Where to find peach burgers, salads and ice cream on your way to Parker County’s fest
The Parker County Peach Festival opens at 8 a.m. Saturday, so go early.
The best peaches and desserts go fast. So peruse downtown Weatherford square, then — if you still have room — settle in for an early lunch.
Most Weatherford restaurants are offering some sort of peach special. So whatever you didn’t try downtown — from pies to bellinis — you can probably find on a menu.
▪ Shep’s, 202 Fort Worth Highway (U.S. 180) near the square, is grilling two special peach burgers along with its regular menu of 19 different hamburgers, cheeseburgers, turkey or veggie burgers.
For Peach Week, Shep’s offers a burger with “peach-o” de gallo and Swiss with fries or chips ($10, but choose the upgrade to onion rings — $12.50 and worth it).
It comes with Shep’s familiar thick, hand-packed burger. (I’d choose pepper Jack to balance the sweet pico and Hawaiian sweetbread buns.)
There’s also a peach caprese burger with grilled peaches, mozzarella, tomatoes and pesto. Or combine the best of both peach worlds in a mixed green salad with grilled peaches and peach pico ($8).
For dessert, there’s a choice of peach cheesecake flavors from Windy Hill Farm Bakery: either peaches-and-cream cheesecake or peach-cobbler cheesecake ($8).
The bar side of Shep’s is serving peach martinis and peach Moscow mules. But lunch is too early for that. (Right?)
Shep’s freewheeling menu also features burgers with chili, jalapenos, mushrooms grilled pineapple, pimiento cheese or spinach, and I left out half the options.
The menu also offers a choice of nine salads, five different hot dogs and other sandwiches.
If the location isn’t familiar, Shep’s opened on Main Street before switching to a sports grill concept a block off the square.
It’s open for lunch and dinner daily; 682-804-5002, shepstx.com.
▪ If you don’t stop until you’re on your way home, the Malt Shop, 2028 Fort Worth Highway, is the place for homemade ice cream year-round, now in 10 flavors, including peach and blueberry.
It’s a classic 1958 drive-in where you order at the window and wait in your car to hear your name on the loudspeaker. The busiest night is Tuesday, when burgers are half-price.
Don’t expect fine cuisine, but do expect ice cream, butterscotch shakes and malts that taste like old times.
The Malt Shop opens Tuesdays through Saturdays at 9:45 a.m., Sundays at 11:30 a.m.; 817-594-2524.
This story was originally published July 7, 2021 at 5:45 AM.
