Fort Worth Magazine - May 2024 by fwtx

FINE DINING, DIVE BAR DRINKING, BOUTIQUE SHOPPING, COUNTRY CLUB GOLFING, AND EVERYTHING IN-BETWEEN

(NOT TO MENTION YOGA ... IN THE AIR)

Lynn Rozak of Sunshine Yoga Shack

BAD

As board-certified, fellowship-trained joint care surgeons, our expertise goes beyond general orthopedic care. We perform more than 2,800 hip and knee replacements annually at Texas Health Clearfork, a premier destination for joint care that’s part of Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Southwest Fort Worth. Armed with decades of experience in breakthrough techniques, we can assess your pain and develop a care plan that’s right for you. Whether you require joint replacement or non-surgical care such as oral medication, injections or physical therapy, our goal is to get you back to doing what you love.

Steven Ogden, M.D.; Robert Schmidt, M.D.; Ajai Cadambi, M.D.; Daniel Wagner, D.O.; Jeffrey McGowen, M.D.; Theodore Crofford, M.D.; David Shau, M.D.

Couldn’t have done it without you.

Pictured: David Elattrache, GM, Platinum Honda; Roosevelt May, GM, SouthWest Honda;

Stephen Gilchrist, Dealer Operator

DEPARTMENTS

THE FORT

16 City Dweller

Tumbling Town has the ring of another good Fort Worth moniker. What say you, NCAA gymnastics?

22 Calendar

PGA Tour players and fans get their first look at Colonial’s return to the original form of founder Marvin Leonard.

24 Fort Worthian

Getting in touch with our television obsessions of the past, Nellie Oleson’s reincarnation, Allison Balson.

26 History

Fort Worth was more than a tour stop for Tex Ritter, who planted some roots here.

34 State Lines

The largest center of civilization at the edge of the Chihuahuan Desert is Alpine, Texas.

40 Sports

Lone Star J.R. is going back to Indy to mark the 50th anniversary of his first Indianapolis 500.

46 Music

Green River Ordinance hits an auditory nerve with its return album, its first in eight years.

52 The Reverie Musings, commentary, and insights about the people, places, and things that make our city.

CHOWTOWN

Chef Mark Guatelara has plenty of arrows in his quiver with his righteous new concept, Café Americana.

Best of Behind the Scenes

Yes, it’s a pain in the (self-censor explicit material), but one of my favorite projects that just so happens to come with my job responsibilities is compiling the annual Best of Fort Worth list. This is my sixth time executing this arduous task — ensuring a comprehensive, accurate, and ethically sound list — and, thus, it’s my sixth time missing a plethora of businesses that no doubt have a case to make for being the city’s best at (fill in the blank).

Despite the difficulty of the task and the subsequent emails I receive for my supposed oversights, I enjoy this assignment because I get to learn so much about the city. Editorial, of course, is charged with coming up with our own set of picks, which means I — along with our other writers and editors — spend the year trying new places or rediscovering old cornerstones to recommend the best places to eat, things to do, and people to know.

But, you see, I get to do the fun stuff. While I’m taking notes on diners, pop-ups, and performing artists, somebody else is tasked with tallying reader votes, collecting contact information, and inserting them into a cumbersome system that I, despite working here for six years, still don’t completely understand.

That list is then laid out with copy of a nondescript length by designers who make everything look handsome despite being on deadline. And the same list is also given to our marketing team, who is tasked with contacting and congratulating every single winner. It does, indeed, take a village. These incredible colleagues of mine,

despite appearing in our masthead, which I sincerely hope you check out on page 10, don’t get bylines, photo credits, or editor’s notes in which to bloviate. So, I’d like to use this space to thank and send sincere kudos to Kaitlyn Lisenby, whose attention to detail could land her in an executive editor role (hmmm); Grace Behr, whose honesty and straightforwardness is appreciated far more than I think she knows; Robby Kyser, who’s so on top of it I suspect he’s tapped into telepathy; Spray Gleaves, who tries harder than anyone to keep me on task; and Craig Sylva, whose dedication to excellence is unmatched.

This is the best dang team in the best dang city. I truly believe that.

ON THE COVER:

We had two great cover options, so our creative team was in a bind trying to select the best. Sure, as the city’s magazine, we often lean into Cowtown’s Western aesthetic. But a quick survey of the office made it very clear (a near unanimous selection), this phenomenal image of Lynn Rozak, the owner of Sunshine Yoga Shack, performing aerial yoga is more than worthy of breaking our norms. The magazine’s staff photographer, Crystal Wise, snapped the image in the studio’s downtown Mansfield location.

CORRECTIONS? COMMENTS? CONCERNS?

Send to executive editor Brian Kendall at bkendall@fwtexas.com.

Brian Kendall EXECUTIVE EDITOR

NEXT MONTH

If you had to think of a Best Of category for yourself that you would win, what category would it be and why?

Best at Creating Pressure Cookers — only in the figurative sense and primarily self-inflicted.

Best of … serving as a voodoo doll on sports teams. Beware of me picking your team to win as a prognosticator. They’re going to lose. I’m black magic on sports teams.

Best of Dotting the I’s and Crossing the T’s.

Best Bra Maker. I create specially decorated bras for Bras for a Cause to benefit cancer research every year (the firemen modeling the bras are an extra bonus)!

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

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

executive administrator/project coordinator kaitlyn lisenby

CORPORATE

chief financial officer charles newton

founding publisher mark hulme

Best of Impromptu Work Party Jam Sessions goes to Stephen Montoya.

Best at Customer Service; Building Relationships, Not Just Transactions. “Start with the customer and work backwards.” Jeff Bezos

Best at Wearing Pearls

Best at Being a Cool Cucumber

I’m the Best at Flirting with Deadlines, especially when it comes to online shopping and attempting to send my returns back on time.

Best at Being a Swiftie. Taylor Swift music, lyrics, and relationships, I’ve got you covered.

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 5, May 2024. Basic Subscription price: $23.95 per year. Single copy price: $4.99

Arlington Heights Area of Fort Worth, Texas

5801 El Campo Avenue

3 BEDS | 2.1 BATHS | 4,117 SQ FT | $1,295,000

Discover timeless elegance in this 1990 Frank Talley custom-built home, designed by architect Elbert Spence. Just steps from Westover Hills, enjoy the charm of this prestigious neighborhood.

Steve Berry

817.371.5585

steve.berry@williamstrew.com

Bella Flora Neighborhood in Fort Worth, Texas

Bella Roma Drive

4 BEDS | 3.1 BATHS | 5,237 SQ FT | $1,250,000

Nestled within the guarded and gated community of Bella Flora, this remarkable custom home greets you with a private courtyard, perfect for relaxing any time of day.

Laura Fauntleroy

817.343.5686

laura.fauntleroy@williamstrew.com

Texas

Experience the epitome of modern luxury living in this captivating farmhouseinspired residence, nestled on a sprawling 2 acres within the exclusive Santana Ridge neighborhood.

Piper Reese Pardue

817.269.8735 piper@williamstrew.com

25 Years of Honoring Fort Worth’s Best

The magazine had to get at least one year under its belt before it could claim to be the authority on what’s best in the city. After all, one must first earn their stripes prior to making such bold proclamations. And for the editorial staff of a city magazine, those stripes come in the form of unearthing engaging stories and telling them with sharp wit and a local flavor. Right, y’all?

Fort Worth Magazine’s first issue hit newsstands December 1998, and the publication’s first-ever Best of Fort Worth issue — which has since become an annual tradition — had its inaugural run in January 2000, the turn of the century. And, since Best of Fort Worth did, in fact, begin in 2000, this year is technically the 25th time the magazine has gone to press with

a Best of Fort Worth feature (yes, the math works out).

Best of (insert city name) is a common feature and program among city magazines across the U.S. Such publications usually play the role of smug expert relaying to their audience the best places to eat, things to do, and people to admire in the city. Our magazine didn’t invent the concept, and, after 25 years, the jury is still out as to whether we’ve even perfected it.

The first Best of Fort Worth publication — then referred to as the long-winded “Best of Greater Fort Worth” and the following year “Best of Tarrant County” — included a cover graced by the statue of Charles D. Tandy near the county courthouse, and seven pages of editorial that honored 50

local — and not-so local (ahem, Barnes and Noble, Dillard’s, the long-deceased Souper Salad) — businesses. Today, the magazine is running 30 pages that highlight over 300 local (and only local) businesses. One could say both the magazine and the city itself have come a long way.

Among the honorees in 2000 included several staples that have since become synonymous with Cowtown dwelling. Kincaid’s, the Kimbell, Roy Pope, Railhead, and Joe T. Garcia’s, all rightly made an appearance; both Joe T.’s and Roy Pope were reader selections in 2024, as well.

(As a side note, curious to know which business had been selected to the Best of Fort Worth list the most, our editorial staff did a little digging and discovered the honor goes to Joe T. Garcia’s, which has been featured in the magazine’s Best of Fort Worth publication 18 times.)

The magazine would embrace brevity and retitle the annual publication Best of Fort Worth starting in 2003. And, in 2005, the magazine would embrace the democratic process and open selections to a reader vote — the honorees were previously decided by the editorial staff alone.

Annual Best of Fort Worth parties would soon follow. Parties that would make waves for their wild themes and over-the-top extravagance — aerial dancers, champagne fountains, etc. The parties would cease in 2020, thanks to the nastiest of nasty bugs going around the world, but the annual publication has continued to thrive.

Over 25 years, the magazine has bestowed the “Best of Fort Worth” honor on thousands upon thousands of local businesses. You might’ve seen the unmistakable Best of Fort Worth stickers on their doors or placards on their shelves.

Some past honorees have gone, shuttered, or moved on, and some are still here, flipping hamburger patties or selling boutique colas. Regardless, they’ve all had their businesses, at one point or another, appear in print as being the absolute best in the city. In our world, that’s a slice of immortality.

TILE THAT MAKES A STATEMENT.

As the world-class leader in Tile, Natural Stone & Countertops, Daltile offers the largest assortment of high-style solutions to elevate any space or design.

Photo features Ravel™ Opal on the ﬂoor with Miramo™ Pearl Picket and Perﬁt Mosaix™ Namaste & Thassos Capsule on the walls. Countertops feature Panoramic Porcelain Surfaces™ Opalite and ONE Quartz Surfaces® Golden Gate.

THE FORT

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW AND THE THINGS YOU NEED TO DO

SPORTS

Johnny Rutherford is an iconic face in Fort Worth, living a career in the fastest lanes as a three-time conqueror of the Indianapolis 500. He will be a guest of honor this month in The Hoosier State as Indy race officials commemorate his first championship, 50 years ago, on the hallowed ground of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

by John Henry

Tumbling Town?

NCAA gymnastics seems like it’s found a permanent women’s championship fort.

The scent of the Paris Olympic Games was in the air during three rainy days in April as thousands were expected at Dickies Arena for the NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships’ seemingly annual visit to Fort Worth.

Or is that Tumbling Town?

Seven of the past nine NCAA Championships have been held in Fort Worth, not including the year 2020, which was canceled because of the virus whose name we shall not utter.

No. 1 Oklahoma, its reputation in the sport in a lockbox, was seeking its third consecutive title and sixth in eight years, including four in Fort Worth. Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, LSU, Stanford, and Utah were all eyeing to upend the Sooners.

And that happened. Utah and Florida were joined by LSU and Cal in advancing to the national championship finals. The Utes scored a total of 197.9375 with the Gators trailing

behind by 0.175 points with a total of 197.8750 score. Oklahoma suffered from a total of five falls to place third with 196.6625, followed by Alabama with 195.4125.

Clearly, though, despite Thursday’s outcome and with all its success here, OU likes Fort Worth.

And so do officials with NCAA gymnastics. The current contract with Dickies Arena expires after the end of next year, but by the sounds of it, the seven-member committee who makes the selection favor Fort Worth’s bid to return here in 2026, ’27, and ’28.

“I’ve competed in most arenas around the country in my playing days and in my coaching days,” says Guard Young, a member of the committee and former All-American and U.S. Olympian in the vault. “And you’re hard to find an arena that suits the sport of gymnastics like this arena.”

In the days of yore, the championships were conducted on college campuses. About 10 years ago, coaches got together and decided it best to find a “home” for its championships.

“We wanted some things that universities had a difficult time supplying,” Young says.

They actually began that feelingout process in Fort Worth, holding the championships at the Fort Worth Convention Center in 2015-16. The event moved to St. Louis for the next two years and returned here in 2019, again at the convention center.

“There’s some fond memories of that convention center for me and for many of these coaches here today,” says Young, including big crowds. “We hopped around to some other cities.

“Then Dickies was built. It’s kind of like the ‘Field of Dreams.’ If you build it, they will come.”

Dickies Arena is as much a marvel to Fort Worth as the Hoover Dam was to the American Southwest. Mere weeks after the completion of the NCAA Women’s Championships, Dickies will host the U.S. Gymnastics Championships, which set the stage for the U.S. Olympic Trials in Minneapolis.

The Fort Worth Sports Commission has estimated that that event will result in a $7.4 million economic impact on the city.

Texas Woman’s University is the sponsor school, another key component for the host city, Young says. (It begs the question: Why doesn’t TCU have a women’s gymnastics team? We’ll leave that for another day.)

“They’re wonderful partners in this championship, year in and year out,” says Jennifer Mervar, assistant director of championships for the NCAA.

The NCAA is scrutinizing bids as you read. They’ll announce in October where the 2026-28 championships will go.

Tumbling Town would appear to be in the lead.

by John Henry

Jameela of the Jungle

Good news: Baby Jameela looks to have found

her people.

Fort Worth has a new pal, and her name is Cleveland, Ohio. That’s where our little beloved Jameela has appeared to have found a loving home.

Jameela is the months-old baby gorilla born by cesarean section and left orphaned at the Fort Worth Zoo after a complicated entry into the world. However, Fredrika, or “Freddy,” at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo seems to have quickly taken to baby Jameela as her surrogate mother.

It would seem, to the amateur observer, a best-case scenario for all the stakeholders, most notably Jameela.

“It has been going really well,” animal curator Dr. Elena Less said in a video update from the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. “Freddy picked her back up; she’s putting her on her back and letting her ride on her back … and she’s carrying her. As the day progressed, we started to see a lot more bonding between Freddy and Jameela. She was carrying her almost all of the time, putting her in nests, and setting up nests for her and lying next to her, and then we were so excited to see Jameela nursing from Freddy. We’ve seen it twice, and we do feel that Jameela’s getting quite a bit of nutrition from that.

“We are continuing to ask Freddy to bring her over for bottles as well, and Freddy has been doing a great job of doing that.”

Jameela made a dramatic, albeit premature, entry Jan. 5, the first gorilla to be born by cesarean in the Fort Worth Zoo’s 115-year history. The procedure was necessary because of a life-threatening condition suffered by Jameela’s mother, 33-year-old Sekani. The event was made all the more notable in that the procedure was assisted by Dr. Jamie Erwin, a board-certified physician in obstetrics and gynecology who practices in Fort Worth.

Immediately there were concerns, however. Sekani showed no maternal interest in her baby, likely, zoo officials believe, because she did not experience the normal hormonal fluctuations that occur during a natural and full-term birth.

The Fort Worth Zoo tried to train two female gorillas as surrogate mothers, but both attempts proved unsuccessful.

Do not despair: The miracle-of-life story of baby Jameela has a new happy chapter.

Sun of a Gun

The day the sun disappeared over Fort Worth.

Thousands across the city and region stared up in wonder toward the heavens on a Monday afternoon last month to witness a celestial phenomenon that won’t be seen here again for roughly 300 years.

We stood there in Sundance Square, Trinity Park, at the Will Rogers Memorial Center, at bars, and most of us in office parking lots not in the hunt for any inter-Mercurial planets (whatever that might be) or a better understanding of the solar corona, but rather just to see something cool.

Solar totality, a phrase that had become as tiring as 105-degree summer days, lived up to the hype, with an accommodating Mother Nature, whose clouds toyed with us, as the moon cast her shadow over the sun.

For about 2 ½ minutes darkness descended at midday, and we all stood in awe, coming away with a better understanding of our minuscule place in the universe.

It was the damnedest thing we’d ever seen. And that’s saying something, considering we watched the Texas Rangers win the World Series in November.

Totality marked the first time such a thing had happened here since 1878. The next total solar eclipse in North Texas is slated for 2317. Only Abraham and his Old Testament peers would seem to have a chance at seeing that.

“This has always been on my bucket

by John Henry

Home Economics

WestBend’s riverfront property about to be multifamily home.

Construction is scheduled to soon begin on Trademark Property Company’s seven-story apartment complex next to its WestBend development, adjacent to the Trinity River on University Drive.

The $36 million Westbend South will be an approximate 505,000-square-foot complex at 1701 S. University Drive, according to a Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation filing.

The complex will consist of 300 units and include a two-story parking garage, two residential lounges, and retail space. A dog spa will also be part of the amenities.

Merriman Anderson Architects Inc. of Dallas is the design firm on the project.

According to the filing, construction is scheduled to begin Sept.

30 and be complete by the end of December 2026.

On the site of the future Westbend South formerly stood the Residence Inn, which opened in 1983, and later Hawthorn Suites.

The WestBend development is a 281,000-square-foot mixed-use development, with 190,000 square feet of office and 90,000 square feet of retail space. Trademark is soon to start work on the redevelopment of Lincoln Square in Arlington as a mixed-use development.

Its other notable projects in Fort Worth are the Alliance Town Center, which it undertook in a partnership with Hillwood, and Waterside along Bryant Irvin Road at the site of the former Lockheed Recreation Area.

list,” says Jonathan Wells, who spoke while sitting in the comfort of Sundance Square with his wife Andrea. The couple was enjoying a very spirited scene in Sundance Square, which was being entertained by Linny Nance & Network. The Wellses arrived on Saturday from Scottsdale, Arizona.

It was a trip he booked about a year ago, and one they almost canceled when weather threatened the show. But they pressed on despite mercurial Mother Nature.

“We’ve never been to Fort Worth before,” Wells says. “We’ve been to Texas quite a few times but never Fort Worth. So, we thought what a great place to explore and combine it with the totality.

“Everything’s bigger in Texas. Your churches are bigger, your barbecue is bigger, your eclipse is bigger.”

The Wellses from Arizona were sitting not far from Jim and Linda Paul in Sundance Square. The Pauls traveled here from Perryton, Texas, with their grandson Garrett Minnie, who is here by way of San Francisco.

Garrett was set up to take pictures with a 50-year-old Pamex camera and a 55-year-old lens he recently purchased from a vendor in Japan. The Pamex had been purchased by Jim in Nuremburg, Germany, while he was serving his country during the Vietnam era.

Jim and Linda were in Virginia visiting a daughter when Garrett called from California. Garrett and a friend — Ashley, I believe her name (rookie reporter) — wanted to come to Texas to see the eclipse.

“He called and said, ‘You going to be home by April 5 or something like that?’ And I said, ‘We can be.’ And he spent the last couple days with us.”

Jim and Linda Paul didn’t give a whit about the weather. Or the eclipse, if we’re being completely honest.

“I’ll tell you what, I don’t care what the weather is. And I don’t need to go up there to see the eclipse,” Jim says. “They came out to see us.”

You’ve just been mic dropped, total solar eclipse.

May 3

Bob Schneider

The prolific Austinbased singersongwriter, who’s been a Lone Star State fave for going on two decades, is touring behind his 2023 release, TheHuman Torch,his 17th fulllength album. Tulips tulipsftw.com

2–5 Mayfest

The city’s annual familyfriendly, multi-day fair that has it all: art, music, food, a petting zoo, and even a few thrill rides for kiddos of a minimum height.

Trinity Park mayfest.org

Gary Clark Jr.

Texas’ most prominent purveyor of gritty blues rock kicks off his world tour right here in Cowtown, where attendees will be the first to hear songs from his new album, JPEG RAW, live. Will Rogers Auditorium dickiesarena.com

10–12

‘Chicago’

This vaudevillian portrayal of the criminal justice system, which was also made into a 2002 film, holds the honor of being Broadway’s longestrunning current show and musical.

Bass Performance Hall basshall.com

17–19

‘Beauty and the Beast’

The Texas Ballet Theater takes on this tale as old as time. The company’s four performances include 2 p.m. matinees on Saturday and Sunday. Bass Performance Hall basshall.com

Tacos & Tequila Festival

Ludacris and Ashanti headline a margarita- and street taco-infused festival that will also feature lucha libre wresting and a Chihuahua beauty pageant. Panther Island Pavilion tacosandtequiladfw.com

19 Chris Isaak

The Roy Orbison-inspired crooner visits the Stockyards, where, yes, you can finally hear “Wicked Game” sung somewhere other than a karaoke bar. Tannahill’s Tavern and Music Hall tannahills.com

22–26

Charles Schwab Challenge

Colonial Country Club goes back to the future, debuting a course in with

the old. When PGA Tour professionals make their annual trip to Fort Worth, they will encounter a renovated layout, a return to the original form of founder Marvin Leonard. Colonial Country Club charlesschwabchallenge.com

Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships

Unless North Texas someday puts together a solid pitch to the Olympic Committee, this crowning of the best American gymnasts is the closest you’ll get to experiencing the Games in Fort Worth. Oh, and Simone Biles will be there. Dickies Arena dickiesarena.com

Thievery Corporation

The D.C.-based music duo, known for their 2000 hit, “Lebanese Blonde,” bring their blend of electronic, lounge, and bossa nova to the heart of cowboy culture. Tannahill’s Tavern and Music Hall tannahills.com

photos provided by Tulips

// Bass Performance Hall//

Tannahill’s Tavern and Music Hall

Bob Schneider

‘Beauty and the Beast’

‘Chicago’

Thievery Corporation

Allison Balson

Actress, songwriter, and child star

By Stephen Montoya

Photo by Crystal Wise

In 1981, the world was introduced to one of television’s first original mean girls: the adopted “nasty” Nancy Olesen on the series “Little House on the Prairie.” This role, which some deem the reincarnation of Nellie Oleson, who was written off the show a season before, was played by Allison Balson.

