Eats beat: FNG Eats aims to fill empty spot and then some
Keller might become a foodie town yet.
Long regarded as a dry gulch of dining between north Fort Worth and Southlake, Keller has added a farmers market, Old Town restaurants and now a flashy new Town Center anchor: FNG Eats.
Partners from a major Dallas restaurant company have rented the old City Hall Restaurant space to turn it into a contemporary American bar and grill, something like you might see in Southlake Town Square.
A rough draft of FNG Eats' menu features dishes such as chicken-fried venison, an apple-stuffed pork chop and rigatoni with bison meatballs. The restaurant will promote vegetables from the farmers market.
Unlike the bar-driven City Hall, FNG will open early weekdays to serve coffee and muffins and also on weekends for brunch, filling a market niche in the Town Center neighborhood at Farm Road 1709 and Rufe Snow Drive.
The barren Town Center sidewalks will be lined with park benches, and part of the sidewalk will be turned into a larger dining patio.
The owners didn't want to name names until everything is final, but they lined up two chefs who worked at some of the region's busiest and most popular full-service restaurants.
(Supposedly, the chefs' nicknames begin with "F" and "G.")
Watch for FNG Eats to open this fall at 201 Town Center Lane. A website is coming at fngeats.com.
New owners have rejuvenated River Oaks Cafe, a home-cooking diner in River Oaks formerly known as the beloved Dusty's.
Heather Denton and Buck Bybee, with more than 20 years combined at two of Fort Worth's best-known breakfast cafes, have added dinner hours Thursdays through Saturdays at the folksy cafe on Texas 183.
The cafe still keeps a list of regular customers in their 80s and 90s. But the old-time cooking has been updated with rib-eye steaks, pork chops, fried or grilled catfish and a wider daily selection of vegetables.
The new menu also includes a fresh-packed, half-pound green-chile cheeseburger, or other burgers with blue cheese and jalapeños or bacon and special "ROC" (River Oaks Cafe) sauce.
The discount menu has no age limit; it is offered to "seniors, kids and small eaters."
River Oaks Cafe is at 4837 River Oaks Blvd., near Ohio Garden Road; 817-625-7337.
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This story was originally published June 5, 2012 at 2:16 PM with the headline "Eats beat: FNG Eats aims to fill empty spot and then some."