Inheriting the reins from a five-term mayor, will the 37-year-old seek a new direction?
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Not Just for Cowboys
YOUR LEGENDARY EXPERIENCE AWAITS
Located in the heart of the Fort Worth Stockyards, Hotel Drover, a 200-room Autograph Collection Hotel by Marriott, focuses on simple pleasures and genuine hospitality. Wander in this fall to enjoy a seasonal beverage at one of several indoor-outdoor bars, spirited eats at 97 West Kitchen & Bar, performances by Texas Country Music Association artists, and so much more.
THE BACKYARD AT HOTEL DROVER: POOL, LIVE MUSIC, FIRE PITS, & LAWN GAMES
THREE INDOOR-OUTDOOR BARS
LUCCHESE CUSTOM COLLECTION & WIDE BRIM BY FLEA STYLE: NOW OPEN
MULE ALLEY SHOPPING, DRINKS, & DINING
COWTOWN COLISEUM & BILLY BOB’S TEXAS
97 WEST KITCHEN & BAR
48
An Autumn of Elegance
This season’s style trends blend classic romance with indulgent luxury.
BY JENNY B. DAVIS
60 Go Time
It’s a new era for Fort Worth as Mattie Parker takes the reins as mayor during a pivotal moment in the city’s history. So, what exactly is her plan to take Cowtown to the next level?
BY JOHN HENRY
70
Crossings
Questions remain unanswered for the family of a local man killed in a railroad crossing accident — 40 years after his death.
BY RACHEL PARSONS
14 The Lead
The labor shortage slamming restaurants across the country has hit home.
18 Buzz
Why West Vickery might just be Fort Worth’s next Design District.
22 Calendar
Art shows, Oktoberfest, and an evening with Michael Bublé highlight this month’s event lineup.
24 Fort Worthian
This skateboarding duo has more than a few flip tricks up their sleeve.
26 Good Reads
A local fifth grader gets published and chats about life as a young author.
28 Before You Sign Up...
What to know about clinical trials, according to two local doctors.
30 Dream Street 2021
An update on our home project in Montrachet.
32 A Weekend in H Town
An atypical guide to the offbeat spots to eat, play, and stay in Houston.
36 Weekend Treats
Up your Labor Day menu with these party-perfect recipes.
42 Restaurant News
Brunch, lunch — and Indian food — mark the menu of this charming TCU-area café.
A Front Runner
Plano resident Michelle Pond says there’s a lot to love about her 2020 Volkswagen Atlas from SouthWest Volkswagen. “I had been wanting an Atlas for the roomy interior and versatile space with large trunk, which is extremely helpful as an athletic trainer who covers sports events all around the metroplex,” says Michelle, a physical therapist and athletic trainer. Handsome and distinctive, the 2020 Volkswagen Atlas, a three-row crossover SUV, truly has it all — convenience, storage, a roomy interior, and an abundance of useful, high-tech features. “The captain seats make the ride as luxurious for my passengers as for those riding in the front seat. The large sunroof allows a lot of natural light — such a game changer on road trips — and the safety features make me feel safe navigating the busy metroplex roads,” she says.
Michelle credits SouthWest Volkswagen in Weatherford for a great dealership experience. “In the past, the time it took to purchase a car was overwhelming, but at SouthWest Volkswagen, my process went smoothly, and I was in and out in a flash. The folks at SouthWest Volkswagen feel like family and exceeded all of my expectations,” she says. “Chad Shelton not only made the car-buying process a breeze, but he also has assisted me with the scheduling concierge-style maintenance, saving me time and ensuring I always get the best service.”
PICTURED: Michelle Pond, customer; Stephen Gilchrist, Dealer Operator; Chad Shelton, General Manager.
A Shot in the Arm
Ifirst met now-Mayor Mattie Parker when she arrived at our studio for a photo shoot on a brisk and windy January afternoon — I recall councilmember Brian Byrd’s hair mussed from the five seconds he spent walking from his car to our office. The shoot was for our cover story on the upcoming mayoral election, where we interviewed the four candidates we felt had the best shot at succeeding Betsy Price. In addition to Parker and Byrd, we also had councilmember Ann Zadeh and former Tarrant County Democratic chair Deborah Peoples, who would eventually face Parker in the runoff.
I’ll be real with you — of the four, Parker was the person I knew least; I was far more star-struck (if you can feel such a way about city government officials) by the other three. Having moved to Fort Worth only a couple years ago, I was unaware of Parker’s tenure as Betsy Price’s chief of staff, and I wrote her off as someone who lacked the political chops of the tenured Byrd and Zadeh, or the tenacity of Peoples. Of course, as the election took shape, her political savviness became apparent as she racked up some of the city’s most soughtafter endorsements. She quickly became the “establishment” candidate — the natural successor to the down-home, middleof-the-road, nonpartisan, don’t-ruffle-the-feathers Betsy Price.
But Parker enters office during very turbulent times — when the feathers have been positively disheveled. A new surge in COVID-19 cases caused by the unvaccinated, a strange debate over wearing masks that won’t seem to vanish, public education that continues to underperform, and sustained questions over policing and the citizens review board. All of this while Fort Worth experiences its inevitable growing pains while trying to become a world-class city. I doubt few mayors have stepped into office with a fuller plate.
But, if her first couple months are any indication, she’s certainly up for the task. I was impressed with the way she handled the brief interruption at her swearing-in ceremony, she’s been open to finding common ground with a young and diverse city council, and her weekly podcast shows her willingness to communicate with Fort Worthians. She might not like riding bikes (à la Price), but as long as she continues to listen and act thoughtfully and with empathy, Fort Worth is in good hands. I’m rooting for her.
ON THE COVER:
We met Mayor Mattie Parker, with her security in tow, at Tinie’s on a Friday morning.
Owner Sarah Castillo was kind enough to open the doors to her South Main restaurant a little early for our shoot. In a matter of minutes, photographer Olaf Growald was able to capture this cover image as Parker posed on the restaurant’s rooftop.
Corrections? Comments? Concerns?
Send to executive editor Brian Kendall at bkendall@ fwtexas.com.
NEXT MONTH
Fort
Medical Guide
owner/publisher hal a. brown
president mike waldum
EDITORIAL
executive editor brian kendall
managing editor samantha calimbahin
contributing editor scott nishimura
contributing writers hillaire baumgartner, jenny b. davis, john henry, tina howard, malcolm mayhew, rachel parsons, jillian verzwyvelt
copy editor sharon casseday
editorial interns adriana barker, rhema joy bell, jillian verzwyvelt
ART
creative director craig sylva
senior art director spray gleaves
advertising art director ed woolf
contributing photographers olaf growald, crystal wise
ADVERTISING
advertising account supervisors gina burns-wigginton x150, marion c. knight x135
account executive tammy denapoli x141
territory manager, fort worth inc. rita hale x133 sales
MARKETING
digital marketing & development director robby kyser
Make it an elective — let students make the choice of what they want to learn more about. Ban it out right? That is un-American.
— Lee Power Littlefield
Children need language arts — most of all, reading, writing throughout the school day. They are exposed to many people, places, and lifestyles by reading books from their school library and in the classroom. By teaching and focusing on this, kids will read more and learn more and have the desire to learn as well as learn critical thinking for themselves.
— Judy Eierdam
@wdworker51 Why are people so afraid of their children being taught the real past history? We learn by our mistakes. Without telling what was done wrong, how can we correct our mistakes? Hiding the truth and the past solves nothing.
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.
We have really appreciated the community events and clubs our library has offered over the years. As a family with four children, this “free entertainment” has helped us stretch our budget in tremendous ways. Anything to draw otherwise non-readers to books, I’m all in favor. — Kristi Johnson Lambert
TRENDING ONLINE
Visit fwtx.com for the full story.
» Insomnia Cookies, The Pretty Kitty Among Latest Openings at Crockett Row Bringing everything from beauty services to decadent desserts, here’s a quick roundup of new places to check out at Crockett Row at West 7th.
» Chef Ben Merritt Talks Cocktails, Steaks, and Seafood for His New Restaurant Ben Merritt is dishing out more details about his steak-and-seafood concept opening soon on Camp Bowie.
» Artist Stephanie Syjuco to Create 360-Degree Work for Carter Museum There’s a massive, new work coming to the Amon Carter Museum of American Art that promises an immersive, multimedia experience stretching across the first-floor galleries.
follow us for more @fwtxmag
WE SPEAK FORT WORTH
For over 20 years, we’ve had our ears to the ground, our eyes on the ball, and our fingers on the pulse of Fort Worth. This gives us an edge to deliver the city’s best lifestyle, business, and home content.
Next Stop: The Stockyards
Read about Sarah Castillo’s latest addition to her local dynasty of eateries on page 44.
In Short Supply
The restaurant industry’s struggle to find staff hits home.
BY JILLIAN VERZWYVELT
As restrictions lifted and services resumed, many restaurants that dimmed their lights over the last year were relieved to have survived what they thought would be the worst to come, but the shutdown was only the beginning.
Business leaders across the American food service industry are scrambling to contend with the widespread lack of labor.
While the shortage is rippling across the entire economy, the effect is particularly pronounced on the
accommodations and food industry. Not only were restaurants $240 billion below the pre-pandemic forecast, according to a report released by the National Restaurant Association, but the sector finished 2.5 million jobs beneath previous employment levels.
Only exacerbated by supply chain issues, inflation, and the increasing cost of imported goods alongside heightened capacity and consumer demand, the downward sloping labor supply trend has become a national economic emergency. And it has finally hit home.
On July 25, the owners of Cannon Chinese Kitchen, a Near Southside staple since 2015, announced that the restaurant would be closing due to a dearth of restaurant workers.
“For all we have overcome the past year and a half, nothing succumbs to what the hospitality/service industry is currently facing with the shortage of staff,” the owners shared in a Facebook post. “We hope your meals at Cannon were like meals at your grandmother’s dinner table, sharing stories, laughter, and delicious food. We are forever grateful to you to let us be a part of your special occasions and memories.”
The owners did not respond to requests for comments.
Ardent adorers of Cannon’s authentic Chinese cuisine can rest assured that Casey Kha and Jarry and Mary Ho will continue to offer similar services at their Shinjuku Station and Tokyo Cafe restaurants in Fort Worth. While they may have withstood the various waves of COVID-19,
BY
Cannon Chinese Kitchen closed in August, citing a shortage of staff.
PHOTO
ALEX LEPE
everything from quaint kitchens to major fast-food chains are questioning if they can ultimately weather this storm.
There’s been much speculation over the reasons for the shortage, with owners embracing theories that workers are wary of returning to low-pay positions with the recent surge of unemployment benefits or that they’ve found more attractive opportunities elsewhere. Simultaneously, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics identifies that as the unemployment rate has fallen from highs earlier in the year, job openings remained steady with a decline in individuals actively seeking employment. Long story short, the compounded effect of this fall and a sectoral shift from the food service industry has encouraged local eateries to become creative in how they’re grappling with the burden.
“Our industry went through such drastic swings, from massive firings during the forced shutdowns to [paycheck protection program] loans, rehiring, and supply chain issues across the board,” Fort Worth restaurateur and chef Jon Bonnell says. “I’ve read that over 90% of small businesses in the entire country feel ‘short-staffed’ right now, and the restaurant industry is certainly in that category.”
While restaurant owners are undoubtedly experiencing the brunt of it, consumers are not coming away unscathed. Craving a return to normal, customers came flooding into their favorite eateries to find that the unprecedented cost of the supply chain and labor shortage was passed onto them. For the foreseeable future, consumers can expect to pay more and wait longer for services.
“Consumers are paying more for food and service than any time that I can recall,” Bonnell says. “Our Wingin’ Wednesday special at Buffalo Bros had consistent pricing for roughly 13 years, but prices did actually have to increase a little this past year.”
Tim Love, chef at several popular Fort Worth restaurants including Woodshed Smokehouse, Gemelle, and more, says that it’s not so much a shortage of labor but a lack of applicants. While his establishments survived the early shutdown, his biggest hurdle as of late has been retaining employees. As other restaurant owners turn to cash signing bonuses and finder’s fees, he’s found success in cultivating warm work environments.
“Not everyone is motivated by money,” Love says. “A lot of people are motivated by benefits or extracurriculars in the workplace, and that’s something our company has always concentrated on.”
Bonnell, the mastermind behind Buffalo Bros, Waters Restaurant, and Bonnell’s Fine Texas Cuisine, has also dabbled in new ways to attract applicants.
“We are using every source we can find to recruit staff now, whereas in years past we only needed word of mouth coupled with employees just walking in the door asking for an application,” Bonnell says. “We are using many online platforms, social media outlets, and any other resources that we can find just to get by these days.”
Unable to work from home, much of the last year and a half has been spent in survival mode for the majority of restaurants. With ever-changing regulations to ensure the safety of employees and patrons, the industry has seen a dramatic shift in operations. As the dust settles, it looks like everyone can expect some permanent changes. Leaning into the current conditions, another notable Fort Worth chef, Lanny Lancarte, is adopting a leaner labor model with the ghost kitchen concept that only offers delivery and to-go options. Though the fourth-generation restaurateur didn’t launch his first ghost kitchen — Eat Fajitas — until the earlier stages of the pandemic shutdowns, he’d been building this concept since 2017. COVID-19 only accelerated the idea and encouraged early adoption by the community. In September, North Fort Worth will welcome Lancarte’s latest innovation — Fantasma Kitchens — which will act as a hub for three ghost kitchen concepts.
Lancarte notes that while the technology itself hasn’t improved all that much, restaurants have been quick to adopt modernized means to shift the focus from customerfacing service to convenience and safety while still offering an enjoyable dining experience.
“You can come in and use a QR code to not only see the menu but to order and pay so that you don’t have to wait around for someone to come to the table,” Lancarte says.
While some restaurants, including Bonnell’s, Love’s, and Lancarte’s, have realized creative ways to remain afloat, others like Cannon Chinese Kitchen couldn’t contend with the rough waves of the pandemic. As the labor shortage shows no sign of tapering off any time soon, it seems the only options are to sink or swim.
BY
The dining room at Cannon Chinese Kitchen
PHOTO
ALEX LEPE
Fast. Friendly. Fair.
Here's the deal.
AUTO GROUP
District by Design
Why West Vickery may just be Fort Worth’s next hub for all things art and
home design.
BY JILLIAN VERZWYVELT
What was once a vast industrial oasis, West Vickery Boulevard is on the verge of a new epoch. Over the past few years, the roughly five-mile stretch starting at the interchange of Interstate 30 and Chisholm Trail Parkway has seen a shift in the types of businesses that are locating there.
With locally owned interior design companies, clothing brands, boutiques, art galleries, and other similar crafts quickly conglomerating in the area, the corridor appears as if it’s becoming something of a design district.
Long-time tenant — as well as real estate developer and property manager with Witcher Properties, Ltd. — Jill Black identifies recent developments in the surrounding areas as a catalyst for growth on West Vickery. The construction of the Chisholm Trail Parkway and improvements along Montgomery Street, such as Dickies Arena, cultivated the perfect storm when property prices began to surge.
“A lot of the nearby areas priced out artists,” Black says. “Vickery was a place that was centrally located and still affordable.”
While Black’s family has owned property on the boulevard for decades, she founded a collective workspace on the strip where she houses her own shop, Amada.
“I’d seen a lot of businesses come and go, start up and fail, so I got into the concept of coworking and shared resources,” Black says.
At roughly 3,000-square-feet, 76107 Collective features 10 office spaces where local entrepreneurs, artists, and small businesses have found a home.
Where before West Vickery was not known for much
other than harboring large warehouses, the industrial designs have proven to be a perfect fit for the types of businesses that are now locating there.
Paige Casey and Amanda Galati, co-owners of children’s boutique Lila + Hayes, spearheaded a concept similar to 76107 just down the corridor. LOCAL Design Studio + Gallery serves as the headquarters for several womenowned businesses — Lila + Hayes, children’s accessory line The Bow Next Door, jewelry designer Kori Green Designs, home furnishing shop RM Rynd Interiors, purse and accessory boutique Clearly Handbags, paper type and printing company Fort52, handmade boot shop City Boots, and fur store C+B Furs.
The project grew out of a need for offices and warehousing, The Bow Next Door owner Emily Lee says. LOCAL originally opened in a 2,880-square-foot space but has since expanded into the neighboring storefronts, almost tripling in size.
“West Vickery is turning around,” Lee says. “It’s not what people thought it was five or 10 years ago. Everyone is updating new buildings, and it’s looking amazing.”
While on a smaller scale than the entire strip, LOCAL and 76107 demonstrate the benefits of like-minded businesses conglomerating.
“We are able to bounce ideas off of each other,” Lee says. “We all kind of know what we’re going through. If we have a question about something, someone there is going to know the answer. We all want to see each other succeed and do well.”
Since locating to West Vickery, Lee has seen an explosion of Fort Worth brands popping up in the area, opening more opportunities for collaboration. About two years ago, she says, a few shops came together to organize Venture to Vickery, a pop-up event featuring food trucks, face paint, and more to build community and attract customers to the corridor.
Lee estimates that about two or three new shops are opening each year along the boulevard, but the area is also drawing some of the city’s staples.
In late 2019, Fort Worth Billiards Superstore, one of oldest billiard retailers in Texas, moved less than one mile from its location on Montgomery — where it had been for about 30 years — to West Vickery.
“Over time, we’ve seen smaller specialty shops opening up in the area,” Fort Worth Billiards Supply Co. president Albert Trujillo says. “It’s a much higher-trafficked area than Montgomery Street and brings a lot of curiosity to specialty shops.”
Fort Worth Billiards Superstore has provided furnishings for pool tables, shuffleboard, foosball, air hockey, skee ball, various arcade games, and a selection of stools for almost 70 years. As the business grew, it started looking not only for a place where it could expand but also a property it could own instead of rent.
The company remodeled a former 10,000-square-foot garage space while retaining certain elements, including the overhead doors and the open concept for its showroom.
“There’s a lot of growth in this area,” Trujillo says. “When moving, we felt that we needed to stay in this area based on where we were before and that there was going to be a lot of growth west and southwest.”
DESIGN/HOME-RELATED BUSINESS
ALONG WEST VICKERY
Amada – 3930 W. Vickery Blvd.
ANR Glass – 5136 W. Vickery Blvd.
Ardent Creative – 707 W. Vickery Blvd., Ste. 103
Brooke Wright Designs – 3986 W. Vickery Blvd.
Brushstroke Gallery – 4400 W. Vickery Blvd.
Buzz Custom Fence – 5104 W. Vickery Blvd.
C + B Furs – 3610 W. Vickery Blvd.
Cabbage Rose – 3905 W. Vickery Blvd.
Casa Dueno a dueno – 4114 W. Vickery Blvd.
CCs Touch of Nature Inc – 3912 W. Vickery Blvd.
Champion Glass and Mirror –7337 W. Vickery Blvd.
City Boots – 3610 W. Vickery Blvd.
Clearly Handbags – 3610 W. Vickery Blvd.
Cowtown Clay – 5348 W. Vickery Blvd.
Durango Doors – 4015 W. Vickery Blvd.
