America Gardens plants its flag in the West 7th area

Don’t let the unassuming, low-slung, refurbished industrial entrance fool you.

For just beyond the modest facade of America Gardens lies one of the most kinetically jubilant patio-restaurants to open in Fort Worth in recent memory.

America Gardens — part of the Syn Group hospitality chain that includes its nearby West 7th sibling, Social House — has already become one of the neighborhood’s biggest magnets for a variety of patrons, from spiffily suited business types and parents with kids to students with money to spare, along with a healthy gaggle of young professionals dressed to impress.

This eclectic group, often bringing all manner of pooches to the pet-friendly patio, have flocked to Gardens for its smartly executed, comforting Americana grub. Gardens’ 21-item menu is a highly navigable mix of bar-staple appetizers (loaded waffle fries), salads, “plates” (where short-rib pot roast and Southern-fried chicken hang out), and sandwiches and burgers (a limousine-worthy lobster roll mingles with the blue-collar Philly cheesesteak).

If the prices are slightly elevated (appetizers start at $8.95, and “plates” and burgers are $11.95-$18.95), they help defray the cost of what must be one of Fort Worth’s most desirable, and pricey, slices of outdoor restaurant real estate.

America Gardens’ patio is exceptional on several fronts, starting with its eye-popping 10,000 square feet. The patio boasts four spreading Texas oaks that cast cooling swaths of shadow. And then there’s Gardens’ unabashedly patriotic color scheme, as the stars and stripes are splashed on brick walls, while red, white and blue chairs surround communal picnic and round tables.

One side of the sprawling outdoor space is devoted to the amusements often found on a cruise ship deck — pingpong, foosball and air hockey, along with more typical outdoor bar games as Jenga, cornhole, “fowling” (a football takes out bowling pins) and Connect Four.

The patio’s light athletic activity only spurs patrons to partake of its wide-ranging beer (47 beers and ciders to choose from) and cocktail menu. Gardens’ crafty mixologists prepare from scratch the catchy Taylor Swift (featuring rose water) or the old-fashioned made from 11-week-barrel-aged bourbon.

Another subtler reason for this patio becoming, virtually overnight, the ultra-popular hang in West7th is how humorous its art and signage is. You can’t help but smile at the mural with Abe Lincoln, Ben Franklin and George Washington raising a pint. And I chuckle at the sign with the admonition: “Your dog did his duty. Please do yours.”

As classic-rock stalwarts Boston and the Doobie Brothers filled the warm spring afternoon, I nibbled on the chicken-skewer appetizer ($9.95). Each sliced breast carried a pleasing exterior char and was tailor-made for dunking in a sweet-and-sour sauce. The entire enterprise was brightened even more by the sprightly punch of jicama slaw — that just might give coleslaw a run for summer slaw pre-eminence.

Sampling the peppadew pepper starter ($8.95), I found the dozen golf-ball-sized fried appetizers to be greaselessly fried fun. One bite unleashed an explosion of molten Texas goat cheese. And the kindled heat from the peppers was nicely offset by a quick dip in a jade-colored pool of jalapeño ranch.

Gardens’ Louisiana catfish with shrimp etouffee ($14.95) elevated the bottom-dwelling creature to Chilean sea bass aristocratic heights. Its irresistible cornmeal coating was all percussive crunch while yielding to an uncommonly moist interior. In fact, the fish itself was such a winner that it overshadowed its overly timid baby-shrimp etouffee sauce.

Yet another pub staple, the spicy fried chicken sandwich ($12.95), punched far above its weight, as it carried the tingle of a buttermilk-and-spices marinade. It was ornamented by butter lettuce, creamy garlic mayo, tangy greenhouse tomatoes and more of that bracing jicama slaw. The brioche bun, glistening with butter, refused to wilt while supporting this girthy sandwich.

The real star was the jalapeño burger ($13.95) — a three-napkin hot mess of pingponging flavors. It started off with nicely charred Black Angus ground beef, cooked to a needed medium because it’s the beefy enclosure for an entire roasted jalapeño pepper, with its slightly searing heat tempered by a creamy slice of pepperjack.

But then things got loco as the entire burger was slathered in silken guacamole and topped by a chubby jalapeño popper that, when “popped,” burst through a crackling outer membrane of bacon. What fun to sample in a single dish many of Texas’ essential food groups.

Considering Gardens’ key elements — a sun-dappled, pet-friendly patio, full of multiple generations of patrons sipping on cocktails, slurping IPAs, and tossing bean bags and footballs while anticipating the myriad pleasures of the house jalapeño burger, all as John Mellencamp fills the air — you have the makings of what many would consider a darn-near perfect, old-fashioned night out in Texas.

This story was originally published April 25, 2017 at 2:27 PM with the headline "America Gardens plants its flag in the West 7th area."