A high-energy French restaurant is open in Fort Worth — with a ‘Top Chef’ star
Le Margot is now open for lunch and brunch along with dinner.
But chef Graham Elliot’s new French brasserie is still just as busy as ever, so plan ahead to visit the latest restaurant in the empire that includes Maria’s, Pacific Table, Press Cafe, and Tavern.
Some nights are booked up. Some menu items sell out by early evening.
So reserve a spot in advance at Tock.com for Le Margot, a new, high-energy French restaurant in a former Blockbuster Video and Corner Bakery location at 3150 S. Hulen St.
Executive Felipe Armenta’s lineup also boasts Towne Grill (similar to the Tavern) in Alliance Town Center, the forthcoming F1 Smokehouse barbecue dining room and Cowboy Prime in Mule Alley.
Armenta and Elliot have talked about a visit to New York City’s busy Balthazar and other bistros last year that got them thinking about how to adapt a French restaurant for Fort Worth.
“I didn’t want it to be an old-time French restaurant where nobody talks,” Armenta said.
Le Margot definitely achieved that. The conversation and volume level rival those at Maria’s Mexican Cuisine, Armenta’s South University Drive tribute to his San Angelo family.
Elliot, a TV chef and “Top Chef” judge, described Le Margot as “fine dining redefined.”
The menu features oysters, caviar, escargot and entrees such as sole meuniere or scallops. Nightly specials include lobster thermidor, sole almondine or coq au vin.
“It’s all basic, with simple ingredients — the kind of place you want to come once a week,” Elliot said.
That’s new for Fort Worth. The city’s two established French restaurants, Paris 7th Restaurant Français and Saint-Emilion, began as special-occasion choices, although both have upgraded their menus and built a midweek following in that west side neighborhood near the new Crescent Fort worth hotel.
Le Margot is perfectly positioned to become a regular stop for the Tanglewood neighborhood.
Fort Worth has the appetite, Elliot said.
“It’s not like the Midwest, all steak-and-potatoes,” he said. “In Fort Worth, we sell tons of sushi [at Pacific Table] and oysters.”
Le Margot serves “solid classics,” he said, not “stuffy, expensive, with 10 forks people don’t know how to use.”
it’s open for lunch, brunch and dinner daily; 817-720-9060, lemargottx.com.
This story was originally published July 26, 2023 at 5:30 AM.