Fly Low FPV – 7355 W. Vickery Blvd.
Fort52 – 3610 W. Vickery Blvd.
Fort Worth Billiards Superstore – 3970 W. Vickery Blvd.
Grove + Coop – 3986 W. Vickery Blvd.
Heather Essian (76107 home, artist) – 3930 W. Vickery Blvd.
JAG Jewelry and Goods – 3924 W. Vickery Blvd.
Kori Green Designs – 3610 W. Vickery Blvd.
Lila + Hayes – 3610 W. Vickery Blvd.
LOCAL Design Studios + Gallery – 3610 W. Vickery Blvd.
Past Perfect – 4318 W. Vickery Blvd.
Pierce Fine Hardware – 4030 W. Vickery Blvd.
PPG Paint Store – 3600 W. Vickery Blvd.
Rainbow Advertising – 3904 W. Vickery Blvd.
RM Rynd Interiors – 3610 W. Vickery Blvd.
Rob Dauis Fences – 3805 W. Vickery Blvd.
Simple Things – 7401 W. Vickery Blvd.
Slater Flooring and Design –5360 W. Vickery Blvd.
Standpoint Promotions – 7256 W. Vickery Blvd.
Susan Semmelmann Interiors –4372 W. Vickery Blvd.
The Bow Next Door – 3610 W. Vickery Blvd.
The Welman Project – 3950 W. Vickery Blvd.
Thomas Diel Designs – 3801 W. Vickery Blvd.
Tile Marble & Granite Works –7201 W. Vickery Blvd.
10 Things to Know This Month
1
The Fort Worth Independent School District (FWISD) attempted to require masks for students and employees returning to school in August, despite Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order banning such mandates. But, just days before the first day of school, a district court ruling blocked the requirement, forcing FWISD to comply.
2
The city’s first-ever children’s library, Reby Cary Youth Library, opened Aug. 14 at 3851 E. Lancaster Ave. The 8,122-square-foot space houses a creative lab, sensory garden, and open spaces, along with books. It’s named after Reby Cary, the late Fort Worth educator.
3
Upcoming boutique hotel, Hotel Dryce, is now taking reservations for September. Co-owned by Jonathan Morris of Fort Worth Barber Shop fame, the former dry ice factory now comprises 21 rooms and a lobby bar right in the heart of the Cultural District. More information is available at hoteldryce.com.
4
Two notable historic buildings are now seeking occupants in the Near Southside, as of press time. One is the Beth-El synagogue at 207 W. Broadway Ave., a building that dates back to 1920 and is currently up for sale. The other is The School House on Lipscomb at 319 Lipscomb St. — Tarrant County’s oldest schoolhouse, built in 1892 and currently up for lease. Transwestern is facilitating the sale and lease of both properties.
5
TCU’s football season kicks off Sept. 4 at home against Duquesne. Of course, hovering over the program is Texas and Oklahoma’s impending exit from the Big 12 to join the SEC in 2025. While TCU’s fate within the conference (or another conference) has yet to be determined, head football coach Gary Patterson simply tells the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, “Maybe I’m just a little bit old-school when it comes to it, but regional rivalries, that’s what I worry about.”
6
The Olympics may be over, but Fort Worthians still have a chance to see star gymnast Simone Biles in action this fall. The Spring, Texas, native will be making a stop at Dickies Arena on Oct. 9 for the Gold Over America Tour, performing alongside other gymnasts like Jordan Chiles, Mykayla Skinner, and Laurie Hernandez. Ticket information is available at goldoveramericatour.com.
7
Beloved Near Southside arts festival ArtsGoggle, canceled last year due to COVID-19, will return Oct. 16 to showcase amateur and professional artists along Magnolia Avenue. The deadline for registering as an artist, food vendor, or volunteer is Sept. 16. Learn more about ArtsGoggle and how to get involved at artsgoggle.org.
8
With the Cliburn International Amateur Piano Competition a little over a year away, the organization recently announced its full list of competitors, representing 19 countries and hailing everywhere from Arlington, Texas, to Gangneung, South Korea. The competition is scheduled for Oct. 12 – 18, 2022. For the full competitor list and more information, visit cliburn.org.
9
The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth has released an exhibition schedule through spring 2022. Exhibits include a showcase of two notable pieces by Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler, “Flora” and “Bust,” which opens Sept. 5, as well as works by Milton Avery, Frances Stark, Jill Magid, and Jamal Cyrus. More details are available at themodern.org.
10
The future of popular bar and music venue Shipping & Receiving, where Leon Bridges essentially launched his career, is up in the air. The venue hasn’t reopened since the pandemic shutdown, but per former owner Eddie Vanston, current owner Tom Reynolds “is keeping the license going with hopes of reopening at some point.” An event venue, The Social Space, is expected to open within the same building.
Scheduling My way.
When your family needs care, you should be able to set up appointments ASAP. Manage all your healthcare on your schedule with the MyBSWHealth app. Scan the QR code to download the app today.
PRINT IS MEMORABLE.
Print creates an emotional connection.
Print builds relationships.
Physical material is more “real” to the brain, involves more emotional processing, is better connected to memory, with greater internalization of ads — all important for brand associations. (FORBES)
*Please visit each event’s website for information on COVID-19 protocols.
SEPT.
18
Wings for Wishes
SEPT. 10
Friday on the Green
The band hasn’t been announced yet, but nonetheless, the Near Southside’s signature concert series — which took a hiatus last year amid COVID-19 — is back.
Magnolia Green 1201 Lipscomb St., 817.923.1343 nearsouthsidefw.org
In this aptly named fundraiser benefiting a Wish with Wings, celebrity chefs and amateurs alike will compete in a chicken wing cookoff in hopes of earning the coveted title — the Lord of the Wings.
River Ranch Stockyards 500 NE 23rd St., 817.469.9474 awww.org
SEPT. 19
TCU Rhino Run
Race around TCU’s campus at this 5K benefiting the university’s Rhino Initiative, which works to protect the species from extinction.
Amon G. Carter Stadium 2850 Stadium Drive, Parking Lot 3 runsignup.com/race/tx/ fortworth/thetcurhinorun
SEPT. 21
An Evening with Michael Bublé
It’s an evening long overdue — Michael Bublé’s North American tour, postponed last year due to the pandemic, is finally making its Fort Worth stop at Dickies Arena.
Dickies Arena
1911 Montgomery St. dickiesarena.com
SEPT. 23 – 25
Mo Welch
Comedian and cartoonist Mo Welch visits Fort Worth for a night of laughs at Amphibian Stage.
Amphibian Stage 120 S. Main St., 817.923.3012 amphibianstage.com
SEPT. 23 – 25 Oktoberfest Fort Worth
Raise a stein for Panther Island Pavilion’s annual celebration of German culture, food, and of course, craft beer. The Shack at Panther Island Pavilion 395 Purcey St., 817.698.0700 oktoberfestfw.com
SEPT. 24 – 25
“Forever Young”
Set in a scrappy, suburban basement, this Bransonstyle performance spotlights a group of friends who break out in song and dance as they uncover the greatest hits of Billy Joel, Queen, Bon Jovi, and more.
Downtown Cowtown at the Isis
2401 N. Main St., 817.808.6390 downtowncowtown.com
SEPT. 25
Carter Museum 60th Birthday Bash
Live music, food trucks, and a fireworks show commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Fort Worth landmark.
Amon Carter Museum of American Art 3501 Camp Bowie Blvd., 817.738.1933 cartermuseum.org
SEPT. 25
Birding Walk
Fort Worth Audubon Society leads a 90-minute nature walk on the lookout for feathered friends.
Fort Worth Botanic Garden 3200 Botanic Garden Blvd., 817.463.4160 brit.org
OCT. 7 – 31 “JQA”
JQA — that is, John Quincy Adams — takes center stage in a new play exploring the life of America’s sixth president.
Stage West 821 W. Vickery Blvd., 817.784.9378 stagewest.org
SEPT. 24 – 26
Art in the Square
Fort Worthians missing MAIN ST. Fort Worth Arts Festival can get their fix in Southlake, browsing the booths while jamming to live music and enjoying food, drink, and kidfriendly activities.
Southlake Town Square 285 Grand Ave., Southlake artinthesquare.com
OCT. 2 – 3
“The
Sleeping Beauty”
Ballet Frontier presents the dance rendition of the classic fairytale with dazzling choreography set to a riveting score
Will Rogers Memorial Center 3401 W. Lancaster Ave., 817.852.6887 balletfrontier.org
OCT. 9
Entre Amigos
Classical music meets mariachi and pop at Fort Worth Opera’s celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month.
Artes de la Rosa Cultural Center for the Arts 1440 N. Main St., 817.731.0726 fwopera.org
SEPT. 14 – 25
Reid Cabaret Theatre 3101 W. Lancaster Ave., 817.332.2272 casamanana.org
Bobby Wilson and Coyt Caffey
Owners, Magnolia Skate Shop
BY SAMANTHA CALIMBAHIN
BY OLAF
PHOTO
GROWALD
It was something like serendipity when Coyt Caffey and Bobby Wilson met while working at a skate shop in Arlington, bonding over not just boards and flip tricks but a coincidental fact: They both share the same birthday — July 14.
And what’s more, when the two decided to open a skate shop of their own on Magnolia Avenue, its grand opening just happened to coincide with that particular date.
“This wasn’t planned, but we signed the lease for this place in June,” Wilson says. “By the time we finished building everything in here, we wanted to open up on a weekend — like on a Saturday, have our grand opening party. The next Saturday happened to be our birthday, so we opened the shop … So, us and the shop, we all share the same birthday.”
Now, about eight years into friendship and three years into being business partners, the two admit they’re not exempt from butting heads once in a while, but it’s all only made the shop better. Caffey and Wilson take pride in their shop’s intentional efforts to connect with the community, whether it’s helping beginner skaters get their first board, showcasing local artists, or participating in Near Southside events like Open Streets. (John Shea, who helped spearhead Open Streets, also works for the shop.)
This year, they’re looking to make an even bigger impact through an amenity the neighborhood hasn’t had before — its very own skate park, part of an expansion of Fire Station Park at Hemphill Street and West Maddox Avenue. Magnolia Skate Shop is leading efforts with economic development nonprofit Near Southside, Inc., to raise funds for the approximately $1.6 million project, for which the city promises to match up to $600,000 based on how much the community raises. Designer New Line Skateparks consulted with Magnolia Skate Shop for the park’s design,
which will opt for a more flexible, plaza-style look over traditional, poollike bowls. Construction is expected to begin in early 2022.
“This is for the community, by the community,” Caffey says. “[Magnolia Skate Shop] is a part of the culture. It’s more than just a retail shop.”
1. Coyt often films other skaters. Photo by Pete Villarreal. 2. Coyt, backside boneless. Photo Will McCarthy. 3. A backside tailslide, performed by Coyt. 4. Just Bobby, captured by Pete Villarreal. 5. Chilling with beers. Photo Pete Villarreal. 6. Just a casual stroll by the highway. Photo by Pete Villareal. 7. Bobby performing a kickflip beside a bridge. Photo Pete Villarreal.
DECKS
Bobby and Coyt take pride in their artistdesigned skateboard decks. Here are a few of their favorites.
Jeremy Joel
John Shea
Isiac Rameriz
Nick Dennison
Anthony Padilla
Good Reads
From a children’s book to a thought-provoking epic that explores climate change, here are three diverse reads for September.
BY TINA HOWARD
1The Adventures of Mrs. Picklebottom
By Charlotte Connelly
Enjoy four short stories about the adventurous Mrs. Picklebottom and her friends as they ride the train and visit their various stops. Each story explores friendship and problem-solving as we meet these quirky and fun characters.
To the Greatest Heights: Facing Danger, Finding Humility, and Climbing a Mountain of Truth
By Vanessa O’Brien
An unexpected journey from the depth of loss to the highest peaks in the world. Vanessa O’Brien didn’t realize the number of records she would shatter when she first set her sights on climbing Mount Everest after losing her way when her career fell apart. This memoir details her path to become the first American woman to summit K2 and set a speed record for the Seven Summits and the Explorers Grand Slam.
Appleseed
By Matt Bell
Part tech thriller and part reimagined legend, Appleseed is a thoughtprovoking and mysterious read that explores climate change, manifest destiny, and corporate versus family responsibility. One of those books where every time you try to put it down, you inevitably say, “Okay, just one more chapter.”
5 QUESTIONS: CHARLOTTE CONNELLY
1 Tell us a little bit about yourself, what grade are you going into, anything about your family you want to share, hobbies/interests. My name is Charlotte Connelly. I’m going into fifth grade at Lily B. Clayton Elementary in Fort Worth. In my spare time, I like to read, dance, play with my friends and siblings, and listen to music. I have two younger siblings, Maggie and Travis. My family also does “transitional care” with Gladney, which means we get to take care of babies sometimes, many on their way to adoption.
2 What made you want to write a book? When I was younger, my sister and I were scared when trains would come by our house during the night. My dad would come and tell us stories about a lady named Mrs. Picklebottom to make us laugh and calm us down. Eventually there were quite a few stories, and I wanted to share them with everyone, as well as make up a few new ones myself so others could have the joy of learning about her adventures too.
3 What part of the process of creating your book did you enjoy the most? The least? The part I enjoyed most was making up new stories and sharing them with my family, because I got to create a whole world of characters and adventures. The part I liked least was waiting for the book to come out. I was excited for people to read the stories, but we had to wait for editing and illustrations before it could come out.
4 Do you have any plans to write and publish more books? If so, can you tell us about them? If not, what are you planning to focus on instead? I do have plans with my dad to write at least one more book about Mrs. Picklebottom and her friends. Since the first book was a collection of short stories, the second will be the same ... and we’ll be excited to see where the second book takes her and her friends. (And of course, since I’m going into fifth grade, I will also be spending time focusing on school and friends.)
5 What advice would you give to others who think they would like to publish a book one day? Follow your dreams and just let yourself be imaginative. Don’t rush yourself. Take your time so the book can be better.
Tina Howard, along with her husband, Todd, is the owner of Leaves Book and Tea Shop on St. Louis Avenue in the Near Southside.
Before You Sign Up…
Three questions to ask your oncologist about clinical trials
BY DRS. HARRIS NAINA AND NOELLE GILLETTE CLOVEN
When it comes to cancer, advancements in clinical trials and research are our greatest hopes for eliminating the disease. Discoveries like new drug therapies or combinations of drugs, innovations in radiation therapy, and better screening and diagnosing methods come from clinical trials — research studies that examine the safety and effectiveness of different cancer treatments and reveal insights into the disease and ways to deliver better care.
Breakthroughs that advance prevention and treatment of cancer are made possible by the courageous patients who volunteer to participate in clinical trials, yet less than 5% of adult cancer patients participate, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information.
Clinical trials follow strict compliance with federal, state, and local regulatory requirements; and each patient is carefully evaluated to ensure they are a strong fit. Here are three questions to ask your oncologist about participating in a clinical trial.
What types of clinical trials are available? Patients are encouraged to play an active role in their cancer care. This includes being informed of all treatment options available. Ask your oncologist about clinical trial availability. At any given time, there are hundreds of active clinical trials at various stages of evaluation. For example, prevention trials focus on preventing cancer or the recurrence of cancer and might focus on diet and nutrition or the use of different medications or vitamins to determine if risk of developing cancer is lowered. Similarly, treatment trials are designed to answer questions about new treatments, vaccines, therapies, or surgical procedures.
What are the benefits and risks of participating in a clinical trial? The benefits and risks of clinical trials vary by trial. And, just as every patient experiences symptoms and side effects differently, this is true for clinical trial participants as well. Some of the benefits of participating in a clinical trial include treatment that may be more effective than other
available treatment options and access to treatments often not available to the public. Patients enrolled in clinical trials also receive the same standard of treatment and care as those not participating in trials. While there are inherent risks with participating in research, the benefits often outweigh them. For example, in some cases, the risks include side effects that are not dissimilar from those experienced with traditional forms of treatment like chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
Am I eligible for a clinical trial? Not all patients are eligible for clinical trials, even when it seems like you may be a good fit. Factors considered before approving a cancer patient for a clinical trial depend on such criteria as age and sex, cancer type, stage of cancer, previous treatments, and medical history. If you’re interested in a trial but not eligible for trials currently available, discuss your interest in participating with your oncologist. New clinical trials open regularly. These three questions are the beginning of open and ongoing discussions about your cancer care with your physician. The American Cancer Society recommends evaluating all treatment options before deciding to participate in a clinical trial and taking into consideration travel, time, medical coverage, and any potential costs, among others.
Texas Oncology has helped develop more than 100 FDA-approved cancer therapies through research and clinical trials. We’re proud to work with our patients and oncology care teams who, together, are helping others by supporting medical research.
Harris Naina, M.D, FACP, FRCP, is a hematologist; and Noelle Gillette Cloven, M.D., is a gynecologic oncology surgeon at Texas Oncology – Fort Worth Cancer Center, 500 South Henderson St. in Fort Worth. For more information about the ground-breaking cancer research taking place at Texas Oncology, visit texasoncology.com/ clinical-trials.
Fort Worth Magazine Dream Street 2021:
An Update
Timber is starting to go up on the three luxury homes that will comprise Dream Street 2021 in the new Montrachet development.
BY FWTX STAFF
BY
PHOTO
OLAF GROWALD
Three luxury homes built side by side in the new Montrachet development in west Fort Worth will comprise this year’s Fort Worth Magazine Dream Street, the company’s second. Montrachet, a sister property to the adjacent Montserrat, is a mammoth-sized 255-acre development with 169 home sites. If you do the math, that’s an average home site of over 1 acre.
“The property lends itself to lots of outdoor hiking and biking space,” Donnie Siratt, one of the developers, says. “It’s really spread out; it’s not dense. It’s got some big lots and some smaller lots also.”
The three homes, which are currently being constructed by some of the area’s best builders, will open for touring in January 2022, with touring proceeds going toward a Wish with Wings, a charity that grants wishes to children with lifethreatening conditions.
This year includes two builders returning from previous Dream Home and Dream Street projects. Rick Wegman, John Giordano, Karl Hahnfeld, and Rob Cocanower of HGC Residential Development team up to construct their first Dream project since 2014. The quartet of businessmen, real estate agents, architects, and homebuilders have built their company from the ground up since first doing a garage remodel 20 years ago.
Their home, which will be at 4616 Esprit, will be a two-story (the only two-story of the three homes), five-bedroom, six-bath, Tudor-style home designed by Hahnfeld. The home will feature a bevy of outdoor living
spaces, including a front porch on the ground floor and a balcony on the second.
John Webb of Heritage Homes returns for his third-straight Dream project, first having constructed the magazine’s 2019 Showcase Home. Webb was also part of last year’s inaugural Dream Street at Southlake’s Oxford Place. Webb had nearly 20 years in the building business before forming his own company in 2014. While mostly focused on the Southlake and Colleyville areas, he has since branched out into the Southwest Fort Worth market.
The home at 4624 Esprit will be in a Texas Regional Vernacular design, a modern take on Texas Hill Country. The four-bedroom, 5 1/2-bath, one-story home will feature large windows, a metal roof, and a semi-enclosed front yard with a half wall that creates an outside terrace.
