Golf, groceries combine at Dean & DeLuca Invitational

Fort Worth’s pro golf tournament is now also a foodie fest, and that’s a good thing.

Kansas-based Dean & DeLuca, a specialty grocer and kitchenware retailer, is the new tournament sponsor and will create a simpler version of its flagship Manhattan store inside a sponsor tent.

Dean & De Luca’s landmark Prince Street store at Broadway will come to Fort Worth on the Colonial Country Club entertainment row, renamed “Prince Street.”

Tentative plans call for a sampling of Dean & DeLuca’s gourmet specialties and mail-order gift items, maybe with some cafe items such as sandwich wraps and coffees.

We can only hope the cafe includes some of the signature breads and desserts such as cinnamon babka marble bread, cherry clafouti or walnut brownies. (And if the store sends it, Texans will love the pineapple-banana-pecan hummingbird cake.)

Dean & DeLuca plans to open Dallas-Fort Worth stores, joining the crowded specialty grocer market already occupied by Central Market, Whole Foods Market and Sprouts, with plans for a major chain to open an “urban lifestyle grocer” in the new Left Bank shops on West Seventh Street west of the river bridge.

A Dean & DeLuca in Fort Worth might resemble the Georgetown store in Washington, D.C., which offers extensive meat and produce sections but devotes much of the store to gifts, a gourmet bakery, coffees and chocolates.

On a recent D.C. visit, there were more lunch diners in the sandwich cafe than market-basket shoppers. But it’s tempting to pick up chocolates with that $10 double-decker premium club sandwich.

In Fort Worth, the Dean & DeLuca Invitational is May 26-29 at Colonial Country Club, 3735 Country Club Circle; $50, teens $15, children 12 and under free, deananddelucainvitational.com.

Foodie animals

The spring season of restaurant and food festivals ends with one roaring success.

The Fort Worth Zoo’s annual party and nosh-around, Beastro, welcomes new restaurants May 20 for the 10th annual event on the zoo grounds.

Some of the newbies at the festival will include Craftwork Coffee, The Dive Oyster Bar, Fixture Kitchen, Mash’d and Press Cafe, along with HG Sply Co., a highlight last year and expected to open soon in the WestBend shops along the Clear Fork north of the zoo.

Bird Cafe is also involved for the first time, along with Duffey’s Kolache Bakery, FunkyTown Donuts and Taco Heads.

Some of the 26 returnees are old favorites: Bonnell’s, Campisi’s, Fletcher’s Corny Dogs, Lee’s Grilled Cheese and Pizza Snob, along with Terra Mediterranean Grill.

It’s an age 21-up event; $99 at fortworthzoo.org, or $110 that day.

This story was originally published May 11, 2016 at 10:36 AM with the headline "Golf, groceries combine at Dean & DeLuca Invitational."