Myself and Strangers that the two talked about Fort Worth.
Phillips, Graves said, was still angry with his experiences in youth and the reception of his book, saying he had one wish.
“To buy a pretty little atom bomb and at cocktail hour one afternoon, I would drop it down the chimney of the men’s bar at the River Crest Country Club.”
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In the heart of Fort Worth, there is a real estate broker as resilient as the Texas communities that she serves. Andra has thrived in the real estate industry for two decades. Her positive attitude and energy creates a spirit of professionalism and warmth. She has led a life full of faith, determination, and unwavering dedication to her clients throughout her career.
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In the greater Fort Worth area of real estate, Andra Beatty’s journey exemplifies the power of perseverance and the transformative impact of a commitment to help others achieve their dreams. In every situation, Andra embodies the true authentic spirit of Texas resilience, intertwined with the rich tradition of her family and rodeo heritage.
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by David Munny
15 Tips for Increasing the Value of Your Home
How to get the most out of your digs.
Whether you have immediate plans to sell your home or just want to make sensible improvements to your living space, enhancing the value of your property is consistently a wise choice. While the value of homes continues to rise in Cowtown, there remain some tried and true ways to see the value of your home increase even more. After all, you won’t always have the state of the market on which to fall back. These professional tips, which range from easy do-it-yourself tasks to well-planned restorations, are made to give you the most return on your investment.
Tip No. 1: Fully Inspect Your Home
The first step in this journey is to fully inspect your home. Simply examine each room in detail and give it a critical evaluation. This could mean looking for any indications of deterioration, including paint flaking, tile cracks, or dripping faucets. That said, list any small fixes as well as prospective improvements to keep track of what needs to be done around your home. With the help of this self-inspection, you’ll be able to prioritize tasks and pinpoint areas that need to be fixed right away, keeping your home in top shape and ready to increase in value.
Tip No. 2: Meet With a Real Expert
Now that you’ve done your own inspection, it’s time to bring in the pros. Meeting with an expert is an
important step since it can offer knowledgeable guidance specific to your home. A qualified appraiser or real estate agent has the skills and expertise to assess your home and pinpoint areas that need work to increase its worth. They may also provide information on the hottest features, affordable improvements, and market trends. Ultimately, meeting with an expert can help you go over your own improvements list and determine which are high priority and which are lowest on that list.
Tip No. 3: Give Your Home a Fresh Coat of Paint
As one of the most obvious tips and initial first steps, giving your home a fresh coat of paint is one of the easiest ways to improve its value and aesthetic appeal. Throughout the years, the walls in your home may have developed scuffs, the paint may have faded, or the colors have simply become outdated. That said, a home painted in contemporary, neutral hues can appear more pristine, bright, and inviting. This creates the impression that your property feels and looks brand-new.
Tip No. 4: Clean and Declutter Your Home
Cleaning and decluttering are one of the easiest and most effective ways to raise the value of your home. First, clean up and organize everything such as closets, bedrooms, offices, open shelving, and desks.
Get rid of anything that isn’t needed and make sure that everything is in its proper place. A house that isn’t crowded can feel bigger, more useful, and friendlier, all of which can really appeal to buyers if you plan to sell. Cleanliness also shows how well the house has been taken care of, which gives buyers trust in its state. By showing off a clean, uncluttered home, you make it easier for buyers to picture themselves living in that property.
Tip No. 5: Fix Up Your Bathrooms
Bathrooms are a high priority when it comes to the value of your property. That said, the value of your house can be significantly affected by even little bathroom renovations that you’ve done yourself. Give attention to simple renovations such as changing outdated mirrors, adding new racks, modernizing countertops, and repairing or replacing sinks. Give some attention to all of the bathrooms in your home, but for the best return on investment, start with the ones that are used the most which could be on the main floor as well as the master bath.
Tip No. 6: Upgrade Your Doors and Windows
While this may not be an easy do-it-yourself task, updating your doors and windows can help with increasing the value of your home. If you have older windows and doors, it can give the illusion that the home appears outdated. Think about getting new, energy-efficient doors for your front and back doors to replace the old ones. If you want to enhance insulation and save money on energy bills, you should also replace any old or drafty windows. By doing this, your home’s curb appeal, practicality, and energy efficiency can all be enhanced, which is highly soughtafter in the housing industry.
Tip No. 7: Improve Your Kitchen Design and Look
For many homebuyers, the kitchen is the most important room in the house and is considered the heart of the home. For that reason, improving the design and look can greatly help with increasing your home’s value. That said, take a look at your kitchen and determine what could be replaced or redone. Some changes may only require minor cosmetic changes, while some may require professional help. For instance, update the appliances, reface or replace the cabinetry, and repair any cracked tiling. In addition, a new coat of paint, some new hardware, or a trendy backsplash can make a world of difference and can be easily done as a DIY-project. Not only will this update the kitchen and increase the value of your home, but this will also enhance your own quality of life while living in your home.
Tip No. 8: Improve the Air Quality Inside Your Home
Improving the quality of air within your home has a big influence on its value. To lessen allergies, replace outdated carpeting with hardwood or tile. In addition, maintain and clean HVAC systems on a regular basis. To get rid of contaminants, utilize air purifiers throughout the home. These upgrades produce a healthier living space, which raises the desirability of your home and can increase its value.
Tip No. 9: Opt to Remove Popcorn Ceilings
Popcorn ceiling removal, although unpleasant, may significantly improve the value of your home. Removing popcorn ceilings in your home is highly beneficial in many ways, such as it removes the opportunity for additional dust collection, it brightens and enlarges the ceilings in your home, it adds a modern and contemporary feel to rooms, and
is extremely attractive to potential buyers in the future. Although popcorn ceiling removal can be a tedious task, it is well-worth it in the end, regardless if you decide to do it yourself or hire a professional.
Tip No. 10: Replace or Update Rugs and Carpets
Possibly the most apparent way to raise the value of your home is to replace or update the rugs and carpets. Adding new or updated carpets and rugs may breathe new life into your house and boost its resale value. This works wonders for removing smells, wear, and stains, and is especially important if you have children or dogs. Ultimately, this will improve the value of your home since it improves the aesthetics, comfort, and cleanliness of the space.
Tip No. 11: Make Your Home Energy-Efficient
In this day and age, energy-efficiency is key. That said, enhancing the energy-efficiency of your home can add a substantial value to it. In order to do this, replace your old appliances with energy-efficient models, install LED lights, install insulation, and install programmable thermostats. In the long term, installing solar panels might also prove to be a wise investment. By implementing these energy-efficient tips you can greatly increase the overall value of your home.
Tip No. 12: Take a Look at the Outside of Your Home
Now that you’ve worked on the inside of your home, it’s time to improve your overall curb appeal. First things first, take a stroll outside your house and assess what needs to be cleared or cleaned. Think about ways that can help such as trimming your lawn, adding vibrant flowers, and modernizing your landscape. Your home’s value will rise, and potential purchasers will be drawn in by a well-kept, friendly exterior.
Tip No. 13: Plant Trees and Flowers
Adding trees and flowers to your garden may greatly improve the curb appeal of your home. Add flowers, bushes, or trees to places that appear empty or desolate after clearing out old or dead plants. By adding outdoor plants, you’re enhancing the overall look and beauty of your property, increasing the attractiveness and value.
Tip No. 14: Change to Low-Maintenance Landscaping
While adding flowers and trees to your property can be beneficial, keep in mind that low-maintenance landscaping is extremely attractive and easy. Making the switch to lowmaintenance landscaping can save time and money while improving the attractiveness of your home. This method enhances your curb appeal, keeps your yard looking neat with little work, and if you plan to sell your home in the future, can attract prospective buyers who want simpleto-maintain gardening.