The new builder on the block, this will mark Tim Windmiller’s, of Windmiller Custom Homes, first Dream project. Initially going to school to study medicine, Windmiller was turned on to the home industry through his cousin, Andrew Hall, who worked in home sales. After the pair sold 123 homes in one year, Windmiller found his niche. After a stint at Clarity homes, Windmiller started his own custom homebuilding company in 2008.
The architecture of Windmiller’s home, at 4632 Esprit, will undoubtedly stand out. The Cape Dutch style, as architect Michael Costantino calls it, was initially popularized in South Africa and includes ornate details and curving features. The home will feature four bedrooms and five baths.
4616 ESPRIT
Builder: HGC Residential Development
Realtor: Christie’s International Real Estate | Ulterre
Interior Designer: Tori Rubinson Interiors
Appliances: Expressions Home Gallery
Cabinets Kitchen: The Kitchen Source
Doors Exterior: Omniview Window and Door
Electrician: Mackey Electric
Flooring (tile, wood and carpet labor, wood and carpet material): Vintage Floors
Flooring Tile (material all spaces): Interceramic USA
Gutters: Loveless Gutters
Home Plans: Karl Hahnfeld Design Group
Low Voltage/AV/Security: H Customs Audio Visual
Plumbing Fixtures: Expressions Home Gallery
Pool: J Caldwell Custom Pools
Roofing/Flashing: WeatherShield Roofing
Stone and Brick Supplies: Metro Brick and Stone
4624 ESPRIT
Builder: Heritage Homes
Realtor: Martha Williams, Williams Trew
Interior Designer: Susan Semmelmann Interiors
Appliances: The Jarrell Company
Cabinets Kitchen: The Kitchen Source
Cabinets Master Closet and Other: Metroplex Cabinets
Countertop Fabrication: Stone Systems
Countertop Materials (all): Levantina
Drywall and Texture: Alliance Drywall
Electrician: C&B Electric
Fireplace Tile: Cosentino
Flooring (tile, wood and carpet labor): Galvan Floors
Flooring (wood material): Riva Floors
Garage Doors/Openers: Overhead Door Company of Fort Worth
Glass (showers-mirrors-other): Galactic Glass
Gutters: Loveless Gutters
Hardware/Cabinet Hardware: Rick’s Hardware
Home Plans: Heritage Design Studio
HVAC (materials and labor): Indoor Climate Experts HVAC
Fireplaces Interior linear plus inserts: Overhead Door Company of Fort Worth
Flooring (wood and carpet material): Skyline Floorscapes
Garage Doors/Openers: Open Up Garage Doors
Gutters: Loveless Gutters
Home Plans: Montebello Architecture & Design
Interior and Exterior Trim and Door Labor and Materials (includes stair treads/risers): Builders FirstSource
Interior Doors: Builders FirstSource
Low Voltage/AV/Security: Comware AV
Lumber and Trusses: Builders FirstSource
Outdoor Fire Pit: Best Block
Plumbing Labor and Supplies: Pro Serve Plumbing
Roofing/Flashing: Texas Tile Roofing
Safe Room: Ground Zero Storm Shelters
Windows and Doors: Builders FirstSource
A Weekend in H-Town
Where to sleep, eat, and play in the Lone Star State’s biggest metropolis.
BY BRIAN KENDALL
You’re not doing it right.”
That’s what Fort Worth Magazine’s last executive editor, Kendall Louis, wrote in the editor’s letter for our July 2018 issue. While the magazine’s cover story was about our city’s bucket list — things every Fort Worthian should do at least once — the sentence above was directed at someone who said they had visited Houston — Louis’ hometown, mind you — and didn’t like it. Her point being, if you walked away from a weekend trip to Houston — or any city, for that matter — bored, disgusted, or disappointed, you didn’t do it right. You didn’t drop your Whataburger habit to eat at the right places. You didn’t mine the local influencers to find the must-see
and must-do spots. You never gave the city a fighting chance.
Now, what IS the right thing to do is entirely subjective. A family might prefer a visit to the Space Center Houston or take in an Astros game. For me, a single 30-something, it’s staying at a great spot within an earshot of the hustle and bustle, being adventurous with my choices of local cuisine, taking in the art and culture, and, yes, experiencing what the city has to offer at night.
And, since I can only write off of my own experiences, here’s a hyperpersonalized take on doing it right in Houston.
WHERE TO STAY
While Airbnbs and boutique hotels
are all the rage, I chose a more traditional route, staying at the Marriott Marquis Houston in downtown. Call me old-fashioned, but I’m a big fan of giant hotel lobbies, plush rooms that get cleaned on the daily, and a giant swimming pool with bar service. If the above fits your idea of a perfect place to stay, the Marriott Marquis Houston emphatically checks these boxes.
Located adjacent to Discovery Green, a modern urban park akin to Klyde Warren in Dallas, and a couple blocks from the Toyota Center, the glass-clad, high-rise hotel offers stunning views of downtown Houston and a lazy river in the shape of Texas to boot. You can also be assured that the hotel staff will take care of all your needs — I found my experience at the Marriott Marquis to be extremely pleasant.
Like most Texas cities, walkability is going to be a problem no matter where you stay. Fortunately, the hotel’s proximity to the Convention District METRO adds to its convenience. But, if you’re down for a quick afternoon stroll, I highly recommend hitting up True Anomaly Brewing Company, which lies just a few blocks from the
Marriott Marquis Houston
hotel. Be sure to try their Beryl sour, which is one of the best sour beers I’ve had in the state.
Of course, this only matters if you wish to leave the hotel, which, at the Marriott, might prove challenging.
The star of the show is no doubt the hotel’s pool, a Texas-shaped — and Texas-sized — lazy river with innertubes provided. Resting on the sixth floor, the river, at moments, takes you to the edge of the hotel where you’ll get a peek at sweeping views of the cityscape. Add a couple bars that offer stiff cocktails, and you can easily let the time fly while you catch some rays. However, because open seating is limited, I recommend booking a cabana or a few chairs well in advance (they sell out quickly). Otherwise, you’ll have to fight for a decent spot or be relegated to bar seating.
1777 Walker St., Houston, marriott.com
WHERE TO DINE
The cuisine game in Houston is on par with every major city in Texas (if only Michelin would award some stars over here). The food is diverse but leans heavier on seafood and a little less on barbecue compared with Fort Worth.
If you do stay at the Marriott Marquis, you won’t have to travel far for one of the city’s best restaurants. The hotel houses Xochi, which offers small plates of Oaxacan-inspired fare. My company and I ate here when we first arrived, and the infinite number of moles hit the spot — be sure to check out the mole tasting, which offers four different mole sauces, each exquisite in its own right.
If you find yourself in the Galleria, a bourgeois, colossal shopping center on the east side, you must stop into Musaafer, a high-concept Indian restaurant with hints of influence from Mexico. The stunning spot made Time Magazine’s list of World’s Greatest Places in 2021, and understandably so. Located on the second floor of the Galleria, the restaurant is set up like a classic Indian courtyard with various themed rooms strewn about. The numerous design elements brought
in from India gave the atmosphere an authentic aesthetic. The wait staff, eager to tell patrons the restaurant’s story, gladly waxed poetic about how the chefs traveled to all 29 states of India to gather stories, experiences, and recipes to construct the eclectic menu.
My company and I wound up having lunch at the famed spot, ordering the octopus, which comes in a dill jelly, and the butter chicken experience — highly recommended by our waitress. The butter chicken experience came in two forms of chicken curry. One was a more traditional Indian take on the dish, while the second was Mexicaninspired and came in a tomatillo sauce. The dishes offered a unique synergy of flavors that my palate rarely encounters and were delectable.
For brunch, I recommend hitting up a’Bouzy, which is on the edge of Montrose in the west side of Houston. If the city has A brunch spot, then this is THE brunch spot. The champagne flows pretty steadily, so pace yourself if you plan on doing any sightseeing before taking a nap. The menu is diverse with everything from Cajun Popcorn Shrimp to Onion and Bacon Tartine to a simple Grand Slam with a couple eggs and bacon. For an easy lunch or dinner, head up north to the Heights area to check out Field & Tides. As the name suggests, the menu is heavy on both seafood and locally sourced vegetables, poultry, pork, and beef. The atmosphere is quaint, and the restaurant offers patio seating if you manage to visit on a day with decent weather.
WHAT TO DO
The brevity of my stay required a pickiness with the sights I was able to take in. I typically lean toward local art, culture, and museums, and I was able to pack a few great spots into my itinerary.
The city’s most impressive collection lies in the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, which, naturally, is located in the city’s museum district just west of downtown. The museum,
Cherry
Musaafer
Houston Museum of Fine Arts Field & Tides
which will set you back $19 for an entrance fee, had nine exhibitions going on simultaneously. We chose the Matisse to Monet exhibit that included a magnificent collection of impressionist, expressionist, and modernist works of art from the likes of Renoir, Modigliani, Picasso, and, of course, Monet and Matisse. If you have the time, you should at least stroll through the museum’s permanent collection, which spans over 300,000 square feet and includes nearly 70,000 pieces. Its massive size is Louvre-esque.
Kitty-cornered from the Houston Museum of Fine Arts is the Contemporary Arts Museum, which houses your modern, high-minded, and high-brow pieces. The museum includes paintings, photography, mixed-media art, and immersive installations. It might be easy to compare the museum to Fort Worth’s own Modern Art Museum, but I would argue this Houston iteration is far more eclectic and grounded in an immersive experience.
If you aren’t museumed out by the time you’ve traversed the gargantuan pair that is the Museum of Fine Arts and the Contemporary Arts Museum, I highly recommend checking out the Menil Collection. It’s a solid 1-mile jaunt from the Museum of Fine Arts, but we found the stroll enjoyable on a surprisingly mild July day, even grabbing a mocha latte at Black Hole Coffee located at the tail end of an innocuous strip mall. The spot appeared to be a favorite among Rice graduate students (a clear sign you’ve struck gold).
The Menil Collection, located in a building designed by Renzo Piano (the same architect who designed the pavilion at our own Kimbell Art Museum), has the most diverse collection of art I’ve ever seen in a museum its size. It’s a true global collection that celebrates works across millenniums and continents. The 17,000-piece collection includes galleries on surrealism, Africa, the Pacific Islands, the Americas, and more.
NIGHTLIFE
We headed out on a Saturday night to Main Street in downtown — braving the bevy of 20-somethings we were sure to encounter. Similar to our own
West 7th district, the area was full of bars, clubs, students, and obnoxious young professionals. Whether this area at this hour piques your interest is dependent on your ability to embrace what the night throws at you. It’s not for everyone. But, if you’re like me and live in a perpetual state of FOMO, you’ll want to check Main Street out.
Taking a clue from our Uber driver, we stopped into the Pastry War to get some mezcal. Located next to a nightclub called Cherry (more on that later), the vibe was laid back and the clientele a little older. Their tequila and mezcal options were on point, and the drinks were stiff, making for a good spot to kick off the night. Next door was an eclectic spot in an old clothing store called Notsuoh (Houston spelled backward). The hodgepodge of design elements (tackily dressed mannequins, old family photos, furniture that had been collected through the decades, and a plethora of elephant trinkets [622 to be exact]) made for an oddly cozy environment. It was a quiet bar with older, hip patrons — the kind who play chess while sipping on absinthe. Through the night, I came to find out that Notsuoh was a family establishment — as in, every eclectic piece of décor was stuff inherited by the current owner — that doubled as an art space and installation. We eventually made our way upstairs where an impromptu deejay set was taking place inside of a planetarium (no joke). With the night slowly winding down, we headed two doors down to Cherry, the nightclub mentioned earlier. The red-on-red-on-red aesthetic and ’80s vibe were a whiplash-inducing departure from Notsuoh, but also welcomed. The crowd was a solid decade younger than the previous two bars and the energy, obviously, more chaotic. Since I visited the nightclub right before the new Delta variant steamrolled across the state, I’ll admit that the crowd would be triggering if I visited today. But, if you’re after a solid spot to dance and grab some halfway decent drinks, I can’t see why Cherry wouldn’t be near the top of your list.
Contemporary Arts Museum Houston
Xochi
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Weekend Treats
Whether taking it easy or having a get-together this Labor Day weekend, these recipes are sure to be a hit.
BY HILLAIRE BAUMGARTNER
KIMCHI DOGS
Grilled sausages are topped with a gochujang mayo and tangy kimchi.
Serves 4
Ingredients
• 4 hot dog/sausage links of choice, plus buns
• 1/2 cup mayo
• 1.5 teaspoons gochujang sauce
• 1/2 cup kimchi
• Black sesame seeds
• Cilantro, chopped
Instructions:
1. Grill your sausages according to the package.
2. Make the mayo by stirring together the gochujang sauce and mayo.
3. Serve your sausage on a bun and top with the gochujang mayo, kimchi, sesame seeds, and cilantro.
BY
PHOTO
HILLAIRE BAUMGARTNER
BERRY ICEBOX CAKE
Layers of graham crackers, coconut whipped cream, and berries create this airy and sweet treat. No baking required for this melt-in-your-mouth cake.
Serves 4 – 6
Ingredients
• 1 can of coconut cream (chilled in the fridge for at least three hours)
• 1/3 cup powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1.5 sleeves graham cracker sheets
• 3 cups of mixed berries, sliced
• Whipped cream (optional)
Directions:
1. Chill a mixing bowl in the freezer for about 10 minutes. Open the can of coconut cream and scoop out the thickened parts from the top of the can. Transfer into the chilled bowl.
2. With a hand mixer, beat on high until soft peaks are formed. Pour in powdered sugar and vanilla (if using) and beat until incorporated.
3. In an 8-by-8-inch pan, layer graham crackers, coconut cream, then fruit until you’ve made 2 – 3 layers.
4. Let set in the fridge, covered, for at least two hours. Top with whipped cream, additional fruit, then enjoy.
COWBOY CAVIAR
This cowboy caviar, also known as a bean salsa, is an easy and flavorful snack. Great dip for parties and large gatherings.
Serves 8+
Ingredients
• 1, 16-ounce can black-eyed peas
• 1, 16-ounce can corn
• 1, 16-ounce can black beans
• 2 large tomatoes, diced
• 1/2 red onion, diced
• 1 medium jalapeño, seeded and diced
• 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
• Juice from 1 lime
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1.5 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• Sea salt, to taste
Directions:
1. Rinse and drain the black-eyed peas, corn, and black beans.
2. Add the black-eyed peas, corn, black beans, tomatoes, red onion, jalapeño, and cilantro to a large bowl and toss to combine.
3. In a separate bowl, add the first three dressing ingredients and whisk in the olive oil until combined.
4. Pour the dressing into the bean mixture, stir, cover, and refrigerate for at least two hours.
5. Add more salt to taste and keep refrigerated for up to one week.
TEQUILA MELON SMASH
A refreshing drink with the fresh flavors of sweet cantaloupe, mint, and lime.
Makes 2 drinks
Ingredients
• 2 cups ripe, chopped cantaloupe
• 1 – 2 ounces tequila
• Handful of ice
• 5 mint leaves
• Juice from 1/2 of a lime
• 1 tablespoon agave nectar
• Sparkling water
Directions:
1. Put cantaloupe in a blender and blend on high until smooth.
2. In a cocktail shaker, muddle together the mint and agave.
3. Fill with ice, tequila, cantaloupe juice, and lime juice and shake vigorously.
4. Strain into a glass filled with ice and top with sparkling water.
¡ All employees (No contractors or day labor)
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¡ COVID precautions taken.
Gang of 4
Run by a quartet of sisters, a charming TCU-area restaurant called Café 4 offers a unique mix of pastries, brunch, and Indian cuisine.
BY MALCOLM MAYHEW
Depending on when you go to Café 4, you may have the option to get a macaron, a dainty sandwich, or a freshly made plate of biryani.
So goes a typical day at this unique bakery and restaurant on Park Hill Drive, near TCU. Run by a quartet of sisters, the café offers sweets and pastries in the morning and afternoon; a lunch and brunch menu with sandwiches, salads, and soups; and, once a week, a full Indian dinner.
Breakfast items include buttery croissants, with or without scrambled eggs,
red onions, bacon, turkey pastrami and chipotle mayo. At lunch, there are turkey, chicken salad, and roast beef sandwiches, plus a panini with smoked chicken drizzled with cheese roux, Moroccan kabobs, and breaded chicken stewed in tangy and spicy curry sauce served over a bed of cool cabbage.
In addition, on Thursday nights, the sisters pay tribute to the food tied to their Muslim heritage by hosting a full-scale Indian dinner (in these COVID times, the sisters are offering the dinners to-go and by request only).
Oh, and there are sweets — cookies, brownies, scones, petit fours, cupcakes, and extra-large slices of cake.
“It’s a hybrid of everything we love, all the kind of food we love, from Indian food to Asian cuisine,” says Noor Hasan, one of the four owners.
The Hasan sisters — left to right, Noor, Sidra, Faryall and Alina — at their unique Café 4.
Each sister is involved in the restaurant, in ways big and small. A mother of three, Noor, 34, dreamed up the concept and lassoed her three sisters, one by one, into going into business with her. Also, a mother of three, Alina, 33, designed the restaurant’s vintage-chic interior.
Thirty-year-old Faryall, mother of two, handles the marketing and social media. Finally, Sidra, the youngest at 21, is a classically trained pastry chef who graduated from the International Culinary Institute in New York City in 2018.
“Out of all of us, she’s the one who really knows how to cook,” Noor laughs. “We all have a passion for food and for cooking, but Sidra’s the one who has really guided our menus and given the restaurant an identity.”
In a way, Café 4 is picking up where its predecessor, Park Hill Café, left off. A local favorite for 15 years, the café drew the ladies who lunch crowd and those with a sweet tooth, but also diners looking for something with a bit more weight to it.
Orange-glazed Cornish hen was a café favorite.
“That’s our whole thing, too. We’ve gone out of our way to not be the same as other breakfast and lunch cafés,” Noor says. “We’ve tried to stick to cuisines and items you might not find at other cafés near here. You can get salmon Benedict here, but we also make a great plate of Turkish eggs.”
Café 4 offers another unique twist on café food: All of their food is halal food, meaning there is no pork or pork byproducts. “We have ham, pepperoni, and bacon; it’s just all-beef,” Noor says. “Basically, these are the healthier versions.”
Although Sidra has the most experience in the food industry, it was Noor who dreamed up the restaurant. For a time, she had been running a macaron business out of her home, and she decided to expand it, eventually bringing aboard her three siblings.
This wasn’t their first brush with running a café, however.
“Here’s the funny thing — there was a game the four of us used to play together when we were little kids. We ran our own café,” Noor says. “We’d make desserts and mac and cheese and drink make-believe coffee. We didn’t even remember, until after this place was open, that we used to play that game. We used to do this exact same thing when we were little kids. How cool is that?”
Samosas
Macarons
Cakecicles
Chicken salad sandwich
Aloo keema, a Pakistani dish made with ground beef with potatoes and served with naan bread
Taco Belle
Sarah
Castillo
chats with us about the new Stockyards location of her massively popular taqueria, Taco Heads.
