A Fort Worth restaurant success story: This cafe opened in 2020 -- now it’s expanding
The big winner of 2020 is Carpenter’s Cafe, and it’s growing again.
The tiny lunch cafe at 1116 Pennsylvania Ave. opened just days before the pandemic lockdown, yet restaurateurs Katrina and Travis Carpenter have built such a success that they will add a nighttime West Magnolia Avenue location.
Carpenter’s daily sandwich-and-salad lunch menu now also includes breakfast every Saturday and also a much-requested home-cooking lunch menu, but only on the first Sunday of every month.
Coming in February: Carpenter’s at Magnolia, serving sliders and light bites to those strolling past a wine shop in the “Kent block,” 1101 W. Magnolia Ave.
It’s the next step for the Carpenters, who were full of hope when they launched their business in a South Main Village food trailer, then opened their restaurant just before COVID-19 forced them into running it as a takeout shop.
For months, the Carpenters relied on word-of-mouth to spread the news about their special smoked chicken salad, sandwiches, smoked brisket potato-dippers and desserts such as lemon 7Up pound cake or a “no-‘nana” pudding.
Business picked up as word spread and Carpenter’s began offering curbside carryout along with delivery services.
“Are we rolling in dough? No,” Katrina Carpenter said.
“But are we still making it? Yes.”
The new kiosk location on Magnolia will offer a short menu of sliders and wine bar munchies, she said.
Note that Carpenter’s serves a general menu. It’s not limited to home cooking and only serves dishes such as pork chops, yams or greens on that first Sunday,
“I want to put our spin on healthier comfort food — a lot of sandwiches and salads,” Katrina Carpenter said. “We keep it light, and it’s filling at the same time.”
Besides the smoked chicken salad — $12 in a sandwich box lunch or $7.50-$9 for just a sandwich or wrap — Carpenters also offers a turkey-bacon club or BLT, a fried-chicken sandwich with honey-sriracha glaze and green or Caesar salads.
Some of the most popular dishes are the munchies: Rahr beer queso, loaded brisket potato dippers and queso wedges called “Funky Town fries.”
“We’re just so heavily saturated with barbecue here, and soul food — we want to show that’s not all we know how to do.”
The Saturday morning breakfast includes scrambled eggs, tacos with smoked chicken or turkey, quiche and a platter with healthier options such as turkey sausage or a salmon croquette.
The special once-a-month Sunday menu comes with an entree and three sides. It’s the kind of food Katrina Carpenter’s late cousin, Louise King, used to dish up at her much-missed restaurant in a Lake Como home.
For example, last week’s choices were smothered pork chops, chicken-fried chicken, baked chicken or pork neck bones with sides such as yams, green beans, collards, purple-hull peas or broccoli-rice casserole.
Carpenter’s is open for lunch and early dinner Wednesdays through Fridays, for breakfast through dinner Saturdays and for lunch the first Sunday of each month; 682-499-8630, facebook.com/CarpentersCafeNCatering.
This story was originally published January 11, 2021 at 12:00 AM.