It was a role she secured by, well, yelling.

“When I auditioned for the role of Nancy, I went into the room, and Michael [Landon] was in the casting room, which in the industry is fairly rare that you’ll meet the producer, director, leading star, during your audition. But they wanted to hire the ‘nasty’ Nancy Oleson girl like yesterday. And they weren’t fooling around,” she says.

Landing the role didn’t come without her having to reach into her inner mean girl.

“Michael [Landon] looked at me and said, ‘Allison, I need you to yell something at me. I need you to say you hate me and make me believe it,’” she verifies. Apparently, it worked because Balson was part of the “Little House” cast until 1983.

This part would become Balson’s big break — yes, at the age of 11 — but it wasn’t her first time in front of a camera. Balson made her modeling debut at age 5, and by age 6, she would appear in everything from a national M&M ad campaign to a Vivitar Camera commercial opposite movie legend Orson Welles.

As she moved into her tween years, Balson started acting, making appearances on such iconic TV shows as “CHIPs,” “Quincy, M.E.” and many an after-school special.

Besides modeling and acting, Balson also became involved with music at an early age. Growing up an Army brat, she says music was the foundation that kept her sane in a world of movie shoots and constant upheavals.

“I started out with the piano like many kids, but the minute my parents got me guitar lessons, that stuck with me,” Balson says. “[Music] was always

a part of my life. It became my outlet as I grew up, as I became a teenager and I was becoming an adult, because I could always sit down and write my thoughts down in lyrics and melody.”

After settling in Fort Worth nearly a decade ago, Balson hosted and produced the syndicated radio show “Music Scene Live,” a talk show format that featured musical artists performing live renditions of their original music. And Balson herself also happens to dabble in songwriting, recently releasing a new single, “My Friend.” It’s a song she wrote in honor of with the late, Michael Landon, who mentored her during her years on “Little House.” This year marks the show’s 50th anniversary, which makes the timing of this song’s release significant for Balson.

“The only regret I have is that I couldn’t have shared how I felt about [Landon] when he was alive, but it wasn’t until, honestly, his passing that made me think again about him,” she says. “And when I look back on what I learned working with him on that set and the friendship he did give me during that time … it really did influence me going forward as an actor and a songwriter.”

BY THE WAY....

FM: Why did you decide to move to Fort Worth out of all the places you’ve visited and lived?

AB: That’s true, I’ve been all over the place, but Fort Worth just sang to me when I first got here. Fort Worth has an incredibly eclectic scene, and the songwriters and the musicians here are phenomenal, and I hope to goodness that people will open their eyes and recognize the talent that is here. One thing about Fort Worth I love, too, is I love the history. It’s real. The Chisholm Trail. Oh, my goodness. And every time I come down to the Stockyards, I learn something new as well. Los Angeles is also one of my homes. And the history there is quite different than the history in Texas. I mean, where else can you see an authentic cattle drive twice a day?

1. On the set of “Little House” in Simi Valley, California, with Michael Landon. 2. Princess Cruise interview and meet-andgreet in the Grand Princess Theater. 3. Performing on main stage at the Celina Balloon Festival, just north of here. 4. Balson and her brother Paul with her favorite celebrity dog, Lassie, on set of “The Magic of Lassie.” 5. Balson with Bob Hope at a gala honoring the comedic legend at the historic Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. 6. Balson, as Nancy Oleson, and Katherine McGregor, Harriett Oleson, taken on set during the filming of the “Reincarnation of Nellie Part II.” 7. Balson with singer-songwriters Amos Staggs and Earl Musick in the Fort Worth Stockyards.

by

Michael H. Price

Compadre Tex

Fort Worth was more than a tour stop for Tex Ritter, one of the Lone Star State’s most notable country music pioneers. It was a second home.

Likely nobody will flash on the name of Woodward Maurice Ritter as a prominent figure in cowhand lore. But plant the nickname of “Tex” in there, and eyes will light up and senses will quicken at recognition of one of the great frontier balladeers, movie cowboys, and honky-tonk jukebox Westerners.

As Tex Ritter, the artist ranged the continent, Broadway to Hollywood

to Nashville, but he considered Fort Worth his home as a chronic visitor and now-and-again resident, with frequent appearances on WBAP-Television and at movie premieres and Stock Show & Rodeo events.

“Not to mention,” Ritter reminded me in a late-in-life conversation, “that Fort Worth gave me one of my bigger hit records.”

The reference was to Ritter’s 1948

recording of “Fort Worth Jail,” a bittersweet first-person lament composed in 1941 as a beer-parlor ballad by Fort Worth guitarist Dick Reinhart. Whether Ritter (or Reinhart, for that matter) might have known the local hoosegow as an erstwhile inmate is beside the point: Ritter kept a residential suite at the Stockyards District’s landmark Maverick Hotel, but when he sang, “Way down in Fort Worth jailhouse / Feelin’ kind of low,” he hit a persuasively mournful note. (Various other artists would record the same tune, ranging in tone from Ernest Tubb’s low-down existential complaint to a drolly self-amused novelty version by Spike Jones & His City Slickers.)

Nowadays, the most emphatic reminder of Tex Ritter’s presence is a Texas Trail of Fame star in Fort Worth’s Rodeo Plaza, near Billy Bob’s Texas. The site is not far from M.L. Leddy’s Boots & Saddlery, the historic outfitter where Ritter preferred to have his boots custom-designed, some with golf cleats to indulge a favorite sport. Ritter (1905-1974) brought a cultural authenticity to his recording-and-acting career — not so much as a working cowboy, although he knew his way around a corral, as in the role of a Western folk-music scholar. Ritter also possessed a natural-born entertainer’s gift for preserving authentic cattle-trail lyrics and interpreting them in an endearingly personalized manner. Along the way into hit-record territory and cowboy-movie stardom, Ritter also became the patriarch of an acting family, including son John Ritter and grandsons Jason Ritter and Tyler Ritter.

My family knew Tex as a frequent visitor from Hollywood, owing to his friendship with my Uncle Grady L. Wilson, an Amarillo-based theatre operator who ballyhooed every new Tex Ritter movie with the same zeal he would apply to the latest big-studio, Oscar-bait pictures. Tex autographed for me many a publicity photograph and movie poster, usually inscribing such gifts with “A mi amigo, Mike — your compadre, Tex.”

Ritter was born into a farming

household at Murvaul, Texas, attended school in Carthage, Texas, and Beaumont. He entered the University of Texas at Austin in 1922, intending a career in law and politics. The college also connected him with the likes of J. Frank Dobie, Oscar J. Fox, and John Lomax. These prominent authorities on cowboy lore encouraged Ritter to seek a career in performance.

By 1928, Ritter had landed a weekly half-hour program on KPRC-Radio in Houston. That same year, he moved to New York and joined the masculine chorus of the Broadway show “The New Moon.” He appeared as cowpuncher Cord Elam in the Broadway production of “Green Grow the Lilacs” (1931), which became the basis of a perennial musical-theatre extravaganza — “Oklahoma!”

In 1932, Ritter starred in New York’s first Western-lore broadcast, “The Lone Star Rangers” on WOR-Radio, where he sang and related tales of the Western frontier. Ritter wrote and starred in “Cowboy Tom’s Roundup” at WINS-Radio, a daily program for children, and in 1933 he joined Columbia Records with the traditional trail ballad “Goodbye, Ol’ Paint” as a début selection. In 1935, he signed with the Decca label, where he recorded his first original tunes including the now-standard “Whoopee Ti-Yi-Yo,” and racked up nearly 30 songs on 78-rpm shellac platters through 1939. (Shellac, a sturdy but brittle organic substance with a hauntingly sweet aroma, was the standard material for phonograph records until petroleum-based vinyl proved more durable during the postwar years.)

In 1936, Ritter moved to Los Angeles. His motion-picture début occurred in “Song of the Gringo.” He starred in a dozen low-budget Westerns for Grand National Pictures, including “Headin’ for the Rio Grande” and “Trouble in Texas.” A recurring co-star was Rita Hayworth, known at the time by her ancestral name, Rita Cansino.

The collapse of Grand National found Ritter moving to the similarly small but better-heeled Monogram

Pictures, which starred him in 40-someodd cowboy-crooner pictures. Four of these titles featured Ritter’s wife-to-be, Dorothy Fay — “Song of the Buckaroo,” “Sundown on the Prairie,” “Rollin’ Westward,” and “Rainbow over the Range” (1938-1940).

In 1939’s “Riders of the Range,” Ritter developed a forward-thinking buddy-team routine with the pioneering Black comedian Mantan Moreland (himself a member of Fort Worth’s emerging jazz-club scene). The picture finds Moreland and Ritter sharing a lively discussion of the fallacies of prejudice before launching into a comical duet on the traditional “Boll Weevil Song.” Ritter moved from Monogram to big-time Universal Pictures and teamed with Johnny Mack Brown for early-1940s films such as “Deep in the Heart of Texas,” “The Lone Star Trail,” “Raiders of San Joaquin,” “Cheyenne Roundup,” and “The Old Chisholm Trail.”

When Universal became threatened with bankruptcy, Ritter stepped down a rung to tiny Producers Releasing Corp. for eight features during 19441945. These completed, Ritter shied away from the grind of leading man acting until 1950, when he began handling backup roles or appearing in incidental cameos, as himself. Ritter faced larger prospects, of course, in the recording industry.

In 1942, he had become one of the earliest contract-artists at Capitol Records, establishing a countrified musical identity that would define the label despite its additional interests in pop music, jazz, and kid-stuff records. Ritter’s Capitol hits have become standards: “I’m Wastin’ My Tears on You,” a country-to-pop crossover, along with “There’s a New Moon over My Shoulder,” “You Two-Timed Me One Time Too Often,” “Rye Whiskey,” and “Pecos Bill.” Not to mention “Fort Worth Jail.”

Larger fortunes beckoned anew from Hollywood, in the form of Ritter’s vocal performance on the title song for the Western drama “High Noon.” Ritter landed that assignment after Pete Seeger & the Weavers, the celebrated

civil-rights quartet, had rejected the song as lacking in social conscience. Ritter’s rendition of “High Noon” (“Do Not Forsake Me, Oh, My Darlin’”) became a hit record in its own right and received the Oscar in 1953 for Best Motion Picture Song.

Then in 1958, Ritter’s first fulllength LP-record album traded upon his dual identity as a music-and-movies figure — Songs from the Western Screen. He established himself during the 1960s as a representative of the Grand Ole Opry and portrayed himself in the 1966 film “Nashville Rebel,” which marked a début for Waylon Jennings in an early assertion of the “outlaw country” movement. Ritter’s 1967 single, “Just Beyond the Moon,” hit No. 3 on Billboard magazine’s C&W chart.

In 1970, Ritter renewed his interest in politics with a bid for U.S. Senator from Tennessee. He lost the primary election to U.S. Rep. Bill Brock, who proceeded to win the general election. Ritter took solace in the more lasting accomplishments of parallel Nashville/Hollywood careers, and in his rank as a co-founder of the United Cerebral Palsy Foundation.

CONNECTING PEOPLE TO THEIR DREAMS®

From Playroom to Boardroom

Growing up, you always took make-believe to the next level. Today, you still pursue the full potential of each idea–finding advisors who relate to your intuition. We share that drive, because connecting people to their dreams is our true passion. Every great relationship has an Origin story. Start yours today at Origin.Bank/YourStory

The Castle of Arms Collecting

Last December, Rock Island Auction Company celebrated the grand opening of its new Bedford venue with the largest firearms auction in Texas history. As the world’s leading firearms auction house for 20 years running, the company has been no stranger to expansion, innovation, and risk-taking. While Rock Island Auction Company’s Midwest location has served as a successful hub for the arms collecting community over the last three decades, a truly international venue was needed to elevate the fine arms field to its rightful place on the world stage.

An industry trendsetter, Rock Island Auction Company has presented some of the most prestigious treasures in the fine arms pursuit and set countless records in the process. The arms of presidents, founding fathers, future emperors, and European royalty have crossed the company’s podium in recent years, helping the auction house more than double the annual sales totals of their next six competitors combined. The company’s expansion to Bedford, Texas represents an unparalleled investment in the future of fine arms collecting.

Building a Monument

From a humble startup venture realized by company patriarch Patrick Hogan to a business now approaching 200 employees and surpassing $1 billion in total sales, Rock Island Auction Company has remained steadfast in its mission to serve as a custodian of history and a protector of legacies. Pat Hogan’s son, Kevin, took the foundation his father built and continued to push new boundaries, setting his sights on establishing a new, international selling headquarters for the fine arms community.

Rock Island Auction Company Proprietors Patrick & Kevin Hogan auctioning at inaugural Bedford facility located 3600 Harwood Road, Bedford, Texas 76021

“Once reserved as a pastime for royalty and the wealthy elite, investment-grade firearms are obtainable today by any determined collector.”

Presentation Cased Exhibition

Quality Le Page-Moutier Double Barrel Percussion Shotgun with Relief Chiseled Embellishment and Elaborately Carved Ebony Stock Coming to Auction May 17-19, 2024

“The investment potential has never been higher.”

Ideally located in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the heart of a thriving Texas gun collecting culture, Bedford offered the kings of the fine arms field the perfect bedrock to raise a castle to their craft. Rock Island Auction Company’s new 90,000-square-foot venue, the finest brick-and-mortar auction facility of its kind, delivers a world-class attraction to the Lone Star State. The establishment will host blockbuster auctions, accommodate a wide range of memorable events, and advance the arms collecting discipline to new and exciting heights.

The

Hobby of Kings and Collectors

Judging by the company’s groundbreaking $26.7 million inaugural auction event in December of 2023, Rock Island Auction’s investment in the Lone Star State could redefine the arms collecting landscape for years to come, and that’s welcome news for collectors, investors, and arms enthusiasts of every means and background.

Once reserved as a pastime for royalty and the wealthy elite, investment-grade firearms are obtainable today by any determined collector. Compared to other segments of the collectibles market, fine arms are a dramatically undervalued asset class with tremendous growth potential. The genre’s elevated performance in recent years presents a compelling opportunity for those seeking to diversify with a touch of history. With some of the scarcest and sought-after pieces finally hitting the auction block and a constant stream of eager new collectors entering the marketplace, the investment potential has never been higher.

The hobby of kings had long been lacking a castle, and it was only fitting that the world’s number one firearms auction house would construct a monument worthy of showcasing the epitome of the fine arms field. That destination is found at 3600 Harwood Rd., Bedford, Texas, an accessible venue that combines the latest innovations with Rock Island Auction Company’s Midwest hospitality.

Forging a Legacy in 2024

Rock Island Auction Company’s inaugural event in the Lone Star State drew an avid audience from far and wide as it shattered Texas records last December. Capitalizing on this momentum, the company has announced a May 17th through 19th auction, the first of three Premier Auction events to be hosted in their new state-of-the-art Bedford facility this year. The public is invited to visit and examine a breathtaking selection of legacy arms and museum-worthy masterworks hailing from pinnacle collections, with highlights including pieces documented to President Gerald R. Ford, Buffalo Bill, General George Armstrong Custer, and more.

Collectors have hailed the Rock Island Auction experience as “the museum you can touch,” a chance to actively participate in the fine arms discipline at its most exclusive and prestigious level. The next preview day event will be held Thursday, May 16th, the day prior to auction, with the doors open to the public

at 10 a.m. Guests are welcome to inspect any of the thousands of items displayed in the venue’s 19,000-square-foot preview hall, connect with the history behind each artifact, and engage with a welcoming community eager to impart their wisdom.

Join the Arms Collecting Renaissance

As exciting as preview days are, the auctions to follow are even more exhilarating. Not only can attending events in person provide an unmatched sense of rhythm to a sale, there’s an indescribable thrill to live bidding at Rock Island Auction Company. The anticipation, the suspense, the rush of adrenaline as you snap up your bidder card at just the right moment to outmaneuver rivals and squeak out a victory as the hammer falls is an experience like no other.

For those unable to attend in person, the auctions can be followed live at rockislandauction.com. Bids can be faxed, emailed, phoned in, entered on the company’s website, and the public is encouraged to participate through the company’s exciting online bidding platform, Rock Island Auction Live.

In addition to three annual Premier Auction events, Rock Island Auction Company’s Bedford venue also hosts three Sporting & Collector auctions each year where collectors from every background can explore an unrivaled selection of vintage rarities, scarce sporting arms, and collectible militaria. More than a destination, the castle of fine arms collecting offers an experience unlike anything else in the field. Anyone who appreciates history, artistry, craftsmanship, and the evolution of arms technology through the ages is invited to make the pilgrimage to Bedford to celebrate the pinnacle of the fine arms discipline and forge a legacy of their own.

For your complimentary catalog call 800-238-8022 (reference this article)

by Shilo Urban

Alpine, Texas

Population: 5,815

Way out west by the low-slung silhouette of the purple Davis Mountains, the free-thinking town of Alpine revels in its far-flung location. This scenic outpost at the edge of the Chihuahuan Desert has historically been known as ranch and cowboy country — and it still is, with an active ranching industry and the independent yet

close-knit ethos that comes with it.

By far the largest center of civilization around, Alpine has another claim to fame: the best summer climate in Texas, owing to its high elevation and low humidity. Summer evenings cool off to 63 degrees, and daytime highs average 83 — temps not seen for weeks (if not months) on end in

Fort Worth. For many who make the drive (at least seven hours), it’s a place to down-shift and adapt to the laidback pace before heading to Big Bend National Park, 75 miles away. Alpine is also a popular jumping-off point for adventures to historic Fort Davis, the McDonald Observatory, and the quirky creative hub of Marfa.

But you’ll find a vibrant artist community in Alpine as well, fueled by the landscape’s stark natural beauty and fresh young energy from Sul Ross State University. Visit the campus to explore the fantastic Museum of the Big Bend. Situated in a restored rock building from the 1940s, it’s a crowd-pleaser with replicas of an 1880s railcar, chuckwagon, and Texas Pterosaur — the largest flying animal that ever lived. Its wingspan stretches 36 feet. You can also peek inside a Native American rock shelter and glimpse historical maps dating all the way back to the 1500s.

While you’re on campus, take a hike up rocky Hancock Hill for sweeping views of the three mountain ranges that surround Alpine. You’ll pass a tree adorned with bicycles on the 1.8-mile loop, but that’s not the strangest sight you’ll encounter. Up top sits a desk from the late 1970s, hauled up decades ago by a few Sul Ross students who wanted to study in peace and quiet. Check the drawers for a notebook and add a message with your name for posterity.

Back down below, admire historic downtown Alpine’s 19th century architecture and vivid murals. The area buzzes with shops, galleries, and restaurants including the original

Bicycles in a tree art set up in Alpine mountain forest.

Beyond the nearly 4 decades of serving North Texas, as well as the hundreds of awards Claffey Pools has won over the years, our number one mission is to build the absolute finest projects with the best technology, methodologies, and principles. We do not cut corners and we deliver projects with an uncompromising passionate commitment to excellence in everything we do.

Scan the QR code to start your journey today.

Reata, a must for any self-respecting Fort Worthian. Tap your toes to live music at Railroad Blues, an old-timey Texas tavern with cheap beer and outdoor seating. The no-frills watering hole is one of the settings for the annual Viva Big Bend Music Festival, taking place July 24-28 this year. More than 60 performances will light up towns across the region, with most of the venues in Alpine — including a feed store and a saddlery. It’s the perfect season to trek out west and kick back with the cowboys, savoring the cool summer nights and two-stepping under the stars.

Explore Alpine

Savor: Fort Worth’s iconic Reata restaurant opened its first location in Alpine three decades ago and still serves hearty Texas cuisine to satisfy the scrappiest cattleman, like flame-kissed carne asada topped with cheese enchiladas. Discover panoramic mountain views and a creative cocktail list at Spicewood Restaurant (at Quarter Circle 7 Hotel), along with rave-worthy burgers and seafood. Judy’s Bread & Breakfast is your go-to for bakery treats and leisurely morning meals; for vino drop into Petit Bijou, the “teeniest tiniest wine bar in Texas.”