Tip No. 15: Stage Your Home
Last but definitely not least, stage your home. If you’re planning on putting your home on the market, make sure to stage it by using neutral decor, rearrange furnishings to the appropriate rooms, and clean out high-traffic areas. Ultimately, staging your property is a great way to make the most of all your hard work and improvements, increasing its resale value and curb appeal.
If you follow these tips, you’ll not only increase the value of your home and get the most out of your investment, but you’ll also make your home more beautiful, useful, and appealing for you and potential buyers in the future. Work one step at a time and watch the value of your home rise!
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Brianna Castillo
RE/MAX
Kristen Caswell
Ebby Halliday Realtors
Angela Cates
Ebby Halliday Realtors
Jennifer Cathcart
Sunny Graham Realty
Beth Caudill
eXp Realty, LLC
Kelly Cawyer
Engel & Völkers
Spencer Cearnal
Front Real Estate Co.
Jason Cech
Fathom Realty
Christina Chambliess
Times Two Realty Group
Alexander Chandler
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices
Jan Chavoya
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Jeff Cheney
Monument Realty
David Chicotsky
Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s
International Realty
Srinivas Chidurala
Citiwide Alliance Realty
Jean Christenberry
Keller Williams
Terri Christian
Keller Williams
James Cianelli
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Dennis Ciani
Pacesetter Homes
Benjamin Clark
Keller Williams
Laiken Clayton
Horton Neely Realtors, LLC
Robert Clayton
Clayton and Clayton Real Estate
Nicole Clifton
League Real Estate
Kimberly Coatney
Ebby Halliday Realtors
Michele Colafrancesco
The Ashton Agency
Anthony Coleman
NB Elite Realty
Chad Collins
JPAR
Jill Collins
JPAR
Rusty Collins
Collins Real Estate Group
Ryan Collinsworth
Keller Williams
Rena Connors
Ebby Halliday Realtors
April Contreras
Coldwell Banker
Jonathan Cook
Keller Williams
Susan Cook
Williams Trew Real Estate
Lane Cooper
Keller Williams
Sandy Cotton
Ebby Halliday Realtors
Bob Cowan
Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s
International Realty
Cheryl Crawford
Sophie Tel Diaz Real Estate
Marsha Crawford
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Matthew Crites
Coldwell Banker
Jenevieve Croall
JLUX Homes Realty Group
Sharon Crockett
Williams Trew Real Estate
Brad Crouch
Engel & Völkers
Bradley Crouch
Engel & Völkers
Desirae Cruz
SuKaza Realty
Michael Cunningham
Ebby Halliday Realtors
Susan Daniels
Ebby Halliday Realtors
Christina Danner
Storybook Realty LLC
Sunny Darden
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Darin Davis
Keller Williams
Jordan Davis
Keller Williams
Karla Davis
Fathom Realty
Kim Davis
Keller Williams
Rebecca Davis
Ebby Halliday Realtors
Shirley Davis
Shirley Boulter Davis Realtors
Mandie Dealey
Allie Beth Allman & Associates
Elizabeth Deane
TDT Realtors
Stuart Deane
TDT Realtors
Christie Deaton
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices
Melinda Deckert
Burt Ladner Real Estate
Connie Deering
Keller Williams
Lorinda DeGiovanni
Coldwell Banker
Andres Delgado
Orchard
Kendall Deller
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Sam Demel
Burt Ladner Real Estate
Mike Dennis
Keller Williams
Nancy Dennis
Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Realty
Martha Dever RE/MAX
David DeVries RE/MAX
Dillon Dewald
League Real Estate
Sophie Diaz
Sophie Tel Diaz Real Estate
Lorinda Digiovanni
Coldwell Banker
Kyle Dodd
Southern Collective Realty
Tanika Donnell
TDRealty
Danielle Doty
TK Realty
Sara Drehobl
League Real Estate
Kristen Ducat
KLT Real Estate LLC
Alondra Duran
Monument Realty
Gaby Duran
Duran & Co. Realty Group, LLC
Katie Durham
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Ida Duwe-Olsen
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Tommy Dyer
Coldwell Banker
Nanette Ecklund-Luker
Allie Beth Allman & Associates
Lynne Eller
Williams Trew Real Estate
Jason Ellerbusch
eXp Realty, LLC
Maggie Ellig
Keller Williams
Lisa Ellis
Keller Williams
Jared English
Congress Realty, Inc.
Ryan Enos
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Curt Erwin, Jr.
eXp Realty, LLC
Brandee Escalante
eXp Realty, LLC
Omar Escalante
RE/MAX
Lisa Escue
Escue Real Estate
Fernando Espinoza
Keller Williams
Stacy Faivre
Coldwell Banker
Nadia Fakih
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Danielle Farr
Keller Williams
Laura Fauntleroy
Williams Trew Real Estate
Andy Feekes
RE/MAX
Stacey Feltman
Ebby Halliday Realtors
Parker Fentriss
Ebby Halliday Realtors
Claudia Fernandez
SuKaza Realty
Sabrina Fernando
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices
Heidi Ferrell
JPAR
Sanford Finkelstein
Fort Worth Property Group
Brooke Finnigan
Jones-Papadopoulos & Co
Brittany Fish
RJ Williams & Company Real Estate LLC
Susie Fitzgerald
Keller Williams
Veronica Fleury
Keller Williams
Cory Flowers
Allie Beth Allman & Associates
Jill Fochesato
CENTURY 21
Linda Fogle
Ebby Halliday Realtors
Danny Force
Keller Williams
Steve Fortner
RE/MAX
Lori Fowler
Charitable Realty, LLC
Seth Fowler
Williams Trew Real Estate
Tomie Fox
Tomie Fox Real Estate Group
Jennifer Frank
CENTURY 21
Tod Franklin
DFW City Homes
Ben Frederick
Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Realty
Felicia Barber
With over 390 transactions closed, she has a strong focus on building long-lasting relationships based on trust, integrity and professionalism. She has spent most of her career listening to customers – searching beyond the words they say, and digging into their true needs.
Connect with Felicia via her QR code or email her directly at felicia.barber@redfin.com
Robin Glaysher
With over 300 transactions closed, she is a bilingual Spanish-speaking agent and has been welcomed into thousands of diverse homes around the greater North Texas area to provide her real estate expertise and advice. She strives to keep her finger on the pulse of the latest market statistics, trends and matters influencing real estate in our area.
