Fireside Pies closes, leaving another dark space in Fort Worth’s Crockett Row district
Fireside Pies has closed in Fort Worth, ending a 12-year run for one of the last standing full-service restaurants in what has become a slumping bar district around Crockett Row.
Fireside Pies closed due to the “changing traffic,” along with industry challenges, a spokeswoman said in a written statement.
Fireside Pies, one of the earliest wood-fired pizzerias in Fort Worth, remains open at 1285 S. Main St., Grapevine, and at two Dallas locations.
The company has experimented with an expanded menu of entrees and specials under a new owner, the Richardson-based restaurant company that also owns the Golden Chick chain.
The restaurant opened in 2010 as Fireside Pies. It briefly operated under a different owner as Thirteen Pies.
The closing is the latest in a series of departures on Crockett Row despite free garage parking with validation and free meter parking until 5 p.m. daily.
The Crockett Hall food court and bar closed in January, following shutdowns by a neighbor, Fred’s Texas Cafe, and by Dallas-based Blue Fish Sushi. (Blue Fish is not related to Blue Sushi Grill, which remains open nearby in Museum Place.)
City officials recently began planning to make parts of Crockett Row and West 7th a no-parking zone after 10 p.m. on weekend nights to improve traffic and safety after a series of late-night police calls, drunken-driving arrests, pedestrian accidents and fights in the area.
The plan will go into effect after meetings with stakeholders, a city streets supervisor said.
As a Crockett Row tenant, Fireside Pies validated tickets for free parking in five adjacent garages.
When Fred’s closed to move to a location on Camp Bowie Boulevard West that’s still under construction, owner Quincy Wallace said the burger grill was leaving because the Crockett Row area had become mostly bars.
“The money is made from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. down here. .... They want something different than what we have,” he told WFAA/Channel 8.
Fireside Pies had been a holdout even after the Terra Mediterranean Grill lunch buffet and El Bolero upscale Mexican restaurants closed next door in Crockett Row, managed by Phoenix-based Vestar
Mash’d, a restaurant and bar with a moonshine theme, remains along with Social House, a bar and grill, and a location of the Dallas-based Concrete Cowboy bar chain.
This story was originally published February 23, 2022 at 4:03 PM.