Shop: It’s easy to while away the afternoon at Alpine’s gift boutiques and galleries, most of which line Holland Avenue. Wander through CatchLight Art Gallery to admire the works of a dozen talented painters, photographers, and jewelry-makers from far West Texas. Browse pastels and pottery inspired by the landscapes, light, and cultural traditions of West Texas. Indie enclave Front Street Books carries a well-curated collection of local authors and regional topics, and the staff is always ready to help (and make you a coffee). If you’re in Alpine on Saturday morning, stop by the farmers market on Murphy Street to chat with the vendors and check out their wares.

Enjoy: Summertime brings the Big Bend Ranch Rodeo to Alpine, along with outdoor performances under the stars at the Theatre of the Big Bend. Catch an Alpine Cowboys baseball game at historic Kokernot Field, a pretty little stone ballpark that’s the third oldest in America (after Boston’s Fenway Park and Chicago’s Wrigley Field). The Lone Star Cowboy Poetry Gathering descends every February to celebrate the words, songs, and music of the working cowboy — a truly unique event. Year-round you can peruse an impressive collection of prickly pears and spiky succulents at the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute, a botanical garden that boasts over 200 varieties of cactuses.

Snooze: You’ll feel like you stepped into an Old West movie at the 1928 Holland Hotel, a Texas Historical Landmark with Spanish Colonial Revival architecture. Heavy wooden

ceiling beams and dark leather couches evoke authentic frontier grandeur; book the penthouse and you’ll have a private roof deck. Light sleepers might prefer The Maverick Inn (it’s farther from the train tracks), a renovated ranch-style roadhouse with earthy stucco walls and hardwood floors. Antelope Lodge offers eclectic cottages with colorful Southwestern decor and 1950s motor court design. On short-term rental sites like Airbnb and Vrbo, you can book tiny cottages with big porches and container homes with Adirondack chairs on the roof for stargazing.

How to Get There: Alpine is 464 miles west-southwest of Sundance Square. Leave Fort Worth on Interstate 20 and drive west. Keep heading west. Go west a little farther. When you reach the tiny town of Monahans (about 350 miles from Fort Worth), turn left onto TX-18 and drive south for 6 miles, then turn right and go south on FM 1776. In 44 miles, FM 1776 crosses Interstate 10 and becomes US-67. Continue driving south on US-67 for 56 miles, and you’ll arrive in Alpine. Note: Gas stations are few and far between after you leave I-20, so keep an eye on your gas gauge and don’t let it get too low.

Thunderstorm at Sunset With Lightening Strike Alpine

Greasewood Grocery

An Alpine windmill at sunset

by John Henry

Lone Star J.R.

Indianapolis 500 brings back Johnny Rutherford to mark the day 50 years ago he shined so brightly.

Admittedly, one feels a change of status, as if having fully arrived in life, standing with Johnny Rutherford in his home exploring all the historic treasure in a trophy case that starts in the living room and extends seemingly to Jacksboro Highway.

“Those three right there,” he says, pointing, with a voice, at age 86, still rich with a timbre that resonates with the power of, say, a McLaren M16C, yet still very much the easygoing and friendly Gentleman John. “Back when I won, they gave those wooden plaques with the Borg-Warner.”

I was looking at the ultimate prize of American auto racing, the Borg-Warner trophy, three of them, in fact, awarded to Rutherford in 1974, ’76, and 1980 as the winner of the most famous, most prestigious of American auto races, the Indianapolis 500, the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”

Aside from the trophy case, all around us were mementos of Rutherford’s legendary career, including pictures, portraits, magazines, and even a tire.

In the 107 runnings of the Indianap-

olis 500, 10 drivers have won the race three or more times. Among them is John Sherman Rutherford III, known colloquially as “Lone Star J.R.” He was the sixth to down the winner’s traditional glass of milk three times when he zipped into the winner’s circle on Memorial Day weekend of 1980.

At one time, certainly all within the boundaries of this city and county, he so closely identified with Indy car racing that he was the face of it. Rutherford’s era was a golden age for the Indy circuit with names like his, A.J. Foyt, and Mario Andretti its rock star power.

Rutherford started in 24 Indianapolis 500 races. He started from the pole three times, including in 1973 when he just missed the first official 200-mph lap with a one-lap record of 199.071 mph. In 1984, he set a new speed record for championship cars by qualifying for the Michigan 200 at 215.189 mph.

He has victories in 24 other races, including the 1974 Pocono 500 in Pennsylvania and the 1986 Michigan 500. In 1980, he was the National Driving Champion as well as the 1965 United States Auto Club Sprint Car Champion.

He also has a body that would make a great show-and-tell at the orthopedic convention. He surmises “all of them” when I ask how many bones he had broken over the years. There’s a famous photo of his Sprint car flying through the air upside down at Eldora. Rutherford is hanging out of the car. Someone was looking after him that day. Instead of landing upside down, the car hit nose first and settled on all four wheels. He broke both arms. He still can’t straighten the right arm completely.

Yet, he remains thankful: “If it had

Photos by Crystal Wise

landed upside down, I’d just be a fond memory.”

Rutherford also gained a little notice as a NASCAR driver. There are 63 onetime winners in the stock car circuit. Rutherford is one of those, winning a 100-mile qualifying race at Daytona, back when those counted as races. In Smokey Yunick’s Chevrolet, Rutherford turned in the fastest qualifying lap, eventually finishing ninth in NASCAR’s Super Bowl — the Daytona 500 — in 1963.

That same year, Rutherford made his first appearance at Indy, whose series sanctioning body’s car is an open-wheel, single-seat open cockpit car with the engine in the rear.

At the invitation of Indy 500 brass, Rutherford is traveling to Indianapolis in May, driving there, naturally. He will be honored on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his first championship at the race on May 26.

Rutherford wasn’t born here, but he planted roots long ago. His father — his “hero” — was a master aviation engine mechanic who moved the family here from Tulsa after the war to work at Consolidated Aircraft Corporation — the “Bomber Plant,” as the locals called it. The job kept him stateside during the war, his contributions repairing planes and training aviation mechanics essential to the effort to stop Hitler and Tojo.

“He was a smart man,” Rutherford says. “I had guys that worked with him in the business that said he could listen to an engine running and tell you what was wrong with it. My dad was my hero.”

His father, John, was the one who introduced him to cars and auto racing, taking young Johnny, then 7 or 8 years old in 1946, to see the midget car races in Tulsa. That’s no slur or an accessory to slur. Midgets are a class of racing cars.

“Midget racing was really big,” says Rutherford, who remembers thinking after the experience, “Ah, I wanted to be a race car driver.”

He didn’t begin racing until after graduating from Fort Worth’s North Side High School in 1956. He was 21 years old when he truly discovered his joy. Rutherford became hooked while in a hot rod club in River Oaks. One night at a meeting, one of the others announced that he had to leave early to help his brother put the engine in his dirt track car.

“Boy, that set me straight up in my chair,” Rutherford recalls of being introduced to Devil’s Bowl Speedway in Mesquite.

He sold off a race car he had built and took off to the Midwest in 1960 with fellow Texan Jim McElreath, the Arlington-born racer going off to race Sprint cars.

Rutherford didn’t finish his first shot at the biggest one of them all in 1963, the first of an 0-for-11 stretch at the Indianapolis 500. An oil leak and transmission problem served as the bogeyman, sending him out of the race before completing all 200 laps. Before 1973, his best finish at Indy was 18th in 1968 and ’71.

“I had always told Betty [his late wife] that if I could find somebody who wanted to race as badly as I did, we’d be winners,” Rutherford says. “McLaren was it.”

McLaren provided the team and machinery, a record-setting pole position the evidence. He finished ninth that year.

The next year, he broke through in his McLaren M16C, but rather than the front, he was forced to start way back in the field, essentially the runt of the starting grid. A cracked engine during practice required an engine change and had very little time to do it. The

crew completed the job in what Rutherford recalls being 58 minutes, but the delay nonetheless prevented him from getting into the qualifying lineup by the deadline.

That meant Rutherford would start 25th out of 33 entries. His starting position was the worst for any winner since 1932 when Fred Frame won from the 27th spot. But before the race was over, Rutherford had led 122 of the 200 laps. Rutherford obviously was never discouraged. “I started working forward very cautiously, and everything went well. The McLaren car performed beautifully, and the pit crew did a great job.”

By the fifth lap, he was already in eighth. By the 15th lap, he had moved to third and then to second.

“That’s how good my car was,” Rutherford says. “My car was fast.”

At lap 140, smoke began billowing out of Foyt’s sleek red Gilmore machine. On 142, oil from Foyt’s car started flowing like the water of the Jordan River, splattering all over the windshield of Rutherford’s No. 3.

“It just covered me up with oil,” Rutherford says. “They black-flagged him, and that was, you know, that was the race.”

To the victor went $245,000, or $1.2 million today. It was life-changing.

Not there that day to witness it was Rutherford’s hero, his father. John Rutherford had been in attendance for each of Rutherford’s previous 11 races at Indy. A terminal cancer diagnosis prevented him from traveling.

John Rutherford passed away two months later. The last time he left his bed, Rutherford says, was for the Indianapolis 500.

“My mother said he got out of bed to watch the race in his chair,” Rutherford says. “When we won, she said he got up and made it back to his bed.” That would be the last time he left the bed.

“Obviously my emotions were very mixed,” he says. “I was certainly sad to lose him. You can see it coming, but you’re never ready for it. My dad was my hero. It was not easy to take, but time marches on and you have to face the issues.”

Enlight Your Lone Star Nights

Discover what’s possible in luxury fireplace design.

There’s no compromising at Fireside Hearth & Home. The Enlight collection makes it easy to get the luxe look you love, without losing the functionality you need. Visit our Dallas showroom to explore all your modern fireplace options and turn your dream into a reality.

Visit our Dallas showroom

Stellar Enlight pier fireplace with crystal media and LED lighting.

LEARN MORE

Same family, new name.

Expressions Home Gallery is now Reece Bath+Kitchen

Our showroom may have a new name, but our commitment to excellence remains. Step inside Reece Bath+Kitchen to discover the exceptional service, expertise, and thoughtfully curated selection of top-rated products you’ve come to rely on. Plus, we’re now open on Saturdays!

by Brian Kendall

by Crystal Wise

It’s

Been a Long Time

Local

faves Green River Ordinance just released a new album, their first in eight years. So, where the heck have they been?

The fact that even rock stars grow up is proof that, beyond any reasonable doubt, like death and taxes, we all got it coming — growing up. Wives, kids, early bedtimes, producing income outside of touring and record releases, flat-out responsibilities — priorities change and, if you’re lucky, start stacking up.

This April marked the first time in eight years that Green River Ordi-

nance, the rock band that toes two lines — Americana and remaining a Fort Worth band (more on that later) — released new music.

Why has it been so long, you might ask? Well, they grew up.

The aptly titled For Old Time’s Sake is the band’s fifth full-length album and plays as a brilliant meditation on life post-35. You know, when gray hairs

start popping up, things start getting pretty darn serious, and reflections supplant angst as the primary driver of inspiration. When men of a certain age write music, there’s an obvious evolution. Personal songs and personal lyrics become pure nostalgia and have more to do with others or a collective than oneself. The album’s title track, which also happens to be its opening track, is a perfect example of this maturation.

“Boys, it’s been a long while, been a long time since I sat down tried to write a song,” head songwriter Josh Jenkins sings in crystal-clear twang, clearly addressing his longtime bandmates, in the tune’s opening lines.

“Meet me down in Fort Worth, we can let our guitars fly. Sing the songs that we sung a million times.”

The band — Josh, Jamey Ice, Geoff Ice, Denton Hunker, and Joshua Wilkerson — have been playing together, the five of them, for nearly 20 years. Josh, Jamey, and Geoff have been at it even longer — since Josh was 15 and Jamey and Geoff had bell bottoms and long hair and Green River Ordinance took its cues from Creedence Clearwater Revival.

After the lineup was set, they’d build an independent following over a couple years while balancing school — three of the guys went to TCU and Josh went to junior college — earning their keep traveling the state of Texas.

“We played every dive bar, pizza joint, and birthday party that would have us,” Josh says. “And we built enough of a following to garner some attention to hopefully get a record deal.”

Which they got.

The band has no doubt had success. And when considering the fate of most bands, they’ve had massive success. They signed a record deal with Capitol, and their subsequent 2009 album, Out of My Hands, while more a straight pop album than crossover, landed a couple singles on nationwide radio rotation. They toured with early aught juggernauts Switchfoot, Train, and Goo Goo Dolls and got substantial MTV play.

Photos

“Boys, it’s been a long while,” Josh Jenkins sings. Yes, it has, Green River Ordinance.

But their 2012 album, Under Fire, which they released independently, saw perhaps their biggest success when “Dancing Shoes” became a bona fide hit — it remains their most streamed song on Spotify.

But they didn’t quite break through. They flirted with but, ultimately, never reached the stratospheric and sometimes delusional heights any musician dreams to achieve — sold out arenas, multiple Grammys, sessions with Ruck Rubin.

“We’d had a lot of success but never had a massive hit,” Jamey, the band’s lead guitarist says. “We could go any-

where in the country, any city, and 500 to a thousand people would show up. But still, we never had that massive wave. And then we’re also having kids around that time, and then we also were all kind of dabbling in different things.”

Around this time, Jamey’s Fort Worth-based remodeling company, 6th Avenue Homes, would start to take off, which would lead to success in an entirely different field from music. Josh, meanwhile, double-downed on his music career, moved to Nashville, and now has his name attached as a co-writer on a few chart-topping songs, including Jordan Davis’ “Buy Dirt,” which won the CMA Song of the Year in 2021. Jamey’s brother, Geoff, is also in Nashville, and also married with children and is putting the MBA he earned on the road to good use running a stylish goods company called Gentleman’s Hardware. Denton Hunker, the band’s drummer, moved to Rhode Island with his wife, Ashley, where he owns a clothing and leather goods company, Dunker Goods. And Joshua Wilkerson is the only other member, aside from Jamey, who remained in Fort Worth, where he works for a property management company.

“[Initially], we were doing [the band] full time, not being in school and just being on the road,” Josh says. “And then early 30s, we start getting married and kids are either on the way or kids have already come. It just got more complicated. And I think all of us were like, man, it feels like the home life is so important to us. And, so, we slowed way down.”

According to Jamey, “We just said, let’s take a pause. Let’s take a break.”

But they’d stay in contact and would even play an occasional show, including a slate of three 2022 reunion shows at the newly opened Tannahill’s, which sold out in 24 hours.

“It was kind of this classic old band gets back together for some shows, and they’re, like, ‘Hey this feels good again. Let’s do an album,’” Jamey says.

Josh had an arsenal of songs at his

disposal — personal tunes he elected not to offer fellow Nashville artists, keeping them in his back pocket for Green River Ordinance. The band would get together in Nashville to record a couple songs but wound up recording a whole album. Sometimes inspiration strikes.

They’d play an album release show in the very place that kickstarted this whole album idea in the first place, Tannahill’s, on April 6. Despite being spread out across the nation — a couple here, a couple there, one in Rhode Island — when they played at Tannahill’s, they considered it playing at home. They are still a Fort Worth band.

“I still claim Fort Worth,” Jamey says. “Everyone’s from here, so everyone’s families are here. We were here for years and years and years. It’s what we call home.”

But don’t expect the quintet to play a plethora of shows around Cowtown anytime soon. It’s clear the group has found its groove, at least momentarily, and is pretty comfortable with where it’s at, both geographically and otherwise.

“Everybody’s kind of found their place, and it’s been really fun to see everybody kind of at this stage of life getting back in town,” Josh says. “And when we played, and our kids get up on stage, it’s just like I told the guys, ‘These shows are some of my favorite.’”

I’d say to hell with Rick Rubin. They reached the stratosphere.

The band has come together from all points on a map to churn out another album.

Part of the experience of the Green River Ordinance is prayerful fellowship.

Despite members of the band now living in different parts of the country, playing in Fort Worth was playing at home. “We were here for years and years and years. It’s what we call home.”

Doubling Down on Success

For Danny Leverett, there’s only one speed: LIGHT.

“Most people don’t grow up and say they want to be a roofer,” Leverett muses. “Doctor, lawyer, policeman, okay, but roofer? Come on!” Leverett himself never dreamt of becoming a roofer either. Yet, he’s spent a significant portion of his life in the roofing industry. At a mere 10 years old, he was hauling bundles of shingles up a ladder for his father, a roofer in Fort

Worth during the 70s. “Back then, we were just wired differently. We worked hard, supported our families, and did whatever it took to make ends meet,” he recalls.

Leverett admits school wasn’t his forte, but his desire for self-improvement has been a driving force throughout his life. Those who

know him recognize that his personality is single-mindedly focused on success.

Ever since his childhood, Leverett knew he was wired differently. Being the middle of three boys, he was always competitive. “Hit me, I hit harder. Solve a problem, and I’ll find a quicker solution,” he says. His relentless drive wasn’t just limited to childhood games; it carried over into his ventures. Throughout his life, he dabbled in various businesses. “In my 20s, I started a telemarketing company. By my 30s, I was deeply involved in the car business and even ascended to the position of General Manager,” Leverett recounts. But true satisfaction eluded him until he returned to roofing in his 40s.

“By Christmas of 2011, I stood at a crossroads: either reach my potential

Fort Worth Magazine Reader’s Pick for Best of Roofing Company

“Our customers are the core of our business.”

or face another year of unmet goals,” Leverett recalls. At 45, an epiphany struck him: the blueprint for the most successful Roofing and General Contracting Company in Texas. Leverett took a leap of faith, founding Tarrant Roofing in his garage more than a decade ago. He says with conviction, “The word ‘quit’ never resonated with me. Losing was an alien concept. For me, success was a mindset, not just an outcome.”

So, why Tarrant Roofing?

“Our customers are the core of our business,” he emphasizes. From the outset, the company has built strong ties with a vast network of Realtors, Home Inspectors, Insurance Agencies, and Property Management companies in Texas. But the advent of COVID threw a curveball. But after 48 hours, I realized that retreating wasn’t an option,” says Leverett. A shift in strategy was the answer. The company transitioned from being a transactional entity to aiming to be the roofer of choice in Texas. They lead with a “Quality First, Profit Second” ethos. Leverett candidly states, “Yes, even we make mistakes occasionally. But when we do, we ensure it’s rectified. If we have to redo an entire roof, we do. That’s our commitment.”

Looking ahead, Leverett is optimistic.

“There are two types of business owners: those content with limited success and those who relentlessly push boundaries. I definitely belong to the latter,” he chuckles. He believes that complacency is the enemy

of progress After witnessing staggering growth Leverett made a pact to always stay passionate about his work. “It’s not an obligation; it’s a privilege to come to work,” he believes. This mindset has played a pivotal role in Tarrant Roofing’s expansion.

From branching out to commercial sectors, integrating a home warranty division, and even launching an in-house metal fabrication department, Leverett has continued to drive success.

“And come July 2023, we’re entering the Solar business, a brand new division. By the end of 2023, Tarrant Roofing will span three states and several major markets,” Leverett shares with evident pride.

As the sun shines over a myriad of roofs in Texas, those touched by Tarrant Roofing stand a little taller, protected by a legacy of dedication, excellence, and an unwavering commitment to the customer. With Danny Leverett at the helm, the sky’s the limit.

by John Henry

Welcome Home, Chiefs

One of the best traveled pieces of literature over the past month was a travel story in TheTimesof London, whose visiting correspondent proclaimed in little more than 700 words that Fort Worth was the “coolest city in Texas,” having passed Austin in the realm of hip.

“Chic new hotels, a thriving creative scene, and great restaurants are turning sunny Fort Worth into the state’s latest hotspot,” the headline blared on smart phones and tablets across a proud city sticking out its collective chest in self-assurance as if having just conquered a bull in eight seconds.

“Now is the time to visit ‘Panther City.’”

The discerning reader likely noticed that the author, Jonathan Thompson, in a nod to transparency, fessed up that he had been “a guest of Visit Fort Worth.” Though we don’t know if Mr. Thompson came to his conclusions all by himself, we all concur with his findings.

Well, mostly. Comparisons to Austin are fightin’ words in these parts. But we have only two words for The Times’ conclusions: No Shiitake, as we say in polite company.

Clever D Magazine gave some room to comment on this story, and we agree with them: How difficult is it exactly to be cooler than Austin, the state capital in everything from the Legislature to music and pop culture, as well as the counterculture that lost its edge long before it lost its police department?

Well, The Times of London, you’re late to the party, but we appreciate the effort, as well as the publicity. Fort Worth, the fastest-growing big city in America, is no longer “The Unexpected City”; it’s now “The Unexpected International Destination.”

Come one, come all. Some stranger

you meet here is sure to buy the first round.

Fort Worth has become a cog in North Texas’ economic hub. Its global connectivity both in cultural and economic circles is beyond dispute. Fort Worth has stood out all by itself as a major contributor to not only that but the proverbial melting pot of different cultures, languages, and lifestyles.

There’s a whole lot more here than boots, beaver hats, and bovines.

There is admittedly one hole, however, as pointed out by a periodical with skins on the wall: pro sports. The one cultural attraction we don’t have is a franchise in one of the five biggest pro sports leagues.

