Eats Beat: Road’s open to the Ranch and barbecue

The BBQ Ranch is open, despite mistaken “road closed” signs.

Go ahead. Ignore the warnings and barricades.

You’ll be rewarded with good barbecue.

The Fisher family’s new guest-ranch barbecue restaurant, only a year old, is now dealing with botched Fort Worth road warnings steering traffic away from Silver Creek Road near the southwest shore of Lake Worth.

The lost business “scares me to death,” said Mike Fisher, serving barbecue and sauce made with his late father, Tom’s, 50-year-old recipes.

“When they put up a big flashing ‘Road Closed’ sign on your road, that hurts. It’s really kicked the wind out of us.”

Until Fort Worth started rebuilding the nearby Silver Creek bridge to the west, the BBQ Ranch was steadily growing a reputation as a quick, folksy getaway serving tender brisket and homemade beef-pork-jalapeño-and-cheese sausage.

“We were going to make this just a country party ranch, and everybody around here encouraged me to open as a restaurant,” Fisher said.

His opening was delayed when a daughter, Holly, was hurt in a 2012 Oklahoma highway collision with an 18-wheeler.

Now, the restaurant is a long haul for diners from the subdivisions farther west. (Azle, Lakeside or Parker County diners must detour north to Texas 199 or south to White Settlement Road.)

But it’s easy to get to the ranch from Loop 820 and west Fort Worth.

Silver Creek Road is open as far as Western Oaks Road, and the turn to the ranch.

To draw business, the Fishers are testing a new Thursday special: a 1-pound rib-eye steak with garlic mashed potatoes and garlic-cheese broccoli ($29.95, reservations preferred).

The barbecue menu starts at $6.49 for a sandwich and goes up to $13.99 for a three-meat combo plate.

The BBQ Ranch also has homemade pintos and green beans, and smoked stuffed jalapeños wrapped in bacon.

“We’re not trying to be a big, fancy place,” Fisher said.

“This is our family’s ranch and our family’s cooking. We just hope you enjoy it and enjoy your time while you’re here.”

It’s open for lunch and dinner Thursdays through Saturdays and until 5 p.m. Sundays; 10250 Western Oaks Road, 817-246-8227, thebbqranch.com.

(If you’re among the many fans of Billy’s Oak Acres BBQ near Loop 820, the BBQ Ranch is 3 miles west. “If people say my sauce is too sweet, I tell them Billy’s has great barbecue, too,” Fisher said. )

Cheesecake redux

Here’s the big cheesecake news:

New Sera Dining & Wine chef Jen Williams will start baking cheesecakes like her old cheesecakes at Magnolia Cheese Co. this week.

Sure, the new “factory” now open downtown is great.

But once you’ve tried all 40 desserts there, try a chef-made cheesecake at Sera, open for dinner Tuesdays through Saturdays and for brunch Sundays at 2418 Forest Park Blvd.; seradiningandwine.com.

Factory at work

If you were thinking about The Cheesecake Factory, it’s open for lunch and dinner daily and late nights until 11 p.m. weekdays, 12:30 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays at 455 Commerce St., 817-348-0810, thecheesecakefactory.com.

There’s lots of cheesecake talk in this week’s Eats Beat podcast at bit.ly/1D0t1lf.

This story was originally published December 8, 2014 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Eats Beat: Road’s open to the Ranch and barbecue."