The Lonesome Vegetarian: A Stockyard mainstay expands meat-free options

In the Fort Worth Stockyards, it’s astonishing to find a restaurant featuring a separate menu of vegetarian dishes. And to see the Blue Zones slogan “Plant Slant” prominently displayed. We think of this neighborhood as where you might come to buy one of those “Meat is murder—tasty, tasty murder” shirts.

But the Los Vaqueros Stockyards location has become a certified restaurant in the Blue Zones Fort Worth project, and it just launched two supplemental meat-free menus, one for brunch and one for lunch/dinner. (Not to worry, carnivores, the regular menu is unchanged.)

At brunch, there are migas, huevos rancheros and stacked spinach enchiladas, all served with vegetarian sides. For lunch or dinner, there’s guacamole tostadas, chile rellenos and three choices of enchiladas (avocado, spinach or just “vegetarian,” with squashes, red bell peppers, mushrooms and onions, although all three plates are vegetarian).

We tried it at lunchtime. The avocado enchiladas ($11.95) were thin, delicate tortillas filled with guacamole, basically: cool avocado spiked with onion and tomato. These were topped with a citrus-forward tomatillo sauce and served with a hominy-sweet corn relish and a bowl of vegetarian black beans. It was just what the restaurant is aiming for: Though it’s basic, this is a light and healthy plate of Tex-Mex, and I’d definitely eat this again.

My carnivore husband gamely ordered the chile relleno, a mild poblano pepper that was lightly breaded, topped with an avocado salsa and stuffed with mostly rice (no sign of the roasted pecans or squashes from the menu description). He scarfed it all, but was disappointed that the dish wasn’t as interesting as advertised. The menu also promised rosemary new potatoes and a spring-mix salad on the side, but what came was the same bowl of black beans and the hominy-corn medley.

For dessert, the Blue Zones menu suggests a fruit plate. It was an uninspiring plate of the standard items that might garnish other platters—grapes, strawberries, melon slices, pineapple, none of it very flavorful.

So clearly there are still some kinks to be worked out. But it’s great that a legacy Fort Worth restaurant like Los Vaqueros is expanding its offerings like this. And we were delighted to be eating vegetarian Tex-Mex in the Stockyards and, in fact, under the gaze of some kind of animal head mounted on the wall (I didn’t look too closely).

Los Vaqueros is at 2629 N. Main St., Fort Worth; 817-624-1511; www.losvaqueros.com/stockyards.

▪ To be fair, right across the street from Los Vaqueros, chef Tim Love’s Lonesome Dove Western Bistro has long offered one of the best vegetarian chile relleno plates I’ve ever had ($20). It’s stuffed with sweet potato and caramelized onion and served on top of corn puree and a black bean emulsion. It’s on the dinner menu, but they’ve kindly let me order it at lunch, too. Sides like the beet home fries are great, too. And that’s about it for “Plant Slant” dining in the Stockyards. 2406 N. Main St.; 817-740-8810; lonesomedovefortworth.com

▪ I also should mention another Mexican restaurant with a separate vegetarian menu: Mi Dia From Scratch, 1295 S. Main St. in Grapevine, 817-421-4747; www.midiafromscratch.com. This is more chefly, upscale cuisine, and it’s worth the drive from wherever you live, with five exceptional entrees ($13-$16) that make frequent use of huitlacoche, or Mexican truffle.

▪ And another meat-y Texas institution is changing (however slightly) with the times. The State Fair of Texas will arrive before the next column, and we haven’t yet mentioned some big news (first reported by dfw.com contributor Teresa Gubbins over at CultureMap Dallas): Fletcher’s, the famous vendor that has been selling corny dogs at the fair for more than 70 years, is introducing its first veggie version this year. It’s simply a veggie hot dog dipped in corn batter and deep fried. (What took so long?)

It’s not vegan—there’s butter and eggs in the batter—and it’s available at only one Fletcher’s location, the original one near Big Tex. But it’s great that vegetarianism is now officially mainstream enough for the midway.

“My dad’s gonna turn over in his grave,” Skip Fletcher said on NBC5, but he also said his family has gotten so many requests for this over the years, that he decided to defy his father’s wishes and tweak the sacred menu just a bit.

General admission is $18 (packages and discounts available). http://bigtex.com/

This story was originally published September 16, 2015 at 1:15 PM with the headline "The Lonesome Vegetarian: A Stockyard mainstay expands meat-free options."