This was pointed out by the Sports Business Journal, which ranked Fort Worth No. 1 among cities without a team in the National Football League, Major League Baseball, National Hockey League, National Basketball Association, or Major League Soccer.

An interesting development is occurring in Kansas City. Last month, voters struck down in a landslide the renewal of a sales tax that would have been used to help pay for major renovations at Arrowhead Stadium, home of the Kansas City Chiefs. The tax is in place through 2031. Voters nixed renewing it for another 33 years.

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, who has been advocating for a second NFL franchise in the market, took no time to hammer some stakes in the ground.

“Welcome home, Dallas Texans,” he wrote on X, a reference to the original Chiefs’ name.

“The connections are so deep, the history is so rich,” Johnson went on to tell The Athletic, adding that he has an open line of communication with Chiefs’ owner Clark Hunt, a Dallas resi-

dent. “We actually could put together the deals that would make sense for them to get them here.”

Jerry Jones, of course, was told by Dallas leaders to take his business elsewhere when he was looking to build a new stadium for the Cowboys. Maybe times have changed.

Well, I’ve got a better suggestion.

Welcome back to Texas, Fort Worth Chiefs. We’ll build you your modern, odiously objectionable Colosseum with master suites and amenities, an obnoxious video screen, and distasteful prices for nachos. You’ll make a fortune, and the city will hopefully see a boost in sales tax and hotel and tourism revenue.

We’ve done this recently, and the end has been a rousing success. The “for” voters prevailed overwhelmingly in committing the city to assisting the construction of Dickies Arena. Anybody with buyer’s remorse on Dickies lives under a rock. It has done everything and more that it was advertised to do. Tarrant County also pitched in to help build the Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium in Arlington.

Lamar Hunt, 60 years ago, considered making Fort Worth such a part of his franchise family that he was going to put the city in the name, the DallasFort Worth Texans. They were going to play in a domed stadium in Arlington, which could host baseball, too.

Unlike 65 years ago, the Dallas-Fort Worth metro is probably big enough — or soon will be — to support a second NFL franchise. It’ll happen over Jerry’s dead body. He has no interest in ceding Cowboys territory in his backyard. Not to mention, the brand is so strong across Fort Worth and Dallas, newborns arrive with a star in the double helix.

So, this is all probably tantamount to world peace. (Not to mention, Arlington is our pal.)

But, Chiefs, if 2031 rolls around and you’re still not happy with the citizens — your fans — guarding their wallets like a family heirloom, we’ve got space and willing wrecking balls.

Our expert estheticians craft personalized waxing services, state of the art brow art and luxurious facials using the finest products and techniques, rejuvenating your skin and unveiling a radiant, youthful glow. Each treatment is tailored to address your unique skincare needs, leaving you feeling pampered and revitalized.

VOTED BEST ESTHETICIAN (WAXING, MICRODERMABRASION)

BIJOU

Redefined

Serving Fort Worth Since 2015

Your Experience Awaits

SUMMER, DROVER STYLE

NAMED BEST HOTEL + BEST PATIO WITH DRINKS WITH

Experience relaxation and adventure this summer at Hotel Drover, where every moment promises legendary memories. Unwind in style at our rustic-luxe poolside oasis, where cool shade and all-new refreshing libations offer the ultimate summertime respite. Dive into a world of excitement with an array of indoor entertainment just steps away, from thrilling rodeos at Cowtown Coliseum to live music at renowned venues like Billy Bob’s Texas and Tannahill’s Tavern & Music Hall.

AS FEATURED IN

Leighton Berry Best Athlete (Page 102)

BEST Nothin’ but the

Welcome to our annual celebration of everything that makes Cowtown the best dang city. Period. Sure, there are bigger cities (but only 12, to be exact), fancier cities (but we doubt these folks have been to the Bowie House), and more famous cities (if only the show “Dallas” took place 30 miles west). But we love this town. We love it for its creativity, its grit, and its eccentricities. Yes, we unabashedly think we are the best, and the proof is in the following pages.

BY BRIAN KENDALL, MALCOLM MAYHEW, STEPHEN MONTOYA, AND JOHN HENRY

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CRYSTAL WISE

The Most Important Meal(s) of the Day

CAFECITO AND FIDE’S (Cafecito) READER PICK: Breakfast (Fide’s) EDITOR PICK: Dessert

By Malcolm Mayhew and Brian Kendall

Bookending our daily meals — if you abide by the notdoctor-prescribed notion of three square meals plus a square(ish) dessert — is the Near Southside’s duo of eateries, Cafecito and Fide’s.

Conceivably, one could start their morning munching on a breakfast taco from Cafecito and, 12 hours later, end their day with an acai bowl from Fide’s. And we suspect many a Southside-dwelling Fort Worthian has already done such a thing.

Located inside Eighth Avenue’s Funky Town Food Hall, which is also home to bubble tea franchise, Sharetea, the neighboring spots are the brainchild of mother-daughter-son-in-law trio Yaneth Sanchez, Cinthya Duran, and Adrian Duran.

Cafecito first started slinging pink tortillas (yeah, that’s right, their corn tortillas are pink) out of a food truck parked next to nearby Hotel Revel in December 2022. Only eight months later, the business graduated to brick-and-mortar status and moved a mere 300 feet to the Funky Town Food Hall.

The eatery quickly gained in popularity — they are our reader’s choice for best breakfast, after all — with their pink tortilla breakfast tacos, which include barbacoa, brisket, bean and cheese, chorizo, and your classic potato and egg options becoming the most Instagrammable fare in the city.

Though these pink concoctions might be what’s dominating your feed, one of the menu’s most delectable highlights is the sincronizada, melted cheese and ham between two crispy flour tortillas with an avocado spread and healthy sprinkle of hot sauce.

On the opposite end of the meal spectrum is neighboring Fide’s, a kinda sorta healthy dessert shop.

Their small menu is made up of acai bowls and smoothie bowls and drinks, all jammed with fresh fruits, granola, and other healthy toppings. Many are dusted with Mexican spices such as chamoy or tajin that give the bowls a bit more character and kick.

“We wanted to put our own spin on them,” says Cinthya, who worked with her mom on developing the flavors. Bowls come in flavors such as Sunkissed, made up of mango,

Food & Drink

Appetizer

READER PICK

97 West

97westkitchenandbar.com

EDITOR PICK

Fitzgerald eatatfitz.com

Asian

READER PICK

Pantry on Magnolia pantry-on-magnolia.square.site

EDITOR PICK

Asia Bowl & Grill asiabowlngrill.site

Atmosphere

READER PICK

The Coupe thecoupeftw.com

EDITOR PICK

Emilia’s emiliasfortworth.com

Bakery

READER PICK

Grace’s Tiers gracestiersbakery.com

EDITOR PICK

Sweet Lucy’s Pies sweetlucyspies.com

Barbecue

READER PICK

Dayne’s Craft Barbecue daynescraftbarbecue.com

EDITOR PICK

Sabar BBQ

Breakfast

READER PICK Cafecito cafecitofw.com

EDITOR PICK

Blue Mound Cafe (Belknap location)

Brewery

READER PICK

Keyworth Brewing Company keyworthbrewing.com

EDITOR PICK

Maple Branch Craft Brewery maplebranchbrew.com

Brunch

READER PICK Il Modo ilmodorestaurant.com

EDITOR PICK

Gustos Burger Bar + More

Catering

READER PICK

Cherry On Top Catering cherryontopcateringandevents. com

EDITOR PICK

JayCee Hospitality jayceehospitality.com

Chicken-Fried Steak

READER PICK

Campfire Grill campfiregrilltx.com

EDITOR PICK

Lonesome Dove lonesomedovebistro.com

Coffee Shop

READER PICK

Love Local Coffee & Art Shop lovelocalcoffee.com

EDITOR PICK

Buon Giorno Coffee bgcoffee.net

pineapple, coconut water, cucumber, tajin, and chamoy; and Summer Love, made with banana, mango, guava juice, peaches, granola, and acai.

You can also mix and match flavors and ingredients to make your own bowl. There are smoothie drinks, too, in which ingredients such as agave, chia seeds, protein powder, spinach, and acai can be blended in.

Duran says Fide’s (pronounced “Fee-Day’s”) was heavily inspired by her grandmother.

“Everyone called her Fide, that was her nickname,” Duran says. “Her home was always full of tropical fruits and fresh flowers, so I took a lot of inspiration from that.”

Opening in March of this year, Fide’s took over the space last occupied by Filipino spot Ober Here.

“We jumped on the space pretty fast after Ober Here closed,” Duran says. “I was pregnant in the middle of all this. Sometimes I’d say, `Why did I do this to myself? Why would I try to open a second restaurant while I’m pregnant?’ It was a very chaotic time. But I’m crazy like that.”

It was, in fact, Duran’s pregnancy that led her to focus on acai bowls.

“I was terribly sick during my first trimester,” she says. “The only thing I could keep down was acai. I felt like I was eating something fresh and healthy. Since there was nothing like it on the Near Southside, we decided we should open an acai bowl place. I figured if I loved it so much, other people would, too.”

cafecitofw.com

Comfort Food

READER PICK

R&R Soul Food rrsoulfood.com

EDITOR PICK

River Oaks Cafe riveroakscafeftworth.com

Dessert

READER PICK

Leo’s Churro Bar

EDITOR PICK

Fide’s fidesfw.com

Distillery

READER PICK

Acre Distilling acredistilling.com

EDITOR PICK

Lockwood Distilling lockwooddistilling.com

Doughnut/

Kolache

READER PICK

Dusty Biscuit Beignets thedustybiscuit.com

EDITOR PICK

Dreamboat Donuts & Scoops dreamboatdonuts.com

Food Truck

READER PICK

Mariscos el Cáchanilla

French Fries

READER PICK

Lili’s Bistro lilisbistro.com

EDITOR PICK

Tok Fries at Tokyo Cafe tokyocafefw.com

Frozen Treat

READER PICK

Morgan’s Ice Cream morgansicecreamco.com

EDITOR PICK

La’Creamian lacreamian.com

Grab-n-Go

READER PICK

Bodega South Main bodegasouthmain.com

EDITOR PICK

Roy Pope Grocery roypopegroceryfw.com

Healthy Bite

READER PICK

Local Foods Kitchen localfoodskitchen.com

EDITOR PICK

Vice Burger vice-burger.com

Hole-inthe-Wall

READER PICK

Daybreak Cafe and Grill

EDITOR PICK

Dos Molina’s

Italian

READER PICK

Cafe Bella cafebellaftw.com

EDITOR PICK

Caterina’s caterinasftx.com

Beer Bros.

KEYWORTH BREWING COMPANY

READER PICK: Brewery

By John Henry

The beer brothers’ operation that now operates in North Richland Hills began for simple enough reasons.

“I was looking into ways to get beer cheaper,” says Josh Keyworth, age 39 and leaning into 40.

A Google search on “where to buy cheaper kegs” for his kegerator was his Eureka moment.

“I discovered you could make beer,” he says. “I had no idea. Once my brother got involved a couple of months later, he went like Walter White.”

“He was just addicted to the process,” Josh says of his brother Kevin. “We started upgrading things and spending more money and more time, and we started making really good stuff. People we knew were asking us to make for them and do parties and weddings. So, the dream was born from there.”

Where they are now is a three-headed leadership group of Keyworth Brewing.

Michelle, 40, Josh’s wife, is a partner and so is Kevin, 37, known forever after, to me at least, as Mr. White of the critically acclaimed series “Breaking Bad.”

Keyworth Brewing has been open only since September. Their customers love the place obviously.

“Our goal is to have plenty of beers on tap in a wide range,” Josh says. “We don’t have a ton of IPAs, and we don’t have a ton of stouts. We don’t have a ton of light beers and all that stuff. We have a little bit of everything.”

keyworthbrewing.com

Battered and Smothered

CAMPFIRE GRILL TEXAS KITCHEN

READER PICK: Best Chicken-Fried Steak

By Brian Kendall

Leave it to our readers to tell us (the editors, the supposed “authority”) what’s good. In 2016, the year after Campfire Grill Texas Kitchen opened in an innocuous red-bricked strip mall in Watauga — right across from a Papa John’s — the Southern eatery appeared on our Best of Fort Worth list for the first time, taking the award for the city’s best comfort food, where there’s some stiff competition.

We’d never heard of Campfire Grill. And we love comfort food. Every year since, the inoffensive diner with a walk-up window for ordering and a self-service soda station has made an appearance on our coveted list. And for dang good reason.

Owners Kareem Lawton and Pablo Resendez created a menu that pays tribute to each of Texas’ culinary regions, including Gulf Coast seafood and even a few Tex-Mex items. But the draw is the Southern Comfort section of their menu, which includes, dare we say, one of the state’s best chicken-fried steaks.

The hefty serving of pounded, battered beef smothered in rich cream gravy comes with slow-cooked green beans and mashed taters. Come for lunch, and your gullet will leave a happy camper, but you might also require a little shuteye. We’re sure our readers can tell you all about the experience.

campfiregrilltx.com

Late Night Eats

READER PICK

Buffalo Bros. buffalobrostexas.com

EDITOR PICK

Benito’s benitosmexican.com

Margarita

READER PICK

Joe T. Garcia’s joetgarcias.com

EDITOR PICK

Maria’s Mexican Kitchen mariasmexicankitchen.com

Mediterranean

READER PICK

Istanbul Grill

EDITOR PICK

King Tut’s kingtutegyptian.com

New Restaurant

READER PICK

61 Osteria 61osteria.com

EDITOR PICK

Teddy Wong’s Dumplings & Wine teddywongs.com

Patio Dining

READER PICK

Branch & Bird branchbirdfw.com

EDITOR PICK

Quince quincesma.com/fw

Pizza

READER PICK

Gepetto’s Pizza Truck gepettopizzatruck.com

EDITOR PICK

Parton’s Pizza partonspizza.com

Pop-up

READER PICK

Ol’ Fashioned Lemon Shakers

EDITOR PICK

Kevin Martinez

Queso

READER PICK

Torchy’s Tacos torchystacos.com

EDITOR PICK

Paloma Suerte palomasuerteftx.com

Restaurant We Wish Would Come Back

READER PICK

Cannon Chinese Kitchen

EDITOR PICK

Tre Mogli

Salsa

READER PICK

Los Asaderos losasaderos.com

EDITOR PICK

Meso Maya mesomaya.com

Sandwich Shop

READER PICK

Carshon’s Deli carshonsdeli.com

EDITOR PICK

The Sour Boule misnerfamilyfarms.com

Seafood

READER PICK

Mariscos el Cáchanilla

EDITOR PICK

Walloons walloonsrestaurant.com

Street King

BOCA 31

READER PICK: Street Food

By Stephen Montoya

Street food isn’t just a cheaper way to experience a geographical area’s culinary preferences, it’s also the best (and one could argue, tastiest) representation of a place’s cultural heritage. It’s what the locals eat, so no fare is more indicative of a place’s palate.

So, if you wanna take a quick culinary trip to Latin America — sans a long flight — Boca 31 should be your prime destination. On the corner of Rosedale Street and Eighth Avenue, you’ll find house-made empanadas, street tacos, quesadillas, and authentic Miami-style Cuban sandwiches.

A concept from world-traveling chef and restaurateur, Andres Meraz, and his wife, Marlene, the first Boca 31 opened in Denton in 2016 before expanding to Keller, followed by Fort Worth in 2023, which now remains its sole location. Lucky us.

“Originally, I wanted to do some elevated seafood. And my wife’s like, ‘Well, in this specific location [North Texas], you might not be able to do that,’” Meraz says. “So, I had to kind of tone it down.”

Having previously worked in kitchens spanning the globe, including Miami and San Sebastian, Spain, Meraz would end up infusing his experiences from his travels and previous jobs when creating the menu for his new concept.

“I went back to my roots and really just tried to hone in on that,” Meraz says. “And that’s when I started doing the tacos and the empanadas. Empanadas weren’t something I grew up eating, but in Miami I saw them everywhere and I just love them.”

Besides a sundry of daily specials on Boca 31’s menu, it’s Meraz’s housemade empanadas, served both savory and sweet, that prevents anyone from becoming a one-time customer. The menu also boasts his take on an authentic Cuban sandwich, complete with pulled pork, ham, cheese, mustard, and pickles on ciabatta bread.

“We don’t have a giant menu here,” Meraz says as a point of pride. “The smaller the menu, the fresher the ingredients.”

boca31.com

The Good Ol’ Tried and True

CARSHON’S DELI

READER PICK: Sandwich Shop

By Malcolm Mayhew

There’s not a bad time to go to Carshon’s, but the BEST time to go is around noon when the lunch rush is in full swing. You may have to wait a bit for a table, but noon is, roughly, give or take a few minutes, when the pies come out of the oven.

You won’t find a better slice of meringue pie anywhere in Fort Worth, its chocolate or banana or coconut or lemon fillings still trembling from the heat of the oven, its crown of fluffy meringue melting in your mouth like cotton candy.

Oh, there are sandwiches, too. One of the city’s oldest and most beloved restaurants, Carshon’s Deli is best known, in this century and the last one, for spectacular sandwiches. They’re simple things, really, just layer upon layer of meat and cheese and maybe sauerkraut and whatever spread you want, squeezed into outstanding bread.

How and why no one else in Fort Worth can do a sandwich as good as Carshon’s is a mystery we have zero interest in solving.

There will never come a day when some restaurant, sandwich shop, pop-up kitchen or food truck will stop boasting of having the best sandwiches in town, and there will never come a day when we won’t remind them that they are lying.

Doubters and skeptics and those who have moved here from

Dallas and California and maybe just don’t know any better, you only need to try one of Carshon’s sandwiches to see the error of your ways. Hmmm, though, what should that sandwich be? Do you like cream cheese squished between turkey and pastrami? First off, you should. Secondly, you need Rebecca.

The Rebecca is, depending on what day you ask us, what kind of mood we’re in, and other factors that may affect our purely subjective analysis, the best sandwich in Fort Worth. Perfectly sliced so it’s not too thick or thin, layers of pastrami and smoked turkey are accompanied by a blanket of cream cheese and Russian dressing, all of which are evenly dispersed between three pieces of grilled egg bread.

Now, if you ask us tomorrow what the best sandwich is in Fort Worth, we may not say Rebecca; we may say Rachel. Depends on our mood, remember?

The Rachel stole our hearts years and years and years ago, before we were introduced to the seductive ways of the Rebecca. Rachel was there first, wielding slices of corned beef and turkey, heating up our mouths with still-melting Swiss cheese, cooling us down with a sheet of coleslaw and Russian dressing, and bringing everything together on grilled rye bread.

It was the first time we — and possibly you — had ever had rye bread. Many Fort Worthians grew up on your bread basics: white or wheat. Carshon’s — opened downtown in 1928 by Jewish immigrant David Carshon and later moved to Berry Street, then, finally, to its current digs on Cleburne Road — is quite possibly where many of us discovered this bread’s unique pleasures.

Herein lies our city’s primary culinary dilemma — not sauce or no sauce on barbecue, not beans or no beans in chili, not Mex-Mex or Tex-Mex. It is, and always will be, as long as Carshon’s is open, Rebecca or Rachel.

carshonsdeli.com

CAFÉ BELLA

READER PICK: Italian

By Malcolm Mayhew

The first person to greet you at Cafe Bella will, most likely, be owner Eli Golemi, and chances are, she’ll be the one who says, “God bless you” on your way out . In between, as you dine, you’ll see her time and time again, seating guests, ringing up bills, dashing into the kitchen.

While many restaurant owners opt to leave their dining rooms and kitchens in the able hands of managers, Golemi is that rare owner who plays a pivotal role in her restaurant’s day-to-day — always there, always working, always in motion.

“No, no, no, no, I have to be here,” she says. “I cannot imagine not being here. I have to make sure the food tastes good. I have to help the waitresses. I have to greet everyone and let them know how much I appreciate them coming. I have to make sure

everyone is happy.”

Golemi has much to do with why our readers chose this small cafe as their favorite Italian restaurant. Half of her 53 years have been spent here, first as a server and, for the past 13 years, as an owner. Every day the restaurant is open, she’s here, arriving around 12 or 1 in the afternoon to help open, leaving around 12 or 1 at night to help close.

She knows most of her restaurant’s guests by name. Those she doesn’t know, well, she will by the time they leave. It’s that kind of place, a nod to old Fort Worth, when diners struck up conversations with other diners and the owners and the servers and the bussers and leave having forged new friendships; that’s what a good neighborhood restaurant does.

“I like to know the name of every guest, every person who eats here,” says Golemi, who was born and raised in Greece. “I consider this my second home. I want customers to feel like it’s their second home, too.”

There is much to admire here, from the fresh flowers adorning every table, most hand-picked and arranged by Golemi herself, to the sheer energy of the expert staff and chatty patrons. It’s a spectacle just to watch the servers moving with ballet-like grace and precision through the tight squeeze of a dining room, carrying plates of spaghetti, fettuccine Alfredo, and eggplant parmigiana on their arms, like the waitresses in “Alice.”

