The 'home of the Fred Burger' turns 40. Have a $5 cheeseburger to celebrate
In 40 years, the fabled Fred's Texas Cafe has endured a tornado, a fire and nights as an after-hours hangout for the counterculture side of the Cultural District.
Next week, Fred's marks 40 years with $5 cheeseburgers Monday and specials through July 15.
If you had taken bets in 1978 on how long Fred's would last, absolutely nobody would have bet on four decades. Barely four drinks.
The ramshackle Currie Street cafe had stood since 1950, with three operators (LaMode, Vera's and Ken's) and more "for lease" signs.
When Gari and J.D. Chandler took over in 1978, they renamed it for a family dog.
Their oldest son, Terry, quickly made a decision about his future. He joined the Marines.
By 1990, he was back cooking the cafe's fabled "Fred Burgers" and adding his own specials like "hot night" spicy platters for what would become a late-night bar crowd.
Terry Chandler once described Fred's as a "blue-collar greasy spoon with a lot of white-collar infiltrators."
The boss since 2005, he now presides over the 40th-anniversary celebration at three Fred's Texas locations, including the flagship, a former industrial-area plate-lunch cafe that is now the eccentric holdout next door to boring Crockett Row.
The specials begin at all locations with $5 cheeseburgers Monday and continue with $5 loaded nachos Tuesday, $5 loaded cheese fries Wednesday, $5 loaded white queso and chips Thursday and then a 78-cent beer special July 13-15.
If you haven't gone to Fred's lately, the menu has been simplified but favorites like the enchilada cheeseburger or calf fries are still around as chalkboard specials.
All three locations open at 10:30 a.m. daily; 915 Currie St., 817-332-0083; 3505 Bluebonnet Circle, 817-916-4650; or 2730 Western Center Blvd., 817-232-0111, ; fredstexascafe.com.
Zeno's brings Monica's cooking to Weatherford square
A new Italian restaurant has opened on the Weatherford square, just in time for the Parker County Peach Festival.
Zeno's on the Square is a spinoff from Mamma Monica's in rural Tin Top.
If you're not familiar, that means handmade pastas and simple menu items like you'd find in a family kitchen.
Monica Russo's restaurants are often compared to homespun Nonna Tata in Fort Worth. But the new Zeno's is larger and has a broad menu of pastas, salads and wines.
On a lunchtime visit this week, Zeno's ranged from the inspired to the puzzling.
The spaghetti with meat sauce, a Weatherford house favorite, was a standout.
But a dish billed as "tenderloin with arugula" was topped with such a thick layer of arugula leaves. I wasn't sure whether to carve it or mow it.
A dessert billed as "peach tiramisu" lacked any coffee flavor and might as well have been peaches in mascarpone.
All that notwithstanding, do not miss this very different and friendly Parker County fave.
It's open for lunch and dinner daily except Tuesdays.
Zeno's is at 102 Houston Ave., 817-757-7552, zenosonthesquare.com.
Biggest pizza is in the books
It's official: Moontower Pizza Bar's 8-foot-long pizza made the Guinness Book of World Records.
Moontower, in Burleson, is on record for selling the largest pizza on a menu.
The "Bus" is 8 feet by 32 inches, baked in a rotating oven and delivered by trailer in its own giant box.
The price is $299.95 for one topping. (It takes 48 hours to deliver, so plan ahead.)
Guinness sent an "official adjudicator" to oversee the record attempt and has now published details on the website at guinnessworldrecords.com.
Farewell to Flight on Eagle Mountain Lake
After two years, Flight on Eagle Mountain Lake has closed due to a landlord dispute.
Flight's owners posted a much longer Facebook explanation that partially ascribed blame to Satan.
But basically, Flight's owners and the landlord could not agree.
This story was originally published July 4, 2018 at 9:23 AM.