Connect with Robin via her QR code or email her directly at robin.glaysher@redfin.com
Laura Friend
CENTURY 21
Stacy Fritchen
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices
Kathy Fuller
Fathom Realty
Joe Funari
CENTURY 21
Christian Fussell
League Real Estate
Elia Garces
Keller Williams
Lillianne Garcia
Lilly Garcia Realtors
Ron Garcia
RJ Williams & Company Real Estate
LLC
Kim Gardner
Keller Williams
Steven Gary
Orchard
Nancy Garza
JPAR
Beth Gaskill
Keller Williams
Roslyn Gauntt
CENTURY 21
Amanda Geho
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices
Troy George
Synergy Realty
Shenouda Ghali
Keller Williams
Reza Ghanbarpour
Home & Fifth Realty
Becky Gibson
CENTURY 21
Rebekah Gilbert
CENTURY 21
Susan Gilchrest
Ebby Halliday Realtors
Cindy Giles
Keller Williams
Kam Gill
Ebby Halliday Realtors
Whitney Gillaspie
League Real Estate
John Giordano
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Basanta Giri
Ready Real Estate
Robin Glaysher
Redfin Corporation
Elizabeth Gleason
Rogers Healy and Associates Real
Estate
James Glynn
JG Real Estate, LLC
Sergio Gomez
Orchard
Dennys Gonzalez
Keller Williams
Marla Goode
Pender Blake Group
Sesha Gorantla
Sun Star Realty
Jacque Gordon
Keller Williams
Nancy Granby
Redfin Corporation
Julie Gray
Ebby Halliday Realtors
Marty Gray
Real Estate By Pat Gray
Teri Gray
Coldwell Banker
Megan Green
Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s
International Realty
Shelley Green
League Real Estate
Tony Green
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Curtis Greene
Post Oak Realty
Paulette Greene
Ebby Halliday Realtors
Ashley Griggs
The Real Estate Station
Shari Guess
Scottco Realty Group
Sarah Gunnip
CENTURY 21
Elyse Guthrie
Keller Williams
Stephanie Gutierrez
Reside Real Estate LLC
Cameron Haase
Open House Texas Realty &
Investments LLC
Eric Hacker
Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s
International Realty
Leeanne Hackney
Keller Williams
Sha Hair
Sophie Tel Diaz Real Estate
Chase Hall
Chase Realty DFW
Chris Hall
Keller Williams
Dani Hampton
Real Broker, LLC
Jason Hanson
Orchard
Leeza Hanson
Redfin Corporation
Melissa Hardy
Middleton Group Realty
Sarah Hardy
Engel & Völkers
Daniel Harker
Keller Williams
Toie Harp
Coldwell Banker
Gwendolyn Harper
Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s
International Realty
Ken Harrell
Weichert Realtors
Jenna Harris
JPAR
Keely Harris
eXp Realty, LLC
Ashley Hart
Keller Williams
Christy Hart
Coldwell Banker
Heath Hartman
Redfin Corporation
Sean Hassard
CENTURY 21
Janaé Hausman
Monument Realty
Michael Hedtke
The Michael Group Real Estate
Bill Helton
LPT Realty
Bonnie Hennum
Ebby Halliday Realtors
Jesus Hernandez
eXp Realty, LLC
Michael Hershenberg
Real Broker, LLC
Amy Herzog
CENTURY 21
Deanna Hill
Phelps Realty Group
Mona Hill
eXp Realty, LLC
Nikki Hill
Fathom Realty
Rachael Hill
Coldwell Banker
Stefani Hill
League Real Estate
Teresa Hill
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices
Carrie Himel
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Katie Hines
CENTURY 21
Danny Hodges
RE/MAX
Sharon Hodnett
Keller Williams
Brian Holland
Fort Worth Focused Real Estate
Jennifer Holland
Williams Trew Real Estate
Kristen Holle
Keller Williams
Jeff Hollingsworth
Keller Williams
Mindy Holloway
Clark Real Estate Group
Dan Holmes
Engel & Völkers
Lee Holtzman
RE/MAX
Angela Hornburg
One West Real Estate
Christopher Hottel
Offerpad Brokerage, LLC
Joanna Housewright
Coldwell Banker
Carlee Howard
Rafter H Realty LLC
Haley Howard RE/MAX
Wendy Howard
Keller Williams
Meiqin Huang
DFW Megan Realty
Erika Hudson
Reside Real Estate LLC
Pam Hudson Peak Point Real Estate
Renee Hudson RE/MAX
Will Huffman
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Kacey Huggins
Keller Williams
Cassandra Hughes Engel & Völkers
Gavin Hughes
Coldwell Banker
Jill Hughes
Keller Williams
Debbie Hunn
Williams Trew Real Estate
Melanie Hunt
CENTURY 21
Kim Hunter
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Corrine Hyman
Williams Trew Real Estate
Saman Ilangasinghe
Texas Properties
Mary Ann Izzarelli
Ebby Halliday Realtors
Adrian Jacobs
Douglas Elliman Real Estate
Lori Jacobson
The Legacy Group
Zahra Jalaluddin
eXp Realty, LLC
Linda Jeffery
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Rene Jensen
Lonestar Luxury Realty, LLC
Aaron Jistel
Listing Spark
Clifton Johnson
eXp Realty, LLC
Debra Ann Johnson
Stafford Team Real Estate
Denise Johnson
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Shannon Johnson
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Xu Johnson
CENTURY 21
Ally Jolly
CENTURY 21
Brittany Jones
Ebby Halliday Realtors
Julieanne Jones
Redfin Corporation
Kali Jones
Cultivate Real Estate
Lori Jones
Keller Williams
Sarah Jones
Jones-Papadopoulos & Co
Steven Jones
Williams Trew Real Estate
Jenny Jordan
Keller Williams
Tierny Jordan
eXp Realty, LLC
Cerissa Jornod
Keller Williams
Elsa Kackley
Keller Williams
Marisa Kahley
Coldwell Banker
Steve Kahn
CENTURY 21
Chinenye Shulamite Kalu
JPAR
Joanie Karas
CENTURY 21
Starla Karlis
Better Homes and Gardens Real
Estate
Alden Karotkin
Burt Ladner Real Estate
Josiah Keas
League Real Estate
Sara Keleher
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Laurie Kelfer
Coldwell Banker
Brandee Kelley
Keller Williams
Ana Kelly
Keller Williams
Laura Kelly
Burt Ladner Real Estate
James Keoughan
Allie Beth Allman & Associates
Sharon Ketko
Sharon Ketko Realty
Kathy Kiefer
Keller Williams
Jeanenne Kienle
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices
Scott Killian
Scott Real Estate, Inc.
DeAnna King
Coldwell Banker
Heather Kingston
Cates & Company Real Estate
Aaron Kinn
eXp Realty, LLC
Cassady Kirk
Railhead Realty, LLC
Cassandra Knight
Citiwide Alliance Realty
Debbie Knox
Pyron Team Realty
Ginger Trimble Knox
Ginger & Associates, LLC - Real
Estate Group
Lucy Knox
Keller Williams
Andre Kocher
Keller Williams
Ram Konara
ReKonnection, LLC
Brittney Kosev
BK Real Estate
Tyler Kreis
TK Realty
Jake Kronshage
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Cerelle Kuecker
Coldwell Banker
Frances Kwan
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Jenny Kwon
CENTURY 21
Cheryl Kypreos
Central Metro Realty
Angela LaBounty
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Justin Lackey
Dynamic Real Estate Group
Kathy Lakatta
Ebby Halliday Realtors
Denise Lamanna
McKinnon Real Estate
Clarke Landry
Allie Beth Allman & Associates
Tanya Lang
Real Broker, LLC
Tony Langdon
David Elkins Real Estate
Thomas Langley
The Bauer Group, LLC
Mary Lanier RE/MAX
Kathy Lanpher
Williams Trew Real Estate
Susan Larrabee
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices
Jamie Lasuzzo-Cook
Post Oak Realty
Erica Lawrence
Keller Williams
Don Lawyer
eXp Realty, LLC
Robby Lebus
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Paul Leddy Orchard
Casey Lee
New Star Realty and Investments
Jaci Lee
Opendoor Texas Brokerage, LLC
Sonia Leonard
RE/MAX
Stacey Leslie
eXp Realty, LLC
Sheena Less
Front Real Estate Co.