The high energy of the dining room spills onto the covered patio — home to the restaurant’s most desired seats. There are better restaurant patios elsewhere in Fort Worth, offering lovely views of tranquil rivers, skyscraping buildings, and bustling nightlife. But, for some reason, diners here don’t mind waiting an hour to sit on a patio that is surrounded by a parking lot.

“It’s not about the view, it’s about the space,” Golemi says. “It’s their space. It’s where their friends and family get together after work or after school and can let go. It’s a patio, so people are more at ease than they would be in the dining room. They feel like they can have a lot of fun, and they do.”

Cafe Bella’s menu is also a nod to old Fort Worth, echoing restaurants such as Prima and Milano’s. It’s made up of Italian classics — lasagna, baked ziti, eggplant parmigiana, lobster ravioli, pizzas. Nothing flashy, nothing groundbreaking. Just solid Italian staples, done well, and reasonably priced.

Every once in a while, Golemi says, she’ll offer a dish that pays homage to her Greek heritage.

“I’ll do a special now and then that shows the type of cooking

I like to do at home,” she says. “But people come here for the Italian food. There’s a lot of me and my style of cooking in each dish we serve.”

Each table receives a basket of freshly made rolls, still piping hot when you tear into them. To drink, there’s water and iced tea; there are no soft drinks. The restaurant is BYOB, and it’s not uncommon to see diners from different tables trying each other’s wines.

Many of these diners have been with Golemi since Day One, when she was a server and the restaurant was in a different location, with a different name. A spinoff of Prima called Bella Pasta & Pizza (both were owned by the same family), the restaurant opened in 2000 a few blocks away, in an old Dairy Queen on the Bluebonnet Circle. Four years later, Albanian owner Sal Kaba moved it to its current location, on the backside of the post-warbuilt Westcliff Shopping Center.

Golemi came to the U.S. when she was in her 20s, hoping her children would take advantage of the multitude of career opportunities that were lacking in her homeland; both her son, Arti, and daughter, Nikoleta, are now making their ways through college.

“When I first started working here, I didn’t know any English,” Golemi says. “My customers were the ones who taught me English.”

Through the years, Golemi worked her way up to managing Cafe Bella, her magnetic personality and seemingly bottomless supply of hospitality helping her cultivate a following. When Kaba retired, she became the sole owner, fulfilling a dream that she never knew she had.

“I had no desire to own a restaurant when I first came to this country,” she says with a laugh. “I cleaned houses for a long time. I didn’t know I had a passion for this until I started doing it. I say, `God bless you,’ to my customers because I feel like He has blessed me. This life, this crazy life that I have, it’s a lot of work, a lot of hard work. But I wouldn’t change anything. I love it.” cafebellaftw.com

Service

READER PICK Don Artemio donartemio.us

EDITOR PICK

Hudson House hudsonhousehp.com

Steakhouse

READER PICK

Stone House stonehouse-restaurant.com

EDITOR PICK

Grace gracefortworth.com

Street Food

READER PICK Boca 31 boca31.com

EDITOR PICK

Lola’s Cuban Food lolascubanfood.com

Sushi

READER PICK Tokyo Cafe tokyocafefw.com

EDITOR PICK

Little Lilly Sushi littlelillysushi.com

Taco (Specific, Not Restaurant)

READER PICK

El Capitan at Salsa Limón salsalimon.com

EDITOR PICK

Chicharron Tacos at Los Pastores

Tapas/ Shareable Plates

READER PICK Ático aticoftworth.com

EDITOR PICK

Musume musumedallas.com/fort-worth

Taqueria

READER PICK

Los Tacos H’s lostacohsdfw.com

EDITOR PICK

Taqueria Taxco ttaxco.com

Tex-Mex

READER PICK

Enchiladas Olé enchiladasole.com

EDITOR PICK

Fiesta Mexican Restaurant orderfiestamexicanrestaurant. com

Vegan/ Vegetarian

READER PICK

Pizza Verde pizzaverdetx.com

Shopping & Service

Antique Shop/ Secondhand Store

READER PICK

Studio 74 Vintage studio74vintage.com

EDITOR PICK

Vagabond Vintage vagabondvintageclothing.com

Auto Service

READER PICK

Lone Star Bavarian lonestarbavarian.com

EDITOR PICK

Downtown Tires

Boarder/ Groomer

READER PICK

House of Wag houseofwagdfw.com

EDITOR PICK

Metro Animals metroanimals.com

Book Store

READER PICK

Monkey and Dog Books monkeyanddogbooks.com

EDITOR PICK

Morris Boot Company

Bridal

Boutique

READER PICK

Birdie Bridal birdiebridal.com

EDITOR PICK

Emerald Bridal Lounge emeraldbridallounge.com

Child

Care/Day Care

READER PICK

Lena Pope Early Learning Center lenapope.org

EDITOR PICK

Authentic Education Academy authenticeducationacademy. com

Children’s Boutique

READER PICK

Collins + Conley collinsandconley.com

EDITOR PICK

Zoe & Jack

Co-working Space

READER PICK

Ensemble Coworking ensemblecoworking.com

EDITOR PICK

LaunchBox Collective launchboxcollective.com

Dog Park

READER PICK

Z-Bonz Dog Park

EDITOR PICK

Mutts Cantina muttscantina.com

Down on the Corner

MAVERICK FINE WESTERN WEAR

READER PICK: Western Apparel

By Stephen Montoya

Arhetorical question: Is there a better time to be in the Western wear industry? If fashion keeps trending the way it is, there could be a whole generation of people who look at a button and wonder why it’s not a pearl snap.

And we’d also argue, if one was in the Western wear industry, there’s no better place to be than where Maverick Fine Western Wear sits, the corner of North Main Street and E Exchange Avenue in the Fort Worth Stockyards — ground zero for where the West begins.

The 30-year-old Western wear shop is a beacon of western style, which is observed by locals and envied by the throng of national and international visitors who swing by the Stockyards to catch a glimpse of the Old West. Whether you’re in the market for a custom cowboy hat, a slick high-end pair of boots, or a nice piece of bling to accentuate your already honed Western look, this spot is what we would call a “go-to.”

Gayle Hill opened the store in 1987, four years after opening the still-popular General Store across North Main Street. The way she tells it, the tenant of the much-desired corner spot that would eventually become Maverick had abandoned the store, leaving her wondering about its possibilities.

“The landlord is my ex-husband, and I asked him if I could have that spot to expand and do something a little different because the General Store is mostly gifts and souvenirs,” she says. “I wanted an opportunity to start doing ladies clothing,

sportswear, and jewelry.”

Hill would get her wish and would soon expand, knocking down her store’s east wall and taking over what was once the Maverick Social Club — hence the name. Hill says she wasn’t about to take out the social club’s long wooden bar that was in the center of her new expansion.

“I didn’t see any reason to destroy the beautiful bar,” Hill says. “So, we got a beer license, which allows us to not only sell beer, but also wine. This spot also gives our customers a place to sit and relax while they’re shopping. And the men especially like it.”

But Hill’s customers, which include the likes of Eric Clapton and Pat Green, don’t frequent her store because of the beer. No siree, they come for the western wear. On any given day, Maverick carries everything from women’s western gear and jewelry to high-end cowboy, or ahem, cowgirl boots. Another unique item Maverick is proud as punch to have is one of only three custom cowboy hat conformatuers in the Lone Star State. Inspired by a French design that dates back to the 1840s, this device is used to track the skull pattern of anyone wanting to buy a custom fit high-end cowboy hat. When placed on a customer’s head, this device uses a series of pins to punch holes into a card that gives an exact outline of their head shape to scale. Just imagine a dark ages torture device turned hatter tool.

“To this day, there is no better way to get a custom fit, and it remains the best technology (or anti-technology) in hat making,” a promo card in the store reads.

Despite Maverick’s legendary inventory, unique space, and phenomenal locale, Hill says none of it would mean anything without the aid of her staff, whom she treats like honest to goodness family.

“My real claim to fame is the people that I’ve managed to get to work with because they’re the real reason Maverick is what it is,” Hill says. “I’ll take credit for finding this place, but I can’t take credit for the merchandise. I mean, sure, I like a lot of it, and I go with ‘em to oversee purchases, but I try not to be the final word. I feel like they’re more talented in that area and that’s really what’s given us continued success.”

maverickwesternwear.com

Dry Cleaning

READER PICK

Fort Worth Family Cleaners fortworthfamilycleaners.com

EDITOR PICK

Kite’s Custom Cleaners kitescleaners.com

Event Planner

READER PICK

Ellison Event Productions ellisoneventproductions.com

EDITOR PICK

Eclipse Entertainment eclipseentertainment.com

Event Staffing & Bartending

READER PICK

Blessed By Association

EDITOR PICK

Teresa’s Event Staffing & Bartending teresaseventstaffing.com

Event Venue

READER PICK

Artspace 111 artspace111.com

EDITOR PICK

Stoney Ridge Villa stoneyridgevilla.com

Eyewear

READER PICK

Eyeworks eyeworksgroup.com

EDITOR PICK

CHROMA Modern chromamodern.com

Fine Jewelry

READER PICK

Collections Fine Jewelry collectionsfinejewelry.com

EDITOR PICK

Kubes Jewelers kubesjewelers.com

Florist

READER PICK

Lilium Floral Design liliumflorals.com

EDITOR PICK

Gordon Boswell Flowers gordonboswell.com

Gift Shop

READER PICK

Love Local Coffee & Art Shop lovelocalcoffee.com

EDITOR PICK

Morgan Mercantile morganmercantile.com

Grocery Store

READER PICK

Hao’s Grocery & Cafe

EDITOR PICK

Roy Pope Grocery roypopegroceryfw.com

Insurance Agent or Firm

READER PICK

Benny Cartlidge – Allstate

EDITOR PICK

Higginbotham higginbotham.com

Liquor Store

READER PICK

Kings Liquor

EDITOR PICK

Fort Liquor on Magnolia

Men’s

Boutique

READER PICK

Franklin & Anthony

franklinandanthony.com

EDITOR PICK

Chieffalo Americana

The Biggest Little Shop in the City

STUDIO 74 VINTAGE

READER PICK: Antique Shop/Secondhand Store

By Brian Kendall

In February, a picture of Billy Bob Thornton, star of the Fort Worth-filmed “Landman,” was making the rounds in Cowtown. He was looking like the begrudging movie star he is, sporting an Amon Carter-style cowboy hat and a Henley shirt, and stood, with one hand in his pocket and a slight smirk, next to a collection of colorful weathered boots and pink paisley

dresses. Like a lot of famous folk who make their way to the Camp Bowie area, the pic was captured while he and his wife were shopping at Studio 74 Vintage.

“I had no idea he was coming,” Lauren Simmons, owner and sole employee of Studio 74, told me. “But he also didn’t know that I had done some of the costuming for ‘Landman.’ So, when he was here, we were able to make that connection. A lot of the stuff you’re going to see him wearing in the show came from my store.”

The highly curated secondhand store, which is chock-full of unique, one-of-a-kind clothing items — much of which with our favorite Western tilt — has become a go-to boutique among names you might recognize (Leon Bridges, Abraham Alexander) and collectors like Steven Porterfield from PBS’s “Antiques Roadshow.” From bolos to boots to bellbottoms, the shop covers over a century of fashion. According to Simmons, most of what she has is from the 1800s up to the early 1990s, which is why costume designers for period-specific films and TV shows are ransacking her shop.

We’re not saying Studio 74 is the Rodeo Drive (pronounced row-day-oh) of Fort Worth, but there’s little doubt the small shop tucked away between a design studio and a “For Lease” sign is getting attention from people with unquestionable style.

I mean, who wouldn’t wanna shop where Leon Bridges gets some of his threads? And, with cowboy couture at the height of popularity, Fort Worth might just be one of the most stylish cities in the country. We’re not joking.

“People who come from out of state or out

of the country are always shocked to learn everything in the shop is from Fort Worth,” Simmons says. “I think the perception, especially if you’re from LA or New York, is that Fort Worth doesn’t have style. They’re always impressed to learn this is all Fort Worth.” Simmons says she purchases about 2,000 items per week, and it’s all locally sourced.

The shop first opened its doors in January 2021 after Simmons, who previously spent 25 years in law enforcement, worked for a couple of years with her husband at Simmons Estate Jewelry, also located on Camp Bowie. A lover of history and, as she puts it, anything old, Simmons had also started a hobby of styling people in era-appropriate attire and photographing them, which eventually led to magazines featuring her work.

“And then I would get bored of it because that’s what I do,” Simmons says of her photography and styling. “I like to learn something and then move on. So, I would sell off all the clothes that I had collected and say, ‘OK, I’m not going to do that anymore.’ But then I would be back at estate sales, back at Goodwill, buying up all the clothes. Finally, at some point I was like, OK, I’m not going to fight it anymore. Obviously, I’m drawn to this for a reason.”

Only three years in, and Simmons thinks, even if she calls it a pipe dream, that she can make Studio 74 Vintage the best vintage store in the country. After all, she has one of the best suppliers of vintage fashion at her fingertips: Fort Worth. studio74vintage.com

Organic Food Store

READER PICK

Sunflower Shoppe sunflowershoppe.com

EDITOR PICK

Natural Grocers naturalgrocers.com

Record Store

READER PICK

Record Town recordtowntx.com

EDITOR PICK

Born Late Records

Tailor

READER PICK

Alterations by Claudia

EDITOR PICK

KM Tailor Alterations

Tattoo Parlor

READER PICK

Lilac Tattoo Studio lilactattoo.com

EDITOR PICK

Sleepy Hollow Tattoos sleepyhollowtattoostx.com

Toy Store

READER PICK

Fanboys fanboysmarketplace.com

EDITOR PICK

Holocron Toy Store holocrontoystore.com

Travel

Agent

READER PICK

Gulliver’s Travel gullivers.com

EDITOR PICK

Romantics Travel romanticstravel.com

Valet Service

READER PICK

VIP Valet Services

dfweventstaffing.com

EDITOR PICK

Rent-A-Frog rentafrog.com

Veterinary Clinic

READER PICK

Arlington Heights Animal Hospital cowtownvet.com

EDITOR PICK

Ridglea Animal Hospital ridgleaveterinary.com

Western Apparel

READER PICK

Maverick Fine Western Wear maverickwesternwear.com

EDITOR PICK

The Best Hat Store besthatstore.com

Women’s Boutique

READER PICK

Tucker Brown tuckerbrown1986.com

Nightlife & Entertainment

Arcade

READER PICK

Free Play Arcade freeplayinc.com/fortworth

EDITOR PICK

Cidercade cidercade.com/fortworth

Bar with Games

READER PICK

McFly’s Pub mcflyspub.com

EDITOR PICK

Finn MacCool’s Pub

Bed and Breakfast

READER PICK

Rosen House Inn rosenhouseinn.com

EDITOR PICK

Three Danes Inn threedanesinn.com

Cocktail Bar

READER PICK

Proper propermagnolia.com

EDITOR PICK

Thompson’s Bookstore thompsons-bookstore.com

Escape Room

READER PICK

The Secret Chambers thesecretchambers.com

EDITOR PICK

Red Door Escape Room reddoorescape.com

Family Outing

READER PICK

Fort Worth Botanic Gardens fwbg.org

EDITOR PICK

Fort Worth Zoo fortworthzoo.org

Festival

READER PICK

Fort Worth Oktoberfest fortworthoktoberfest.com

EDITOR PICK

ArtsGoggle artsgoggle.org

First Date

READER PICK

Fort Worth Axe Factory fortworthaxefactory.com

EDITOR PICK

Cowtown Movie Classics at Horus Hall horushall.com

Girls Night Out

READER PICK

Cowtown Cycle Party cowtowncycleparty.com

EDITOR PICK

Smash N Bash smashnbash.com

Still Buzzing on South Main

THE CICADA

RETAIL OPERATIONS

» Trees

» Shrubs

» Bedding Plants

» Fountains & Statuaries

» Organic Fertilizers

» Native Plants

» Pottery

» Soil Health Products

» Natural Disease Controls

» Weed Control Solutions

» Perennials & Herbs

» Cactus & Succulents

Hippety-Hop

HIP POCKET THEATRE

READER PICK: Outdoor Activity

By Brian Kendall

No one attends a live theater performance to witness something, well, normal. The orthodox can be easily found for free on one’s living room television, after all. No, a night at the theater should leave one stunned and mesmerized by unconventionality. Attendees should leave a show scratching their heads, or lifting their jaws up off the floor, or miming their minds being blown. And this is precisely what one would see following any performance at Hip Pocket Theatre.

“Old hippies just having fun,” is how a 2006 TCU Magazine feature described how detractors might describe Fort Worth’s quirkiest performing arts venue. While the Simons, the family — along with composer Doug Balentine — that founded the theater troupe, might take this supposed slight as a compliment, it also disregards the dedication and elbow grease that goes into keeping a theater open for 48 years.

Store Hours: M-Sat 8-6:30 Sun 8-6

Email: Mikesgdn@swbell.net

Facebook: Mike’s Garden Center

Instagram: Mikesgardencenter

Website: www.mikesgarderncenters.com

TCU grads Johnny and Diane Simons, both of whom acquired a Master of Fine Arts, were no strangers to the local theater scene when they first opened Hip Pocket Theatre in 1976. The couple had been staging children’s plays, Johnny as director and set builder and Diane as producer and costume designer, at Casa Mañana for a few years before they teamed with Balentine to produce “Lake Worth Monster,” Johnny’s master’s thesis at TCU. The success of the performance was enough to inspire the trio to dig into their hip pockets for seed money — hence the name — to open the first iteration of Hip Pocket Theatre, which first performed out of a deteriorating motor court off the

Happy Hour

Music Venue

old Highway 80. After one of the court’s tenants decided to cause a raucous with a gun one evening, the troupe found a new home off Las Vegas Trail, where they stayed for 25 years before moving to a pasture on Silver Creek Road near Lake Worth in 2003.

Johnny, a long-bearded eccentric who regularly dons overalls, has long been the face of the theater, which regularly performs his original plays and musicals — often about his favorite city, Fort Worth. While he still performs and has the title of consulting artistic director, now it’s his and Diane’s daughters, Lake and Lorca Simons, who run the show.

The once shanty outdoor stage with assorted lawn chairs eventually gave way to the construction of a new stage and seating area that required a heck of a lot of two-by-fours. It’s one of the coolest decks you’ve ever seen and still very much outside, so shows are all “weather permitting.”

On the docket for the theater’s 48th season, which kicks off May 17, is Basil Twist’s “A Twisty Intergalactic Spectacle,” William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis.” hippocket.org

READER PICK

Maggie’s R&R maggiesrr.com

EDITOR PICK

Birdie’s Social Club birdiessocialclub.com

Horseback Riding

READER PICK

Benbrook Stables benbrookstables.com

EDITOR PICK

Trinity River Farm & Equestrian Center trinityriverfarmtx.com

Hotel/Resort

READER PICK

Hotel Drover hoteldrover.com

EDITOR PICK

Bowie House aubergeresorts.com/ bowiehouse

Karaoke

READER PICK Down ‘n Out

EDITOR PICK

HopFusion Ale Works hopfusionaleworks.com

Lounge

READER PICK

Refinery 714 ilmodorestaurant.com/ refinery-714

EDITOR PICK

Pinky’s Champagne Room & Velvet Jazz Lounge pinkyschampagneroom.com

Movie Theater

READER PICK

Coyote Drive-In coyotedrive-in.com/fortworth

EDITOR PICK

Magnolia at the Modern themodern.org/films

READER PICK

Dickies Arena dickiesarena.com

EDITOR PICK

The Cicada Nightclub

READER PICK Rodeo Exchange rodeoex.com

EDITOR PICK

CURFEW curfewbar.com

Outdoor Activity

READER PICK

Hip Pocket Theatre hippocket.org

EDITOR PICK

Fort Worth Botanic Gardens fwbg.org

Patio/Outdoor Space Drinkswith

READER PICK

Hotel Drover hoteldrover.com

EDITOR PICK

Second Rodeo Brewing Co. secondrodeobrewing.com

Performing Arts Theater

READER PICK

Fort Worth Opera fwopera.org

EDITOR PICK

Amphibian Stage Productions amphibianstage.com

Pet-Friendly Hangout

READER PICK

Maple Branch Craft Brewery maplebranchbrew.com

EDITOR PICK

Woodshed Smokehouse woodshedsmokehouse.com

A Much-Needed Bar-Bar

DOWN ‘N OUT

READER PICK: Karaoke

By Malcolm Mayhew

In his book In Limbo, author A.D. Aliwat mourns the fact that he can’t go to a bar these days without having to deal with people on their phones.

He writes: “You can’t even go to a bar anymore, meet strangers that become friends or women who become lovers. You need the extra step of finding them through an app or bonding over an app, that or the make and model of your phone, which you must display as much as possible.”

Will someone please show A.D. the way to the Down ’n Out?

While phones certainly aren’t outlawed at this much-needed bar-bar that sits at the intersection of Rosedale and South Main streets, bridging the gap between the Near Southside and South Main areas, they’re certainly infrequent guests here.

