Coming Soon BY ROBERT PHILPOT
The Bearded Lady
300 S Main St In June 2018, the popular gastropub announced that it would close its five-year-old location on West Magnolia Avenue and move a couple of miles east to the growing South Main Village. At press time, the South Main Street itteration was still under construction, but it’s expected to open before the end of April. It won’t be in an old craftsman house like its old spot, but the interior will be about twice as big and the entire space will be visible from the bar instead of from seats in a few separate rooms. Expect some of the same throw-pillow atmosphere, and you’ll also see a modern, gleaming tap wall, with the rotating beer selection displayed on screens above the bar. The Lady’s former spot had one of the best patios in town, and the South Main one will remain dogfriendly. There’ll be some menu changes, some important Bearded Lady staples will remain: the grilled cheese of the month, the burger of the month, and the L.U.S.T. Burger that once graced the cover of Texas Monthly.
Ben’s Triple B
3020 E Rosedale St The Ben is Ben Merritt, executive chef of Magnolia Avenue hangout Fixture Kitchen + Social Lounge. The “Triple B” stands for “biscuits, burgers, and brews,” which describes the fare at Merrit’s months-in-the-making Texas Wesleyanarea restaurant, which is finally open. Biscuit concoctions range from the Basic B (biscuits and gravy) to the Dirty B (chicken-fried steak, queso, and chili con carne). The burgers, in tribute to the Griff’s and Braum’s burgers of Merritt’s youth, are kept simple –– the Queso Burger, a single-patty topped with queso, jalapeños, and pico de gallo, is about as crazy as this place gets –– and will use the same Pearl Snap Kolache buns that Merritt uses at Fixture. The half-dozen draft beers –– er, brews –– will lean heavily on Fort Worth breweries, while some domestics will be available in cans and bottles. The place is open 8am-9pm to start, and the hours may expand in the future.
Black Cat Pizza
401 Bryan Av Ste 109 Jaime Fernandez gained a fan base last year with his twice-a-week pizza pop-ups inside Stir Crazy Baked Goods on West Magnolia Avenue, but his creative pizzas have been MIA for a few months while he’s worked on launching a brickand-mortar in South Main Village. It could open as early as late April on Bryan Avenue, where there is much restaurant/bar-in-the-making activity right now. Black Cat’s past creations have included
April 2019
The patio at Rogers Roundhouse is probably nicer than your backyard. a veggie pizza dubbed the TMNT (after the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), an al pastor pizza, and even an Indian-inspired Aloo Gobi Masala pizza, as well as pies with traditional toppings. With his own home to play in, Fernandez can really indulge his inventiveness.
Frios Gourmet Pops
242 Rufe Snow Dr, Keller The first Tarrant County location of this Alabamabased gourmet-popsicle chain is expected to open April 15, or possibly sooner, in a busy little shopping strip in Keller that already houses a Sunny Street Cafe and a Rush Bowls. Think Alchemy Pops or Steel City Pops, and you have the general idea: Frios’ menu is divided among fruity pops (an online version includes such offbeat flavors as Red Hots, Russian tea, and mulled cider) and creamy pops (where the fun really begins, with such flavors as coffee and donuts, banana moon pie, and cookie butter).
Heim Barbecue River District
5333 White Settlement Rd Heim announced an early-March opening date for its second brick-and-mortar, set in a renovated former VFW building. Obviously, that’s come and gone, but things are looking good for an April opening. The new location will house eight smokers as opposed to three at the nearly three-year-old West Magnolia Avenue location, as well as a larger patio and a beer garden with live music. And there’s always room for more bacon burnt ends.
Photo by Ryan Burger
Rogers Roundhouse
1616 Rogers Rd Forget about “coming soon” –– this one’s already here. It opened March 25 in a rare instance of a restaurant beating its projected opening date, which was originally early April. Half of Rogers Roundhouse’ name honors Fort Worth’s railroad history –– its location is near Davidson Yard, a historic railyard whose “retired” engine-repair facility, or roundhouse, provided some inspiration. Owners Bourke Harvey (the man behind Curly’s Frozen Custard) and Tommy Koons (a Fort Worth-based restaurant-bar operator whose resume includes Dallas’ 18th and Vine BBQ as well as Katy Trail Ice House) say they’re going for a feel like “an extension of your own backyard,” although the patio is much nicer than ours. The 225-capacity restaurant will offer burgers, tacos, “chicken-fried chicken nuggets,” and more, as well as 30 rotating draft beers, frozen margaritas, and, yes, Curly’s Frozen Custard.
Also: Shell Shack,
the seafood chain that already opened locations in Arlington, Dallas, Mesquite, and Plano, should open its first Fort Worth location in April at 3001 Heritage Trace Pkwy, Ste 105, next to Grub Burger Bar in far north Fort Worth. Unicorn –– Magical Dessert Bar, which has been drawing crazy lines in Dallas thanks to its wacky sugar-shock concoctions (a shake with a slice of cake on top of it), will open a Fort Worth location in mid-April at 1005 Foch St in the West 7th corridor.
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