Adam Lile
Monument Realty
Jake Link
Link Properties
Leah Littenberg
Fine Point Homes Real Estate
Nancy Lohman
Williams Trew Real Estate
Adrean Lopez
NextHome Integrity Group
Daisy Lopez
Move-Up America, LLC
Jonathan Lopez
NextHome Integrity Group
Kay Lopez
Keller Williams
Kaitlin Lovern
eXp Realty, LLC
Jared Lucier
Parker Properties
Diane Luckey
CENTURY 21
Kaki Lybbert
CENTURY 21
Sarah Lyons
CENTURY 21
Krishna Madhireddy
ReKonnection, LLC
Ruja Maka
DHS Realty
April Maki
Brightland Homes
Irfan Malik
Keller Williams
Ananth Mallavarapu
Mersal Realty
Chrissy Mallouf
Keller Williams
Jack Mallouf
Ebby Halliday Realtors
Mike Mannion
Keller Williams
Kelly Marcontell
Ebby Halliday Realtors
Jay Marks
Real Broker, LLC
Michelle Martin
JPAR
Shana Martin
Martin Realty Group
Shawna Martinez
Real Broker, LLC
Maria Mason
Camino Real Estate
Theresa Mason
Magnolia Realty
Susan Mathews
Allie Beth Allman & Associates
Toni Mauldin
Slate Real Estate
Susan Mayer
Ebby Halliday Realtors
Lori Mayo
CENTURY 21
Sharon Mcbee
Silversage Realty
Denise McCormick
Allie Beth Allman & Associates
Monica McCormick
Redfin Corporation
Cary McCoy
Ebby Halliday Realtors
Melissa McCoy
It’s Closing Time Realty
Terri McCoy
Keller Williams
Dillon McDonald
The Wall Team Realty Associates
Kirk McDonald
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Sharmy McDonald
Keller Williams
Danny McElroy
McElroy Team Realty
Ashlee McGhee
Keller Williams
Patrick McGrath
Meritage Homes Realty
Keela McGraw Front Real Estate Co.
John McGuire
Clark Real Estate Group
Brad McKissack
Keller Williams
Jack McLemore
Listing Results, LLC
Leonard McManaman
Keller Williams
Micaela Mead
Reside Real Estate LLC
Jennifer Medkief
eXp Realty, LLC
Tammy Melendez
The Melendez Real Estate Group LLC
Silvia Mendes
Engel & Völkers
Aylin Mendiola
Elite Real Estate Texas
Araceli Mercado
CENTURY 21
Ali Merchant
Merchant Realty Group
Femina Merchant
DFW Realty & Mortgage Group
Nancy Messiha
eXp Realty, LLC
Kimberly Meyer
Coldwell Banker
Katherine Meyers
Coldwell Banker
Sharon Michael
DFW Elite Realty
Patricia Mihanda
Keller Williams
Andrea Miller
Keller Williams
Kim Miller
Keller Williams
Landen Miller
CENTURY 21
Robert Miller
OnDemand Realty
Josh Mills
Relo Radar
Ara Minassian
Star Realty
Chris Minteer
Keller Williams
Lori Mira
Keller Williams
Congratulations to our LEAGUE agents honored by Fort Worth Magazine as Top REALTORS® in the $8M and above category! We're here for you and #ReadyToServe
Sara Drehobl Erin Isaac Stefani Hill Cynthia Buck
Heather Teems Devon & Alberto Reyes
pictured: Sarah Webb
Not
Irene Mochulsky
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Saima Mohammed
Fathom Realty
Michelle Montemayor
Keller Williams
Bobbie Moody
Domicile Brokerage LLC
Tyler Moody
RE/MAX
Andria Moore
CENTURY 21
Carley Moore
League Real Estate
DeeAnn Moore
Moore Real Estate
Lily Moore
Lily Moore Realty
Lorraina Moore
Monument Realty
Perry Moore
Allie Beth Allman & Associates
Robert Moore
RJMoore Realty Inc
Wynne Moore
Allie Beth Allman & Associates
Ashley Mooring
Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Realty
Donna Morgan
Sarah Boyd & Company
Rachel Morton
Keller Williams
Ann Motheral
Coldwell Banker
Tina Mounts
Coldwell Banker
Rachel Moussa
Keller Williams
Gina Mullen
Keller Williams
Daniel Murphy
RE/MAX
Erin Murphy
Parker Properties
Richae Murphy
Keller Williams
Sherri Murphy
Coldwell Banker
Stefany Nau
Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Realty
Jill Nelson
Coldwell Banker
Kelly Nelson
Williams Trew Real Estate
William Nelson
Your Home Free LLC
Michele Nemecek
Keller Williams
Tyler New
Keller Williams
Everette Newland
Newland Real Estate
Kari Newton
Parker Properties
Dan Nicoloff
Engel & Völkers
Madison Niles
Niles Realty Group
Mark Nolan
Coldwell Banker
Richard Noon
Keller Williams
Lucy Noonan
Synergy Realty
Jason Northcutt
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Cindy O’Gorman
Ebby Halliday Realtors
Sallianne O’Neal
Irick Real Estate
Judy Oaks
Coldwell Banker
Holly Oestereich
Keller Williams
Ted Olsen
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Debbie Ozee
Fathom Realty
Sarah Padgett
CENTURY 21
Ryan Pafford
Points West Agency
Eric Painter
Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Realty
Colin Pair
Keller Williams
Dani Palmer Orchard
Eric Pangle
Great Western Realty
Ashley Pantuso
Keller Williams
Barbara Pantuso
Keller Williams
John Papadopoulos
Jones-Papadopoulos & Co
Piper Pardue
Williams Trew Real Estate
April Parker RE/MAX
Frank Parli
Ultima Real Estate
Debbie Patterson Realty Executives
Mey-Ling Pauri
Ultima Real Estate
Aubrey Pearson
Keller Williams
Tonya Peek
Coldwell Banker
Tommy Pennington
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Curtis Petersen
INC Realty, LLC
Amanda Peterson
Orchard
Linda Peterson
CENTURY 21
Sahar Pezeshki
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Megan Phelps
Phelps Realty Group
Mark Philpot
League Real Estate
Missy Phipps
Keller Williams
Ananda Phuyal
Beam Real Estate, LLC
Erin Pickard
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Alisa Piedlau
Luxury Home Realtors
Rusty Pierce RE/MAX
Sarah Pierce
Ebby Halliday Realtors
Tommy Pistana
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Travis Plumb eXp Realty, LLC
Prarthana Pandey Pokhrel
Vastu Realty Inc
Tabatha Polley
Keller Williams
John Pollock RE/MAX
Edwena Potter
Keller Williams
Greg Potts
Compass RE Texas, LLC
John Prell
Creekview Realty
Emily Preston
Stryve Realty
Jill Price
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Tracey Pritchard
Tracey Pritchard Real Estate Group
Jackie Prowse
Williams Trew Real Estate
Angelo Puma
Keller Williams
Rachael Purcell
Redfin Corporation
Doreen Puzon
Keller Williams
Spalding Pyron
Pyron Team Realty
Corrine Hyman Quast
Williams Trew Real Estate
Chris Quick
Coldwell Banker
Lisa Quinn
Ebby Halliday Realtors
Feras Rachid
Opendoor Texas Brokerage, LLC
Jimmy Rado
David Weekley Homes
Selvaraju Ramaswamy
All City Real Estate
Fernando Ramsey
CENTURY 21
Rustin Randall
Main Street Renewal LLC
Michelle Rawls
Keller Williams
Melissa Reaves
Keller Williams
Sharon Redd
Ebby Halliday Realtors
Kimberly Reding
Magnolia Realty
Gaye Reed
Coldwell Banker
Cyndi Reep
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices
Chris Reeves
Trinity Group Realty
Mary Ruth Reeves
The Wall Team Realty Associates
Stephen Reich
Williams Trew Real Estate
Chip Reid
Ebby Halliday Realtors
Kristi Reinertsen
Coldwell Banker
Boo Reitz
EXIT Realty Elite
Alberto Reyes
League Real Estate
Devon Reyes
League Real Estate
Jeana Reyes
Opendoor Texas Brokerage, LLC
Kevin Rhodes
Keller Williams
Russell Rhodes
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices
Susan Rickert
CENTURY 21
Anastasia Riley
Coldwell Banker
Cami Hobbs Riley
Keller Williams
Rebecca Ringer
The Street Real Estate Co.
