New Fort Worth restaurants for golf fans: Stockyards steaks, BBQ off University Drive
Pro golf returns to Colonial Country Club this weekend, with a restricted crowd but plenty of nearby fun.
Here’s a look at new restaurants in Fort Worth for this year’s Charles Schwab Challenge, from Mule Alley to University Drive:
Mule Alley: Provender now, 97 later
▪ Provender Hall, 122 E. Exchange Ave., is the can’t-miss restaurant in Mule Alley, the new $175 million makeover of the Stockyards horse and mule barns.
Chef Marcus Paslay’s steaks-and-spirits restaurant across from Cowtown Coliseum has an all-day menu and all-ages appeal, serving everything from grits, greens, pimiento cheese and okra to grilled trout and chicken-fried prime strip.
It’s now open for both lunch and dinner daily Wednesday through Sunday. Reserve at Resy.com; 817-782-9170, provenderhall.com.
The restaurant in the new Hotel Drover, 97 West, has been short-staffed but has now added breakfast and lunch daily except Mondays. If you must see it. I’d go only at off-hours; 200 Mule Alley Drive, 817-755-7557, 97westkitchenandbar.com.
Crockett Row: Smoke-A-Holics BBQ
▪ Smoke-A-Holics, 3000 Crockett St., has brought some of Texas’ best craft barbecue to a new food hall stand in the Cultural District, a block off University Drive, 3 miles north of Colonial Country Club.
Derrick and Kesha Walker opened the food hall location to offer amenities such as daily lunch and dinner hours, seating and a bar, all lacking at the original south side location where they serve “craft barbecue with a soulful approach.”
Smoke-A-Holics is known for high-end brisket but also for the Walkers’ collards, Cajun creamed corn, smoked mac-and-cheese and smoked-chicken-and-turkey salad. It opens at 11 a.m. weekdays, 10 a.m. weekends; 817-885-7331, crocketthall.com.
(Yes, more golf fans will go to old-school Railhead Smokehouse, 2900 Montgomery St., or craft fave Heim BBQ on the River, 5333 White Settlement Road.)
New on University Drive: Maria’s
▪ Maria’s Mexican Kitchen, 1712 S. University Drive, is a brand-new Mex-and-margaritas hangout near the turn to Colonial Country Club.
Owner Felipe Armenta’s combination of modern Mexican cuisine with his San Angelo family’s traditional Tex-Mex recipes has been drawing packed crowds since it opened. The chicken in mole sauce is made from his mother’s recipe, and Armenta adds dishes such as snapper al carbon or an ancho chile ribeye tampiquena.
Maria’s is open for lunch or brunch and dinner daily, but you need a reservation at Resy.com; 817-916-0550, mariasmexicankitchen.com.
(Two other very good Tex-Mex restaurants have opened nearby and don’t require reservations: Enchiladas Olé, 2418 Forest Park Blvd., and a Fort Worth location of Dallas-based Blue Goose Cantina, 1612 S. University Drive.)
Lot 12 TCU: a work in progress
▪ Lot 12 Rooftop Bar, 2512 W. Berry St., is a new margarita hangout with a downtown view from the roof of the Hyatt Place hotel on the TCU campus.
The menu remains a work in progress. Lot 12 is still serving a limited preliminary menu this weekend, so wait and check back later in June for platters and weekend brunch.
In the meantime, try the peanut-butter-and-serrano-jelly chicken wings. Lot 12 is open nights Tuesdays through Thursdays, all day Fridays through Sundays; 817-353-2344, lot12tcu.com.
(For a new 19th-hole bar with a full lunch and dinner menu, try the reincarnated Poop Deck Grill & Bar. The Poop Deck moved to 3509 Blue Bonnet Circle, added a menu and took over the space remembered as the long-ago home of golf and football fans’ beloved Oui Lounge.)
More hangouts, old and new
▪ Golf crowds also will gather at Fort Worth traditional favorites Joe T. Garcia’s, 2201 N. Commerce St.; Angelo’s Barbecue, 2533 White Settlement Road; Michaels Cuisine, 3413 W. Seventh St.; the Ol’ South Pancake House, 1509 S. University Drive; and both The Original Mexican Restaurant, 4713 Camp Bowie Blvd., and the new Original del Norte, 1400 N. Main St.
The city’s top restaurants on OpenTable.com — B&B Butchers, Bob’s Steak & Chop House, Bonnell’s, Capital Grille, Del Frisco’s, Ellerbe Fine Foods, Lonesome Dove Western Bistro and Waters Seafood — are mostly booked Friday and Saturday night.
Instead, try checking Resy.com for a table at Clay Pigeon, Grace, Paris 7th or Piattello, or Yelp.com reservations for Rise nº3 Soufflé.
This story was originally published May 26, 2021 at 5:45 AM.
