At this great little east Fort Worth home-cooking restaurant, nothing is fried
Mama Gina’s is a unique little Southern home-cooking restaurant with zero fried food — and lots of love.
In east Fort Worth a half-mile north of Interstate 30 near Arlington, Regina Smith’s unassuming cafe serves meat loaf, shrimp-and-grits, baked or smothered dishes along with a choice of nine vegetables and a display case filled with home-baked desserts.
Smith’s food takes care of customers the same way she helps take care of Mission Arlington, neighborhood charities, schoolchildren and a long list of civic causes.
“I think God put me here in this place for a reason,” Smith said the other day after a busy breakfast and lunch at her tiny cafe, 8651 John T. White Road near the Fort Worth-Arlington border.
Starting a new career in her 60s after working as a technical writer and flight attendant, she began catering in 2018 and then did pop-ups at Carpenter’s Cafe and Neighbor’s House Grocery.
She opened her own cafe just as the pandemic set in.
Now word is finally spreading about her smoked-chicken pasta salad, collard greens flavored with turkey and sweet-potato breakfast pancakes on Saturdays.
Her mac-and-cheese will be served in Will Rogers Coliseum during the rodeo.
Last weekend, she showed off her chicken pot pie as one of only a handful of Fort Worth chefs invited for cooking demonstrations at the State Fair of Texas.
For dessert. Smith has a distinctive specialty: sweet-potato pound cake with a candied-sweet-potato-caramel sauce. There’s also a strawberry “yum yum” cake that tastes like Big Red.
Fort Worth Mayor Pro Tem Gyna Bivens dropped in for Smith’s bourbon-glazed banana pudding.
“It’s my third time here today,” Bivens said.
Smith’s lunches sell for about $10-$13, including two sides such as collards, sweet potatoes, dirty rice or green beans.
Nothing is fried, she said, thanks to advice from a grandmother she visited every summer on the family farm in northern Mississippi.
“We always wanted fried chicken,” Smith said. “She said, ‘Girl, no you don’t.’ “
Mama Gina’s baked chicken ranks with the city’s best. Or try it smothered.
Some days, she smothers baked pork chops. The meat loaf or blackened catfish will satisfy anyone’s appetite for home cooking.
Sandwiches include a BLT made with turkey bacon, which is also one of the breakfast options.
Mama Gina’s version of a breakfast burrito is loaded with eggs, bacon, cheese, roasted potatoes and collards.
Mama Gina’s opens at 10 a.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and 9 a.m. Saturdays. It serves both breakfast and lunch until late afternoon.
It’s closed Sundays and Mondays; 682-360-3755, mamaginas.biz.
This story was originally published October 18, 2022 at 5:30 AM.