BY MALCOLM MAYHEW
At the new location of Taco Heads, you’ll find a big neon sign that reads: “Another day, another taco.” That’s pretty much the creed lived by Taco Heads founder Sarah Castillo, who has practically spent the last 11 years of her life dealing with tacos, in some fashion or another.
Those who’ve closely followed Castillo’s career will fondly recall
her first taco truck, parked outside a nightclub in the West Seventh area — the first step she took toward building the local dynasty of eateries she owns and oversees now: two Taco Heads locations, a classy Mexican restaurant called Tinie’s, and a female-forward bar and small plates spot called Sidesaddle Saloon.
To celebrate the arrival of the newest Taco Heads restaurant, located in an old office building that’s been
stylishly revamped by local architecture and interior design firm 97w, we chatted with the restaurateur about her past and future and, of course, tacos.
Fort Worth Magazine: Do you remember the first night of your first truck?
Castillo: Oh, my God, yeah, I definitely do — it was September 2010. After I had the food trailer that we worked out of built, I had $600 left in my bank account. That first night, I said to myself, OK, this is it. If we don’t sell anything, I won’t be able to do this again because I don’t have any more money.
Then we had to change locations at the last minute. The place where we were originally going to park required us to have a $2 million insurance policy. I mean, I had one, but not for that much. As we were packing up to go home, Jimmy [Moore], the owner of 7th Haven, came up and said we
Nearly a dozen varieties of tacos are offered at the new location of Taco Heads in the Fort Worth Stockyards.
could park behind his place. He really saved us. When we finally got open, it was awesome. We had a long line of people most of the night. At the end of the night, Jimmy handed me a beer and said, “If you want to make this a permanent thing, I’ll build a patio and deck for you.” I said, “OK, I’m down for that,” and that’s how this all got started.
FW: What are some of the new items you’re offering at the new location?
Castillo: We’re doing a breakfast burrito with your choice of chipotle brisket or fajita steak, mixed with scrambled eggs, avocado, bacon, breakfast potatoes, bourbon black beans, and aged cheddar. We’re also doing these crazy loaded nachos. [Fort Worth Barber Shop and Hotel Dryce owner] Jonathan Morris was the one who started this one for us. He’d come into the Montgomery Street location and ask for something that no one else could get, something not on the menu. So, we went to town on these nachos, throwing everything on them, fried jalapeños, crema, guacamole. Other people would see him eating them, and they’d ask for them. They turned out to be so popular, we decided to put them on the permanent menu.
FW: How’d you and 97w approach the design of the new location?
Castillo: Taco Heads has a clean, modernish look, but we wanted to do something that obviously would fit in with the more rustic, warm feel of the Stockyards. You’ll see some leather touches here and there, lots of steel, some metal that’ll rust and look real cool. [Morgan Mercantile owner] Chance Morgan helped us smooth out the logo, and Joey [Swindle] from Evangalist Agency created a beautiful Fort Worth mural.
FW: More than a decade into this business, what’s the most important thing you’ve learned?
Castillo: If you’re going to go into the restaurant business in Fort Worth, be nice to everybody — don’t be a [jerk]. You never know who you’re gonna work with. Just be nice. Taco Heads, 2349 N. Main St., tacoheads.com
West Foot Forward
For his latest restaurant, Fort Worth chef Stefon Rishel headed due west to the up-and-coming area of Willow Park, where he’ll soon open Parker County Ice House.
A while back, Stefon Rishel and his wife went house-hunting in Aledo. Instead of buying a house, though, Rishel built a restaurant.
Parker County Ice House, the third restaurant to be opened by the well-known Fort Worth chef and his Trident Restaurant Group, will soon open in Willow Park, an up-and-coming slice of Aledo ripe with hope and hard hats. Development engulfs the area. In a few months’ time, Willow Park will be filled with additional retail and residential spaces, and Parker County will be at the heart of it all, offering an all-in-one experience of food, drinks, entertainment, and family-friendly activities.
“There’s not a place like this for area residents to go to,” Rishel says. “They have to drive to Fort Worth. I don’t know how many times people from this area would come to my restaurants and say, ‘I wish you’d open a restaurant in Aledo.’”
Not that Parker County Ice House is a straight-up restaurant. It is that, of course, with a menu that rests comfortably in Rishel’s upscale American food wheelhouse: a gourmet burger, chef-inspired takes on chicken-fried steak and other Americana
Loaded nachos come topped with everything on them, from fried jalapeños to crema and guacamole.
Wishbone & Flynt’s superb Flynt Burger is making the jump to ownerchef Stefon Rishel’s new restaurant, Parker County Ice House, soon to open in Willow Park.
Parker County Ice House’s menu will include chicken-fried chicken, doused in black pepper cream gravy, and served with mashed potatoes and green beans; and cornmeal-battered fried pickles, saddled with housemade ranch.
classics, whimsical sides, and desserts.
But Rishel and his Trident business partners Kyle Bryson and Wallace Owens have built a magnificently sleek restaurant that goes beyond a restaurant. There will be a large outdoor area, with family-friendly games, a shaded patio, and a stage for live music. Rishel says he’s opening to bring in both local and national touring music acts. “Not just country or solo singers,” he says. “But acts from all genres.”
Parker County Ice House, which is slated to open Sept. 7, pending any pandemic-related delays, is a spinoff of a similar — and similarly named — concept, Berry St. Ice House. Opened last summer in the old Americado building on West Berry Street, it, too, offered a family-friendly food and drink experience, with upscale bar food, craft cocktails, and a huge outdoor area.
But Berry St. closed in July after Trident and the building’s owners couldn’t reach a new lease agreement. “It is what it is,” Rishel says. “It was just kind of this one-off thing, in which we couldn’t reach a new agreement.”
Berry Street was clearly the victim of the right concept in the wrong building.
Built from the ground up, Parker County Ice House allows Trident (which also opened Wishbone & Flynt in the South Main area of Fort Worth) to be in full control. Rishel says if it takes off, he and his business partners, whom Rishel credits with landing this concept in Aledo, may explore opening additional locations elsewhere.
That’s down the road, Rishel says. Coming up sooner will be the opening of TreMogli Cucina Italiana, a high-end, family-style Italian restaurant located in the same complex as Wishbone & Flynt, at 401 South Main St. Rishel says he’s hoping to open in October.
When asked if he’s had any time to rest, Rishel says, “We rested for 15 months because of the pandemic. It’s go, go, go time now.”
Parker County Ice House, 210 Willow Bend Drive, Willow Park, parkercountyicehouse.com
Restaurant news written and compiled by Malcolm Mayhew. You can reach Malcolm at malcolm. mayhew@hotmail.com or on Twitter @foodfortworth.
Bits and Bites
Local chef Jordan Savell, who had a great run as a cheftestant on Gordon Ramsay’s “Hell’s Kitchen” this year, was recently hired as a chef de cuisine at newly revamped and reopened Roy Pope Grocery. Savell, whom we profiled in our January 2021 issue, was an absolute beast on the 19th season of “Hell’s Kitchen,” balancing creativity with the type of hairon-fire, split-second decision-making the show demands of its contestants. Savell recently launched a food truck, called Bullfish Foods, but closed it to focus on her new gig at Roy Pope. 2300 Merrick St., facebook.com/roypopegrocery
Those who insist on eating healthy — I don’t know you, and I don’t want to know you — have a new option: Salad and Go. The Arizona-based chain, which, as its uncomplicated name implies, specializes in salads served through drive-thru windows, recently opened a Fort Worth outpost in southwest Fort Worth, and, says a press release, more locations are coming, great, thanks. The menu includes made-to-order salads, wraps, soups, and specialty drinks, like housemade lemonade. During breakfast, S&G offers $3 breakfast burritos and $1 organic coldbrew coffee — hard to beat that deal. 3400 Hulen St., saladandgo.com
More action on Magnolia Avenue: Lockwood Distilling Co. Bottle Shop is slated to open this fall at 1411 West Magnolia Ave. This will be a retail and restaurant spinoff of Lockwood Distilling Co., a Richardson-based spirit distillery/ eatery that opened in 2019. The Fort Worth location will feature a food menu of sandwiches and light bites, a stage for live music, a patio, and a bottle shop and bar stocked with Lockwood’s spirits. Both locations come from husband/wife team Evan and Sally Batt, who earlier this year won a Microliquor Award for Lockwood’s Triple Gold Hibiscus Vodka and Single Gold Bourbon. The food menu, overseen by North Texas chef Julio Ortiz, will feature a smoked bologna sandwich; Frito pie topped with pastrami, cheese, and chili; and a barbecue brisket burrito. Look for it in September – October. lockwooddistilling.com
I’d be remiss if, on this eve of summer’s departure, I didn’t share with you my summer food obsession: ice cream from Marco Sweets & Spices. It’s a New York-based company that specializes in small batch ice creams made in spicedriven flavors such as Ginger Dreamsicle, Vanilla Chai, Thai Coco Lime, Spicy Peanut Butter Caramel, Turkish Mocha, and Moroccan Honey Nut. It’s available at Central Market, or they’ll ship directly to you. More info at marcoicecream.com.
PHOTOS
Hospice Care
• Focus is on quality of
• Symptom management experts
• Patient and family-centered
•
Care Choices
• Comprehensive palliative care program dedicated to patient-centered goals
• Symptom management expertise with compassionate in-home nursing visits
• Patients can continue to consult with physicians and seek treatment
• Assistance navigating the medical system
dress: Zimmerman, $650. shopbop.com
Midi
Booties: AGL, $480. Stanley Eisenman Fine Shoes. Pearl-studded hoop earrings: $95. Lawrence’s.
Tights: Hue, $22. Macy’s.
Bag: Cult Gaia, $698. Neiman Marcus Fort Worth.
Hair
Assistant
An Autumn of
Elegance
Romance returns this season with luxe lace, indulgent knits, and classic tartans and tailoring.
By Jenny B. Davis
Photography: Shelbie Monkres
Model: Stephanie Smallwood/The Campbell Agency
and Makeup Artist: Leslie Belcher/The Campbell Agency
Styling: Jenny B. Davis
Stylist: Coco Davis
Shot on location at The Fort Worth Club
Makeup note: These looks incorporate new shades from Bobbi Brown’s best-selling Long-Wear Cream Shadow Stick line. Bobbi Brown is now available at Ulta Beauty.
Modern Classic
Cape-sleeve top with hand-woven accents: RAKAN, $450. SEPT.
Tartan pants: Lauren Ralph Lauren, $185. Dillard’s.
Charm bracelet: Julie Vos, $295. Lawrence’s.
Timeless Tartan
Wool fringe A-line dress: RAKAN, $635. SEPT.
Angora and wool longline cardigan: Brunello Cucinelli, $3,995. Neiman Marcus.
Twisted faux pearl necklace: Anna & Ava, $50. Dillard’s.
Oversized faux pearl necklace: Anna & Ava, $50. Dillard’s.
Lug-soled boots: Miz Mooz, $198. Stanley Eisenman Fine Shoes.
Lace top: Polo Ralph Lauren, $298. Neiman Marcus Fort Worth.
Leather leggings: SPRWMN, $975. You Are Here
Earrings: Susan Shaw, $49. Lawrence’s.
Shoulder bag: Etro “Pegaso,” $1,720. Neiman Marcus Fort Worth.
Edgy Argyle
Lace top: Alice + Olivia, $330. Neiman Marcus Fort Worth.
Blazer: Theory, $495. Neiman Marcus Fort Worth.
Jean shorts: Agolde, $128. Neiman Marcus Fort Worth. Belt: Saint Laurent, $625. Neiman Marcus Fort Worth.
Socks: Molly Goddard, $108. nordstrom.com
Velvet loafers: Magnanni, $318.75. Neiman Marcus Fort Worth.
Nouveaux Riche
Sweater: Mother, $325. You Are Here. Embroidered jeans: WeDú by Coréon Dú, $398. SEPT.
Necklace (worn as a belt): $70. Stanley Eisenman Fine Shoes.
GO
Time
Taking the reins from a five-term mayor, Mattie Parker enters office in a time of transition and turmoil. With questions swirling and expectations high, how does the new leader plan to propel Fort Worth into a world-class city?
BY JOHN HENRY PHOTOGRAPHY BY OLAF GROWALD
t
was coincidentally enough before a recent meeting of the Fort Worth City Council that a writer, thinking he was clever, asked new Mayor
Mattie
Parker if she had yet requested a recount. She had, of course, only taken on the job six weeks prior, a June runoff victory and public installment that made her the 45th mayor of the city and youngest of any current big city in America.
It came into full focus during the weekly “public presentations” — that point in the meeting when John Q. Public addresses the elected officials as they sit in their exalted positions in the chambers of City Hall. If you’ve never had the pleasure of being witness, seven out of 10 times, these presentations lack the wit of Will Rogers and the charm of Dale Carnegie or Bond, James Bond. Think more Robespierre.
“They don’t exactly live to support us,” one former councilman deadpanned long ago.
To wit: The council in the coming week will consider expanding a cruising ordinance to the West Seventh corridor. A young lady armed with a set of facts approached, poised as a teen ready to poke and provoke her parents at the dinner table. Whether her lowdown had been properly vetted by Facebook fact-checkers, it was not known. There did seem to be some holes to the impartial listener.
“This seems basic,” she said giggling slightly under her breath at how dumb one could be. “But I’ll spell it out anyway. If you don’t want people driving around, make sure they have other opportunities. Pay, parking, public transportation.”
Pay, as in it’s the council’s job to attract high-paying opportunities in the city and to otherwise generate economic development. That is presumably done through some sort of tax credit that will garner her attention next year. The city also needs more parking spots in entertainment hot spots, she said.
She continued.
working through this issue and all the implications involved in a multicultural society for years. But, alas, she eventually got to her point.
No one, she asserted, could possibly trust the Fort Worth Police Department to enforce the ordinance on West Seventh in an unbiased way.
The time for this public presenter had expired, and she walked away pleased, convinced the City Council was one more step closer to the guillotine. There was no discussion of her remarks because the council is prohibited from doing so if it’s not on the agenda. That’s government code.
“The city in reality is a teenager, not yet ready to call itself worldclass and with lots more growing pains to endure before the onset of adulthood.
Fort Worth is a great place to live, make no mistake about it, but that giant leap to international city, whether the longtimers want it or not, still demands missing ingredients.”
“How embarrassing for you all to admit you’re an elected leader of the 12th-largest city, and the best solution you can come up with is criminalizing cruising. Really? It’s sad. And let’s be real: If cruising is criminalized, Black and brown people will be most impacted and most harassed. Some people might argue that point because the POA has you in their pocket, but we live here, and we know.”
She had not — in fact, it was obvious — spoken to the United Lowrider Association council on the North Side, which has been
All rules are Byzantine. All criticism is withering.
Despite it all, the encounter served as a metaphor on the state of the city. Fort Worth is in transition, having grown from a child on the frontier to the verge of a big American city. The newest population data spells it out: Only 11 other cities in the U.S. are bigger than Cowtown. If that’s not enough to give you pause while taking another bite of a Fred’s burger or a sip at Oscar’s Pub, consider also that Fort Worth is the second-fastest growing city in the country.
Yet, the city in those terms in reality is a teenager, not yet ready to call itself world-class and with lots more growing pains to endure before the onset of adulthood. Fort Worth is a great place to live, make no mistake about it, but that giant leap to international city, whether the long-timers want it or not, still demands missing ingredients.
“We have to take that responsibility seriously,” Parker said in the past. “If we want to become a world-class city, you have to act like it.”
That means world-class education for children regardless of ZIP code, world-class economic development, world-class infrastructure and transportation, world-class public safety, and world-class neighborhoods. And, lastly, world-class thinkers and, yes, critics.
For the job of city government, the townspeople have sent to the dais the most diverse and youngest council in the city’s 148 years.
How is this to work exactly? Many wonder.
Among those sent to the sidelines was Councilman Jungus
Jordan, an eight-time incumbent and the godfather of transportation advances and mobility innovations as well as institutional knowledge as far as the eye can see. In his place, a young, albeit bright, 31-year-old with no experience in government.
The next generation is up, no doubt about it.
In the city of Fort Worth governing chambers, it is led by Parker, at 37, a former aide to then Mayor Betsy Price and council, and CEO of Tarrant To & Through Partnership, a nonprofit designed to transform students into — here it is again — a world-class workforce. That was a job that was very difficult to leave, though she will remain involved where she can.
“I’m excited,” Parker says. “I think we’ll be able to work together in a really unique way. I want to get with them and know their major initiatives are for their district, and where, as mayor, I can help marshal stuff through. How I can help them.
“We won’t always agree. No one does. But it is important for me to maintain the decorum we’ve traditionally had in Fort Worth.”
Smart with depth, frank, and savvy. And she has a sense of humor. She describes herself as a mother — she and husband David have three children — wife, and woman of faith. Hers is a personal, more private relationship with Christ, nurtured through the United Methodist Church.
But, yes, she said in the flippant spirit with which the question was asked, she had wondered about asking for a recount.
“Am I sure about this?” she joked while taking a ride to Dunbar High School to recognize the achievements of some of those Tarrant To & Through scholars who were about to take flight to various universities.
It was a joke. Hell, no, she has no regrets about entering the arena. We are in an interesting time in history, both locally and nationally, she said. History, someone wrote, long ago, has a way of putting the exact right people in the right places at the exact right time. The new mayor, an attorney by education, many believe, is just that person.
It’s no blind faith.
One critique heard throughout the mayoral campaign centered on a Parker mayorship being Betsy Price 2.0. She has a bicycle, but “I don’t love riding it. Betsy is a machine. I’m also a bit clumsy. I don’t like to clip [her shoes] in [the pedals].” Parker said she has visions of riding right into the Trinity River. She is a runner.
“We talk all the time,” Parker said of Price. “She loved the job. She told me to enjoy it, first and foremost. Take care of your family responsibilities. And just to lead with your heart, which she always did. It’s a very difficult job, especially in moments of crisis. If you’re always trying to put your best foot forward and lead on behalf of other people, despite the noise and criticism, remember if you’re doing it for the right reason and you’re leading with your heart, you’ll be OK.”
Parker’s office at City Hall is a work in progress. It lacks the mementos of a public servant in her fourth term, rather than weeks into her first. The bookshelf is full, however, with some interesting titles that caught the eye. Will Rogers.
Simply put, it’s hard to imagine being mayor of Fort Worth without at least some base knowledge of one of the city’s best friends. If Fort Worth had a face, it’d probably have been Will Rogers’. Until his fateful flight in Alaska with Wiley Post in 1935, Will Rogers, in his folksy, cowboy philosophizing way, made the complicated seem really easy to understand. He, too, was a withering critic. But at least he was funny.
“Politics has got so expensive that it takes lots of money to even get beat nowadays,” Rogers once joked. He also once said the more he witnessed politics, the more he wondered why on God’s green earth anyone would want to take it up.
“I ran for office because I care so deeply about this city and what’s possible in our community,” Parker said with a message she essentially repeated in the first of her now-weekly podcast titled “Go Time in Fort Worth.” “We’re at the pinnacle of a lot of possibility.”
