He cooks by day, sings by night. Now Fort Worth’s ‘Singing Chef’ is adding a spinoff
The popular “Singing Chef” is so busy, he wanted to move to a bigger restaurant.
But Everman and Forest Hill wouldn’t let him go.
“The community went nuts and said, ‘You’ve got to stay here!’ “ Sammy Fox said. He’s a chef by day, drummer and bandleader by night and neighborhood fixture, dishing up home cooking at the Singing Chef Cafe, 8000 Wichita St.
When dinner’s over, he plays nightclubs as the Singing Chef.
Last weekend, he was serving up grilled-peach pork chops, thinking about a nightclub show later in Arlington and his new spinoff project in Fort Worth.
Instead of moving, Fox will expand. He said he take over the kitchen at the Red Goose Saloon downtown, 306 Houston St. near Sundance Square.
He plans to serve gourmet mac-and-cheese and pizza slices during Red Goose music shows. The menu name: Big Mo’s Macaroni & Slice.
“It seems like a good way to branch out,” Fox said.
“I’m just trying to do everything I can to get by.”
Few restaurateurs do more.
He moved to southeast Fort Worth after building the Singing Chef into one of the most popular food trucks in Temple.
When the truck burned in a 2017 kitchen fire, it was the lead story on the Waco-Temple TV news.
He’s helped investors open grill-and-bar restaurants in the San Antonio area, Temple and Burleson.
When he came to the Everman area last fall and opened the Singing Chef Cafe in a strip shopping center, it quickly gained a reputation for the “Donut Burger” a half-pounder between two doughnuts with candied bacon and honey-Tabasco.
There’s a Cap’n Crunch fried chicken basket, cheesesteaks and Cajun seafood and pasta plates, including fried alligator.
It’s like soul food meets cowboy food.
(Fox’s music is the same, he says — “Everything from Gary Stewart to Snoop Dogg.” He grew up as a young star drummer in Drum Corps International and later led in a Temple band, Binge. Lately, he led Sammy Fox and the Intervention.)
The Singing Chef is open for lunch and early dinner weekdays and Saturdays, closing early enough for Fox’s band to get to a club gig; 682-707-9339, thesingingchefcafe.com.
This story was originally published July 18, 2022 at 5:45 AM.
