Irving restaurants a short drive for nostalgia, desserts

Irving is full of hidden restaurants.

It just takes a side trip off the Airport Freeway.

Big State Fountain Grill, a restored 1948 drugstore soda fountain, is worth the trip into downtown Irving for both the nostalgia and the desserts.

If you used to go for the burgers or the root-beer floats, go back for the bacon-jalapeño grilled cheese or for Margie Lou’s Sweets.

Formerly a separate cake shop, Margie Lou’s operates from a window inside Big State. One day last week, the dessert choices included a German chocolate Bundt cake, pink champagne cake and lemon or coconut meringue pies.

Big State can be a bargain: an excellent chicken-salad sandwich (traditional, or chunky with grapes and walnuts) is $5.95 with chips, or less than $8 with fries or onion rings.

The classic burgers start at $5.95 and go up to the $8.95 bison burger or the $7.95 “Goose combo” with a hot link. Salads cost about $8.

Big State opens at 10:30 a.m. weekdays for lunch and dinner, and for breakfast weekends; 100 E. Irving Blvd. (an easy walk from the Trinity Railway Express Downtown Irving/Heritage Crossing), 214-307-5000, bigstatefountaingrill.com.

Two more familiar home-cooking stops in Irving:

Joe’s Coffee Shop serves the same timeless breakfast and $8-$9 plate-lunch menu as the Mansfield and Watauga locations, including a classic option: “pie as a vegetable.”

The Irving location is also open for dinner weeknights; 425 W. Irving Blvd., 972-253-7335, joes-coffeeshop.com.

Mama’s Daughters’ Diner is a classic home-cooking cafe from the family that also originated Norma’s.

Mama’s has breakfasts and seven lunch specials daily for less than $10, with a choice of pies and cobblers; 2412 W. Shady Grove Road (at Story Road), 972-790-2778, mamasdaughtersdiner.com.

Oversight Dept.

Readers usually let me know when I forget their favorite restaurant.

This time, it was The Kitchen in Crowley, the Odeh family’s little casual Mediterranean cafe outside town on North Crowley Road (Farm Road 731) near West Risinger Road.

I described another Mediterranean grill as the only stop for fresh Greek salads and shawarma south of Interstate 20.

The Kitchen in Crowley is known for its shawarma, and a lunch wrap with garlic sauce ($6.99) made a compelling argument for making the drive from Crowley or south Fort Worth.

Salads cost $6-$9, and entrees cost $11-$12, including anything from spanakopita (spinach pie) to fried catfish or chicken-fried steak. Lunch gyro or burger specials start at $5.

There’s also fresh pecan-walnut baklava.

The Kitchen in Crowley is open for lunch and dinner weekdays and Saturdays, lunch only Sundays; 10138 N. Crowley Road, 817-568-2294, thekitchenincrowley.com.

A bargain buffet

Having Mother’s Day lunch doesn’t have to be expensive.

Heaven’s Gate Restaurant, the family buffet near Meacham Airport in north Fort Worth, will be offering a choice of more than 10 entrees and 18 desserts.

“It’ll be our biggest yet,” said Barbie Stanislawski, who renamed the former Barbie’s Colonial after recovering from an illness.

The holiday price: $12.99.

Heaven’s Gate has picked up some of the holiday business that used to go to Vance Godbey’s. It serves a lunch buffet daily and a breakfast buffet weekends; 3816 N. Main St., 817-624-1262, barbiescolonial.com (old website).

More for mom

Most restaurants and hotels will be open for Mother’s Day. Also, many clubs and golf-course restaurants will be open, such as the Raven’s Grille at Texas Star in Euless.

Besides the downtown hotels, the Marriott Gaylord Texan will serve a $57 buffet in the Riverwalk Cafe and a $60 menu brunch in Zeppole Coastal Italian.

Most prime steakhouses are open. The Silver Fox in Fort Worth was excellent on Easter, and the $47.95 Mother’s Day three-course brunch price includes sides and the restaurant’s huge cakes; 1651 S. University Drive, Fort Worth, 817-332-9060, or 1235 William D. Tate Ave., Grapevine, 817-329-6995; silverfoxcafe.com.

This story was originally published April 29, 2016 at 4:46 PM with the headline "Irving restaurants a short drive for nostalgia, desserts."