Near downtown Fort Worth, a busy brewpub adds pizzas and craft cocktails
The Funky Picnic brewpub has become a popular restaurant.
So popular, in fact, that it had to open an adjacent pub.
The new Back Room next door is a cocktail lounge with beer and wine featuring stone-oven pizza, alongside to Funky Picnic, 401 Bryan Ave.
Known first for beer and sandwiches, then for brunch and burgers, the Funky Picnic brewery is now a gastropub-restaurant with pizza served in both the cafe and bar.
“We’re family-friendly, but some people wanted more of a 21-up place,” chef Josh Rangel said this week, rolling out the new menu.
The closing of Black Cat Pizza next door gave Funky Picnic both the perfect space and a pizza oven.
“It was a natural for us,” he said. “There’s a demand for pizza in this neighborhood. Now, we can serve pizza to families up front, or with craft cocktails in the Back Room.”
The ever-growing Funky Picnic menu still includes originals like the “TABC” sandwich — turkey and avocado with bacon and cheddar.
Burgers came soon afterward. Then, a year ago, a new menu added more desserts and larger entrees that now include chicken carbonara and chicken-fried sirloin.
The new pizzas are bar-size — 10 inch — in five varieties for $13-$19, from a soppressata-mushroom or asparagus-mushroom with goat cheese to the top-of-the-line steak-blue-cheese.
There’s also a seasonal sausage-and-sauerkraut platter, and a German blueberry-cream cheese cake.
“We’re one of few breweries that actually serve food, and we try to do it right,” Rangel said.
Funky Picnic Brewery & Cafe is open for lunch and dinner Tuesday through Saturday and brunch Sunday; 817-708-2739, funkypicnicbrewery.com/food.
The Back Room bar is open nights until 11 Friday though Sunday one door north on Bryan Avenue, a block east of South Main Street.
This story was originally published September 22, 2022 at 5:45 AM.
