BBQ smokers, rain tents ready for Fort Worth Food + Wine Festival
If you waited to see the weather before buying Fort Worth Food + Wine Festival tickets, you were smart.
If it rains, there are plenty of giant tents at the Heart of the Ranch, the festival site at 5000 Clearfork Main St.
But the best day at the festival might be Sunday, when 22 chefs bring their best cookout recipes for a 2 p.m. event billed as the “Ring of Fire.”
This is not a typical family festival. It’s a food-and-drink event, so it’s pricey. But $65 buys two hours of beer, barbecue, wood-fired pizza, and gosh-knows-what-else from some of Fort Worth’s smoked-meat superstars.
“Anything goes, as long as there’s fire involved,” said Jon Bonnell, owner of Bonnell’s, Buffalo Bros. and Waters. (He hasn’t said yet what he’ll cook.)
Once upon a time, it was a big deal just having Barrett Black of the Black’s Barbecue family in town from Lockhart.
Now, we have new local stars like Chris Magallanes and Ernest Morales of Panther City BBQ in South Main Village, and Michael Wyant of forthcoming Flores Barbecue in Clearfork.
Juan Rodriguez of soon-to-open Austin City Taco and Magdalena’s will be there, along with more new local standouts such as Trevor Sales of Brix Barbecue and Cindy Crowder-Wheeler of Tributary Cafe on Race Street.
Pitmaster John Sanford of Cresson-based BBQ on the Brazos usually has the longest line for brisket, though maybe not this year.
From the Crockett Street food hall, Victor Villarreal will serve his Abe Froman’s pizza and Eric Hansen will serve his Not Just Q.
Family maverick Joe Riscky of Joe Riscky’s Barbeque will be there along with pitmasters from Cousin’s Bar-B-Q and guests Meat Church, Raw Republic, Stillwater Barbeque and Ten50 BBQ.
Tickets for the Sunday event and some Thursday, Friday and Saturday were still available at midweek at fortworthfoodandwinefestival.com.
This story was originally published April 2, 2019 at 9:25 PM.