The people who come together at the Down ’n Out want to be together, to talk, to shoot pool, to hang out and relax. Opened in late ’22, it’s a neighborhood bar populated by actual neighbors, young, old, Black, white, brown, yellow, gray, young, tattooed and not. Some ride motorcycles, others drive Beamers. It’s not a place where people are taking selfies. Instead, they talk, laugh and drink, like nightcrawlers in Fort Worth used to do.

“I’ve always been a fan of neighborhood bars,” says owner Eric Vickers, a commercial real estate broker who opened D&O with Nickel City Saloon owner Travis Tober. “They’re off the beaten path, they have regulars and great people behind the bar and on the other side of

the bar. I took little bits and pieces of places like that around Fort Worth, and then put my own spin on it.”

Vickers describes the Down ’n Out as a new business trapped in an old soul. You get that the second you step in and see the wood-paneled walls, checkerboard floor and mod-looking pub stools and tables. Think of the old Oui Lounge, think of the old J&J Hideaway’s. That decor, that vibe.

Karaoke is about as 21st century as the Down ’n Out gets. Vickers went all out for DnO’s Wednesday night karaoke night, hiring ‘aoke vet and DJ Keith Swan, who uses the massive KaraFun catalog for song selection.

“You’ll hear everything,” Vickers says. “Country, hip-hop, alternative, classic rock, and heavy metal hair bands. It’s very much across the board. I think that’s why the crowd has grown so much, because it’s a little bit of everything. We see new faces every week.”

Our readers picked the DnO as the best karaoke bar in town this year, but it’s certainly not the only reason to go. Other reasons: Unlike at some of the surrounding bars, drink prices won’t break you. Cool cocktails such as the Mountain Dew margarita, a mix of triple sec, tequila, lime and ‘dew, and the G&Tea, a mix of green tea, gin, citrus cordials, and tonic, hover in the $11-$12 range. Knock off five or six bucks during happy hour, 3-6 p.m., Monday-Friday.

You’ll see familiar faces behind that bar, including former Heim BBQ and Del Frisco’s bartender Nick Snow, who mans and runs the bar and also serves as general manager.

“A big part of our success here is because of Nick,” Vickers say. “I’m in commercial real estate; I know very little about the bar business, which meant I needed to find someone who knew A LOT about the bar business. Within two minutes of meeting Nick, I said, ‘You’re our GM.’ He’s amazing at what he does.”

There’s a great patio, too, just some tables and chairs put outside with cones set up to divide the patio from the parking lot. No one dropped 10K building this thing out.

That’s its charm, though. You don’t need fancy or expensive to bring people together. People, sometimes, just want to be around other people. Vickers says that’s what’s he and Tober are going for.

“We want to create a welcoming vibe and experience,” he says. “A place for everybody, no cliques, just people having a good time together.”

Place to Pop the Question

READER PICK

Fort Worth Water Gardens

EDITOR PICK

Sundance Square sundancesquare.com

Place to Two-Step

READER PICK

Billy Bob’s Texas billybobstexas.com

EDITOR PICK

The Basement Bar

Place to Watch a Game

READER PICK

Woody’s Tavern woodystaverntexas.com

EDITOR PICK Buffalo Bros. buffalobrostexas.com

Speakeasy

READER PICK

Amber Room wishboneandflynt.com/theamber-room

EDITOR PICK

Low Doubt Bar

Trivia Night

READER PICK

HopFusion Ale Works hopfusionaleworks.com

EDITOR PICK

Tall Bearded Guy – Lockwood

Distilling linktr.ee/TBGTrivia

This Store Is the Bomb

ATOMIC

THEN & NOW

EDITOR PICK: Home Décor Store

By John Henry

Karl Waigand had as a hand an idea and $4,000. He went all in. He drew an ace.

Atomic Then & Now is a mid-century-themed furniture store in River Oaks that has caught on with the consumer like a video gone viral on the socials.

Since opening a year and a half ago, Atomic Then & Now has done $1.5 million in business, according to the business’s founding father.

“I never in a million years ever expected to do as well,” says Waigand. “And I thought there would be some bumps in the road and some slow months, but I honestly have to say, we kicked it off with a bang, and it’s been hugely successful.”

Waigand, who started the business with a partner who is no longer in the business, had a vision to open a store and rent spaces to people to resell stuff, a sort-of antique store. It wasn’t exactly the “dream” he had in mind, but that was the business model he was working off of.

There is some risk in that concept, he says,

because “then everyone, when you lease them a space, they want to do it their own way and sell their own trash.

“But after that first month, I said, ‘I don’t need anybody.’”

It didn’t just simply happen that way. Waigand is a dedicated entrepreneur who is in love with his work and the subject matter. The business started as a dream, an opportunity that presented itself, and the $4,000 he had on him.

“Although I spend a lot of time on it, it’s something that I truly enjoy doing, and customer service is a big thing for me. There’s so much that goes into making the store what it is, that it’s like no other.”

The furniture he sells is both older — the “then,” that is, somewhere near the beginning of the atomic age of the 1940s — and what is “now,” the current age, in fashion. Waigand buys mostly from estate sales, though some of the product is acquired from auction companies and some from Europe.

“The thing about our old furniture is that it has to meet a really high expectation and standard in order to be sold in my store. Some of the pieces that I sell have lived through generations.”

Waigand, 52, is a Chicago native who has lived here for the better part of 29 years. “I feel like I’m a native Texan.” He made a living as a regional

manager for Maggiano’s Little Italy, Brinker’s Italian restaurant concept, as well an artistic director hair stylist.

“I’ve always kind of been in hospitality and the service industry from the artistic side to the hospitality side. And from way back when, interior design and home decor and styling, like remodeling and making a dump look like a mansion, I could make any space look and feel amazing.”

The rooms at the store, he says, are staged as they would be in, say, your grandmother’s house.

“The vibe is good, very inviting,” Waigand says. “It makes you feel that whoever’s doing this, loves what they’re doing.”

In fact, Waigand says he’s received messages on Instagram from people asking if they can just come to hang out in the store, just spend an afternoon in there.

“Most people who walk into my store, say, ‘Wow. Wow.’ It’s the wow factor. People on our Instagram following say, ‘Oh, my God, it takes me back in time. This place is amazing.’ So, it’s not only about selling furniture, it’s about an experience that most clients have lived in that era. And there’s something or many things or everything that brings them back to either their childhood or their past.

“It’s got a feel that makes you comfortable. Things that I’ve had ladies get on their knees and cry because there was something that was so sentimental that their grandmother had in her house and it brought back memories.”

antiquestoreriveroaks.com

Home & Garden

Electrician

READER PICK

Comfort Experts Inc. comfortexpertsinc.com

EDITOR PICK

Azael Electrical azaelelectrical.com

Fencing

Company

READER PICK

Magnolia Fence and Patio magnoliafenceandpatio.com

EDITOR PICK

Buzz Custom Fence buzzfence.com

Flooring

READER PICK

Bottega Design Gallery bottegadesigngallery.com

EDITOR PICK

Vintage Floors vintagefloorstx.com

Home

Building

READER PICK

Brabec Custom Homes brabeccustomhomes.com

EDITOR PICK

Brian Michael Distinctive Homes distinctivehomestx.com

Home Decor Store

READER PICK

Fount House Interior Showroom fount-house.com

EDITOR PICK

Atomic Then & Now antiquestoreriveroaks.com

Home ServiceRepair

READER PICK

Trinity Home Improvements

EDITOR PICK

The Mop and Broom themopandbroom.com

HVAC Company

READER PICK

Ideal Partners idealpartners.com

EDITOR PICK

Moss Heating and Air askmoss.com

Interior Design Firm

READER PICK

Paxton Place Interior Design paxtonplacedesign.com

EDITOR PICK

Heritage Interiors heritagedesignstudio.com

Interior Designer

READER PICK

Traci Darden elementsofdesignllc.com

EDITOR PICK

Susan Semmelmann semmelmanninteriors.com

Landscape Design

READER PICK

Mean Green Lawn and Landscape meangreenlawncare.com

EDITOR PICK

Guardado Landscaping guardadolandscaping.com

Moving Service

READER PICK

Veterans Moving America veteransmovingamerica.com

EDITOR PICK

Black Ops Moving and Delivery blackopsmovers.com

Painting Company

READER PICK

J&V Painting jandvpainting.com

EDITOR PICK

Southern Painting southernpainting.com/fort-worth

Plant Shop

READER PICK

The Flower Ranch theflowerranch.com

EDITOR PICK

Grow Plant Shop growplantshop.com

Plumbing Company

READER PICK

Hawk Plumbing Heating and Air Conditioning hawkphac.com

EDITOR PICK

ProServe proserveplumbers.com

Pool Builder

READER PICK

The Complete Backyard thecompletebackyard.com

EDITOR PICK

Pulliam Pools pulliam.com

Pool Service & Repair

READER PICK

Puryear Custom Pools puryearpools.com

EDITOR PICK

Emeral Pool Care emeraldcustompools.com

Real Estate Firm

READER PICK

The Ashton Agency theashtonagency.com

EDITOR PICK

Compass compass.com

Remodeling

Company

READER PICK

6th Avenue Homes 6thavehomes.com

EDITOR PICK Silverado Construction Services silveradoconstruct.com

Rodent Control

READER PICK

Alamo Termite and Pest Control alamopest.com

EDITOR PICK

Ideal Partners idealpartners.com

Roofing Company

READER PICK

Tarrant Roofing tarrantroofing.com

EDITOR PICK

Black Tie Roofing and Construction blacktieroofs.com

Yard Care

READER PICK

Buffalo Outdoor buffalooutdoor.com

EDITOR PICK

Pro Scapes proscapeslawnandtreecare.com

Green Thumb Paradise

THE FLOWER RANCH

READER PICK: Plant Shop

By Malcolm Mayhew

When Joe Pipes opened his first nursery, back in 1985, his intent wasn’t to sell to the public. In fact, back then, there wasn’t much of a public around his shop to sell to. The nearest communities, Southlake and Keller, were hardly the social and economic powerhouses they are today; in the mid-80s, those towns were still in their infancy.

Rather, Pipes sold primarily to professional landscape contractors. But residents of the growing communities continually stopped by his shop, then called Pipes Plant Farm, to ask when he would start selling to the public.

That day came in 1997, when Pipes rebranded his shop The Flower Ranch and began selling to the general public. Today, The Flower Ranch is one of the area’s most popular — and successful — independently owned nurseries, with dual locations in Keller and Rhome.

Take a stroll through one of the shops, and it’s easy to see why those with and without green thumbs enjoy being and buying there. Rows of heliotropes, zinnias, carnations, and other vibrant flowers and plants are artfully arranged, sometimes by their color, creating vivid images that look like paintings.

Pipes had a strong connection to the land upon which the original Keller location sits. Some of it was in his family for decades. In the 1940s, Pipes’ grandfather used the land as a local dairy farm. His grandfather was still in the cattle business when Pipes, in his early 20s, ran his idea by him to open a nursery, asking if he could buy 3 acres. The seeds for The Flower Ranch had been planted, so to speak.

Now owned and managed by onetime customer Vicki Tanner and her family, who purchased it from Pipes in 2018 when he retired, The Flower Ranch still operates its own nurseries, which makes it unique. Many nurseries simply purchase their inventory from outside growers, then flip, with an upcharge, to their customers. Here, all the plants are grown on-site, allowing the shop to cut out the middleman and keep prices down and inventory fresh.

theflowerranch.com

Brabec Custom Homes is a Fort Worth area luxury custom home builder with vast experience in construction. Owned by a former Structural Engineer, we have an eye for detail that is unrivaled in the residential construction industry. Our planning, attention to detail, and expertise in the latest building science concepts sets us apart from the rest.

Beauty & Wellness

Beauty Salon

READER PICK

Whistle & Sway whistleandsway.com

EDITOR PICK

Novak Hair Studios novakhairstudios.com

CBD Store

READER PICK

Emerald Organics emeraldorg.com

EDITOR PICK

CBDistrict Health & Wellness cbdistrictwellness.com

Chiropractor

READER PICK

Active Spine and Sport Therapy activespineandsport.com

EDITOR PICK

House of Bones Chiropractic houseofboneschiro.com

Dance Studio

READER PICK

DanceMakers of Texas dancemakersoftexas.com

EDITOR PICK

Studio of MoveMINT studioofmovemint.com

Day Spa

READER PICK

Spavia Day Spa fortworthtx.spaviadayspa.com

EDITOR PICK

Milk + Honey milkandhoneyspa.com

Dental Care

READER PICK

Justyna S. Laska, DDS drlaska.com

EDITOR PICK

Montgomery Plaza Dental montgomeryplazadental.com

Esthetician

READER PICK

Vanity Room Waxing vanityroombeauty.com

EDITOR PICK

BIJOU bijouesthetics.com

Facial

READER PICK

Meraki Beauty and Skin Bar merakibeautyandskinbar.com

EDITOR PICK

Renew Day Spa fortworthfacial.com

Gym/Fitness Studio

READER PICK

Inursha Fitness and Personal Training inursha.com

EDITOR PICK The LAB theperformancelabfortworth.com

Holistic Health & Wellness Center

READER PICK

SciFit Center scifitcenter.com

EDITOR PICK

The Wellness Center Health and Therapy wellnesscenterfw.com

A Cut Above

THE CUTTING ROOM

When Yogis Fly

SUNSHINE YOGA SHACK

READER PICK: Yoga Studio

By Brian Kendall

We’re not here to say that yoga studios are a dime a dozen or carbon copies of one another. We’re aware some studios or instructors focus on exercise while others thrive at mindfulness. Some run hot (literally), and others run at 70 degrees. But some, and by some, we mean one, does yoga in the air. That’s right, aerial yoga.

Lynn Rozak, founder of Sunshine Yoga Shack in downtown Mansfield, has been teaching yoga since 2012, when she was teaching what we’ll call regular yoga in her backyard. But a magazine advertisement for a yoga trapeze opened her mind to gravity-defying techniques. “I was, like, ‘Oh, my gosh! I can do yoga off the ground? This is everything.’”

Catching the hint, her husband wound up buying Rozak the advertised product for her birthday, but she’d soon trade in her trapeze for aerial silks — you know, those long pieces of fabric that we often associate with acrobatic, gravity-defying cirque du solei acts — after attending a fellow yogi’s aerial class in Southlake. But, Rozak says her version of aerial yoga is much

different from her friend in Southlake. One could say she was inspired and took the practice in her own direction. Rozak doesn’t claim to have invented aerial yoga. “It’s technically been around since the 80s,” she says. But teaching a class in aerial yoga that’s both undaunting and challenging while also applying mindfulness into the practice?

“When I started doing this aerial stuff, there wasn’t anything around that was like it,” Rozak says. “So, I kind of had to just make it up as I went along.”

Rozak soon got a brick-and-mortar in Mansfield and started teaching classes in aerial yoga, which were an immediate hit. But she stresses Sunshine Yoga Shack is a yoga studio where one can expect to find all of the classes and practices of a normal yoga space.

“We have traditional yoga. We have Hatha-based yoga, which is for beginners and people who like to have a little more mindful practice. We have heated yoga and power yoga, and we also do yin yoga. We really encompass anything you would need from a yoga studio.”

But even Rozak will admit the studio’s main differentiator is its offering of air-bound yoga. The practice has to be seen to be believed — a class will have attendees using aerial silks to prop up their aerial movements and poses, which includes becoming inverted.

For those concerned, Rozak says the floor is covered in crash pads, and the limited class sizes allow the instructor to demonstrate and assist each student. Thus, the crash pad is simply a failsafe that’s rarely used.

“[When one first does aerial yoga], it’s really kind of shocking, and they’re kind of scared,” Rozak says. “But it’s something everyone can do. It gets you out of your head and focused on your body and breathing.

“I did a private class with this gorgeous 28-year-old super fit girl, and she brought her mother who was in her 60s. And the daughter just struggled and struggled, and the mom did all of the things. And she didn’t even have on yoga clothes; she was in scrubs.”

Last August, the studio moved to their current location in Mansfield’s downtown historic district. The building is over 100 years old and Rozak, who says she always wanted to be in a historic building, is well-versed on its history. Their new home was built in 1856 but burned down in 1898 and was rebuilt in 1900.

With wood floors and distressed walls that show patches of the building’s beautiful brick façade, one could blink and think they’re in an old Brooklyn apartment. “We’ve just poured our heart into this place, and it’s beautiful. It’s a fun, great place,” Rozen says.

And, most importantly, the ceilings are plenty high, too.

Fourteen-feet high, Rozan confirms, giving plenty of room for air-bound spins, drops, and poses.

“It feels amazing, and it heals your body,” Rozak says of aerial yoga. “It decompresses all of the joints and your spine.

“And the beautiful thing is, [aerial yoga] is for all types of bodies and fitness levels because you cannot train for aerial unless you’re doing aerial. So, the kind of muscle mass and skill level that you need is only something you can build while you’re here.”

sunshineyogashack.com

Manicure or Pedicure

READER PICK Frida Beauty Collective fridabeautycollective.com

EDITOR PICK West 7 Nail Bar west7nailbar.com

Massage

READER PICK CR Massage cyrilmassage.com

Sunless Tanning

READER PICK Tan 2 Glow tan2glow.com

EDITOR PICK Cowtown Tanning cowtowntanning.com

Yoga Studio

READER PICK

Sunshine Yoga Shack sunshineyogashack.com

EDITOR PICK The Sanctuary Yoga Room thesanctuaryyogaroom.com

Lone Star Bavarian opened for business in the summer of 2001 and after 23 years in business one thing is certain, nothing is certain! Weathering 9/11, the stock market crash in 2008/2009 and then Covid19 disaster, all very difficult, yet Fort Worth and Lone Star Bavarian’s client base has continued to support us. Thus, making us the strong, resilient family-owned business it is today. Lone Star Bavarian specializes in servicing BMW, Mercedes, Audi and Mini automobiles, recently adding Rolls Royce and Bentley to our service line-up. If you are an owner of one of these fine German automobiles and have never experienced the professional staff and service we provide, we invite you to give us a try! Thank you, Fort Worth and to all of our loyal clients that voted us for the honor of Fort Worth Magazine’s 2024 Best Of Fort Worth again...we are certainly grateful to hold that title. God Bless and come see us!!

New Mexico red enchiladas, a red chili cream based enchilada sauce that is smooth and full of flavor! Topped with roasted corn, black beans, queso fresco and chopped red onions.

No Stirrups Required

LEIGHTON BERRY

People & Culture

Actor/Performer

READER PICK

Barry Corbin barrycorbin.com

EDITOR PICK

Alexandra F. Light – Texas Ballet Theater texasballettheater.org

Art Gallery

READER PICK

Fort Works Art Gallery fortworksart.com

EDITOR PICK

Letitia Huckaby huckabystudios.com

Athlete

READER PICK

Corey Seager – Texas Rangers rangers.com

EDITOR PICK

Leighton Berry – Bareback Bronco Rider prorodeo.com

Bartender/ Mixologist

READER PICK

Victor Van Scoit – Lobby Bar at Hotel Dryce hoteldryce.com

EDITOR PICK

Michael Rivas – Showdown

Best-Dressed

READER PICK

Franklin Moss

EDITOR PICK

Cristina Jean Faulconer

Chef

READER PICK

Greg Pawlowski – Kimpton Harper Hotel ilmodorestaurant.com

EDITOR PICK

Marcus Paslay – Walloon’s, Clay Pigeon scratchhospitality.com

Comedian

READER PICK

Chad Prather watchchad.com

EDITOR PICK

David Wilk – Four Day Weekend fourdayweekend.com/david-wilk

Country Club

READER PICK

Ridglea Country Club ridgleacountryclub.com

EDITOR PICK

River Crest Country Club rivercrest-cc.org

Local Attraction

READER PICK

Dickies Arena dickiesarena.com

EDITOR PICK

The Fort Worth Herd fortworth.com/the-herd

Local Writer/ Author

READER PICK

Michelle Snell of That Texas Couple thattexascouple.com

EDITOR PICK

Jeff Guinn simonandschuster.com

Follow This Leader

JENNIFER TREVIÑO

EDITOR PICK

Amon Carter Museum of American Art cartermuseum.org

Musician/Music Group

READER PICK

Abraham Alexander abrahamalexander.com

EDITOR PICK

Denver Williams and the Gas Money denverwilliams.com

Neighborhood/ Association

READER PICK

Montrachet/Montserrat montrachetfw.com spiritofmontserrat.com

EDITOR PICK

Oakhurst Neighborhood Association oakhurstfw.org

Nonprofit Event

READER PICK

Triston’s Birthday Bash – Triston’s Legend of the Cowboy Foundation tristonslegend.org

EDITOR PICK

The Big Good: The Big Night thebiggood.org

Park

READER PICK

Trinity Park

EDITOR PICK

Overton Park in Tanglewood overtonpark-na.org

Philanthropist

READER PICK

Stephanie Culver with Bike the Blue biketheblue.org

EDITOR PICK

Dr. John Barnett Jr. and Dr. Arlene Barnett

Photographer

READER PICK

Edgar Miller edgarmillerimages.com

EDITOR PICK

Click Thompson clickthompson.com

Radio Personality/ Podcast

READER PICK

Tiffany Blackmon tiffanycblackmon.com

EDITOR PICK Fort Worth Roots fortworthroots.com

Service Organization

READER PICK

MHMR of Tarrant County mhmrtarrant.org

EDITOR PICK

National Juneteenth Museum nationaljuneteenthmuseum.org

Social Media Influencer

READER PICK That Texas Couple thattexascouple.com

EDITOR PICK

Sainty Nelsen saintynelsen.com

Sports Team

READER PICK

Texas Rangers (MLB) mlb.com/rangers

EDITOR PICK

Jennifer Treviño leadershipfortworth.org/staff

One Click at a Time

CLICK THOMPSON

EDITOR PICK: Photographer

By Stephen Montoya

Christopher “Click” Thompson says he was surprised how quickly he became comfortable capturing images of rodeos and other Western events over a decade ago. After all, he didn’t grow up in the circuit or even ride horses as a kid. But something inside him (dare we say it?) clicked when he was in this type of environment.

