Woodshed keeps it interesting – who’s up for rabbit-rattlesnake sausage?

Unbelievable: Woodshed Smokehouse is in its sixth year.

Sure, a half-dozen newer restaurants have patios, “yards” or “gardens.”

But not one has chef Tim Love’s food, and Woodshed’s expanded menu is its biggest ever.

In the early Woodshed days, diners were uncertain. We wanted to love the beef shin or the paella, but we wound up choosing safe picks like a half-rack of pork ribs and a baked potato or beans.

The newest Woodshed menu has dozens of choices both unusual (rabbit-rattlesnake sausage) and familiar (tamales or Love’s first chicken-fried steak, with jalapeño gravy).

The house brisket-sausage burger is still a standby. But it’s been joined by the Love Shack burger from Love’s north-side restaurant.

The Woodshed even has a reputable salad: triple kale with manchego and guanciale (“Roman bacon”). Top it with pulled smoked chicken for a lighter lunch, or save room for a house dessert like this week’s pineapple-rosemary cobbler.

A “New Q” includes bulgogi salmon tacos or a ramen bowl with rib meat. But there’s still traditional barbecue sandwiches, pork ribs, brisket and lamb brisket.

The bargain is still that smoked baked potato ($5) and borracho beans ($5). But the sandwiches are less than $10 (the house burger is $12), and most of the entrées are $10-$18.

On Sundays, there’s a $25 “Sunday supper” deal served family-style on the pet-friendly patio. It might be a rib-eye cookout, paella or another special.

The Woodshed opens at 8 a.m. daily for breakfast (there’s a buffet Sundays), lunch and dinner; 3201 Riverfront Drive, 817-877-4545, woodshedsmokehouse.com.

Righteous redux

Now billed as “Fort Worth’s healthiest restaurant,” Righteous Foods has expanded menus and online delivery offerings, adding nightly dinner specials that hark to chef Lanny Lancarte’s fine-dining days.

I can’t think of another restaurant to have quinoa raisin-almond porridge or organic-green-egg chilaquiles in the morning, then offer a rib-eye with Dijon-caper sauce and a blue-cheese baked potato at night.

The new menu offers familiar dishes (a ham,-bacon-sausage omelet, waffles, a gouda burger, tacos, a BLT) or adventurous ones (garlic shrimp tacos, toasted farro risotto, a kale-mung beans soup).

Righteous’ slogan: “Healthy food that tastes like it’s bad for you.”

Righteous is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner weekdays and at 9 a.m. Saturdays for brunch and dinner; 3405 W. Seventh St., 817-850-9996, eatrighteously.com.

Sausage and oompah

Another country is an hour’s drive away this weekend.

OK, so Germanfest in Muenster, an hour north of Texas Motor Speedway, is a very Texan version of Germany. But the old European settlement still has enough tradition for a German beer party.

Fischer’s Meat Market & Grocery, which opened in 1927, will have a stand serving Reubens, pork schnitzel sandwiches and smoked German sausage or jalapeño sausage on a bun or stick. Two other stands will offer a variety of sausages, knackwurst and bratwurst.

Bayer’s Kolonialwaren Bakery, in its 40th year, is the go-to stand for strudels, fruit kolaches and Reuben egg rolls.

Germanfest is open at lunch and dinner Friday and at 10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday; on U.S. 82 in Muenster, west of Gainesville or northeast of Decatur. For more information, call the Chamber of Commerce at 940-759-2227.

Foodways in the Fort

If you see strangers roaming around Clearfork or Rahr Brewing this weekend, the University of Texas’ annual Foodways Texas Symposium is in town drawing foodies and scholars to discuss what Texans eat, why and how.

This year’s topic is “Food Routes,” held in the Blue Mesa Grill meeting room on West Fifth Street, 2 blocks off the historic Bankhead transcontinental highway (now West Seventh Street).

Guests will start with a chuckwagon cookout at the Heart of the Ranch at Clearfork, and wind up with food-truck fun Friday at Rahr; foodwaystexas.com. (Disclosure: I serve on a Foodways advisory board.)

This story was originally published April 26, 2017 at 4:43 PM with the headline "Woodshed keeps it interesting – who’s up for rabbit-rattlesnake sausage?."