The BBQ smoker is here, so the new Roy Pope Grocery in Fort Worth is on the way
Roy Pope Grocery has a culinary director and a smoker, and by year’s end, it’ll have a new grocery store, too.
A new 500-gallon offset smoker has been delivered from Central Texas for the new Roy Pope, a 77-year-old neighborhood market set to reopen by winter under chef Louis Lambert and partners.
Roy Pope Grocery had already announced the hiring of Bria Downey, a semifinalist for a national James Beard Award last year when she was chef at Clay Pigeon Food + Drink.
Lambert, a Fort Worth resident known for a former steakhouse here, for Dutch’s Hamburgers and also for restaurants in Austin, joined investors Rodger Chieffalo and Mark Harris to buy the grocery, 2300 Merrick St.
Lambert has said Roy Pope will reopen with an expanded kitchen and deli along with a neighborhood wine bar.
Store executive Chris Reale said the new offset smoker-grill was built to specifics by Mill Scale Metalworks in Lockhart.
“We are truly blown away by their attention to detail,” he said.
The smoker will produce game-day barbecue and host grill events and open-fire cooking classes.
Wine director Michael Riojas has joined the team, along with Downey and a grocery manager to be announced, Reale said.
East Texas-based Frame Coffee Co. will produce a Roy Pope blend.
The old-fashioned grocery and butcher shop closed in March, shutting down just in time to have a closeout sale at the height of supermarkets’ pandemic stock-up sales frenzy.
This story was originally published August 12, 2020 at 5:45 AM.
