Only in Texas? A Fort Worth barbecue restaurant is now cooking at ... the Woman’s Club
Panther City BBQ needs more room.
And a private club needed food service.
That’s how one of Texas’ best barbecue restaurants wound up in one of the least likely dining rooms:
Panther City BBQ is now doing the cooking for events and lunches in the elegant, century-old Woman’s Club of Fort Worth.
Only in Fort Worth would the local woman’s club have barbecue pitmasters in the kitchen.
Panther City will offer club members and reception guests simple salads, soups and sandwiches at first, restaurant partner Chris Magallanes wrote in a message. The menu might add barbecue or smoked meats later if patrons prefer.
Panther City was looking for an off-site kitchen and needed more room to prepare its large menu. The restaurant also offers homemade side dishes such as beans, collards, smoked mac-and-cheese, dill potato salad or spicy vinegar slaw.
Magallanes called the chance to share the Woman’s Club kitchen is a “bonus,” adding room and “creating a great dining experience for the members.”
Panther City BBQ, 201 E. Hattie St. (some maps show it as 201 E. Pennsylvania Ave.), has quietly grown from a trailer to a patio to an all-day restaurant and bar.
It serves some of Texas’ best barbecue and sides at lunch and dinner Thursdays through Saturdays and lunch Sundays and Wednesdays.
“Although we are known for barbecue, we have very talented people who know their way around a kitchen,” Magallanes wrote.
He said the agreement will help create more jobs and show Panther City’s connection to Fort Worth.
The Woman’s Club of Fort Worth, 1316 Pennsylvania Ave., once had its own chef and kitchen staff, and has even occasionally opened the members’ dining room to the public. But service had run into bumps in recent years.
The dining room is in a onetime banker’s mansion, one of five early 20th-century homes preserved together by club members.
The club offers event rentals at thewomansclubfw.com.
Panther City BBQ will be open regular hours Thanksgiving weekend except for closing Thanksgiving Day.
Then the restaurant will open as usual throughout December, closing Christmas Eve and Day; 682-250-4464, panthercitybbq.com.
This story was originally published November 20, 2023 at 5:30 AM.