“Go Time” was a mantra she adopted during the campaign, which she punctuated with the exclamation that Fort Worth was on the verge of greatness.
“I want to empower employees all across this city, residents and students, to feel they’re part of our long-term success. Police officer, teacher, barber, all are critical to our long-term success.”
She wants to inspire — it’s the most important thing leaders do, after all.
Parker said she will approach decisions on the council with the mindset of “how will this impact my own family.” As a former city employee, she added, she understands the value of what “we’re trying to accomplish here.”
Mattie Parker’s first order of business on this day was advocating for the benefits of the U.S. Congress’ infrastructure bill with other big-city mayors of Texas in a Zoom news conference.
Another title sticks out: Adapt or Die: Leadership Principles from an American General.
Whatever you see up there, she has probably read, she said. But possibly not. Away from the office, she said you might find her with a novel written by Kristin Hannah, she of The Nightingale, historical fiction telling the story of France in 1939 and war with the Nazis. She’ll also read some wonky stuff by the fire, such as The Twenty-First Century City, by Stephen Goldsmith, the former mayor of Indianapolis whom Parker calls a friend.
Many of the books on the shelf of her office were given to her during the campaign or since the election. A wide array of books and subjects are on display.
“I’ve always been eager to learn about the different perspectives of people,” she says. “I might not agree with it, but it’s important for me to understand it.”
Also on her shelf was The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. Parker says she read that a few years ago and has since again.
Does the title give any hints to her mayorship?
“No, not necessarily.”
The Chisholm Trail Parkway has made the 80mile trip from Fort Worth to Hico much more manageable in the 21st century. Lord knows Brushy Bill Roberts could have used it to expedite his arrival sometime in the first half of the last century.
Brushy Bill made sure his legacy was secure by “admitting” that he was the notorious Billy the Kid, believed killed by a sheriff in New Mexico. However, no, Brushy Bill said, the sheriff killed the wrong man. Brushy Bill escaped into the night into Mexico, eventually reentering the U.S. through Texas and settling in Hico, where he died at age 91 in 1950.
The tale has made Hico the destination of pilgrims who worship the Old West. A museum there tells the story. New Mexico, too, is immovable in its belief that Billy the Kid is there.
It’s dancing. And music, which, it has been said, reduces the beast in men.
Her maternal grandparents, Jimmie and Hazel Ramage, met at a dance near Camp Pendleton in California. Jimmie was coming back from the war. Hazel was visiting her sister and brother-in-law from Midlothian. It was a love-at-first-sight-type encounter, said Parker’s mother, Cherry Pearcy.
“The war was over,” says Pearcy, a quite charming conversationalist, sipping a glass of water at a local coffee shop. “So, they were having a good time.”
And then he moved her to the farm, she kidded.
But that’s where they wound up, at Ramage Farms, 13 miles outside of Hico. It’s the same farm Parker grew up on. The house, built in 1897, according to Pearcy, had been moved by Parker’s greatgrandfather, Hawthorne Ramage, from nearby Duffau to the Ramage farm and rocked in the 1930s. Parker is named for her maternal great-grandmother, Mattie Ramage.
“I think we’ll be able to work together in a really unique way. I want to get with them and know their major initiatives are for their district, and where, as mayor, I can help marshal stuff through. How I can help them. We won’t always agree. No one does. But it is important
for me to maintain the decorum we’ve traditionally had in Fort Worth.” – Mayor Mattie Parker on working with the new city council
Brushy Bill is buried in Hamilton, about 20 miles south of Hico. On one Billy the Kid Day in Hico, residents gathered — demonstrated, really — to ask then Gov. Bill Richardson to make good on the promise of a predecessor to give Billy the Kid a pardon for his crimes if he testified about another murder. Richardson even ordered up documents on the case.
It was to no avail. The governor couldn’t be moved.
Movements to excavate the burial sites and exhume the remains to settle the dispute once and for all have never manifested. Neither town in reality probably wants to know. With disappointment in the truth means the bit and cents are over, the statue removed.
Billy the Kid is industry in Hico.
Hico is the hometown of Fort Worth’s 45th mayor. She was a “scrappy kid from a small town. That is absolutely true.”
There is a theme that appeared time and again while researching and interviewing subjects for this story.
“My first memories were walking the property with my grandmother,” Pearcy says.
Parker did some work on the farm, her mother said. Parker also went to work at a Mexican restaurant at about age 15, about the same time as her parents’ divorce.
“Of course, she did. If it starts to rain and hay is in the fields, you haul it,” Pearcy says laughing at the memory. “It wasn’t her favorite thing to do. I don’t think she aspired to be a farmer.”
It was English, books, and government she enjoyed in school. And speech. Parker was a state-championcaliber speech competitor during high school at the annual University Interscholastic League academic festivals, her mother remembered.
And she loved dance. There it is again.
On the campaign trail, Parker enjoyed telling observers that she was the daughter of a defense attorney turned Methodist minister and a ballerina. All true. Her mother was a trained ballerina and taught for many years. She still does when she has time.
“She was quite a dancer,” Pearcy says. “She was my star. She was willing to get out there and dance on her own, with a group or teach. She loved it.” Pearcy called her daughter’s style a “mixture of lyrical and jazz and ballet.”
Of her daughter generally, Pearcy says: “She was energetic and always quick to make friends.”
Progress, whatever that means exactly, is never on time. It doesn’t matter who you ask.
The year was 1897 — the same year the city of Fort Worth was in the midst of a contentious debate over amendments to the city charter — and the place was the Texas House of Representatives, serving with Gov. Charles Culberson, who went on to serve in the United States Senate from 1899–1923.
“The election of a woman to be postmaster of the House has set
Mattie Parker wants to reach the city “where they are,” and in this era that includes through a weekly podcast, “Go Time in Fort Worth.”
The most difficult part of becoming mayor, she said, was leaving her role as CEO of Tarrant To and Through Partnership and being with students like these graduates of Dunbar who are going on to college.
all tongues a-wagging,” the Fort Worth Register reported. “The opponents of this innovation declare the act to be a bad precedent. They argue that it will not be a half a dozen years before all minor offices will be filled by ladies, leaving the men, who so nobly assisted in saving the country, out in the cold.
“It is a question here whether the distinguished members of the house were hypnotized by a pretty face and attractive form or whether their innate gallantry prompted them to her aid. It was doubtless the former, for when the pretty Mrs. Franklin went forward to take the oath of office, there were 128 pairs of eyes focused upon her. She bore the scrutiny well. The members reason that it will be so nice to have a sweet smile turned full upon them when they call for their mail. This is the view generally shared and will no doubt fully explain why the sturdy and loyal Democrat Frank Mullins was beaten in the race.”
The state has moved forward over the course of 125-some-odd years.
Like the ranch in Hico, the Texas House has a family connection. Parker served there, of course, with then-Speaker Tom Craddick. Craddick, a Republican from Midland who continues to serve in the House, is a big fan of his former protégé.
“Mattie’s determination and commitment to doing what is right for all citizens of Fort Worth will serve the community now and in the years ahead,” he said when this writer asked about her during the campaign.
Decades before Parker’s birth, her grandfather, Cecil Pearcy, was a member of the Texas House, a Democrat from Temple who served there from 1959–64. He was an assistant attorney general from 1964–78.
“All of her relatives are quite colorful,” her mother continued.
Robin and Cherry Pearcy met at Texas State, he an attorney and teacher, she a graduate student of paralegal studies.
Like Parker, they all, mother, father and uncle, went to the University of Texas.
C.W. Pearcy died in 1988, when Parker was still a very young age. She was too young to know him well. Parker was much closer to her paternal grandmother. Barbara Pearcy, who lived to old age before passing in 2009, enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1943, according to her obituary, and became a Navy pilot trainer before meeting C.W., a Navy officer.
“I didn’t think about that necessarily,” Parker says about whether her grandfather served as any inspiration for entering public service. “No one else in my immediate family was interested in politics. There was no reason I would have been. I was a government major, but I was clueless.” Still, it’s intriguing now to think back about the connection, she says.
“At the capitol, there are portraits of members of every session on the walls,” Parker says. “Outside the office I had [when she was working for Craddick] on the third floor was a picture of my grandfather during his first session.”
C.W. certainly said things that could have come out of the mouth of his granddaughter, who has resisted urges from opponents to put her in a box of political labels. That’s the game, certainly today, to pin policymakers into corners they have to swing out of. A politician is not as narrowminded as he forces himself to be, Will Rogers advised.
“Mattie’s determination and commitment to doing what is right for all citizens of Fort Worth will serve the community now and in the years ahead.”
– Texas Representative and former Speaker, Tom Craddick
According to Cherry Pearcy, right around the time of the birth of Parker’s younger brother, Robert, Cecil Pearcy — the family called him “C.W.” — called his son Cecil “Robin” Pearcy III and demanded that the newborn’s name be Cecil Wilton Pearcy IV. By the sound of it, not just anyone told Cecil Pearcy no, but that’s what the son did. Robin Pearcy, an attorney who reinvented himself into a Methodist minister, swore Parker into office in June.
Robin’s brother is Paul Pearcy, a notable drummer and percussionist whose recordings include cuts with Willie Nelson, Ray Wylie Hubbard, and The Dixie Chicks’ Emmy-winner “Home.” Robin is a musician, too.
In announcing a run for the Speaker of the House in 1961, Pearcy, a Democrat, refused to be labeled, declaring, according to news reports of the day, that he didn’t believe in “fixed political tags.”
He wasn’t a conservative or a liberal, he said. “If I must be labeled, I should certainly be considered a moderate.”
C.W. eventually dropped that bid for the speakership, instead supporting another candidate.
Another more notable scuffle C.W. found himself in was with a state rep from Oklahoma, who said, untactfully, that had there been a backdoor to the Alamo, there wouldn’t have been a Texas, implying the noble defenders would have taken off. C.W. responded to that bull hockey, telling the gentleman from Oklahoma that there actually was a backdoor, and “the only guy who used it was a one-time citizen of Indian Territory, now Oklahoma.”
Had that been the case, the other guy said, that an Oklahoman been
Meetings, meetings, and more meetings. Mayor Mattie Parker is on her way to one in City Hall.
at the Alamo, “if he had stayed, the Alamo would never have fallen.”
“He was a character,” Cherry Pearcy says, thinking about a story from the first time she went to Christmas at the Pearcys’ while dating Robin. “They’re a very musical family, and the boys started jamming. Well, C.W. just grabs me and starts jitterbugging. I was very new to that scene. I was like, ‘Oh, my, gosh. What is going on?’”
Dancing.
“Iknow that I am out of order in speaking of the good things that cops do,” Will Rogers said, “but I am one of the oldfashioned people who believe if someone pounces on me, I could holler for a policeman, and he would come and help me out without me having to pay him anything.”
Parker entered her new office with a number of other pressing concerns. The city charter was amended in 2016 to add two seats to the council in 2023. How those districts will be drawn will be another contentious issue.
Parker has vowed transparency and public inclusion in a process that is clearly in the jurisdiction of the council. There are a handful of citizens who don’t think the duly elected council of this representative democracy should be the architects.
“No matter what process we decide on, we can do it in a transparent, community-led way,” Parker says. “I do think it’s important for the council to have some say in how the boundaries are drawn. They are the only elected body, but at the same time doing it behind closed doors is not acceptable.”
Anything “shrouded in controversy is not healthy for anybody.”
Among the myriad of growing pains Fort Worth has experienced has been the roller-coaster relationship between the police and people of color. It has never been worse, but that depends on whom you ask and requires sorting through a box of various motives.
The young lady who addressed the city council on the issue of expanding the cruising ordinance to West Seventh said she was affiliated with United Fort Worth, whose work as activists increased dramatically in the aftermath of the tragic death of Atatiana Jefferson.
“The leadership of Fort Worth police must be held accountable” is the battle cry.
Members of the group attended the June swearingin ceremony at the Convention Center for Parker and new council members Jared Williams in District 6, Leonard Firestone (District 7), Chris Nettles (District 8), and new District 9 councilwoman Elizabeth Beck.
The United Fort Worth contingent briefly delayed Parker’s address to the assembling on swearing-in night, chanting, “What do we want? Justice. When do we want it? Now.”
She waited until they had finished and thanked them for their attendance.
“There’s
been so much focus on police and community. Sure, there are issues there, but we are not focusing on all the other systemic issues that affect communities, like education, infrastructure, safe neighborhoods, all those other things because we get so focused on this issue over here, and if we’re not careful, we’ll have done nothing to improve the lives of people.” – Mayor Mattie Parker
That matter and the aftermath are of serious concern, obviously. Whether criminal or a breakdown in protocol or training, or a result of systemic racism — as has been asserted — it’s vitally important to get to the bottom of.
The answers are unclear and require careful study. At risk is not seeing the forest for the trees, Parker believes, adding that she sometimes becomes frustrated by so much attention given “fringe issues.”
“I don’t think they move the needle,” she says. “There’s been so much focus on police and community. Sure, there are issues there, but we are not focusing on all the other systemic issues that affect communities, like education, infrastructure, safe neighborhoods, all those other things because we get so focused on this issue over here, and if we’re not careful, we’ll have done nothing to improve the lives of people.
“My responsibility here is to make sure we don’t just focus on the fringe issues.”
The budget is the council’s chief priority, “the most important thing they do,” she says. Playing with other people’s money is not to be taken lightly. The budget, she reminded, tells a story of what the priorities are.
Her focus will remain that of recent past councils: fiscal responsibility and efficiency, superior city services that focus on safe and prosperous neighborhoods.
“Those are my budget priorities. Those are at the bedrock of our budget.”
Parker also said she planned to take a more pronounced role in transportation. “Only for my own education and a signal to the community that it’s important.”
A bond election is also on the horizon.
The package is still evolving, but the majority of the proposed funding will go to streets and pedestrian mobility, followed by parks and recreation improvements, fire safety, public facility improvements, and community center improvements. The last objective is open-space conservation as the city continues to grow out of its beltloop.
“The transition [to a new mayor] was smooth,” says District 2 Councilman Carlos Flores, now a senior member of the council. “To her advantage, Mattie had knowledge of the inner workings of city government. We have been able to continue on certain measures and also start new initiatives without the delay a brand-new person would have. It takes time when you’re completely new to council to get acclimated, to get up to speed. All that is true. Mattie had that going for her in that she came prepared. Having knowledge frees her up to concentrate on those initiatives every mayor wants to concentrate on.
“Mattie has an open door not just for me, but for all of us. That’s an indispensable trait to have, not just for mayor but any elected official.”
There are plenty of issues to coalesce and unite around, as well as the vision to see that the invocation the night of the swearing be reality: “By your grace, may the city of Fort Worth not only continue to grow in size but also compassion; not only in numbers but in wisdom.
“Let every citizen find here community.”
Getting her steps in. The job of mayor of Fort Worth demands that Mattie Parker, along with a police detail, is constantly on the move, shuttling from one event to the next, day after day.
CROSSINGS
On May 29, 1980, Joe Parsons was killed by a train at a railroad crossing. Forty years later, there are still questions left unanswered.
BY RACHEL PARSONS
To look at a railroad map of Fort Worth is to look at a spider’s web. The city has 193 highwayrail grade crossings, or points where tracks cross streets. This is the largest number per capita of any other big city in Texas, according to Fort Worth’s transportation department. There’s ample reason. In 1876, the first railroad, the Texas and Pacific Railway, pulled into a town that was essentially a frontier nonentity. People associate the old town with the cattle trade (from whence the moniker “Cowtown” came) or oil, but in reality, the railroads were largely responsible for the city’s growth and eventual economic prosperity, according to local historian Richard Selcer. Which meant that by the turn of the 20th century, “the railroads owned Fort Worth. They got whatever they wanted, the way they wanted it, and that was part of the deal,” he says. Grand thoroughfares such as Lancaster Avenue were named for railroad company presidents whose firms poured millions of dollars into the city.
Railway companies wielded so much power that when there were accidents in the early decades of rail expansion, there wasn’t much the city could do to make things safer. There was nothing to help or hinder pedestrians or vehicles crossing tracks. “If you wanted to go from downtown to the south side of Fort Worth,” Selcer says, “you simply took your life in your hands and crossed the tracks.
And if you got hit or had to crawl under a train or over a train, that was your problem, too bad.”
bedroom. The 14-month-old, me, the writer of this story, hadn’t slept much at all for the first six months of life and was finally sleeping through the night. The teenager, my half-brother Jody from Joe’s first marriage, was 16 and likely could’ve slept through a tornado.
Joe Parsons’ eyes were turquoise. Not blue, turquoise. He was a quiet, sober man, but his wife could make him laugh, so he smiled at her. He didn’t smile at many others. He wasn’t mean; he was just stoic. “I’m smiling on the inside,” he was fond of saying when people prodded him about it.
An oppressive, humid Texas heat wave engulfed much of the state late that May in 1980. Before the summer was over, it would bring a record 42 days of consecutive triple-digit temperatures. But no one was thinking about that in the tiny white wood-sided house on Trentman Street on the southeast side of Fort Worth that Thursday morning. Rhonda and Joe got up just after sunrise, around 6:30 a.m., as usual. She headed into the kitchen to fix him some coffee. He took a shower; he always showered in the morning. Both were careful not wake the children sleeping in the second
Joe dressed in his standard work attire: blue jeans, tan leather cowboy boots, and collared shirt. When it was warm, he’d roll up the sleeves. The morning routine in the little house they’d bought was normal. The mood was not. They talked, Rhonda would later say, “but it was a little bit strained. It had gotten a little bit weird around there.” That morning, she remembered, it was small talk, not the kind of real conversation they sometimes had in the quiet early morning hours if there were household issues to discuss. It had gotten a little bit weird because Joe had withdrawn in the weeks leading to Thursday, May 29. They had an unusually strong bond, and they didn’t keep things from one another. She’d asked several times during those days if everything was all right. Yes, everything was fine, he’d say. “He didn’t know any reason for it. And neither did I,” she said. He left without saying goodbye. It made a strange situation even more unfathomable, since he was a stickler for saying I love you. She turned around and he wasn’t there. She walked to the screen door and saw him getting in their beige Ford pickup to go to work. He turned the engine over and got ready to back out, “then he looked over at me,” she said. His expression wasn’t sad, “but it wasn’t a real pleasant look either ... it was just different for us.”
“Later it felt like he hadn’t wanted to say goodbye,” she said. “It was almost like he was leaving real fast before he had to talk.” It was the only day in their married life that they hadn’t given each other a goodbye kiss and said I love you.
As the sun heated the pavement and the air grew swampier, Joe drove about 22 miles east to the truck yard at Mission Petroleum Carriers, Inc. in Arlington, where he’d worked for roughly a year and a half, usually six days a week. As always, even in the coldest weather, he drove with the driver’s side window cracked so
Joe Parsons
he could better hear traffic. He’d lost some hearing in his left ear in Vietnam. Once at work, likely sometime between 7:30 and 8 a.m., Joe Parsons prepped the gasoline delivery tanker he drove for a living and headed out for his first drops.
