Eats Beat: Love New Orleans-style at Ellerbe

Valentine’s should not be limited to one night.

Some restaurants, such as Ellerbe Fine Foods in Fort Worth, always seem like Valentine’s.

The Louisiana-influenced restaurant features a short, ever-changing menu of a couple of steaks and seafood, but it shines most at New Orleans-style dishes involving shrimp, seafood or a bread pudding like none other.

At lunch, it’s a bright and airy dining room with the feel of a vacation spot, but the most expensive item on the menu this week was $13.

Besides that shrimp-and-red-beans dish, the lunch menu also included a chopped chicken salad, a mushroom-Gorgonzola quiche, a fried oyster po-boy, a house-made corned beef sandwich or an Italian sausage burger, all for $12 for less.

Ellerbe will serve those lunches all next week and its regular dinner menu through Friday, then offer a $75 Valentine’s menu Feb. 13-14 featuring steak with andouille-cheddar grits or sauteed fish in a citrus beurre blanc and desserts including a citrus-coconut tres leches cake. (It’s $110 with wines.)

Early or late reservations for Valentine’s were available at midweek; 1501 W. Magnolia Ave., 817-926-3663, ellerbefinefoods.com.

▪ Cacharel in Arlington was ranked among OpenTable.com’s “100 Most Romantic Restaurants.”

Some diners don’t see romance in the skyline view of Six Flags, but the souffle is definitely one to love.

Cacharel is getting crowded for Valentine’s night ($79) but available most of the weekend; 2221 E. Lamar Blvd., 817-640-9981, cacharel.net.

▪ Lightcatcher Winery & Bistro, west of Lake Worth, is serving a $95 four-course dinner Saturday and Sunday next weekend, along with its regular weekend brunch; 6925 Confederate Park Road (Farm Road 1886), 817-237-2626, lightcatcher.com.

(Next door, New Mexico-style La Choza Fine Food will serve a prime tenderloin and Sriracha shrimp ($28), lobster ravioli with shrimp ($28) or cioppino Yucatan ($24); 7001 Confederate Park Road, 817-751-9060.)

▪ The Zodiac at Neiman Marcus in Fort Worth isn’t open Sundays, but it’s open till 3 p.m. Saturdays for Valentine’s weekend lunch and shopping; 2100 Green Oaks Road, 817-989-4650, neimanmarcus.com.

▪ Café Modern is beautiful at night, and it still has tables available for its special $65 weekend dinner featuring roasted sea bass and sous-vide lobster in orange-yuzu sauce, plus a dessert trio.

But the regular desserts feel like Valentine’s every day: Mexican chocolate pot de creme or a sticky toffee pudding; themodern.org.

This story was originally published February 3, 2016 at 5:54 PM with the headline "Eats Beat: Love New Orleans-style at Ellerbe."