Ironically, Thompson’s calling might not have come to fruition if it hadn’t been for a chance outing with a friend in 2011. At this point, Thompson had spent most of his life in Gloucester, a small town on the outskirts of Richmond, Virginia. He’d studied graphic design at Virginia State University, which led to a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Savannah College of Art & Design in photography. The latter taking place after he’d discovered his true calling.

The Virginia outing that changed Thompson’s life, believe it or not, Texans, was a rodeo.

“I think where I was in Virginia, there’s so many things that are just right under your nose, and you never see it,” he says. Thompson took to rodeos like a duck to water. After attending just one, he began looking for ways to stay connected to the event — to feel its energy again.

“I quickly found a group of people that would have a couple of [rodeos],” Thompson says. “Before I knew it, I was probably going to maybe five to 10 events a year.”

Besides these rodeo events helping Thompson build his portfolio, the muck, mud, and action also inspired him to think in images before and after each shoot.

“There’s always something new to photograph, and it was the first time I kind of woke up and went to sleep thinking about pictures. I would wonder, ‘How can I create this?’ And I would be like, ‘Man, I would love to maybe try and capture a picture from this angle and not die.’”

His love for capturing images at the rodeo would eventually be the catalyst for Thompson to escape his day job working as a photographer for the Department of Defense. “On the weekends I was capturing some good stuff, so it was hard to come back on the weekdays to shoot anything but rodeos,” he says. “It was like a Batman and Robin thing. I would be Batman on the weekends shooting rodeos and then Robin on the weekdays working from my desk.”

Thompson did this juggle for years until he eventually loaded up his truck to make the two-day journey from Virginia to Texas to stake his claim in the Lone Star State. “I was coming to Texas five to 10 times a year, and I think logistically it was just easier to get from coast to coast. And every time I come out here, it just felt

like Fort Worth was the place. It’s definitely the headquarters for the Western industry in general, but there’s so many other aspects and tycoons and just people of influence around that you just never know who you’re going to run into.”

Doing rodeo photography full time, Thompson’s managed to rack up his fair share of accolades, including being selected as the official photographer of the National Finals Rodeo, and being voted by the members of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association as the Photographer of the Year in 2022.

With his foot placed firmly in the stirrup of Cowtown, Thompson, who is still busy living his Batman persona full time, has now taken up teaching photography to other aspiring image takers.

“I think my interests and pursuits have changed a little bit in recent years,” Thompson says. “And it’s funny because when I’m teaching people, I really focus heavily on their technical understanding of the camera and how it works. I think if you have a solid foundation there, everything else will kind of take care of itself.”

But Thompson agrees, no matter how much training a photographer has, nothing can prepare them for what happens in that split-second moment when the shutter clicks and captures an image.

“Even with all the technology now, there’s certain things that happen when you hit the button that you just can’t explain,” he says. “The sun moves the shadow, somebody moves, and you get a glare somewhere or something — it can frustrate you at times — but when it works in your favor, it’s beyond satisfying.”

clickthompson.com

• Yoga, Vinyasa, Heated, Power, Beginners, Deep & Just Yoga, Yin, Nidra, & Sound.

• Aerial Yoga, Aerial Fundamentals, Aerial Flow & Sound

• Sunshine School of Yoga, 200Hour, 300-Hour, Aerial, CECs, RYS with Yoga Alliance. In-person & On-demand.

Voted Readers pick for Best Yoga Studio.

We started over twenty years ago with eighty idyllic acres along the limestone bluffs of Mary’s Creek. Today at over 460 acres, we’re thankful for the hundreds of families that have joined us to make Montserrat and Montrachet two of the Best Neighborhoods in Fort Worth. Only a few empty lots remain in Montrachet to build the home of your dreams; don’t miss your chance to be part of the legacy.

by David Munny

Tips for Co-Parenting After a Divorce

Divorces are hard enough on children; here are a few pointers to help them transition to co-parenting.

Divorce is a very difficult process in and of itself, but when children are involved, it becomes a complex situation full of feelings and obligations. In addition to legal knowledge, navigating this turbulent period calls for a great degree of empathy and understanding with both parties involved.

When it comes to co-parenting properly after a divorce, putting your kids’ needs first is a truly high priority. That said, we are going to touch on the importance of smooth co-parenting, along with the best tips to navigate this complex journey.

What is Co-Parenting After a Divorce?

To put it simply, co-parenting is the practice of raising children after a divorce as a team. It’s a crucial component after divorce that has a big impact on kids’ emotional and mental health. Most importantly, having a smooth co-parenting relationship lessens the stress that kids in divorced homes often feel, which helps them adjust to the new family structure in a healthier way.

Tip #1: Keep Communication Respectful and Clear at All Times

It’s critical to communicate with your ex-partner in a kind, respectful, and transparent manner. Even when you disagree on a certain topic, try not to be disrespectful to each other and maintain your composure. By doing this you improve the atmosphere for your kids and teach them how to resolve conflicts amicably. This method can also facilitate the manage-

ment of parental responsibilities and make all parties feel more at ease and comfortable with each other.

Tip #2: Agree and Maintain a Co-Parenting Schedule

Setting up and sticking to a coparenting routine helps smooth out post-divorce bumps and gives your children a sense of consistency. A pleasant co-parenting arrangement is built by collectively creating a timetable that suits both parents’ demands and maintains your kids’ routines and daily activities.

That said, it’s extremely important that you adhere to your schedule as strictly as possible once you have one. This consistency lessens your kids’ stress levels by letting them know what to anticipate each day. Additionally, adhering to a routine demonstrates your shared commitment to their well-being, which gives them a sense of security and comfort within both parents.

Tip #3: Be on the Same Page About Discipline

Being consistent about discipline can be one of the most difficult factors in a co-parenting relationship, especially if you are not on the same page. For that reason, it’s critical that both parents apply the same guidelines and disciplines for behavior. No matter which parent they are with, your children will learn what is expected of them thanks to your consistency. In addition to clearing up any uncertainty, deciding on a disciplinary plan ahead of time helps create a cohesive parenting style

and builds trust within both parents and the children

Tip #4: Make Visitations Smooth and Easy

Make sure that the transition between residences goes as smoothly as possible by having set hours for drop-offs as well as keeping communication light between your co-parent. In addition, establish a clear plan of action and communicate with clarity regarding who will pick up and drop off the kids ― this avoids any conflict and makes the process easy and smooth for everyone involved.

Tip #5: Co-Parent as a Team

Co-parenting requires a lot of patience and also extensive work within both parties. When it comes to the care and raising of your children, work together to solve issues and make the best choices for your children. If your child is unhappy with the arrangements, be sure to listen to them and urge them to spend time with both parents. This not only improves your co-parenting relationship over time, but it also makes a big difference for your kids’ future wellbeing within both sides of the family.

A stable and safe environment, together with a solid co-parenting partnership and teamwork, is highly beneficial for children and can only make the experience more pleasant moving forward.

An Overview: The Benefits of Proper Co-Parenting After a Divorce

There are many different benefits to developing a solid and harmonious co-parenting partnership following a divorce. Not only does it create structure within the dynamic, but it also implements a smooth transition for the children involved.

Even while it does require commitment and work from both sides, working together in a respectful way can only benefit your co-parenting relationship as well as your children’s experience with both parents during this complex and transitioning time.

FOCUS

Family Lawyers to Know

They stand by you through the hard times. They guide and support you from the beginning to the end of the divorce process. They are some of Greater Fort Worth’s brightest, most sought-after family law and collaborative law professionals, and they have purchased space to show you how working with them in your time of need will benefit you.

The information in this section is provided by the advertisers and has not been independently verified by Fort Worth Magazine.

Goranson Bain Ausley

SPECIALTY: Goranson Bain Ausley is the largest law firm in Texas exclusively practicing family law. We offer the full spectrum of family law and divorce-related issues, ranging from complex financial disputes to addressing sensitive child custody matters. OUR MISSION: To protect assets, preserve relationships, and deliver exceptional value. WHAT SETS GBA APART: Goranson Bain Ausley wholeheartedly commits to providing a positive client experience, a determination enabled by our team’s extensive depth and breadth of expertise. This includes accomplished family lawyers renowned for their leadership and excellence and respected for their integrity, empathy, trust, responsiveness, and sound advice.

CERTIFICATIONS & HONORS: Goranson Bain Ausley is consistently named a Best Law Firms by Best Lawyers in both family law and family law mediation. Fort Worth Partner Cindy Tisdale is president of the State Bar of Texas. Chris Nickelson, Gary Nickelson, and Cassidy Pearson have been recognized as top attorneys by Fort Worth Magazine. Twenty-eight lawyers are Board Certified in Family Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, including Chris Nickelson, who is double Board Certified in Family Law and Civil Appellate Law. FREE ADVICE: Divorce signifies a transition, not merely a transaction. Choose the family lawyers who will safeguard your family’s interests in the long term and help you to secure a promising future. PICTURED (left to right) Andrew Tisdale, Cindy Tisdale, Gary Nickelson, Cassidy Pearson, Clayton Bryant, Chris Nickelson

1200 Summit Ave. Suite 800

Fort Worth 76102

817.476.7658

GBAfamilylaw.com

Goranson Bain Ausley

Dally & Webb Family Law, PLLC

SPECIALITY: Exclusively Family Law. CERTIFICATIONS: Lori E. Dally – Trained in Collaborative Law. Daniel P. Webb and Steven King – Board Certified in Family Law, Texas Board of Legal Specialization. AWARDS/HONORS: Lori – Texas Rising Star, Super Lawyers (2019-2014); Top Attorney in Family Law, Fort Worth Magazine (2017-2023). Daniel – Texas Rising Star, Super Lawyers (2012-2020) and Super Lawyer (2021-2023); Top Attorney in Family Law, Fort Worth Magazine (2022-2023). GREATEST PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENT: Lori – Swearing in before the United States Supreme Court. Daniel – Acceptance to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. APPROACH TO LAW: As a firm, we prioritize matters with sensitivity, creative legal strategies, and a deep understanding of evolving family and legal dynamics. WHAT SETS THEM APART: Results! Our exceptional team of family lawyers stays up to date on the latest legal developments, which ensures optimal outcomes for our clients. It’s not enough for us to just say we are great at providing exceptional results for our clients; we go out and continue to prove it time and time again. FREE ADVICE: Finding a lawyer is hard; do your homework. Find a lawyer you trust, listen to them, and take their advice. PICTURED: Daniel P. Webb, Sara Vargas, Max Brewington, J. Steven King, and Lori E. Dally.

Dally & Webb Family Law, PLLC

2813 S. Hulen St., Ste. 250 Fort Worth 76109* 817.409.1136 texfamilylawyer.com

McClure Law Group

SPECIALTY: 100% Family Law. WHAT SETS THEM APART: McClure Law group’s financial acumen, tax law proficiency, state-of-the-art forensic accounting, trial skills, and appellate experience are unmatched by any other family law firm in the area. From the simplest divorce to the most complex business and property cases, these seasoned attorneys help minimize the financial and emotional toll a divorce can have on a family and guide them through what is unarguably one of the most dif ficult chapters of their lives. PROFESSIONAL APPROACH: McClure Law Group provides a white glove concierge level of service to its clients. This firm is the gold-standard for complex divorces and contested custody cases in Texas. HONORS: McClure, Blackard, Joseph, Mataya, and Mundt have previously been recognized as Top Attorneys in Fort Worth. McClure has repeatedly been named a Texas Super Lawyer, while Blackard, Joseph, Mataya, and Mundt have all been named Texas Super Lawyers Rising Stars. GREATEST PROFESSIONAL ACCOMPLISHMENT: Repeatedly recognized by U.S. News & World Report as Best Law Firm in America over the past decade. CERTIFICATIONS: McClure Law Group’s Founder and CEO, Kelly McClure, and Partner Brandon Joseph, are board certified in Family Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Partner Adam Mundt is a CPA. PICTURED: (left to right) Jessica Fresch, Adam Mundt, Kate Mataya, Kelly McClure, Francesca Blackard, and Brandon Joseph.

McClure Law Group 8115 Preston Road, Ste. 270 Dallas 75225

214.692.8200

mcclure-lawgroup.com

SPECIALTY: Family Law and Child Welfare Law. EDUCATION/CERTIFICATIONS: B.A., Texas Tech; J.D., Texas Wesleyan. Board Certified in Child Welfare Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. AWARDS/ HONORS: Texas Rising Star, Super Lawyers (2019-2024); Top Attorney in Family Law, Fort Worth Magazine (2015-2023); AV Preeminent Peer Rated Attorney, Martindale-Hubbell (2023). MEMBERSHIPS/AFFILIATIONS: Tarrant County Bar Association and Family Law Bar Association, Tarrant County Bar Foundation, Life Fellow. Barrister member of the Mahon Inn of Court. Admitted to the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States. PROFESSIONAL MISSION/APPROACH: To provide excellent representation through a powerful and calculated approach to each case using a strategic vision, clear communication, and implementing more efficient and effective processes and procedures. WHAT SETS THEM APART: We take the time to understand your unique situation and explain the law so you can make the most informed decision possible. We know that sometimes family law matters require aggressive action in order to deliver results, and we aren’t afraid to take action when necessary in order to protect your rights. FREE ADVICE: Don’t take family law advice from your friends or family. Lean on them for emotional support but get legal advice from an experienced attorney. PICTURED: Sarah C. Seltzer.

Seltzer Family Law, PLLC

6777 Camp Bowie Blvd., Ste. 340 Fort Worth 76116 817.887.9206 YourTexasFamilyLawyer.com

SPECIALTY: Board Certified Family Law Specialist, Family Law Mediator, and Collaborative Attorney, serving the entire DFW area. EDUCATION/CERTIFICATIONS: B.A., Southern Methodist University; J.D., Southern Methodist University School of Law; BoardCertified by State Bar of Texas in Family Law. HONORS/AWARDS: Texas Super Lawyer; Arlington Family Law Attorney of the Year; Top Attorney, Family Law, Fort Worth Magazine.

MEMBERSHIPS: Texas Academy of Family Law Specialists; Arlington Bar Association; Tarrant County Family Law Bar Association; Tarrant County Bar Association. GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT: Being sworn in by Chief Justice Rehnquist to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000. APPROACH TO LAW: We strive to provide the highest level of legal expertise tempered with an empathy and understanding of the great emotional toll that clients are experiencing in their family law cases, with the goal of facilitating their brave path to achieving the most peaceful, healthy, and loving new family dynamic. WHAT SETS HER APART: Experience, expertise, and the extraordinary commitment to advocate for not only the client’s stated objectives, but the wellness of the entire family, especially the children involved. MOTTO: When your family and finances matter, experience counts!

PICTURED: Donna J. Smiedt, Managing Partner.

Family Law Firm of Donna J. Smiedt, PLLC 3216 W. Arkansas Lane

Arlington 76016

817.572.9900

Fax 817.572.7679

smiedtlaw.com arlingtondivorces.com

Voted in two Categories; Best Rodent Control by the Editors of Fort Worth Magazine and Best HVAC Company by the readers of Fort Worth Magazine

Please visit our showroom or call and make an appointment with one of our dedicated staff members to help you with your new or replacement garage doors and operator needs.

Open Up Garage Doors & Services has been servicing the metroplex for over 22 years! We would like to take this opportunity to say “Thank You” to everyone who has allowed us to be a part of their projects and look forward to many more years together. Here are just a few of our team members that help us everyday make our company successful. Left to Right: (back) Cameron

Victoria Henry, Derrick San

Joshua Cross. We specialize in custom garage door design and application as well as offer standard garage door options. ¡ Cedar Wood Overlay Doors ¡ Fullview Glass Doors with numerous choices for frame finishes ¡ Flush Garage Doors including side window options ¡ Accent Wood-Tone Steel Doors in multiple color options, with the appearance of wood but not the maintenance ¡ Carriage House Style Doors ¡ And Many More.

Hieb,

Miguel; (front)

LOCAL EATS AND RESTAURANT NEWS

DINING

In Arlington is a hidey-hole tucked away in the central city near UT Arlington. When you walk inside you discover it’s a giant in flavors. This is Café Americana, an upscale, fine dining Spanish-inspired restaurant.

by Malcolm Mayhew

Making Arlington Great Again

Newly opened Cafe Americana brings exciting, upscale Spanish-inspired cuisine and a fine dining vibe to downtown Arlington.

Upon your first visit to the excellent new Cafe Americana in Arlington, you may say to yourself what my wife and I said to ourselves: “This is it?”

“This” is a rather innocuous tin building on a backstreet in Arlington. But my wife and I are well versed in the old “looks can be deceiving” saying, as we crisscross counties and cities and states in search of great new restaurants, many of which are in the unlikeliest of places.

That’s most certainly the case with Cafe Americana, a terrific new restaurant opened recently in central Arlington, not far from UTA. It comes

from a group of North Texas-area immigrant friends, led by a chef who has strong ties to Fort Worth, Mark Guatelara, who made a name for himself in local food circles with a food truck and brick-and-mortar restaurant called Ober Here, in which he served Filipino food, paying tribute to his heritage.

Cafe Americana is a different beast, not only in terms of its Spanish-inspired cuisine but also how that cuisine is served. While Ober Here, which closed last year, was a simple, sometimes one-man-doesit-all affair, Cafe Americana is a

full-service restaurant — a beautifully designed one, too.

Behind the front door of this modest tin building is a visually intoxicating interior: walls painted in vivid splashes of greens and reds, strikingly colorful artwork on every wall and in every nook and cranny, and pretty floral arrangements hanging from the ceiling. Everywhere you look, there’s something cool to see.

“We thought about doing outside what we did inside, but we ran out of money,” laughs Guatelara, who serves as the restaurant’s executive chef and general manager. “But it works, right? We want people to be surprised when they come in. Think about restaurants in Chicago and New York and how on the outside those restaurants are just doors you open. There’s no real exterior. Then once you open those doors, it’s a different experience. People are surprised the first time they come in, and we love that.”

Developed by Guatelara, the menu, too, is a bit of a surprise. Made up of elevated takes on dishes from and around Spain, executed in the form of both tapas and shareable plates by chef de cuisine Wendy Felix, it’s a refreshing change of pace from current foodie trends.

“My background is in fine dining,” Guatelara says, reminding me, as I’m making my way through his beautiful seafood paella, that he once held chef positions at the Gaylord Texan, Live! by Loews Hotel in Arlington, and Renaissance Dallas Hotel. “This is me getting back to my roots. Except I’m not working for a big corporation anymore, doing somebody else’s menu.”

My paella, served in a small skillet, fat with mussels, chorizo, and shrimp, is one of the key dishes at Americana. Because it’s so laborious to make, you don’t see this staple of Spanish cuisine, a combination of rice, saffron, and other ingredients cooked in a shallow pan, on many local menus, and when you do, it’s served family-style, in big portions,

That’s a mountain, not a molehill, of shrimp in the Gambas al Aijillo.

The premier stone distributor in the Dallas/Fort Worth metro area, KLZ Stone Supply carries the largest inventory

KLZ travels the world to find the most beautiful stone. Your home is very precious and with that in mind we search far and wide to make sure that every one in our family will help and serve your family. Take the time and stop by and be amazed at our selections and friendly faces. After all you really can’t afford not to.

and costs an arm and a leg.

“I definitely wanted to do paella here, but not served in huge portions,” says Guatelara. “We offer different kinds of paella and want to encourage people to sample them all. That’s basically the theme of the restaurant. Everything is meant to be shared.”

Another signature item is freshly made empanadas, flaky pastries, artfully served one atop the other, filled with various ingredients. There are three kinds— potato and carrot stew, jerk chicken with cilantro and mint sauce, and pork and potato — plus a rotating chef’s special.

Other tapas include cordon bleu-inspired croquettes, Peruvian chicken skewers, chicken wings in a spicy guava sauce, and grilled Padrón peppers. Large plates feature an 8-ounce filet with a dizzyingly good chimichurri sauce; pineapple-glazed salmon; and a burger with manchego cheese, charred onions, and roasted garlic pimento spread.

The extensive drinks menu from mixologist Gregory Genias — a co-owner of BootlegGreg Cocktail Co., a Florida-based beverage consulting group — focuses on light and refreshing cocktails, including a tropical mojito with rum, watermelon, lime, brown sugar, and mint and the Americana Ranch Water, a mix of tequila, prickly pear, sparking water, and lime juice; there are also fruit punches on tap.