Jessie Rittenhouse-Totherow
CENTURY 21
Bill Roberds
Roberds Realty Advisors, Inc.
Debbie Roberts
Keller Williams
Rachel Robertson
The Mosaic Agency, LLC
Tom Robertson
CENTURY 21
Donna Robichaux
Ebby Halliday Realtors
Dona Robinson
Allie Beth Allman & Associates
Tara Roden
Fathom Realty
Angie Rodgers
Halo Group Realty LLC
Joseph Romero
Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Realty
Debbi Rousey
CENTURY 21
Jo Ann Royer
Williams Trew Real Estate
Carol Russo
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Amy Rutledge
Rutledge Realty Group LLC
Chase Rutledge
Rutledge Realty Group LLC
Amanda Ryan
Keller Williams
Jollete Ryon
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Maribel Saldivar
Universal Realty Texas
Dave Salisbury
The Real Estate Station
Robert Salmons
Entera Realty LLC
Cassie Samons
Samons Real Estate LLC
Jason Samons
TruHome Real Estate
Melissa Sanches
CENTURY 21
Hector Sanchez
Opendoor Texas Brokerage, LLC
Rob Sandefur
eXp Realty, LLC
Sheri Sanders
Monument Realty
John Santasiero
Riverway Properties
Stacey E. Sauer
Keller Williams
Trish Scates
Keller Williams
Adrienne Schatzline
Jason Mitchell Real Estate
John Schepps
Keller Williams
Tom Schneider
Keller Williams
Jollete Ryon Schoeve
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Bridger Seay
Village Homes
Stephanie Seay
Keller Williams
Brian Seets
Coldwell Banker
Connie Segovia
Monument Realty
Leanna Sellars
Keller Williams
Jasmine Sellers
House Brokerage
Peter Shaddock
Shaddock Homes
Swapnil Sharma
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Harrison Sharp
BK Real Estate
Heather Shimala
Reserve 76 Realty
Aaron Shockey
Rogers Healy and Associates Real
Estate
Chris Shortino
Engel & Völkers
Sagun “Sam” Shrestha
Keller Williams
Shyam Shrestha
Vastu Realty Inc
Maria Diaz Sierra
Keller Williams
Stephanie Simmons
Fathom Realty
Alan Simonton
Knob & Key Realty
Jagjit Singh
Gatewood Real Estate and Development
Nav Singh
Signature Real Estate Group
Paul Singh JPAR
Lori Slocum Coldwell Banker
DeWayne Smart
Smart Realty
Rosie Smelcer
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Chad Smith
eXp Realty, LLC
Jared Smith
Keller Williams
Jeff Smith
CENTURY 21
Jeremy Smith
eXp Realty, LLC
Jill M. Smith
Ebby Halliday Realtors
Reecinda Smith
Coldwell Banker
Elle Snodgrass
League Real Estate
Stan Sokolowski
Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate
Michael Song
Texas Legacy Realty
Laura Spann
Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Realty
Sabrina Sparkman
Coldwell Banker
Cassie Spears
eXp Realty, LLC
Beverly Spillyards
Ebby Halliday Realtors
Amy Spock
Real Broker, LLC
Joshua Sprague
Monument Realty
Brian St. Clair
6th Ave Homes
John Staab
Motive Real Estate Group
Dan Stafford
RE/MAX
Cheryl Staley
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Eric Stanley
Bright Realty
Tara Stark
Keller Williams
Missy Starling
Coldwell Banker
Dane Steinhagen
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Beth Steinke
CENTURY 21
Heather Stevens
SLCT Label Realty
Brittany Stewart
eXp Realty, LLC
Kolby Stewart
The Ashton Agency
Jana Stidman
Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s
International Realty
Ethan Stone
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Rozi Stone
Williams Trew Real Estate
Carol Holloway Stoneham
CENTURY 21
Kaci Strawn
Burt Ladner Real Estate
Scott Strotz
JPAR
Lesa Stuart
Ebby Halliday Realtors
Ryan Studdard
Oak + Ash Realty
Amber Sustala
Williams Trew Real Estate
Michael Sweigart
Opendoor Texas Brokerage, LLC
Bryson Swiggart
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Chaz Swint
Keller Williams
Chelsie Synatschk
Fort Worth Focused Real Estate
Ben Tackett
Monument Realty
Pam Taeckens
Coldwell Banker
Angela Taylor
Keller Williams
Jayme Taylor
League Real Estate
Jerry Taylor
Williams Trew Real Estate
Kim Taylor
KTREG Real Estate
Lance Taylor
Keller Williams
Melody Taylor
Coldwell Banker
Roxann Taylor
Engel & Völkers
Travis Taylor
Compass RE Texas, LLC
Heather Teems
League Real Estate
Nick Termini
CENTURY 21
Madhu Thakkalpalli
ReKonnection, LLC
Lalit Thakkar
Fathom Realty
Quan Thang
CENTURY 21
Surya Thapa Vastu Realty Inc
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LOCAL EATS AND RESTAURANT NEWS
DINING
Cheers to the arrival of a new location of Delucca Gaucho Pizza & Wine, now open in Fort Worth’s buzzy Alliance area. This upscale pizzeria offers a unique all-you-caneat menu of imaginative pizzas.
by Malcolm Mayhew
A Real Treasure
A family-owned Mexican restaurant called Tesoro is helping bring new life — and new diners — to Riverside’s Race Street area
In order to dine at Tesoro, which, at the moment, is one of the most popular restaurants in Fort Worth, you’ll need a bit of luck — and a lot of patience.
This tiny Mexican breakfast and lunch restaurant on Race Street, whose name translates to “treasure,” is usually jam-packed. Of course, it doesn’t take much to pack it. Only about eight people can fit inside the 400-square-foot dining room; another 20 or so can sit comfortably in the festively decorated patio area. Space is such a valuable asset here, the host stand where diners check in is located outside on the sidewalk.
That’s typically where you can find general manager Melissa Camarillo, a wonder woman who alternates between seating people, running food, filling water glasses, and telling diners it may be an hour before a table is available.
Camarillo says the restaurant’s popularity has much to do with social media, especially TikTok and Instagram. Some of their food posts, she says, have gone viral, leading to a surge in popularity. Despite being only a few months old, the restaurant has already gained nearly 11,000 followers on Instagram alone.
“Social media has played a big role in why people know about us,” she says. “We want the food to taste good, but we put as much thought into how the food looks and how it’s presented. A lot of restaurants like ours that can’t really afford to advertise depend on social media to spread the word.”
Tesoro’s small menu goes against the grain of your typical Mexican restaurant, focusing on unique dishes aimed at both breakfast and lunch crowds.
There are three varieties of chilaquiles (the OG version, made with green and red salsas and topped with pulled chicken is outstanding); a breakfast burger topped with bacon and eggs; artfully presented pancakes crisscrossed with chocolate streaks and topped with berry compote and Gansito Mexican candy; and
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their signature dish, birriaquiles, a plate of crispy tortilla chips topped with birria beef stew, salsa, beans, cheese, sour cream, and cilantro.
Weekend specials include menudo and chicken tamales, the latter of which are available two ways: on a traditional combo plate with rice and beans and in a tamale bowl or guajolotero, in which they’re served over a bed of refried beans, cheese, tortilla chips, and your choice of cabbage salad or pico de gallo.
“Guajolotero is a traditional Mexican dish that you don’t really see around here,” Camarillo says. “It’s like a tamale over a plate of chilaquiles.”
Tesoro may eventually expand to dinner, Camarillo says. But for now, breakfast and lunch service is keeping the young and energetic staff busy and the restaurant full.
