Your carryout dinner tonight in Fort Worth can help feed 25 more people. Here’s how
Never has Winter Restaurant Week been more important.
The annual charity event helps fill restaurant seats after the holidays. But this year, it’s more than a promotion:
▪ Restaurants need the business, but they also need to keep customers and workers safe. So this year, 15 fine-dining establishments are serving $29-$39-$49 specials through Jan. 24, many as safe patio dining or safer curbside takeout.
▪ With no Stock Show until 2022, Winter Restaurant Week has to take up some slack. Go out and pick up a carryout dinner the night when you would normally have gone to the rodeo.
▪ Most of all, our food bank needs the money more than ever.
From $4 to $6 of every dinner goes to the Tarrant Area Food Bank or Grace Grapevine.
That means every time you dine out, that feeds 25 to 35 more people.
The more times you pick up carryout through Jan. 24, the more the Food Bank or Grace Grapevine can serve people in need across Tarrant County and the Fort Worth region.
(Dining inside isn’t as safe right now. But if you choose to dine inside, book the first or last reservation of the day — whenever the restaurant is least crowded.)
‘Step up and help’
Fixture Kitchen, 401 W. Magnolia Ave., is known for such a great weekend brunch that it’s now served weekdays, too.
But chef Ben Merritt wants to bring customers back to support the Food Bank, so Fixture is offering a $39 dine-in, patio or carryout dinner featuring a choice of a filet mignon, pan-seared salmon or chicken adobo with salad and salted-caramel bread pudding. (It’s $57 with wine pairings.)
“Winter Restaurant Week is crucial,” he wrote by email.
The food bank “had to do more in 2020 than they have in years past,” he wrote.
Also, the current COVID-19 spike is ruling out crowded indoor dining. So dine on Fixture’s patio, or come get takeout.
“Weekend business has been OK, but it’s not enough to sustain us,” Merritt wrote.
Healthcare workers, who are the core lunchtime market for restaurants in the medical district, no longer have time to dine out.
“I am hoping the residents of Fort Worth will step up and help,” he wrote.
Fixture’s dinner special is available through Jan. 24. Of each dinner, $5 goes to the food bank.
Fixture has a large, safe patio and serves brunch, lunch and dinner daily except Monday; 817-708-2663, fixturefw.com.
Deals at Lili’s
Nine blocks west, Lili’s Bistro also has lost lunchtime business because healthcare workers are too busy.
Lili’s, 1310 W. Magnolia Ave., is also offering an excellent $39 dine-in, patio or carryout dinner special through Jan. 24, or $64 with a bottle of LangeTwins wine.
Lili’s offers two choices: coffee-herb grilled salmon or a French onion-style chicken breast with Swiss.
Either comes with a salad and Lili’s doughnuts-and-ice-cream dessert; 817-877-0700, lilisbistro.com.
From bison strips to prime rib, and more
More highlights from Winter Restaurant Week:
▪ The Classic at Roanoke, 504 N. Oak St., a good reason to visit the “Unique Dining Capital of Texas,” has a $29 carryout or delivery dinner deal, but only through Jan. 10.
It features a prime rib-eye, chimichurri beef tenderloin, salmon or pork jägerschnitzel, with salad or soup and blueberry-buttermilk pie or Texas sheet cake; 817-430-8185, theclassiccafe.com.
▪ Both of chef Jon Bonnell’s restaurants are offering $49 carryout dinners with top-quality menus.
The special through Jan. 24 at Bonnell’s, 4259 Bryant Irvin Road, offers a choice of a bison strip, pecan-crusted redfish, bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin or a quail-mushroom pasta, all with soup or salad and sides.
Desserts are chocolate-amaretto cake or tres-leches creme brulee; 817-738-5489, bonnellstexas.com.
Waters, 301 Main St., offers a choice of a filet mignon, shrimp-and-grits or pecan-crusted redfish, with soup or salad and chocolate tiramisu or pumpkin-spiced brulee. There’s also a safe patio; 817-984-1110, waterstexas.com.
▪ More carryout specials include Grace’s $49 steak-and-scallops dinner ($69 with wines, also served on a patio), Keller Chophouse’s $49 steak or salmon dinner and Silver Fox’s $49 steak, salmon or scallops dinner.
▪ Press Cafe, 4801 Edwards Ranch Road, has an extra-special carryout-only offer: a $98 prime rib dinner for two with hummus and chocolate pot de creme, donating $12 to the food bank.
(Cousin restaurant Pacific Table is offering a $39 three-course dinner at its Irving location, 5238 N. O’Connor Blvd.)
▪ Rise n°3 Souffle, 5135 Monahans Ave. in the Shops at Clearfork, has a $39 three-course dinner with two souffles and wine through Jan. 24. There’s an enclosed patio, but the dinner isn’t available as carryout. (Souffles aren’t quite the same after the ride home.)
▪ Mac’s on Main, 909 S. Main St. near the Grapevine TEXRail station, has outdoor dining and will serve a $39 dinner through Jan. 17 featuring prime rib, filet Oscar, a grass-fed New York strip or grilled sea bass, with a special flourless chocolate cake dessert, apple galette or Key lime pie.
▪ Others offering specials include Cat City Grill, $39 through Jan. 17 (patio seating available); Delucca Gaucho Pizza & Wine in Southlake, a $39 rodizio-style pizza dinner through Jan. 17 with appetizer, dessert and two drinks; and Paris 7th (Saint-Émilion), a $49 dinner through Jan. 17 featuring beef bourguignon, fish or lamb chops (dine-in only).
This story was originally published January 4, 2021 at 5:45 AM.