At 6:30 a.m., northwest of Fort Worth, a little farther than the house on Trentman was to the southeast, four other men were also getting ready for the workday. Engine foreman Charlie Norman and three other crewmen were starting the morning shift at the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe suburban Saginaw railroad yard. They had orders to ride about eight miles downtown to the 17th Street yard on the southeast edge of the city center, pick up nine freight cars, and pull them to another railroad’s yard on the north side of the city.
Of the four crew, three of them, Norman, Vernon Pickard, and Okley Moss, were Santa Fe veterans close to retirement, who’d known one another for decades. The train’s engineer that morning, John Taylor, was the new kid on the block. It’s unclear how long he’d worked for the company — those records no longer exist — but Pickard had known Taylor for five or six years, and he’d “probably been on the [engineering] job for three, maybe four months,” Moss would later recall.
the crew linked their engine, locomotive number 2051, to one covered hopper — a car that carried dried bulk products like grain or sand — and seven box cars, followed by two gondolas, or low-sided cars with open tops.
“Later it felt like he hadn’t wanted to say goodbye. It was almost like he was leaving real fast before he had to talk.” - Rhonda Parsons on the last time she saw her husband, Joe
The crew left the Saginaw yard sometime between 8 and 8:30 a.m., according to depositions later taken from Norman, Pickard, and Moss. A little less than three miles before their destination, the crew rolled over Northeast 23rd Street, just beside the point it intersects with Samuels Avenue, as they headed south on the Santa Fe tracks to the downtown yard. Norman later testified that he’d crossed 23rd Street an average of twice a day, five days a week for 41 years as a Santa Fe employee. Once downtown,
The men climbed into the crew cab at the front of the blue and yellow Santa Fe engine, leaving the door of cab on the front left of the compartment open for ventilation, as they often did in hot weather. Engineer John Taylor was at controls on the right side of the cab, if looking forward from the inside of the space.
Pickard and Norman took the only other seats in the cab on the left wall, Pickard in front facing the open door and Norman immediately behind. Moss was sitting on “a can in the floor” that he’d made himself to store his rain gear in.
There are no records of how long it took the short train to make the trip out of the city center. As the crow flies, it would take a little more than eight minutes to travel about 2.7 miles from the Fort Worth 17th Street yard to the Northeast 23rd Street crossing at 20 miles an hour, the approximate speed
that Norman, Moss, and Pickard later estimated they were traveling. Once firmly underway, though, the train rolled north back along the same tracks the crew had traveled from Saginaw.
At roughly 10:30 a.m., Joe Parsons finished delivering 9,000 gallons of gasoline to a Sigmor station on North Main Street on Fort Worth’s Northside. He swung the empty tanker south on Main and drove four blocks before turning left on to East Northside Drive. Within a few seconds, he crossed the West Fork Trinity River, and a few seconds after that, he came to Samuels Avenue.
As Joe maneuvered his rig into the left turn from Northside Drive to Samuels Avenue, the train slid under the Northside Drive overpass just east of Samuels. At that point, the road and the tracks were roughly 550 feet apart, running not quite parallel. In the sticky heat of midmorning, the gasoline truck and the locomotive rumbled north at about the same speed. Another thousand feet and the tanker and train approached the northern horseshoe of the West Fork Trinity River, one of city’s defining geologic features. The two paths narrow, and at midriver
Samuels and the tracks lay about 226 feet apart. According to the crewmen, as required by regulation, they started blowing the train’s horn at the whistle board — a designated sign just before their bridge.
That’s when the crew first noticed the truck on its bridge over the water to the left, running “slightly in front” of the train that was just about to cross the river. Moss said the tanker was “traveling about the same speed we were.” According to his deposition, Moss kept his eyes on the truck, but none of the men noticed anything unusual; it was normal practice for everyone in the cab to look out for traffic. They were all familiar with the Samuels/23rd Street intersection.
The intersection was convoluted. Leading north into an industrial area, Samuels Avenue ended at a point where 23rd made an obtuse angle and veered to the northeast. Rather than a
T-shaped juncture, the intersection looked like a lopsided Y. Samuels and the Santa Fe tracks narrow to less than 80 feet apart there, and traveling to the north on Samuels, the right-hand corner is a sweeping curve up a slight grade to cross the tracks. About 40 feet before this curve started, another set of tracks that belonged to the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway, or Frisco, cut diagonally to the southeast across Samuels and the Santa Fe tracks. There was neither a stop sign nor crossbucks (the X-shaped sign) nor lights and bells before the Frisco tracks for traffic coming north on Samuels Avenue. There was a single Santa Fe light post with cross bucks in the armpit of that right-hand curve, and Norman later said, “Our signal protects that [Frisco] crossing also.” That signal post had two sets of lights, or “flashers” — one that looked south down Samuels and one that pointed
down 23rd Street to the west. This sat in some proximity to the signal house, a wide, tall metallic shed-like structure that housed the electronics that activated the signals. The powers-that-be relied on drivers coming up Samuels to realize that the signals they needed to look for were after the Frisco tracks they had to cross to get to 23rd. There were no gates — the red-and-white striped bars that lower automatically — at either set of tracks.
According to deposition testimony, the gas truck didn’t stop at the Frisco tracks. No one on the train could be sure whether the bells or “flashers” for either direction were working, though Moss said the set that signaled the Santa Fe tracks had been when the crew came from Saginaw earlier that morning. It’s unclear whether the set that governed the Frisco crossing would have been triggered at all since there was no train on that track. Moss said when he saw the truck start the right-hand turn on to 23rd, he realized the driver wasn’t going to stop. No one said the truck appeared to be racing the train.
Rhonda and Joe Parsons at their wedding
Rhonda Parsons today at the site of the accident
There is no way to know whether Joe Parsons did or did not see the flashing lights or hear the bells from the signal or the whistle from the train. There is no way to know if the signals were working on May 29, 1980. Vernon Pickard would say that he could see Joe sitting in his cab after he began the turn and that he “never did look back up [right] to the Santa Fe tracks.” Rhonda would later vehemently argue the signals were not functioning, or Joe, with his window rolled down to listen for just this type of street noise, would have heard them. He wasn’t a careless man, she’d say. It’s also unclear how much of his view of the tracks might have been blocked by the signal house. There are no extant accident scene photos.
Either way, when Moss realized what was happening, he “hollered, ‘He is not going to stop. Big hole it’”— railway jargon for throwing the emergency brakes.
Engineer John Taylor “jumped up and pulled the brake valve around, and then he started looking for an exit,” Moss said in his deposition. Moss then hit the floor, hoping the tanker was empty. Pickard tried to shut the front door of the cab as the truck came around the curve, and no one could say what Norman was doing. They were about 150 feet from the street.
Later, at trial, Rhonda would recall that one of them, she couldn’t remember which, said he caught a glimpse of Joe as he crossed the tracks, by then aware of the train, frantically trying to get the tractor-trailer in gear to give it more power. He almost made it.
The train hit the empty tank somewhere between the middle and the rear axle where it punched two small holes. There was no explosion. As it slowed, the train pushed the truck down the tracks, then off to the right side so it ended up parallel to the train. As the rig swung around, Joe flung open his door and apparently tried to bail out. Then the truck rolled.
Even before train came to a full stop, three of crew climbed down from their cab and hit the ground running, fearing the truck could still explode at any moment. Moss stayed in the cab long enough to make a mayday call, and then
he headed to the Samuels/23rd Street intersection to flag traffic away from the wreck; the train completely blocked 23rd. Pickard, Norman, and Taylor made a beeline for a nearby cold storage facility. Time shifts in one’s brain in funny ways during stress. Pickard recalled that they stood away from the wreck for two or three minutes. Norman thought it was around 10 minutes. When they were confident that the tanker wasn’t going to blow sky high, Taylor “ran” to see if the driver of the truck was all right. The two other men followed but held back. According to Pickard’s deposition, Taylor looked inside the truck, turned around, and shook his head.
Medical investigator Dave Carpenter told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporter covering the accident that the 35-year-old “Parsons was crushed beneath the cab.”
In Texas in 1980, the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway reported 700 casualties from accidents statewide, according to FRA records. Of these, 18 were fatalities. The month Joe Parsons died, so did four others. These deaths included railroad employees killed in on-the-job accidents, trespassers on tracks, and nontrespassers on railroad property. In 1995, Santa Fe merged with Burlington Northern to become BNSF, and in contrast, in 2019 BNSF reported 105 casualties statewide, 13 of which were fatalities. Of these, 11 involved trespassers on railroad tracks.
The rail industry has gotten safer. Gone are the days when a railroad acquiesced to public safety concerns by posting a single man at a crossing around the clock. (“You know damn well they didn’t have somebody 24/7 they paid to stand there at the tracks at the intersection,” says Richard Selcer, the historian.) In 1970, President Richard Nixon signed into law the Federal Railroad Safety Act, which gave the Department of Transportation authority over rail maintenance and equipment standards. By 1980, the annual number of deaths at highwaygrade crossings nationally was decreasing, if only marginally. According to a 1982 Federal Railroad Administration annual report, large railroads reported 723 “nontrespasser” deaths — the category that included Joe Parsons — at rail-highway crossings nationwide in 1980, down slightly from 779 in 1979.
There is no way to know whether Joe Parsons did or did not see the flashing lights or hear the bells from the signal or the whistle from the train. There is no way to know if the signals were working on May 29, 1980.
The 85% decrease in overall casualties is a remarkable sign of progress, but digging into the reported data, the story gets more macabre. The pattern of death for nonemployees has shifted in a dark way. In Tarrant County, of which Fort Worth is the county seat, BNSF reported two fatalities to the FRA in 2019. Both were designated as trespassers on railroad tracks. The physical orientation described of one, as the train approached, was “laying.” In Tarrant County, accidents involving people walking on or near tracks and suicide have become a more prevalent cause of death than grade crossing accidents.
Another key component of the Railroad Safety Act allocated funds to help states install or upgrade safety features like crossbucks, bells, lights, and gates at crossings. The amounts have bloomed during the past 40 years. On the national level, a Federal Highway Administration program set aside $245 million for safety upgrades for fiscal year 2020. On the local level, tracing that money can be tricky. A public records request to the Texas Department of Transportation asking for records of funding spent on any safety upgrades performed at the 23rd Street/Santa Fe crossing during the late 1970s was forwarded to the Texas
attorney general’s office. As of publication, there has been no response. A spokesman for the Federal Railroad Administration said the agency had no historical records related to the crossing in answer to a FOIA request.
In 2005, The New York Times reported that a former TxDOT official had signed roughly 100 affidavits on behalf of Texas railroads in the late 1990s and early 2000s that stated various crossings throughout the state had indeed received federal funds for safety upgrades between 1977 and 1981. Railroads used these statements in court to defend themselves against lawsuits where people were killed at grade crossings. In October of 2004, the former official — a teenager in 1977 — admitted that he had no firsthand knowledge of any money spent and those records no longer existed, according to the Times article.
Rhonda Jeans Parsons v. Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company went to trial on January 23, 1984, in the federal courthouse downtown. A colleague warned Rhonda’s attorney, Harold Eisenman, that it would be difficult to beat a railroad in Fort Worth. It was “what they call a railroad town ... the odds are against you,” he said decades later. The vast majority of crossing accident cases are settled before trial. But it was, to Eisenman, “a righteous case” that needed to be tried. After all, Joe Parsons left behind a wife and two children, and the amount that Santa Fe offered to settle out of court — $80,000 was “ridiculous,” Rhonda said. “I knew that crossing,” she said, since she’d worked on that side of town when she met Joe, “and I knew there wasn’t a bar there. And I knew the lights never worked.” Joe knew it, too, she said; all the more reason that he would have taken extra care.
I have a fragment of a memory from the courtroom. I was allowed to come for opening statements, and I hold an image of the art deco-era paneled room, the orange upholstery on the chair that
I sat on with my legs sticking out, feet barely over its edge, and the judge saying something about me. I remember him gesturing at me and the words “that little girl,” though what came next is lost. The court reporter’s notes were never transcribed because there would be no appeal. The only records left in the National Archives in Fort Worth dealt with pretrial discovery, the court docket’s brief summary of day-to-day proceedings, and the depositions of Moss, Pickard, Norman, and my mother. It appears the engineer, Taylor, was never deposed. Neither the accident scene photos nor exhibit photographs were included in the archive files, nor do they exist any longer anywhere else. Memories are hazy 36 years on. Rhonda remembered the case revolving around whether lights and bells were working. Santa Fe’s lead defense attorney, Donald Herrmann, recalled that Rhonda’s “recollection is generally correct, but my recollection is, by the time the case went to the jury, the real question was whether the crossing was inadequately protected and should have had gates.” Eisenman remembered something else entirely.
Through the next four chill January days, as each side claimed the other was the negligent party, all four men who were on board engine 2051 testified. Eisenman subpoenaed each of them and “made them sit there during the entire trial.” None of them had jackets or ties, which were mandatory in federal court. Donald Herrmann “had to go out and buy ties for them.” One by one, each testified that everything at the crossing and on the train was working properly. That they’d followed protocol exactly. And that, as Herrmann remembered it, “the truck appeared to be attempting to kind of beat the train across the tracks. Which isn’t uncommon” in crossing cases, most of which never reach a courtroom.
After all these years, Eisenman can’t be sure which crew member was central to his defense. But since Eisenman made the decision not to depose him before the trial, it was likely the engineer, John Taylor, he recalled. Whoever it was, Eisenman saved him for last. “I had a pretty good idea that they were going to lie,” he later said. Each had testified that all of the safety measures that could be taken were taken on that sweaty May morning three and a half years before. The flashers, the bells, the train whistle, all were working.
“Everybody … sat on the witness stand and swore they blew the whistle when we had ironclad proof that the whistle wasn’t working. Juries generally don’t like liars, and that should’ve done it.”
- Harold Eisenman
But the whistle wasn’t working, Eisenman said. “They couldn’t have sounded it.” Prior to the trial, he’d dispatched his investigator, a man named Richard Fleisher, to talk to the witness. Fleisher, now in his 80s, did not respond to multiple requests for an interview, but as Eisenman remembered it, the witness gave the investigator a signed, sworn statement that said not only was the train’s whistle broken, but he included a work order number for it. The crew operated the train that morning knowing the whistle was broken, Eisenman believed. It would be unheard of, a Texas attorney who’s represented railroads for 40 years and not involved with this case said, pointing to a litany of regulations that required a crew to test a train’s whistle multiple times before it’s underway. But Eisenman is convinced that it happened, no matter how rare. With the witness on the stand, Eisenman “cross examined him and made a liar out of him and all the rest of them with his statement.”
Across the courtroom, Donald Herrmann was momentarily stunned. He said that he’d had the case “dropped in my lap” two or three weeks before the trial (though court records show it was about four months before) when the original attorney, who prepped the case
for years, was appointed to a judgeship and left their firm. He had no idea the witness statement existed. “There’s no question he lied,” Herrmann said, admitting that he does not remember which crew member it was, either. The question, he said, was when? “The guy had been, not because of this accident but subsequent to this accident ... disciplined and either suspended or fired,” he couldn’t remember which, but “he got really hacked off at the railroad so when the investigator came to talk to him ... I think he basically agreed to whatever the investigator told him. He signed it, then he got rehired by the railroad” which meant the witness was “emotionally torn because he had given a statement contradictory to the railroad, but he wanted his job, and so he was just in a compromised situation.” In the end, Herrmann said, he wasn’t terribly concerned with the revelation. It turned out he didn’t need to be. The jury deliberated for about seven hours, during which time they asked to hear Taylor’s testimony in its entirety again. In the end, they found that the crossing was indeed “extra hazardous,” but that Santa Fe was not negligent for failing to have automatic gates there. They believed the train’s whistle and the crossing’s lights and bells were working properly. Santa Fe had met its lawful obligations to adequately protect the crossing.
“I could see your mom’s face drop,” Eisenman later said. He’d allowed himself to be cautiously optimistic, but Rhonda never did feel good about it. She watched one of the jurors struggle to stay awake in the afternoons, a couple of eye witnesses came across looking “trashy” on the stand, and Judge Eldon B. Mahon didn’t allow photographic evidence of the signal house’s position and its potential to block the view of the tracks into arguments. For people who’d never seen the intersection before, imagining the complexity of it was a problem. One juror turned out to be someone Rhonda didn’t know but a friend of an extended family friend. After the trial, she told the family friend if she’d been allowed to go to the intersection and see it for herself, she’d never have voted
the way she did.
Eisenman was shocked. “This guy gave a statement under oath that the whistle was broken, and there was a work order,” he said. “And they operated the train anyway. And everybody, including him, sat on the witness stand and swore they blew the whistle when we had ironclad proof that the whistle wasn’t working. Juries generally don’t like liars, and that should’ve done it.”
and was not involved in this case, said winning a crossing case at trial has always been extraordinarily difficult for a plaintiff to do, and that has gotten even harder in the past few years. Most public crossings do have the safety equipment required by law. Once that has been proved in court, the claim of a victim or their survivors is usually too weak to prevail.
The crossing is safer today. Though it is still not what a reasonable person would call entirely safe — there’s no stop sign on 23rd for traffic coming toward Samuels and the tracks, for example there is a stop sign at the end of Samuels Avenue. The Frisco tracks no longer exist. There are automatic gates at the Santa Fe tracks, as well as at each of the next three sets of tracks to the east that parallel Santa Fe’s. There are extra lights. The signal house is now on the north side of 23rd where there’s no chance it can obstruct the view.
Texas attorney Doug Poole, who has defended railroad companies for decades
As for my father, Joe Parsons, I will never know exactly what happened that morning. Moss, Norman, and Pickard are all dead. They retired, lived long lives, and each died within the past 15 years or so. Moss’ daughter, Marilyn Luton, told me that the accident deeply affected him, knowing that it had killed a man. I found no record of Taylor’s whereabouts. Many of the first responders on the scene are dead. The one Fort Worth Police Department officer still alive that the Star-Telegram quoted didn’t remember the wreck. The reporter is also dead. And while people still die at Texas crossings, including one accident in 2019 in San Patricio County in which three children ages 5 to 12 were killed when a Union Pacific train hit their vehicle, more do make it home at the end of the day.
Joe Parsons (left) with his family
Fort Worth Inc. would like to congratulate the 2021 Best Companies to Work For winners and thank our program sponsors for a great event.
FOCUS
Women Who Forward Fort Worth
Just a glance across the business landscape of Fort Worth and the surrounding cities reveals many women who own or run companies or other organizations that greatly influence the life of the community. On the next few pages, these successful women will tell you more about their professional endeavors and share inspiring advice.
The information in this section is provided by the advertisers and has not been independently verified by Fort Worth Magazine.