After the up-and-down economy forced Guatelara to close his two locations of Ober Here (he also ran a ghost kitchen version in Dallas), he fell into a depression, he says, and couldn’t figure out in what direction he wanted to steer his life.

“The economy has been so tough on restaurants,” he says. “I didn’t have any choice but to close. My hands were tied. One location was supporting the other, and that wasn’t sustainable. It was a situation that triggered a lot of mental anguish. I think most people who run restaurants can relate. It threw me into a depression.”

A phone call from a former supervisor who wanted to collaborate with him again put him back in the kitchen, working with a diverse group of restaurant marvels.

“The cool thing is, we’re all immigrants who started out in this country around the same time, about 20 years ago,” he says. “Everybody’s developed their own unique skill over the years, and they each bring something different to the table.”

The original intent wasn’t necessarily to bring an exciting new concept to Arlington; it just worked out that way, Guatelara says.

“The owner wanted to open in Arlington because it’s close to where he lives,” he says, laughing. “He just wanted a fun place for us and the rest of his friends to go and hang out and eat. But since we’ve opened, so many people have said, ‘Thank you for bringing this to Arlington; thank you for opening something different in Arlington.’ I now feel like we are where we’re supposed to be.”

CafeAmericana,403E.MainSt., cafeamericanatx.com

The mussels come with chorizo, padron peppers, charred onions and toast.

The seafood paella is served in a small skillet, fat with mussels, chorizo, and shrimp. You don’t see this staple of Spanish cuisine on many local menus.

Guacamole, served with plantain chips, tajin, and cotija.

by Malcolm Mayhew

Photos by Crystal Wise

Let This Sokah In

A new food truck in Fort Worth is serving a cuisine not normally seen in this area: food inspired by the Caribbean island of Trinidad and Tobago.

Food and music have long been intertwined. No one may know this more than Derron Blackman, a musician who, with his wife Aurora, runs one of the city’s best new food trucks.

Blackman is one of 24 children

fathered by Trinidadian musician Garfield Blackman, who also, in the early 1970s, fathered a style of music called “soca.” Recording and touring under the name Lord Shorty, Garfield developed his calypso style of music by combining kaiso music of West

Africa with elements from East Indian music.

What his father did for music, Derron is now, in a way, doing for food, combining flavors of his homeland to offer something unique and exciting to Fort Worth diners.

Last year, Derron and Aurora launched a food truck called Sokah — named after his father’s music — dedicated to food inspired by the cuisine of Trinidad and Tobago, the southernmost island in the Caribbean. Often parked outside the Hotel Dryce, the two offer a small menu of dishes that have caught the attention of other Caribbean expats who long for “doubles” and “roti jerk chicken,” two of the truck’s most popular items.

“Doubles,” Aurora explains, are a popular street food in Trinidad and Tobago made with flat fried dough, which Derron makes himself on the truck, and topped with curried chickpeas, chutneys, and other ingredients. For his, Derron uses a mango chutney that he makes himself.

The couple’s roti jerk chicken taco is inspired by roti, a combination of stewed meat and vegetables typically served in a wrap. Derron and Aurora put their own spin on it, serving roti tacos. Another key dish is an excellent sandwich called “bake and fish,” which Derron makes with catfish filets, cucumber chutney, coleslaw, tamarind, and bread he makes in-house, as you watch.

Their small menu also includes a jerk chicken plate, fried jerk chicken and fries, goat roti, and other dishes closely associated with West Indian cuisine.

“There’s not anywhere in Fort Worth we can think of that serves food from Trinidad and Tobago,” Derron says. “The flavors are incredible. That’s why we wanted to bring it to Fort Worth. It’s something new here.”

The couple has been married for nearly a decade, but they met in 1998 in Thailand, where Derron was performing music with his band

Fried jerk chicken is a thing at Sokah. A very good thing.

lucy@georgeandnoonan.com

georgeandnoonan.com

Spectacular Fort Worth Magazine 2023 Dream Home is the epitome of English crafted luxury within the gated community of Oak Alley. A meticulously designed masterpiece built in 2023 by Kensington Custom Homes, offers 5 bedrooms & 5.2 baths, w elevator spanning over a half acre lot. A harmonious blend of timeless elegance & craftsmanship features an abundance of panoramic glass & metal windows, custom wood beams & hardwood flooring. The kitchen features professional grade appliances, a gorgeous oversized quartzite island w walnut surround & Wood Mode cabinetry. The grand dining room features a beautiful stacked natural stone feature wall w sitting area transitioning to the great room. The great room boasts soaring ceilings & a custom wall showcases cast stone fireplace. Primary Owner’s Retreat offers a sitting room with glass doors leading to the outside oasis, which features a Claffey heated pool & spa w water features, FP, outdoor kitchen, & entry to entertainment room w media equipment!

while Aurora, who hails from Singapore, was watching him play while vacationing there. Both just 21 and with the world at their feet, they went their separate ways, until similar circumstances brought them back together — 16 years later on a different continent.

In what can only be described as fate, the two ran into each other a decade ago, at a cafe in San Diego, where, again, Derron was performing music, and Aurora just happened to be there.

“We knew something bigger than us had brought us back together, all this time and years later,” Aurora says. “We decided, pretty fast, that we were meant to be together.”

The two moved to North Carolina and then to Fort Worth, where Aurora had friends and family. Even though she and Derron have launched a food truck, she still has a day job as a regional manager for Motorola.

It was her idea to open the food truck, Derron says. “She always wanted to have her own business, and she loves to cook,” Derron says. “She did all the research, took care of all the business and permits and everything you need to open.”

Right now, the truck focuses on the food Derron knows and loves. At some point, Aurora says, she’s going to add some Singaporean dishes that pay homage to her youth.

“Maybe in the summer, I’ll add some Singaporean food,” she says. “But for now, we want people to learn about Trinidad and Tobago food. Besides, I just really love eating his food.”

SokahisusuallyparkedatHotelDryceonSaturdayevenings.Foritsfull schedule,visititsInstagrampage,instagram.com/sokahfoodtruck

The Chowtown Lowdown

A new tropical-themed restaurant from the Bearded Lady crew is now open in the River East district on Race Street. Tropic Lady comes from a trio of Bearded Lady ladies: owner Shannon Osbakken and Sarah Allen and Amanda Yunger, who’ve worked in management and marketing at Bearded Lady. Together they’ve turned the old Fuzzy’s building into a colorful, upbeat spot with a cool beach-tropical vibe. The menu is all about breezy, light, and creative fare: mango guacamole, chunks of grilled pineapple wrapped in bacon, vegan or regular smashburgers, a blackened shrimp salad with hibiscus vinaigrette and, did you see the part about the bacon-wrapped pineapple? There are cocktails and mocktails, too, and a beautifully landscaped patio. 2719RaceSt.,tropicladyfw.com

Recently opened in the Cultural District, The Bowie House hotel has now unveiled Whinny’s, its new poolside bar and restaurant. Unlike Bricks & Horses, the hotel’s on-site restaurant, you need to be a hotel guest to drink and dine at Whinny’s. Found on the west side of Bowie House’s tree-lined terrace pool, Whinny’s offers a menu of Mediterranean-inspired small bites and heavier entrees that guests can order and enjoy poolside. I don’t know who’d order a wagyu sirloin steak sitting next to a pool in 100-degree weather, but it’s there, and it’ll come with cucumber salad and saffron laffa bread. Other entrees include roasted salmon and a charbroiled kabob burger I’m dying to try. Lighter bites include corn and black bean falafel, Za’atar fries tossed with garlic, herbs and spices, crispy halloumi (a cheese made with goat’s and sheep’s milk), and Moroccan street corn made with spiced yogurt and feta. For dessert, there’s a tahini ice cream sandwich and a baklava sundae, made with pistachio and walnut ice cream and topped with honey syrup. The menu was developed by Bricks & Horses executive chef Antonio Votta, who also developed B&H’s menu. 3700 CampBowieBlvd.,aubergeresorts.com/bowiehouse

F1 Smokehouse, the smoked meats spot in the Cultural District opened last year by Felipe Armenta and celebrity chef Graham Elliot, has rolled out a huge new breakfast and brunch menu. For those in a rush, there are grab-and-go items, such as breakfast tacos made with scrambled eggs and house sausage; burritos stuffed with smoked chicken, bacon, potatoes and other ingredients; and a smashburger. A smashburger for breakfast? Heck, yeah. The “Sit & Stay’’ portion of the menu includes bigger, heartier items like chilaquiles with jalapenocheddar wagyu sausage; a crispy chicken sandwich topped with bacon, eggs, Swiss cheese, and maple butter; and a sandwich called Big Bad Wolf that comes with, dear Lord, brisket, thick-cut bacon, scrambled eggs, chili AND queso, plus tomato serrano salsa. OK, who wants to die with me? Breakfast is served 8-11 a.m., Monday-Friday, and 8 a.m.-3 p.m., Saturday and Sunday. 517UniversityDrive,f1smokehouse.com

Speaking of brunch, local Cajun favorite The Cajun Market, which closed its original Colleyville location and now operates out of the Bourbon Street Bar & Grill in Bedford, is hosting a weekly Sunday brunch buffet. Items include gumbo, etouffee, meat pies, jambalaya, eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy, grits, boudin spring rolls and beignets. Hours are 11 a.m.-3 p.m. every Sunday. Cost is $19.99 for adults, $10 for kids under 12. 1833AirportFreeway,Bedford,facebook. com/thecjaunmarketatbourbonst

Right now the truck focuses on the delicious plates of Trinidad and Tobago, but one day Aurora would like to add some Singaporean dishes.

Sandwiches include the crab salad, spring mix, marinated tomatoes, and charred jalapeno aioli.

by Malcolm Mayhew

Photo by Crystal Wise

Worth the Drive

Lovers of Indian and Nepalese cuisine have a new option: a family-owned spot in Euless called Mantra.

Indian restaurants are in short supply in Fort Worth, so any time a new one opens in Tarrant County, it’s cause for celebration — even if there’s a bit of a hike involved. Definitely worth the drive is Mantra, a new Indian and Nepalese restaurant in Euless. It’s a family-owned spot in a strip mall that has undoubtedly seen better days. Look beyond its fading exterior, though, and you’ll find excellent Nepalese and Indian cuisine, nicely executed and easy on your wallets.

The lack of Indian-Nepalese restaurants in northeast Tarrant prompted owner Biswo Naharki to open Mantra

last year; it’s his first restaurant.

He serves the majority of his dishes in a cool and unique way: on divided platters that resemble the school cafeteria trays of our youth. It’s a genius move: The trays bring out the colors of each item in a way that plain ol’ plates sometimes mask, creating images perfect for social media sharing, which is how people are discovering this hidden gem.

The menu is made up of terrific renditions of Indian food staples — samosas, butter chicken, chicken tikka masala, lamb and chicken korma, varieties of naan bread — along with

lesser-known Indian dishes like mushroom matar, a curried dish made with mushroom and other vegetables, and dal makhani, a rich-flavored, lentil-based stew.

But equal space on the menu is given to Nepalese and Himalayan cuisine, dishes that aren’t that common in Fort Worth. There are vegetable and chicken momos, cooked in a variety of ways, from steamed to coated in chili oil; malekhu, a marinated deep-fried dish cooked in Nepali herbs and served with housemade pickles, soya beans and puffy rice; and mutton sekuwa, comprised of cubed mutton marinated with ginger and garlic paste and cooked in a tandoor oven.

There are more than a half-dozen breads, too, all made by hand. Among them is aloo paratha, a flatbread stuffed with mashed potatoes, then finished on a griddle. The restaurant’s kulcha bread is stuffed with onions and aromatic spices and cooked in a tandoor oven. For dessert, try the sweet naan, filled with crushed nuts, coconut shavings, and raisins.

Naharki says his family hails from various regions of India and that Mantra is his tribute to them.

“I wanted something that my family could enjoy,” he says. “But I also want to pay tribute to them and our heritage.”

13906TrinityBlvd.,mantrarestro.com

They have the meats: Chopped brisket and sliced sausage atop mac and cheese at Brown’s Backyard BBQ.

CLIMATE

EXCLUSIVE GATED COMMUNITYOAK ALLEY

CLIMATE CON TROLLED INDOOR/OUTDOOR LIVING AREA POOL AND SPA EQUIPPED WITH HEATER AND CHILLER PICKLEBALL COUR T

GENERATOR

FORT WORTH’S PREMIER EVENT VENUE

IN THE SPIRIT OF COWBOYS AND CATTLE DRIVERS, RIVER RANCH STOCKYARDS TAKES YOUR GUESTS BACK TO THE WILD WEST!

THINK OF US FOR YOUR NEXT EVENT

Our historic venue offers a blend of rustic charm and modern amenities, perfect for weddings, corporate events, and celebrations. Choose from our three unique spaces, the Trophy Room, Old Town Room, and Westfork Room, to accommodate any group size. We hope you think of River Ranch Stockyards as you plan your next event!

RIVER RANCH STOCKYARD’S 3RD ANNUAL COWTOWN BURGER SHOWDOWN WINNERS

THANK YOU!

AGUASOL TEQUILA, TREYS CHOW DOWN, AND RIVER RANCH STOCKYARDS WOULD LIKE TO CONGRATULATE THIS YEARS WINNERS AND THANK ALL OF THE GREAT RESTAURANTS WHO PARTICIPATED IN OUR 3RD ANNUAL EVENT!

DAYNE’S CRAFT BBQ

WINNER: BEST NON-TRADITIONAL BURGER

Top Doctors FortWorthMagazine

FortWorthMagazine’s2024 Top Doctors were celebrated at a cocktail reception at The Magnolia Wine Bar in the hospital district on April 3.

The soirée featured a captivating 15-minute Q&A session, moderated by acclaimed television sports anchor and broadcast journalist, Scott Murray. Dr. José Iglesias, the esteemed lead pediatric surgeon at Cook Children’s, offered profound insights into the historic and rare procedure of separating conjoined twin girls, captivating the audience with his expertise. Thanks to all of the event sponsors including: Platinum Sponsor, Acclaim MultiSpecialty Group; Gold Sponsor, Gateway Diagnostic Imaging; and Vehicle Sponsor, Park Place Motorcars Fort Worth.

Hal Brown, José Iglesias, Brian Kendall, Scott Murray

Debra Atkisson, Malik Farooq, Carol Nati

Michael Boothby, Ann Ranelle

Angela Bowers, Kristen Godby

Tammy Nakamura, Hal Brown, Ryan Vincon, Michelle Craven, Yukihiro Nakamura

Angelo & Julie Vu

Carmen Rosario, James Stein

photos by Joseph Johnson

The Big Night

The Big Good

Under the neon marquee of Tannahill’s Tavern & Music Hall, Leon Bridges and Gary Patterson welcomed guests back with a smile to THE BIG GOOD: The Big Night. The two gentlemen’s joint fundraising effort has grown with rapid momentum in the three years since its formation, with The Big Night being its largest annual event. Celebrating the best of local business, food, and music, this event has become one of the hottest tickets in town since it first opened its doors in 2022. Now with three years under its belt, THE BIG GOOD proudly continued its success with its April 4 event, raising funds for the Tarrant To & Through Partnership, United Community Centers, and UpSpire.

Leon Bridges, Abraham Alexander

Gary Patterson, Olivia Harms

Nic Sheridan, Stacie McDavid, Amy Bailey

George Young Jr, Linda Young, Marshall Young

Leon Bridges

photos by Olaf Growald

Seeking Candidates for FortWorthInc.’sFirst-Ever

40 Under 40 Awards Program

Fort Worth Inc. proudly presents its inaugural 40 Under 40 awards program. You are invited to nominate exceptional young leaders from the Greater Fort Worth region who demonstrate initiative, leadership, and excellence in their respective fields. Scan the QR code below to submit your nominations by the June 7 deadline.

SCAN THE QR CODE TO SUBMIT YOUR NOMINATION!

bit.ly/fortworth-inc-40-under-40

DEADLINE: JUNE 7

REQUIREMENTS:

• Must be nominated (cannot nominate oneself)

• Must be 39 or younger by Sept. 20

• Must live and/or work in the following counties: Tarrant, Parker, Johnson, Hood, Wise, Denton

• Anyone may be nominated regardless of vocation, business or sector

Spring Luncheon

Junior League of Fort Worth

The Junior League Sustainers held their annual Spring Luncheon on April 11. The Junior League is a nonprofit organization formed in 1929. The League trains and provides volunteers and has given millions of dollars to jump-start and support nonprofit agencies.

Brooke Lively, Lynda Shropshire, Judie Greenman, Anna Jean Walsh, Suzy Williams

Molly Reid, Peggy Sims

Rebecca Pope, Shay Gipson, Robin Greenhall, Maggie Shori, Charity Auginbaugh Liz Fleischer, Lauri Lawrence

Carmon Gordon, Lisa Schuessler, Meridith Wallace, Kelli Smith, Emily Jones, Rachel Manning, Jackie Prowse

Sarah Washington, Wendy Wright

Sandra Toumey, Paige Pate, Michelle Marlow

photos by Sharon Ellman

GIVE BACK

GREATER FORT WORTH’S CHARITY/SOCIAL EVENTS

May

Mental Health Awareness Month

May 1 The Cigar Smoker

Fort Worth Club

Fort Worth Public Library Foundation

May 3

6th Annual Sporting Clay Tournament

Alpine Shooting Range Alliance For Children

May 3

Butterfly Wishes Gala Pavilion at Dickies Arena a Wish with Wings

May 4

Tarrant County Heart Ball

American Heart

American Heart Association

May 8

2024 Charity Golf Tournament

Texas Rangers Golf Club Miracle League DFW

May 13

Trinity Invitational Mira Vista

Junior Achievement of Chisholm Trail

May 17

Beastro Fort Worth Zoo

Fort Worth Zoo

May 17

Signing Day

Ed Landreth Hall - TCU Foundation for the Young Women’s Leadership Academy

Thank You to Our Sponsors

We are honored to recognize the support of each of our 2024 Butterfly Wishes sponsors.

*as of press time

PREMIER SPONSOR

PRESENTING SPONSOR

DIAMOND

Amon G. Carter Foundation

Karen & Larry An n

Joseph Romero Fern & Jerre Santini

Rachel Arellano & Ron McBee

Blacksmith Fence

Chuggers Charity

Cook Children’s Health Care System

Enterprise Mobility

First Choice Truck Lube

Joy & John Little

O’Neal Oil & Gas

Pantego Lions Foundation

Pooh de Mayo

Kenny Schreiber

SKU2U Fulfillment

UNDERWRITING SPONSORS

PLATINUM

Loretta & Don Marable

Lei & Frank Testa

The Schweitzer Group

Toccoa

Karen & Patrick Weber

Cheryl & Tom Spencer & Lindy & Ron Williams

From photographer Karolina Marek: “If you ever heard a sweet humming radial engine sound overhead, it was probably this Southern Cross Douglas C-49J flying around town. This aircraft belongs to the Greatest Generation Aircraft nonprofit organization and is based at Meacham Airport in the Vintage Flying Museum hangar. I personally volunteer with the organization and take photos to capture the beauty of this historical aircraft. This is a variant of the Douglas DC-3, which has a vast history that spans commercial aviation to military aviation — even playing a pivotal role in World War II and the D-Day Allied invasion of Europe. As for our organization, we focus on preserving history by providing flights around town on the aircraft and honoring our veterans; the inside of the plane has signatures of veterans that we had on board. Southern Cross is a true living piece of history. Come on out to Meacham and take a flight back in time with us!”

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.

Photo by Karolina Marek @kmaviation

PICTURED: David Elattrache, GM, Platinum Toyota; Justin Rogers, GM, SouthWest Toyota of Lawton Oklahoma; Stephen Gilchrist, Dealer Operator, Gilchrist Automotive

Lasting Impression

Young entrepreneur and head artist Samuel Santana Garcia provides his clients exceptional hair loss treatment, otherwise known as scalp micro-pigmentation (SMP), at his Santana Studio & Co. in downtown Fort Worth near TCU. He also teaches others, many from around the country, the same discipline with his world-class SMP training program. When motoring between his home and multiple SMP locations, he slips behind the wheel of his 2023 Mercedes-AMG EQS, a luxury electric vehicle from Park Place Motorcars Fort Worth.

“It’s that giant Hyperscreen, spanning the width of the dash, that sold me,” Sam says. The renowned SMP practitioner says he’s wowed not only by the futuristic tech and luxurious interior

of his Mercedes EQS, but also by its standout road presence. “When I want to impress a client, take out a beautiful lady, or close a deal, that’s the car I take. That’s my closer,” he says. The Mercedes EQS leaves a lasting impression on anyone lucky enough to enjoy the sedan’s smooth and quiet ride.

Sam says he found an especially respectful, caring relationship with the Park Place Motorcars Fort Worth dealership staff. “Two Jasons that work there, Jason Camacho in sales and Jason Marron in service, both help me tremendously,” he says. “At Park Place, they’re Experts in Excellence because of exceptional customer service, fast feedback, and quick resolution to any issue that comes up.”