“One day, maybe,” she says. “But that’s down the road. Right now, we’re just learning as we go and hoping people will be patient with us.” 2919RaceSt.,instagram.com/tesoromexican
Race Street’s Restaurant Redux
Not long after many of the restaurants on Race Street closed this and last year, practically simultaneously, others have risen in their places. Here’s a look at Race Street’s other recent restaurant arrivals:
Tropic Lady: This new tropical paradiseinspired spot comes from the same team that opened the immensely popular Bearded Lady in the Near Southside area. True to its name, the restaurant, which takes over the old Fuzzy’s Tacos space, offers an easy, breezy menu of freshly made cocktails and mocktails and bites both large and small, all served in a super laidback atmosphere meant to conjure beach vibes. Eats include mango guacamole, plantain tacos, a blackened shrimp salad, jalapeno cream soup and a smashburger topped with grilled pineapple. A hibiscus margarita and coconut cream rumchata are cocktail list highlights while non-boozers can enjoy the Dango Jr., a concoction of mango puree, lime juice, chamoy and root beer. Great patio, too. 2719RaceSt., tropicladyfw.com
Kingyo Sushi & Ramen House: Ramen, sushi and other staples of Japanese cuisine have come to Race Street, courtesy of this new concept from Pung Aung, a Burmese-born chef who ran a similar restaurant in Watauga before he made the jump to Fort Worth earlier this year. Taking over the cozy bungalow occupied by Tributary Cafe, Kingyo offers nearly a dozen varieties of ramen in flavors both common and not, from tonkotsu to poke, the latter of which is punctuated with poke-style salmon, tuna, avocado, cucumber and crab stick. There’s an extensive sushi and sashimi menu, along with some classic Chinese dishes, like beef lo mein and chicken fried rice. kingyoshushiandramenhouse.com
Dough’d Up: The quaint bungalow that once housed Gypsy Scoops and La Onda was taken over last year by this unique doughnut shop. Dough’d Up owner Madyson Foy specializes in decadent-sounding doughnuts that may actually be a little easier on your health and waistlines than normal doughnuts. To make theirs, she and partner Payden McVea use sugar free ingredients, oat milk, and gluten-free oats, in an effort to be more health aware. The couple also make their own cookie dough, in flavors such as Brownie Batter and Cake Pop, utilizing similar health-conscious ingredients. 2905Race St.,doughdup.com
Tesoro’s tiny dining room.
Tesoro’s signature birriaquiles.
Chilaquiles divorciados with red and green salsas.
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by Malcolm Mayhew
Small Town, Big Flavors
The popular farm-to-table restaurant Oma Leen’s has reopened in a beautifully restored 19th-century building in the tiny town of Hico. It’s worth the drive.
Four years ago, Texas diners were introduced to an unusual farm-totable restaurant that defied all the hallmarks of a farm-to-table restaurant.
Oma Leen’s opened in 2020 in Walnut Springs, a pindot of a town — found about 90 minutes southwest of Fort Worth on Highway 144 in Bosque County — with a population of, maybe, 1,000. No slight to these fine residents, but Walnut Springs isn’t exactly known for its culinary scene.
Perhaps even more interesting than the restaurant’s location was the story of those who made the superb food: that of owners Austin and Shannon Odom, a young couple — kids, really — who fell in love with food, then each other. As we documented in a 2021 profile, the two met at Tarleton State, then dropped out to pursue careers in the food industry, first with a food-prep business, then with their ambitious restaurant, which served trout almondine in a lemon beurre blanc; handmade pastas such as pappardelle; grilled yellow squash with salsa macha; and a Niman Ranch pork chop whose T. rex-size bone towered over sage and jasmine rice. Their food didn’t look or taste like it came from the hands of 25-year-olds.
After establishing themselves in Walnut Springs, the pair decided to move Oma Leen’s closer to their home in Hico, where it recently reopened in a gloriously rehabbed
19th-century general store. As was the case in Walnut Springs, there’s nothing in town like it; for the Odoms, that’s the appeal.
“Even with the first restaurant, we thought about opening in a larger city like Fort Worth,” Austin says. “But the fact that you don’t normally see farm-to-table restaurants in small towns, for us that’s a good thing. People here who might enjoy that type of food don’t have to drive to a bigger city, and people from a bigger city might like the drive to Hico, to get away from everything and still have a nice meal in a cool setting.”
Part of the thrill of dining at Oma Leen’s is not knowing what dishes will be available. The Odoms change their menu frequently, and while they don’t post their menus on their website, they do post images of some of the available dishes on Instagram and Facebook. Lately, those dishes have included rabbit tagliatelle; a monstrous, 18-ounce rib-eye with cold smoked butter and pomme — their version of steak frites; Korean BBQ-inspired chicken wings fried in beef tallow; and eggrolls stuffed with venison sausage.
Even seemingly innocuous dishes have elevated touches. Buttermilk biscuits come with housemade strawberry and thyme compote, while the artichoke dip is served with freshly made naan bread. Chicken and pasta, maybe the
restaurant’s most popular dish, is comprised of thick ribbons of housemade pappardelle, roasted basil cream, pistachios, parmigiana, and pan-roasted chicken breast — a mishmash of flavors that come together beautifully.
“We’ve learned a lot over the past few years,” Austin says with a laugh. “By trial and error, basically. But I think we’ve gotten better at developing flavors out of ingredients that might not seem to go together. That’s the fun part of all this, learning what doesn’t work and what does.”
The historic building where Oma Leen’s now resides has mostly been kept intact. Many of the updates were behind the scenes — new plumbing, new electric, adding an open kitchen. They barely touched the building’s limestone skeleton; the hardwoods still creak as you walk across them.
The centerpiece of the room is a 19th-century, hand-carved Brunswick bar, which Austin says comes from Dodge City, Kansas. Yes, Dodge City, famous for its Old West tales and lore.
“It came from an actual saloon in the Old West,” he says, adding it spent time on display at a museum dedicated to Gene Autry memorabilia. “I can only imagine the stories it could tell. I’m sure it’s been on quite a journey.”
Shannon Odom has been on an unusual journey herself. She recently traveled to Puglia, Italy, to compete on a new Food Network competitive cooking reality show called “Ciao House.” The show was scheduled to premiere May 19; at press time, she couldn’t talk about her time on the show. Most reality shows require participants to sign nondisclosure agreements.
“It has been a crazy few months, to say the least,” Austin says. “Food has really taken us on this unimaginable journey. And I feel like we’re just getting started.”
by Malcolm Mayhew
Divide and Conquer
A food trailer that serves a half-and-half combo of cuisines definitely lives up to its clever name.
In more ways than one, few eateries live up to their names as much as the Fifty Fifty Food Trailer, a locally owned, chef-driven sandwich truck you can find roving through Fort Worth and beyond.
The menu, for starters, is evenly divided between three vegan and three non-vegan sandwiches. On any given day, for instance, carnivores can
indulge in a terrific Italian beef, while those craving vegan options can, and should, go with the honey shroom, a sandwich filled with fried mushrooms, dill slaw, pickles, and honey tinged with a touch of spice.
Intentionally or not, the name also describes those who run Fifty Fifty: locals Justin Brewer and his mother
Dana. Mom’s the face of the truck, the one up front describing the food, taking the orders, delivering the sandwiches to waiting customers.
A graduate of Fort Worth Culinary School, Justin, meanwhile, is the executive chef. He cooks and prepares his sandwiches with a health-conscious and farm-to-trailer aesthetic in mind, as he utilizes local, organic, and minimally processed ingredients whenever and wherever he can.