FOCUS WOMEN WHO FORWARD FORT WORTH
FOCUS: Wealth management services for individuals, families, and organizations, including trust services, investment management, oil and gas management, and other fiduciary services. EDUCATION/ CERTIFICATIONS: Kathy Christoffel – CTFA, Morton College, Canon Trust School. Patrice Parks – Dallas Baptist University. BUSINESS RECOGNITIONS: Two Silver 2021 Stevie Awards for COVID19 Most Valuable Corporate Response and Lifetime Achievement Award; 2020 Private Asset Management (PAM) Award for Best Philanthropic Initiative. LEADERSHIP PHILOSOPHY: Lead by example. Always listen first. COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: Kathy –Active member Trinity Episcopal Church and Amphibian Productions board member. Patrice – Active member of First Baptist of Burleson. GREATEST PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS: With extensive experience, these two women chose to join Argent to build something new and important in Fort Worth, leveraging the resources of Argent. ADVICE FOR ASPIRING CAREER WOMEN: Be yourself. Stay genuine and display confidence that you are willing to learn from others and then be ready to contribute! Believe in your ability to do great things. Take the step. Be courageous. MOTTO: You, first. PICTURED: Kathy Christoffel, market president; Patrice Parks, trust administrative officer.
Argent Trust Company
4200 S. Hulen St., Ste. 217 Fort Worth, Texas 76109 817.502.3586
ArgentTrust.com
FOCUS WOMEN WHO FORWARD FORT WORTH
FOCUS: The focus of Benbrook Stables has always been to provide a true Texas experience. Travelers from all over the world and people right here in Fort Worth looking to enjoy riding horses can find it all right here. Our facilities are located on 100 acres, just minutes from downtown. We are a family-owned and -operated equestrian center that is ideally situated at the trailhead of over 30 miles of equestrian trails around Lake Benbrook. ACHIEVEMENTS: Benbrook Stables has grown over the past 25 years to be the No. 1 equestrian camp and trail riding facility in the city. MISSION: Since 1957, the Stables has been the go-to place for trail riding, boarding, lessons, and parties. Our Riding School, The Riding Academy, and our Equestrian Camps are available to all children wanting to enjoy riding and learning all about horses. Our mission will continue to be providing that amazing equestrian experience. COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: Being able to give back, and support some of our favorite charities, is one of the most rewarding things about the Stables. Hosting events, such as Saddle Up for St. Jude and 65 Roses, sponsoring the Fort Worth Stock Show calf scramble, and equestrian scholarships are just a few of the ways we enjoy getting involved. PICTURED: Alex and Molly Thomson.
Benbrook Stables
10001 Benbrook Blvd.
Fort Worth, Texas 76126
817.249.1001
benbrookstables.com
Alex and Molly Thomson
FOCUS WOMEN WHO FORWARD FORT WORTH
B Smart Builders promotion
FOCUS: Women-owned and -operated residential general contractor with in-house design team focused on remodels and new builds. As a full-service contractor, we operate as a one-stop shop for design, selections, building, and maintenance. EDUCATION: Cheryl – Texas A&M; Heather – TCU; Kathy – OU; Emily – Texas Tech; Chariti – UNT. AWARDS/HONORS: Greater Fort Worth Builders Association President 2021, VP 2020, Board 2018-2020; Best of Fort Worth 2021, Reader Pick; Fort Worth HOME Design Awards, 2017-2021; Texas Association of Builders Star Award 2021; Best of Houzz, 2018, 2020; GFWBA Best Remodel, 2011, 2012. PHILOSOPHY OF MANAGEMENT: Good remodels center around the relationship between homeowners and the B Smart team, including transparency, honesty, and creativity. We communicate expectations, costs, and timeline from the beginning. COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: GFWBA President; Project Beloved Board; Ridglea Hills Neighborhood Association Sponsor; Ridglea Hills Elementary, sponsor and PTA officers; Fort Worth Junior League; Colonial Country Club. GREATEST PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS: Balancing successful careers and strong families. ADVICE FOR ASPIRING CAREER WOMEN: Dream big, be the best you can be, do not give up, and remember that success in life is multifaceted: God, family, career. MOTTO: Treat everyone you encounter fairly, honestly, and with respect. Be kind, be safe, B Smart! PICTURED: Cheryl Bean, owner; Emily Pence, business manager; Heather Smitherman, co-owner/business manager; Chariti Bond, designer; and Kathy McKibbin, senior designer.
5148 Vickery Loop E Fort Worth, Texas 76116
817.368.8659
Fax 817.423.7732
bsmartbuilders.com
B Smart Builders
FOCUS WOMEN WHO FORWARD FORT WORTH
Christie’s International Real Estate | ULTERRE
FOCUS: Christie’s International Real Estate | ULTERRE is a residential and commercial real estate company with offices in Fort Worth, Dallas, and Burleson devoted to developing and delivering exceptional real estate services and bringing the timeless inspiration of Christie’s to everyone on a personal level. WHAT SETS THEM APART: ULTERRE is proud to recognize and honor the accomplishments of its women in leadership who bring the best of themselves every day to add value to the lives of our customers and inspiration to their teammates. They never forget that people and our communities are the heart of our business, and their dedication, passion, and imagination help blaze the trail for continued progress. IN THE COMMUNITY: The ULTERRE team enjoys giving back to the community in many ways including serving on countless boards such as Junior League of Fort Worth, Wings of Hope Therapeutic Riding Program, Careity Foundation, GFWAR Educational Foundation Board and many more. MISSION: We are focused on connecting the inspired with the extraordinary and helping people find places that enhance the way they live. RECOGNITIONS: Christie’s International Real Estate | ULTERRE was voted Best Real Estate Firm in 2019 and 2021 by Fort Worth Magazine PICTURED: (front) Lauren Williams and Deborah Bailey; (back) Hollie Lancarte, Kandy Maberry, Allie Turney, Karan Wethington, and Margaret Coulborn.
Christie’s International Real Estate | ULTERRE 4838 White Settlement Road Fort Worth, Texas 76114 817.882.6450 ulterre.com
FOCUS WOMEN WHO FORWARD FORT WORTH
FOCUS: Urban, Suburban and Rural Real Estate; Buyer’s Agent, Seller’s Agent, Relocation and Consulting. EDUCATION/CERTIFICATIONS: Broker/Realtor®, Certified Urban Expert, Historic House Specialist, Senior Real Estate Specialist, Certified Tourism Ambassador. AWARDS/ HONORS: Five Star Professional Five Star Real Estate Agent DFW, 2015-2020; Top Realtor, Fort Worth Magazine, 2016-2020; Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist, Fort Worth Inc., 2017; 360 West Best Real Estate Agent and Top Producers, 2020. PHILOSOPHY OF MANAGEMENT: Employ community support, animal advocacy, historical preservation, and client satisfaction as the four pillars of my business. COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: Animal advocacy including support of Don’t Forget to Feed Me organization and community promotion as a member of Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, Near Southside Inc., and Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. GREATEST PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS: Hundreds of clients, happy with their moves, be they upsize, downsize, or change in lifestyle altogether.
ADVICE FOR ASPIRING CAREER WOMEN: Discover what you are good at and find a way to apply it toward helping other people achieve something they value. MOTTO: “We Make IT Happen.” PICTURED: Mary Margaret Davis and Spunky.
Mary Margaret Davis Real Estate Team 817.925.1740 mmdavis.com
Mary Margaret Davis Real Estate Team
FOCUS WOMEN WHO FORWARD FORT WORTH
FOCUS: An award-winning salon, DV8 is known for a strong company culture, above-andbeyond customer service, and killer haircuts and color. VISION STATEMENT: A boutique salon with a focus on work/life blend anchored by our core values of integrity, love, and connection. Seeing people, places, and things not just as they are, but what they can become. We are all about growing the people around us. Our hope is to empower the next generation of business owners. We love people, and we love what we get to do. GREATEST PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS: For us as salon owners, our greatest professional achievements come in the form of our employees becoming first-time homeowners, buying their first grown-up car, and even paying off their debt. It is a confirmation every time that we have successfully shared our love of our industry and we have shown them how to elevate their craft and make their own opportunities while doing what they love to do. Empower, encourage, and entrust. AWARDS/HONORS: Nationwide Top 200 Salon, Salon Today Magazine; Fastest Growing Companies list, two consecutive years, Fort Worth Inc ADVICE FOR ASPIRING CAREER WOMEN: Appreciate the growth and value the process. Every step you take forward to learn and try new ideas is a step in the right direction. PICTURED: Candice Hammit and Lisa Justiss, owners.
DV8 The Salon
909 S. Main, Ste. 100 Grapevine, Texas 76051
817.680.0998
dv8thesalon.net
FOCUS WOMEN WHO FORWARD FORT WORTH
FOCUS: Elements of Design is a full-service Interior Design firm specializing in designing residential new construction for builders/ clients in the $2 million to $10 million range and furnishing model homes in all price points. We also enjoy our work with clients on renovation projects and individual room designs. EDUCATION: Degree in Interior Design from Texas State University. RECOGNITION: EOD has been awarded “Best of” for its design work in multiple categories and will be showcased in upcoming book featuring “Spectacular Modern Homes of Texas.” PHILOSOPHY OF MANAGEMENT: By staying on top of new products and innovations being introduced, we are able to offer our clients the best solutions for their projects. Behind every finished space is a pledge of trust our client has given us.
PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS: Owning and running a successful company for the past 20-plus years. We have seen some strange times, and through smart business decisions and fantastic relationships, we have come out stronger every time. ADVICE FOR ASPIRING CAREER WOMEN: Don’t let anything stand in your way — there really is no reason not to pursue every one of your dreams. You only “can’t” do what you don’t try. MOTTO: Styles come and go. Good design is a language, not a style.
PICTURED: Traci Darden.
Elements of Design
405 S. Nolen Drive, Ste. 400 Southlake, Texas 76092
817.428.0657
Instagram: eodllc traci@elementsofdesignllc.com
Elements of Design
Traci Darden, Owner
FOCUS WOMEN WHO FORWARD FORT WORTH
FOCUS: Enchiladas are our specialty at Enchiladas Olé! There is an enchilada sauce for everyone. Our rice is cooked every 45 minutes in small skillets, just like cooking at home. There’s no place like home cooking! RECOGNITIONS: Enchiladas Olé, voted one of the 10 best Tex-Mex restaurants in Texas in a USA Today poll and also voted to a “10 best queso” list, Fort Worth Star Telegram PHILOSOPHY OF MANAGEMENT: Our employees are part of the Enchiladas Olé family. Our team members are an investment for the company as they represent what we stand for, serving great food, giving back to the community, and offering leadership opportunities for our team members as we continue to grow. ADVICE FOR ASPIRING CAREER WOMEN: Love what you do! Pick your passion and go for it! During difficult times, stay still; let the storm pass ... it will. PROFESSIONAL MISSION: Encourage your staff to be leaders. Everyone is family as their face represents your business. PICTURED: Mary Perez, chef/ founder/co-owner.
Enchiladas Olé 2418 Forest Park Blvd. Fort Worth, Texas 76110 817.984.1360 enchiladasole.com
Enchiladas Olé
Mary Perez
WOMEN WHO FORWARD FORT WORTH
FOCUS: Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery practice that focuses on oral surgery procedures with emphasis on sedation, dental implants, ALL-ON-4 ® treatment, wisdom teeth removal.
EDUCATION/CERTIFICATIONS: B.S., Biology, Portland State University; DDS, M.D., and Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Certificate, UT Health Science Center at San Antonio. PHILOSOPHY OF MANAGEMENT: My practice philosophy is compassionate and patient-centered care. Our goal is to help patients without judgment. PROFESSIONAL MISSION: My professional mission is to serve with compassion and to never dismiss any of my patients’ concerns.
GREATEST PROFESSIONAL
ACHIEVEMENTS:
After working as an associate for a few offices following graduation, I had the opportunity to open my own practice. I had a clear vision of how I wanted to provide care to patients and went with my gut instinct to pursue my own practice. OUTSIDE INTERESTS: When not at the office, I am with my family adventuring up a hiking trail and enjoying nature. ASPIRING CAREER WOMEN: Women need to believe in themselves. Self-confidence and trust in one’s instinct are the keys to success. It is also important to understand and accept that failures are part of the road to success.
FOCUS: We specialize in all residential and commercial installations of tile, wood, luxury vinyl tile (LVT), vinyl composition tiling (VCT), and carpet. We also fabricate and install custom quartz and granite countertops in-house. GREATEST PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS: By simply being successful second-generation females in this industry, we’ve given our parents the ultimate gift of accomplishment. Being able to fulfill their dream of their daughters being strong independent women and carrying on a legacy for our respective families has no price tag. OUTSIDE INTERESTS: We love playing volleyball! Office work can be somewhat intense, so we started playing volleyball during lunch with our office staff and in-house fabrication team. It has really brought us together as a family company and greatly helps reduce stress on the job. ADVICE FOR ASPIRING CAREER WOMEN: Drink wine! It’s a challenge to find a balance between being a mom and businesswoman in the construction industry, but once you find that median, never let it go. Always reflect on your inner motives and break that glass ceiling. MOTTO: We are always up for a challenge. PICTURED: Jocelyn Galvan and Azenette Galvan.
Floors LLC 3140 South Freeway
817.920.0931
Fax 817.920.1758 galvanfloors.com
Galvan
WOMEN WHO FORWARD FORT WORTH
FOCUS: Public Relations specializing in brand management, strategic communications, public engagement, and cause-related marketing communications. Communication is key to all aspects of interaction. We are diligent in working to improve and clarify that aspect of the human experience.
EDUCATION: B.F.A in Communications, Texas Christian University. AWARDS/HONORS: Dallas Black Chamber Quest for Success Award; Public Relations Society of America Chapter Diversity Award; Fort Worth Black Chamber Eagle Award. PHILOSOPHY OF MANAGEMENT: I’m comfortable in a consultative management style. My overriding philosophy is to be informed through others but to trust my own instincts.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce; Visit Fort Worth. GREATEST PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS: Founding Gestures Marketing Communications; writing and publishing a book; and running for political office. ADVICE FOR ASPIRING CAREER WOMEN: Embrace patience. Also, embrace failure. Malcolm X said, “It is only after the deepest darkness that the greatest joy can come.” Failure is one of the most powerful motivators we can encounter. It pushes us to do better. PROFESSIONAL MISSION: Are you making the right gestures? That was the genesis of the company name and is applicable to our everyday experiences. We can’t transform the whole world at the same time, but we can chip away one positive gesture at a time. PICTURED: Glenda Murray Thompson and Team Members Dora Tovar and Michael Gomez (not pictured).
Gestures Marketing Communications
7413 Arbor Hill Drive Fort Worth, Texas 76120
817.907.5934
gesturesmarketing.com
Murray Thompson Gestures Marketing Communications
Glenda
FOCUS WOMEN WHO FORWARD FORT WORTH
FOCUS: Our focus is to understand your retirement goals and develop a plan to help you reach them. AWARDS/ACHIEVEMENTS: Star Award; Great Women of Texas; Fort Worth Business Press CEO: Women at Work; multiyear winner of top 10% in the company.
PHILOSOPHY OF MANAGEMENT: Your team and clients will see your example even when you think no one is around; always choose what’s in their best interest. COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: Tricia has made an impact on people’s lives with her dedicated volunteer efforts in the Fort Worth community. She is active in various organizations, having served on the boards of the Ronald McDonald House, former board president of the Aledo Education Foundation and the Samaritan House. She is currently on the board of The Parenting Center. GREATEST ADVICE FOR ASPIRING CAREER WOMEN: “Let’s discuss balance. I tell young women our lives are like a book. We have chapters in life, and each of these chapters declares a title. These titles require a bit more attention during that time, and it’s ok. I love my family and practice; both are making a positive impact in our community.” MOTTO: Golden rule: Greed leads to long-term loss of income and reputation, so create a business model and relationships where everyone wins.
PICTURED: Tricia Carter Wood.
Haber Wealth Management 2501 Parkview Drive, Ste. 110 Fort Worth, Texas 76102 817.527.8079 haberwealthgroup.com
Tricia Carter Wood, Founder and President
Haber Wealth Management
WOMEN WHO FORWARD FORT WORTH
FOCUS: Providing insightful and implementable strategic philanthropic solutions for nonprofit organizations. EDUCATION/CERTIFICATIONS: B.S. Journalism, Public Relations, University of Texas at Arlington; Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE). AWARDS/HONORS: Ben Franklin Award for Outstanding Fundraising Executive, Association of Fundraising Professionals. GREATEST PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS: Building my business to support and attract philanthropic investment for North Texas nonprofit organizations. The pandemic forced me to dig deep with determination and grit to pull my business through and, at the same time, help our nonprofits pull through as well. This was quite a feat. We are all stronger for it. ADVICE FOR ASPIRING CAREER WOMEN: Lean in. Be at the table. When a male-dominated world treats you like anything less than, hold your ground. PROFESSIONAL MISSION: M. Gale’s mission is to strengthen and encourage our partners in the nonprofit community, using our expertise and resources to guide them toward success and growth. PICTURED: Missy Gale, CFRE, President & CEO, M. Gale & Associates, LLC.
3000 Race St., Ste. 108 Fort Worth, Texas 76111
888.647.7942
mgaleassociates.com
M. Gale & Associates, LLC
Missy Gale,
WOMEN WHO FORWARD FORT WORTH
FOCUS: Weight Loss, Nutrition, and Fitness Consulting. EDUCATION/CERTIFICATIONS: Angela Calvillo – B.S., Nutrition, and B.S., Psychology. GREATEST PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS: Proud to have serviced over 500 clients in the first two years of business. PHILOSOPHY OF MANAGEMENT: SciFit Center’s philosophy of management is to serve every client with the most up-to-date research, techniques, and technology to help them reach their health and wellness goals. MOTTO: Together, we’ll achieve the body you need. AWARDS/HONORS: SciFit Center is one of the fastest growing small businesses in all of Fort Worth. OUTSIDE INTERESTS: Angela Calvillo enjoys working out in various facilities throughout the Fort Worth community and indulging in local restaurants. ADVICE FOR ASPIRING CAREER WOMEN: If your passion is deep and true, then success within your profession is sure to come. PICTURED: Angela Calvillo, B.S. Nutrition.
SciFit Center
2408 Forest Park Blvd. Fort Worth, Texas 76110 817.975.7583
scifitcenter.com
SciFit Center
Angela Calvillo
Seltzer & Dally, PLLC
Sarah C. Seltzer and Lori E. Dally
FOCUS: All aspects of Family Law: Divorce, Custody, Child Support, Adoption. EDUCATION/ CERTIFICATIONS: Lori E. Dally – B.S., TCU. Sarah C. Seltzer – B.A., Texas Tech. Sarah and Lori – J.D., Texas Wesleyan University School of Law (now Texas A&M). Sarah is Board Certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization in Child Welfare Law. RECOGNITIONS/AWARDS: Texas Monthly, Top Women Attorney in Texas Rising Stars (2020 – 2021); Texas Rising Star, Super Lawyers (2019 – 2021); Fort Worth Magazine, Top Attorney Family Law (2017 – 2020).
PHILOSOPHY OF MANAGEMENT: We inspire our team to provide personal, professional, and passionate representation because clients trust us during the most difficult and vulnerable of circumstances. We believe in identifying and utilizing the individual strengths of each member of our firm so that every client has a dynamic and effective team handling their case. PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS: Lori – Board President, Fort Worth Pregnancy Center. Sarah – Attorney Ad Litem of the Year 2020, CASA of Tarrant County. ADVICE FOR ASPIRING CAREER WOMEN: Feel the fear and do it anyway. PROFESSIONAL MISSION: To provide excellent and effective representation through compassion, communication, and commitment. PICTURED: Sarah C. Seltzer and Lori E. Dally.
