Ube milkshake? Hot Cheetos elotes? New fusion chain heading to Fort Worth, Arlington
Not long after the West Seventh area got a location of 85ºC Bakery Cafe, aka "The Starbucks of Taiwan," another place where you can get coffee with a twist is en route to the area.
But while there's a lot of bakery at 85ºC Bakery Cafe to go along with the sea-salt coffee, Zero Degrees, a California-based chain that describes its offerings as "Asian-Hispanic fusion," puts a big emphasis on the drinks, with a small portion of its menu devoted to "food & snacks," some of which come with their own twists (let's just say that Globe Life Park isn't the only place doing things with Hot Cheetos).
Zero Degrees, which has a location in Frisco, announced its Fort Worth plans in a late-February Facebook post, saying that the Fort Worth location will be at 2421 W. Seventh St., No. B11. This would put Zero Degrees very close to the Fort Worth location of Max's Wine Dive.
The Zero Degrees website lists a June target date of the Fort Worth location, and the upcoming location at 1807 N. Collins St. in Arlington, which would put it in the Champions Park development that is already home to BurgerFi, Halal Guys, Urban Bricks Pizza, Salata, Torchy's Tacos and more.
According to Zero Degrees' website, the company was founded in Orange County, California, by a trio of siblings who intended to open a dessert shop called Zero Italian Ice and Custard. Seeking a way to set themselves apart in a crowded food scene, they began selling drinks such as the Chamango, a sweet-salty-spicy tropical sorbet beverage. That evolved into the Mangonada, a mango slush with chamoy, Tajin and mango chunks.
The chain considers Mangonada to be its signature drink — but then, there are a dozen signature drinks, including a horchata frappe and an ube milkshake topped with marshmallow and sour candy. There also are watermelon slushes, strawberry limeade and something called the Cookie Monster, an Oreo shake topped with whipped cream and chocolate sauce.
The "coffee & teas" section of the menu includes a house coffee that's done Vietnamese style (so expect creamy and sweet), sea-salt green tea, a lychee crush and other drinks, including three varieties of milk teas. You can get them served in a 16-ounce milk bottle or a 24-ounce Mason jar.
Indecisive? Zero Degrees has something called a "Splitcup" — one cup divided into two sections, looking a little like a yin and yang symbol, where you can have one drink (from a limited selection) in one half and one drink in the other.
The "sundaes & floats" section has such items as "Milk & Cereal" (soft-serve vanilla ice cream topped with cereal — hmm, someone else coming to the West Seventh area has a similar idea), a Pineapple Dole Whip float and a coffee float (soft serve over black coffee, topped with Oreo cookie crumbs and a toasted marshmallow).
The "food & snacks" (snacks aren't food?) section of the menu includes some fairly standard items (popcorn chicken with a choice of sauces, chicharrones, a variety of fries), but then there are such items as the Hot Cheetos elotes and the Hot Cheetos "Chilotes" (chicharrones with Hot Cheetos elotes).
The company appears to be in a big expansion mode: a Plano location is due in May, and several Houston-area locations are either open or coming soon.
For updates on the Fort Worth location, follow @zerodegreesco on Facebook.
This story was originally published March 30, 2018 at 11:44 AM with the headline "Ube milkshake? Hot Cheetos elotes? New fusion chain heading to Fort Worth, Arlington."