In addition to the Italian beef, the carnivore side of the menu often includes a bacon caprese sandwich, an addicting mashup of bacon, mozzarella, tomato, and basil, and a chicken parm sandwich smeared with a house pesto.
On the vegan side, the honey shroom is in good company with a meatless burger, whose patty is made with falafel, and a vegan rendition of a Philly cheesesteak, topped with marinated mushrooms, caramelized onions, green peppers, and queso made with raw and organic cashews.
All sandwiches come with an order of stellar fries — thick, crispy, and perfectly seasoned.
Fifty Fifty has been a part of Fort Worth’s mobile restaurant circuit for almost two years. Before the trailer
Photos by Crystal Wise
Fifty Fifty’s bacon caprese sandwich.
Dana and Justin Brewer.
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launched in the fall of 2022, Justin spent time working in some of the city’s most well-known restaurants, including Shinjuku Station and Provender Hall.
That day-to-day grind of working in a traditional restaurant, however, led him to strike out on his own.
“The idea came when my family pushed me to leave restaurant work behind and do something for myself,” he says. The menu, too, was inspired by his family. “My mom and brother are vegan, but my father and I are not,” he says. “I consult with my mom and brother on vegan dishes and my father for anything related to smoked meats.”
Justin’s love of cooking started with his grandmother, Wanda, who taught him how to scramble eggs in an old-school Teflon pan. “From that point on, I was hooked,” he wrote on Fifty Fifty’s website.
In addition to the food trailer, Justin and Dana run a catering service called Brewer Hospitality. Their food truck schedule can be found on Instagram at instagram.com/fiftyfiftyfoodtrailer.
The Chowtown Lowdown
The culinary team behind the popular pop-up dinner club Magdalena’s will soon open their long-awaited tapas and cocktails concept. La Coqueta is on track to open this summer on the city’s north side, not far from where husband-wife duo Juan and Paige Rodriguez and chef Christopher Spradlin host their pop-ups. The group’s first brick-and-mortar venture will be housed at 1216 North Main St., in an 1,100-square-foot building that, since it went up in 1955, has been home to several cafes and bars, most recently the La Arboleda bar. Those familiar with Magdalena’s menu of Spanish/Mexican cuisine will dig what the trio will be doing at La Coqueta. The menu will feature a dozen rotating small plates, or tapas, along with Juan’s signature paella, a major hit at Magdalena’s and the Fort Worth Food + Wine Festival. Magdalena’s recently hosted a La Coqueta preview dinner, in which dishes from La Coqueta were served, such as grilled octopus with pickled potato, lemon aioli, and salsa brava; jamon serranowrapped dates; and burnt basque cheesecake with fresh figs. To drink, there will be Spanish wines, Latin-inspired craft cocktails, and specialty coffee drinks. lacoquetafw.com
Downtown’s Sheraton Hotel just wrapped a reno to the tune of about $50 mil - one of the largest hotel renos in the region, says a press release. In addition to revamping the rooms and event spaces, the hotel has unveiled an attractive new restaurant called West + Stone. Put together by the hotel’s Plano-based management team, Aimbridge Hospitality and its in-house culinary division Taste & Theory Restaurant Group, the menu is made up of dishes heavy on upscale Mexican/American, such as shrimp cocktail with tequila mango pico, steak tacos with lime-pickled slaw, and a flatbread with street corn and chorizo. In the lobby you’ll find a new bar, &More, that serves specialty cocktails and mocktails. 1701CommerceSt. Delucca Gaucho Pizza and Wine has opened a second Fort Worth location; this one’s at 9574 Sage Meadow Trail in the bustling Alliance area. For those unfamiliar with Delucca and its unique allyou-can-eat concept, this is how it works: Diners pay a fixed price, around $26, for bottomless slices of wood-fired oven pizza, delivered by roaming gauchos. The price also includes an arugula salad, lobster bisque, and housemade Kobe meatballs. Varieties of pizza include chicken tikka masala, vodka sauce and mushroom, classic pepperoni, and buffalo chicken; there are vegan and gluten-free options, too. The set price also includes all-you-can-eat slices of dessert pizzas. Among the flavors are dulce de leche and banana flambé. Individual pies are available, along with a new menu of bar bites. Delucca was founded by local couple Evandro Caregnato and Vanderleia Mallmann, who later sold the brand to Saddle Horn Concepts. There are now seven locations scattered throughout the state, including the Fort Worth location on Hulen Street, named one of the best new restaurants of ’21-’22 by this very magazine and this very writer, and a newly opened locale in Las Colinas. delucca.com
The brunch crowd has a new place to gather: Hash Kitchen, an Arizona-based concept, has opened a location in the Alliance area at 3240 Tracewood Way. This has to be the most over-the-top brunch place in FW, with dishes like cannoli doughnuts, fried pork chop hash, banana split pancakes, and bread pudding French toast sticks. I think this place just wants to kill me. hashkitchen.com
HOME
THE INSPIRING LIVING SPACES OF YOUR FELLOW FORT WORTHIANS
In the city’s historic Fairmount area, where rows and rows of veranda-clad bungalows dominate the scenery, there’s one home whose charming nuances just might outshine the rest.
SCHOOL HOUSE BUNGALOW
Schoolhouse Bungalow
One of the oldest homes in the Fairmount Historic District, this one-time schoolhouse has some remarkably modern twists.
By Brian Kendall Photos by Joseph Johnson
One of the first things that catches the eye when one enters this unique Fairmount bungalow are the 12-foot-tall ceilings, signaling a historic neighborhood home unlike any other.
The home of Rachael and Carlo Capua, this two-story bungalow went through several remodels in the 1950s before Near Southsidebased remodeler 6th Ave Homes brought it to its current, stunning state. While the modern features are no doubt jaw-dropping, the home's true surprises come thanks to its fascinating history as both a home and schoolhouse — old wallpaper from the era has even been salvaged and is on display.
With Rachael working in education and Carlo for the City of Fort Worth, we're tempted to say it's serendipitous the young couple reside in a home with such a history.
"I I think this house is a reminder that you can honor the past while making it your own present," Rachael says. "And, yes, it's very schoolhousey."
Bringing the outside is the main objective with the interior design. The deep greens and earthy tones juxtaposed by splashes of color provides a botanicalelement. And, as a nod to the home's history, the dining table is made entirely of wood taken from the house before the exterior was restored. .
A perfect lounging center for the backyard dweller. Rachael and Carlo planted two magnolia trees when when they moved in honor of Rachael's grandmother; it was her favorite flower.
The KitchenAid® FreeFlex™ Third Rack fits 6" glasses, mugs, bowls and cooking tools. Plus it’s the only third rack that cleans with two rotating wash jets. All without compromising space for larger items below.
Explore stunning imagery of remarkable local home projects. Each project’s unique character, craftsmanship, and vision are vividly showcased on the following pages for your inspiration. Dive into the world of design, architecture, finishes, fixtures, outdoor spaces, and more, where the beauty and inspiration behind each home are expertly captured. The information in this section is provided by the advertisers and has not been independently verified by Fort Worth Magazine.
Project Profile
The Kitchen Source Modern Elegance at the Lake
The client wished to bring a more contemporary and transitional feeling while keeping some of the original Mediterranean and oldworld architectural elements within the space. Marrying these two styles with different design elements allowed The Kitchen Source team to modernize the home while maintaining the original charm. Selecting a stained finish for the kitchen islands to complement the original stained finishes of the millwork throughout the rest of the home is one example of how this was achieved. From the variety of metals at the hood area, the base of the island, plumbing fixtures and hardware, to the mirrored stainless-steel doors incorporated into the cabinetry, a collaboration of metals gives
unique definition to each design element.