Seltzer & Dally, PLLC
6777 Camp Bowie Blvd., Ste. 340 Fort Worth, Texas 76116
FOCUS: Construction detailing and interior design. EDUCATION: Bachelor of Science, TCU. BUSINESS RECOGNITIONS: Awarded most innovative luxury design firm, 2021; Best of Houzz, 2019-2020; Best Interiors and Furnishings, 2020; Best of Design in Fort Worth, 2016, 2017, and 2018. PHILOSOPHY OF MANAGEMENT: Zig Ziglar said it best: “You’re getting what you’re getting because you’re giving what you’re giving.” I believe in a positive environment, including praising my team and appreciating their efforts, giving them recognition, and knowing it is not about me but about a design team that gives all it has, resulting in the best for our clients.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: Raquel’s Wings for Life, a Wish with Wings, and other local charities.
GREATEST PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENT:
The greatest professional achievement is to look back at a 23-year career from building homes to serving hundreds of clients, with design expertise and resources. ADVICE FOR ASPIRING WOMEN: The more you can give of yourself to anyone or any project, the more you will get back in return. Finding balance with work, family, and friends is critical to any successful woman, as well as keeping your outlook positive, keeping faith in God, and continually growing in your field to learn more each day and be able to offer more knowledge and experience. MOTTO: The Spirit of Living is in the Giving. PICTURED: Susan Semmelmann.
EDUCATION: Tulane University, Bachelor of Arts in communication, with a minor in business; Stagen, Integral Leadership Program.
AWARDS/HONORS: Great Women of Texas 2019, Fort Worth Business Press GREATEST PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS: Becoming co-president (alongside my brother, Ben Rosenthal) of our fourth-generation, familyowned and -operated business. PHILOSOPHY OF MANAGEMENT: As the fourth generation of Rosenthals to lead our family company, Standard Meat, I subscribe to the conscious capitalism philosophy. I also believe in a collaborative team approach, in constructive conflict, in disagree and commit, and — most of all — I believe in empowering my team.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: Tarrant Area Food Bank Board of Directors; Cook Children’s Medical Center Board of Directors; Fort Worth Zoo Board of Directors; Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra Board of Directors; Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo Spur committees; Tulane University “Only the Audacious Campaign” committee; Rosenthal Blumenfeld Research Endowed Fund. MOTTO: “Be the change you want to see in the world.” – Ghandi. ADVICE FOR ASPIRING CAREER WOMEN: Stop apologizing when it’s not needed. Recognize that there is no such thing as balance in life, but you can recalibrate based on your priorities. Embrace and lean into vulnerability; it’s one of the most powerful leadership opportunities. And never, ever stop learning. PICTURED: Ashli Rosenthal Blumenfeld.
Co-president, Standard Meat Company
600 E. Exchange Ave., Ste. 200 Fort Worth, Texas 76164
817.870.3117
standardmeat.com
Ashli Rosenthal Blumenfeld
Ashli Rosenthal Blumenfeld
FOCUS WOMEN WHO FORWARD FORT WORTH
Terra Therapies, PLLC
Courtney Guhl, LPC-S, RPT-S, NCC
FOCUS: Mental Health. EDUCATION/CERTIFICATIONS: TCU, B.S., Psychology, and M.Ed., Counseling; Licensed Professional Counselor Supervisor; Registered Play Therapist Supervisor; National Certified Counselor. AWARDS/HONORS: Founder, CEO of Terra Therapies, PLLC; 2020 Fort Worth Magazine Women Who Forward Fort Worth; 2020 and 2021 DFW Child Mom Approved Wellness Professional. PHILOSOPHY OF MANAGEMENT: I strive to lead by example, encouraging, empowering, and collaborating with my team. I attempt to meet others where they are, nurturing strengths and abilities in themselves. My hope is to be a positive force — empowering others to be their best at work and in life. OUTSIDE INTERESTS: I find joy being a new mom and find balance in life practicing yoga, traveling, and spending time in the great outdoors. GREATEST PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS: Creating and growing a successful and compassionate mental health practice comprised of experienced and skillful professionals. ADVICE FOR ASPIRING CAREER WOMEN: Seek out mentors and encouragers. Find connections with like-minded people and believe in yourself. MISSION: We aim to provide compassionate, professional, and ethical support to all people who seek our services. Collaborating with clients, we focus on creating a welcoming, nonjudgmental, and positive space where clients can process their experiences and find personal growth and healing. PICTURED: Courtney Guhl, Brittany Stroud, Amber Harville, Sarah Gill, Emily Millican, Emily Wallen.
Terra Therapies, PLLC 3200 Riverfront Drive, Ste. 108 Fort Worth, Texas 76107
817.887.9505
Fax 817.887.9509
TerraTherapiesTX.com
FOCUS WOMEN WHO FORWARD FORT WORTH
FOCUS: Working alongside key partners to improve the health of our community through impactful philanthropy. EDUCATION/ CERTIFICATIONS: Texas Christian University; Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE).
AWARDS/HONORS: The 400 Most Influential List – Fort Worth, Inc.; Fort Worth Business Press’ 40 Under 40 and Great Women of Texas. PHILOSOPHY OF MANAGEMENT: Success is a team sport. Collective thinking integrates diverse and inclusive ideas to make us stronger. Through authentic leadership, I aim to build trust and encourage others to achieve their best.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: Jewel Charity, the Downtown Fort Worth Rotary, Junior League of Fort Worth Sustainer; Leadership Texas and Leadership Fort Worth graduate; previously chaired Christmas in Cowtown Holiday Gift Market and co-chaired Go Red for Women Luncheon for the American Heart Association.
GREATEST PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS: Secured lead gift for the new Jane and John Justin Tower at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth; a key leader in the formation of Texas Health Community Impact; leader in the City of Fort Worth’s designation as the largest Blue Zones Community® in the country. ADVICE FOR ASPIRING CAREER WOMEN: Sometimes the best path is not the one you had planned for yourself. Follow the unexpected opportunities that come your way and learn through life’s experiences. MISSION: Advocate to make things better for others and through example, inspire others to do the same. PICTURED: Laura Q. McWhorter.
Texas Health Resources Foundation
Laura Q. McWhorter, President
Texas Health Resources Foundation
612 East Lamar Blvd., Ste. 300 Arlington, Texas 76011
682.236.5200
texashealth.org/giving
FOCUS WOMEN WHO FORWARD FORT WORTH
Marcelle LeBlanc, CEO of Velvet Box
FOCUS: Luxury adult retail. EDUCATION: Ornamental Horticulture and Greenhouse Production at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. PHILOSOPHY OF MANAGEMENT: At Velvet Box, we never stop learning or improving; we’re always working toward excellence within ourselves, the business, and each other. GREATEST PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS: Building a fun, profitable, thriving, and growing business that no one said would be successful in the most conservative of states. It’s been over a decade of turning negatives into positives and bringing excitement and connection to thousands of lives. I’m also deeply proud of Velvet Box’s retail sales and service training program; it’s second to none, and any associate that works for Velvet Box is equipped to easily sell any luxury good. ADVICE FOR ASPIRING CAREER WOMEN: It’s important to believe in yourself and to never stop working on yourself. And never stop dreaming as big as you can; the universe will surprise you with many blessings. COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: As far as it relates to community service and giving back, I believe in being a great neighbor and investing in nonprofits and organizations that do great work in the areas in which Velvet Box works. Velvet Box’s primary beneficiaries are The Parenting Center, Cancer Care Services, and the Fort Worth Police Department. PICTURED: Marcelle LeBlanc.
Velvet Box
2917 Morton St.
Fort Worth, Texas 76107
817.744.7841 thevelvetbox.com
FOCUS WOMEN WHO FORWARD FORT WORTH
FOCUS: Local employment, training, and talent resource for Tarrant County residents and employers. EDUCATION: B.A. in Liberal Arts, University of Texas at Arlington. BUSINESS RECOGNITIONS/AWARDS: National Association of Workforce Boards Trailblazer Award winner; Fort Worth Inc. magazine’s 400 Most Influential People; and former president of U.S. Conference of Mayors, Workforce Council. PHILOSOPHY OF MANAGEMENT: Creating a positive collaborative environment. The Workforce Team is everything! COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: Numerous national and local advisory boards and councils; Tarrant County’s Credit Union Board; City of Fort Worth Race and Culture Task Force; Texas Live! Community Advisory Committee; Texas Rangers; Texas Ballet & Performing Arts, and the O.D. Wyatt OCs. GREATEST PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS: Our fabulous Workforce staff and a reputation of collaboration and success, helping thousands of people find hope and employment and the relationships with community and workforce colleagues. ADVICE FOR ASPIRING CAREER WOMEN: Be strong in your convictions; be inclusive of and listen to others. MOTTO: Seek solutions, try to get to yes, and be kind. PICTURED: Judy McDonald, Executive Director.
Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County
Workforce Centers located throughout Tarrant County; visit website for information and hours. 817.413.4000 workforcesolutions.net info@workforcesolutions.net
Judy McDonald, Executive Director
Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County
Give Back
There’s nothing more rewarding than giving back and making a difference in the lives of people in this great community. As the city’s magazine — which has the eyes and ears of some of Fort Worth’s most affluent and philanthropic citizens — we feel a responsibility to give back to the people of the city that is our namesake, which is why Philanthropy is one of our core values.
Every year, Fort Worth Magazine sponsors more than 100 charity events, which range from luncheons to black-tie galas. The following promotional section is devoted to these charities and their fundraisers. We invite you to consciously peruse and consider lending a helping hand by either making a donation or attending these events.
Sep. 1 - Virtual Dancing with the Stars Ballet Frontier of Texas
Sep. 16
Champion Breakfast Girls Inc. of Tarrant County
Sep. 18
Wings for Wishes a Wish with Wings
Sep. 18
A Salute to America’s Armed Forces Meals on Wheels
Sep. 25
Clay Shoot
Pure Adventure (also called Father and Son Connection)
Sep. 29
High Tea Colleyville Woman’s Club
PUBLIC FIGURES PRIVATE ARTISTS
FEATURED ARTISTS (At Time of Printing)
Jane Avila
Jinx Burk
Lisa Anderson Collins
Deborah Connor
Owen Daniel
Rachael Delira
Jimmie Joe Jenkins
Bradley Kent
JR Labbe
Jim Lacamp
Lou Lambert
Kitty Lancaster
Cleve Lancaster
Tuesday, October 19, 2021
5:30-8:30pm
Fabulous Hors d’oeuvres, Desserts, Specialty Cocktails, Wine & Beer Live Music . Silent & Live Auction
Historic Masonic Center 1100 Henderson Street (at West Lancaster), Fort Worth, Texas
Rachel Malone
Boyd Matson
Tim McKinney
Stacy McKnight
Mike Micallef
Pam Minick
Bob Mitchell
Nancy Mitchell
Hope Montey
Steve Montgomery
Susie Monzingo
Grace Nowlin
Susan Nus
Mary Palko
Mattie Parker
Deb Preissinger
Jennifer Powell
Beverly Powell
Andy Taft
Dawn Taft
Lee L. Tennison
Andrew Walker
Stacey Martin Watkins
Ginger Watson
Thank you to our generous sponsors:
Presenting Poinsettia
Bell Helicopter
Jere C. Robertson
Carol Sweeney
Frost
Rev. Dr. Kevin and Dr. Robin Henson
Catherine and Jim Kerrigan
Luther King Capital Management
Texas Capital Bank
Balcom Agency
Biltmore Homes
Deborah Connor
First Presbyterian Church
JPS Foundation
Jim Lacamp
Meta Alice Keith Bratten Foundation
Herd and Claire Midkiff
Muckleroy & Falls
Frank and Jane Neal
Philip and Alicia Newburn
David and Anne Norris
Lisa and Gary Nussbaum –
Molly and Mitch Snyder
QuikTrip
Sara and Matt Robison
Todd and Jodi Spake
Burch and Lisa Waldron
T Tis the Season for the HOME HOLIDAYS GALA
let’s get animated!
FRIDAY night, OCTOBER 22 at 7:00pm RIDGLEA COUNTRY CLUB
Purchase your table by September 4 to be recognized in the invitation.
Remember the days of watching cartoons and playing video games…well those days are back! Dress as your favorite cartoon stars and join us for the ultimate flashback party!
Will you be the Scooby Gang? The Rugrats? The Flintstones? The Super-Friends? The possibilities are endless!
Gather your toon friends for a night of fun! You can hit the arcade, dance with Emerald City, or just chill in the lounge. There’ll be something for everyone!
Let’s all get Tooned, have fun, and why not help out The Women’s Center while we’re at it!
WHAT TOON WILL YOU BE?
The Junior League of Fort Worth Presents
HOLIDAY
OCTOBER 14 - 17, 2021 WILL ROGERS MEMORIAL CENTER
BOOTS & BOWTIES
PREVIEW PARTY
Wednesday, October 13 | 6 – 9 PM
CITY OF CULTURE & THE COWBOY BRUNCH
Thursday, October 14 | 9 AM – Noon
Tickets and additional information available on ChristmasinCowtown.com
Additional Sponsorship Opportunities Available Contact Sara Dameron at funddevelopment@juniorleaguefw.org for more information
BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF GREATER TARRANT COUNTY
ON THE FIELD AT AT&T STADIUM | OCTOBER 7, 2021 | 6:00 PM KEYNOTE SPEAKER: DALLAS COWBOYS LEGEND, DEMARCUS WARE
Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Tarrant County invites you to the 2021 Youth of the Year Gala! Youth of the Year is a national initiative that celebrates the remarkable lives of kids who have overcome challenges and distinguished themselves with outstanding contributions to their communities. Throughout the evening, you will hear incredible stories from our 2021 Youth of the Year, Imani, our Keynote Speaker, DeMarcus Ware, and other advocates of our Club.
The Tillerson Foundation is Proud to Present
The 33rd Annual Bobby Norris Roundup for Autism Benefitting the Autism Treatment Center.
Fighting Autism the Cowboy Way
Join us on October 9th, from 6-11pm, at Los Vaqueros outdoor gardens in the Fort Worth Stockyards.
Cocktail Hour 6-7pm
Dinner and Program 7-8pm
Live and Silent Auction
Live Music By Foster and Quinn
Honorary Chairs Leslie Penkhus and Carole Sondrup Chair Women Leslie Shelton Arnold and Jayme Tollett
Roundup would like to give a Big Texas Thank You to our Sponsors for your continued support!
Tillerson Foundation
Norris Foundation
Fort Worth Western Railroad
Bill and Mitzi Davis
Lone Star Pony Express
Encore Productions
Frost Bank
Luther Winch Family
Folsom Family
Velocity Services LLC
Faulk Foundation
Fort Worth Magazine
Marquee Events
THAAR
John and Charlotte Kimberlin
Gist Silversmith
Pinto Ranch For ticket info visit www.roundupforautism.org Questions? Contact Gina Marx at 817-312-5845 or gina@roundupforautism.org
Please join us for the first annual Wranglers & Wishes benefiting Make-A-Wish. Featuring live music, traditional Texas barbecue, inspiring wish stories, and all the two-stepping your heart desires, this evening is sure to be one you won’t easily forget. Celebrate the power of a wish come true with us on November 18th!
Sponsorship deadline is Friday, October 15th, 2021 W.R. “Bob” & Jerri Watt Dan Roberts, Old Boots Music
For more information on purchasing a table or becoming a sponsor, email us at wranglersandwishesfw@ntx.wish.org or visit wish.org/ntx/our-events
On a stormy night in Fort Worth, photographer Kristian Perez and a few friends decided to brave the elements and head downtown in hopes of capturing some lightning strikes. Using a timed exposure on his camera and a remote shutter to eliminate shaking, Perez simply waited for nature to do its thing and snapped this shot of lightning over the Burnett Plaza building. “Beautiful things will come out of being patient and letting things flow at their own pace — like this image,” Perez says.
So you’ve snapped a cool pic of the city. We want to see it. Tag your photos on Instagram with #fwtxmag. The winning image will get published on this page — so hit us with your best shot. main line 817.560.6111 | subscriptions 800.856.2032 | website fwtx.com
@kristian_with_a_k
PHOTO BY KRISTIAN PEREZ
Experience the Gilchrist Automotive Difference.
Faith Geiger is no stranger to Platinum Cadillac of Terrell, where the car-buying experience is easy — with online purchasing and door-to-door vehicle delivery. Geiger turned to the dealership for her most recent purchase, a 2021 Cadillac XT5. “I love the Cadillac brand and reputation — this car keeps me safe while feeling sporty,” says Geiger, Founder + Human Potentialist at TULLA. And though she relishes the luxuries of her midsize SUV, it’s the dealership’s unparalleled service that exceeds her expectations. The Fort Worth resident says, “At Platinum Cadillac, I’m treated like family, and there is zero hassle when servicing my vehicle … I receive concierge-style service which saves me time and energy.”
We Drive the Difference:
¡ Platinum Promise which includes:
- 2 years of oil changes, tire rotations, & multipoint inspections.
¡ Platinum Valet Service which includes:
- Online or over the phone sales purchase and delivery
- Service pick-up and delivery
Family Owned and Operated since 1986. We tailor the purchase experience to fit your needs, not ours; because we don’t just want to sell you a vehicle, we want to build a relationship and become your trusted advisor for all purchases and service.
“We will work hard to earn your business for life.”
Stephen Gilchrist, owner Gilchrist Automotive
Justin Rudd, General Manager; Faith Geiger, customer; Stephen Gilchrist, Dealer Operator.
LUXURY
Legacy
Luxury travel is a family tradition in the Spears family. “Mercedes-Benz sleek look, modern designs, and reliability” fit the high standards in the Spears household, says Bishop Kenneth Spears, pastor of First Saint John Cathedral. With its world-class range of vehicles, there’s a Mercedes-Benz that appeals to the different tastes of drivers in the Spears family.
Bishop Spears currently drives a refined 2017 Mercedes-Benz S550. “I think my favorite feature is the ambient lighting options that allow you to change the colors within the car to fit your mood, day, or season,” Bishop Spears says. His wife, Angela, volunteer with 2Bs Child Care — and mother to sons Kyle, a professional singer, and Kenneth, an attorney — drives a 2018
Mercedes-Benz GLE 550, with comfort-focused interior and superb ride quality. The Spears family tradition continues with son Kenneth, who drives a 2019 Mercedes-Benz GLC 300, and Bishop Spears’ father-in-law, Samuel Greene, who drives a 2021 Mercedes-Benz GLC 300.
But it’s not just Mercedes-Benz that has earned the Fort Worth residents’ loyalties. The Spears have been devoted Park Place Motorcars Fort Worth customers for 20 years. It’s a family tradition based on trust and reliability. “Park Place is My Place because of the relationship built with the management, advisors, and service team,” Bishop Spears says. “It’s a place where everyone knows your name and your story.”
