This town near Fort Worth is getting two new restaurants from ‘Chef Sage’
FIne-dining chef Sage Sakiri has become the toast of Roanoke, and he has two more restaurants lined up.
The most immediate arrival is Maria del Mar, 1106 U.S. 377 North, an interior-Mexico restaurant in partnership with a chef from Michoacán.
Maria del Mar is the expanded version of chef Gilberto Salgado’s mobile catering truck, serving everything from breakfasts to birria tacos, seafood ceviche, pozoles and many of the same dishes his family serves at a restaurant in the Michoacán town of Isaac Arriaga.
“It’s a beautiful spot — we’ll focus on fresh fish, shrimp, everything from coastal Mexico,” said Sakiri, chef-owner of thriving River Bend Cafe in east Fort Worth along with three Asian, burger and fish-and-chips restaurants in Roanoke.
Salgado has been working with Sakiri and also has been selling ceviche, carnitas and mole from a food truck on East Seminary Drive.
“I’m very proud of this chance to show more authentic foods from Mexico,” he said through a translator.
Maria del Mar fills the space left when Los Molcajetes moved its Roanoke location to Oak Street.
Sakiri also plans to open a fine-dining restaurant, Once Upon a Time, 301 N. Oak St. That’s near his Churchill’s Fish & Chips, Famous Fatso’s Burgers and Oak Street Food & Brew restaurants.
Sakiri is one of the most well-traveled local chefs, but also one of the busiest.
He led fine-dining restaurants at his own Red Sage Bistro in Southlake and TriBeca in Colleyville.
In 2018, he wisely opened a small restaurant in an industrial area off East Loop 820 as River Bend Bistro, 7251 Stoneway Drive North at Handley-Ederville Road.
At first, River Bend served five-star fine dining, but for less than $20 in takeout boxes that unfolded to become plates.
Without knowing, he had opened the perfect restaurant for the COVID-19 takeout phase.
Now, a thriving River Bend has dine-in service again and an ambitious menu of entrees, salads, sandwiches and wraps.
But it’s still less elaborate and less expensive that fine-dining restaurants.
Sakiri also reopened a simpler version of the Oak Acres BBQ restaurant on North Las Vegas Trail in Fort Worth.
“I like what we do here” at River Bend, he said,
He is expanding in Roanoke because “I like it — it’s such a quaint little town,” he said.
The city is marketed as the “Unique Dining Capital” of Texas, but some of its largest restaurants are Babes Chicken Dinner House and Hard Eight BBQ, both good but neither unique.
Sakiri said Maria del Mar and Once Upon a Time will help bring more unique dining. A Once Upon a Time pop-up went well, he said.