The natural stone material on the countertop was mitered on the island not only for the island sides to create architectural detailing but also seamlessly integrated into forming the prep sink. The outside face as well as the interior is fabricated in all stone material giving a striking seamless look. The floorplan of the first floor was redesigned with better flow and use of space. With the removal of existing headers and walls, the kitchen and dining space were opened to the most coveted view from inside the home, which is the lake. Sleek lines create the backdrop of this project with textural materials softening the space that makes it very inviting.
Elements of Design LLC
Traci Darden, Owner
The Tuscan Dream Home
From the moment you step foot on this property, you feel as if you are transported to the regions of Tuscany. The stone walls throughout, rich chestnut beams, splashes of green, and the live olive tree are nods to the elements found in Tuscan designs. This house contains all of the architectural flair of modern design combined with an open floor plan, lots of windows and light, while maintaining clean lines and smooth finishes. The hand-thrown tiles that were selected, along with porcelain and natural stone slabs throughout, create a warm and inviting home.
The Elements of Design team strives to develop a design plan that is livable and timeless — one that feels relaxing and welcomes you to put your feet up and enjoy a glass of wine at the end of the day.
Semmelmann Interiors
The Sting
Situated just off the study, this formal living room exudes allure. The floor to ceiling windows give way to unobstructed views of the blooming garden, hinting at a conservatory reminiscent of the 17th century. The room is brought to life by a menagerie of bold tones and textures and uses perfect symmetry to pull focus toward the artwork that hangs at the center. The curation of both modern and traditional design elements creates the ultimate setting for lively conversation at cocktail hour and fresh coffee in the sun-drenched morning light. Delivering a design aesthetic that truly feels like something we haven’t seen before, Semmelmann Interiors once again strikes the masterful balance between extravagant and storied design. They call this project The Sting.
Semmelmann Interiors
4374 West Vickery Blvd.
Fort Worth 76107
semmelmanninteriors.com/ fwmagazine
Heart Ball
American Heart Association
The Tarrant County Heart Ball was a dazzling celebration of life and of a future with health and hope for everyone, everywhere. Guests gave generously to the mission of the
American Heart Association, heard triumphant stories of child survivors of cardiovascular disease, honored local Heart Heroes, and danced the night away. The glamorous event,
chaired by Lauren East and Lauren Duke with honorary chairs Ben Rosenthal and Ashli Blumenfeld, was set amidst the elegance that is River Crest Country Club.
Kyle & Jen Riggs, Lauren Duke,Lauren East, Ashli Blumenfeld, Ben Rosenthal
Lola Catron, Amber & Jordan Massey
Lola Catron, Marcia Jacobs
Rozanne Rosenthal honoring the late Roz Rosenthal
Sainty Nelsen, Vincent Tam
photos by James Edward Photography
Official 2023 Dream Street Plumber for Brian Michael Distinctive Homes and Heritage Homes.
Butterfly Wishes a Wish with Wings
Butterfly Wishes, the signature fundraising event of a Wish with Wings, took place on May 3 in the Simmons Pavilion at Dickies Arena. Around 450 guests enjoyed a fun-filled evening, complete with a delicious multicourse buffet and live entertainment by DadRock featuring Josh Weathers.
The event raised a record-breaking amount of over $450,000. All proceeds will go toward the organization’s ongoing mission to grant magical wishes to young Texans with life-threatening medical conditions - a mission a Wish with Wings has commited itself to since forming in 1982.
Calling Business Visionaries of Greater Fort Worth!
Successful entrepreneurs of the Greater Fort Worth area are invited to apply for Fort Worth Inc.’s Entrepreneur of Excellence. This prestigious awards program is the perfect way to gain exposure for your business and brand. Winners will walk away with a handsome trophy and a pair of custommade ostrich boots from Fort Worthbased Justin Boots. Don’t miss out! The application deadline is June 14.
Fashion Show
Colleyville Woman’s Club
CWC 36th Fashion Show & Luncheon Benefit was a tremendous success on April 5 at the Hurst Conference Center. Everyone loved the Hawaiian theme, “E Ka Wai Nani,” meaning “By the Beautiful Waters.” Guests and the professional runway models wore tropical or resort fashions. The featured boutiques/stores were Austin Loren, Dillard’s, Malouf’s, Rose & Rivets Boutique, Scout & Molly’s Boutique, and XAR Clothiers. Fashion Show co-chairs were Juli Gerrard and Pam Hudson.
Pam Hudson, Juli Gerrard
Julie Bird, Kathy Merrell
Mark Harrison, Mic Deakin
Karen Deakin, Toni JonesRoss, Kim Harrison
Lora Shumate, Ellen Stotmeister
Toni Kelly, Paula McCollough, Kristi Holt
photos by Kelly Alexander Photography
On N. Elm Street, northeast of the Stockyards, is a Cowboy Church. And, by Cowboy Church, we mean that’s what it’s called, Cowboy Church. It’s a nondenominational, honest-to-goodness house of worship where they have communion every Sunday and encourage folks to leave their suit or fancy dress behind and come as they are. Local photographer Walt Burns, who enjoys snapping pics of the Northside’s colorful buildings, was struck by the church’s red steeple when exploring new locations on a Sunday afternoon. “I took out my camera and walked up for the shot,” Burns says. “We get a frequent amount of airplane traffic overhead from Meacham Airport, and, just then, a small aircraft flew directly above the tip of the steeple. I pressed the shutter excitingly, and the result is the photograph you see.”
Get your photo on this page and win a $100 gift card to Fort Worth Camera. Just tag FortWorthMagazine (@fwtxmag) and Fort Worth Camera (@fwcamera) and use the hashtags #fwtxmag and #fwcamera on all your amazing Cowtown images.
@waltburns
PHOTO BY WALT BURNS
We Drive the Difference
The Gilchrist Valet Service:
• Online or over-the-phone sales purchase and delivery
• Service pick-up and delivery
Experience the Gilchrist Difference:
• Family owned and operated
• Purchase process tailored to your needs
• Three stores to choose from where each General Manager personally assists you
• Customer relationships do not end with the sale
• Each experience is special when you work with Gilchrist Automotive
Left to Right: Stephen Jimenez, GM, Spur Chevrolet Buick GMC, Daniel Arceneaux, GM, Pegasus Chevrolet, Justin Rudd, GM, Platinum Chevrolet, Stephen Gilchrist, Dealer Operator, Gilchrist Automotive.
Custom-Fit Service
Michael Pasquale has always been in love with Range Rovers, from the first time he saw one until his seventh purchase, a 2024 Range Rover Autobiography, a custom vehicle from Park Place Land Rover DFW in Grapevine. “I love the look of my car, I love the color, I love the safety,” says Pasquale, who sells commercial fitness equipment and builds gyms for Freemotion Fitness. “The features are ridiculous. It’s basically one big iPhone on the inside, and it’s voice controlled so I just sit back and enjoy my ride, driving to meet clients, going to meetings, and overseeing our construction,” says the Grapevine resident who’s also a partner in Impact Performance and Fitness in Southlake, a luxury boutique personal training facility.
As someone who provides customer service to his clients every day, Pasquale says he finds that same relationship with Park Place Land Rover DFW: “The relationship with the dealership is exactly that — it’s a relationship. They give me
amazing recommendations, listen to my needs, and then deliver on everything that they say,” he says. “I could truly say I drive the perfect car for me, thanks to my sales advisor, Emily Manning, and my service advisors, Jordan and Dyllin. And GM Matt Woolsey takes care of me like family. What more could you ask?”
Pasquale says the Park Place dealership’s commitment to excellence surpassed his expectations. “At Park Place, they’re Experts in Excellence because they sell a premium product and always exceed everything expected of them without my asking. They earn my business by being absolute professionals,” he says.
