AF+B restaurant space to become Cork & Pig

Cork & Pig is coming to Cowtown.

The San Angelo restaurant, co-owned by busy Fort Worth chef Felipe Armenta and Hell’s Kitchen Season 2 runner-up Virginia Dalbeck, will take over the space formerly occupied by AF+B in the heart of the West 7th development.

Cork & Pig Tavern, which originated in San Angelo and opened a second location in Odessa, has an extensive menu of wood-fired pizzas and wines, along with signature sandwiches, salads and entrees such as Bay of Fundy Salmon and blackened ribeye. A third Odessa space is called Cork & Pig Market and offers more casual items to go.

Armenta, whose roster of Fort Worth restaurants include The Tavern, Pacific Table and the recently opened Press Cafe, teamed up to create Cork & Pig with Dalbeck and fellow chef John Nestor.

Dalbeck will be executive chef for the Fort Worth location, but a lot of the menu will be a collaboration with Armenta, according to Nestor, who focuses more on the business side of the restaurant.

Dalbeck, who will also create a cocktail menu, will be setting up shop just down the street from fellow Hell’s Kitchen alum Kalen Morgenstern, who recently transitioned the former Tillman’s Roadhouse location to FW Market + Table.

When AF+B closed in September 2015, it left a glaring gap at the high-profile intersection of Crockett and Currie streets. The restaurant, opened by Dallas restaurateur Tristan Simon and his Consilient Hospitality group, and then owned Raised Palate Restaurants, was a critics’ favorite but it never completely connected with diners.

In fact, turnover in that stretch of the West 7th development has been steady the last few years: Brownstone, Hacienda San Miguel, Patrizio and Bailey’s Prime have all gone; Social House, Mash’d, Rafain Brazilian Steakhouse and Jon Bonnell’s Waters have all moved in.

Now Cork & Pig raises the stakes even higher in Fort Worth’s own Hell’s Kitchen.

Nestor said in an interview Monday that the restaurant will take over 5,000 square feet of the expansive 6,200-square-foot AF+B space and while Cork & Pig will have a new look and feel, plus a patio out front, they are not trying to “reinvent the wheel” on the interior. He is hoping the restaurant will be opened this spring.

The first Cork & Pig Tavern opened in San Angelo in early 2010. The Odessa location was added in 2013, followed by the Market in 2015. Nestor said he thinks the menu will appeal to a cross-section of diners.

“We’re definitely American cuisine, and can cater to a larger audience,” Nestor said. “But we also have the wood-burning pizza component that has been so popular in our other locations.”

He also acknowledged the competitive restaurant atmosphere in the West 7th area.

“It’s a beautiful location,” he said of the former AF+B space. “We will have to stay sharp. There’s never a guarantee.”

This story was originally published January 25, 2016 at 5:05 PM with the headline "AF+B restaurant space to become Cork & Pig."