Fort Worth-area restaurants win honors in the first Michelin Star awards for Texas
Tacos and barbecue were winners for Fort Worth on Nov. 11 as Texas restaurants were honored with listings in the state’s first Michelin Guide.
Goldee’s BBQ, a back-road barbecue shack south of Kennedale, won the city’s best award, a “Bib Gourmand” honor recognizing the restaurant for value.
No Fort Worth-area restaurants made the list of Michelin Star winners. One Dallas restaurant, Tatsu, won a Star, along with 14 from Austin, Houston and San Antonio.
Birreria y Taqueria Cortez, 2220 E. Rosedale St., was a surprise winner as a “Michelin Recommended” restaurant along with Panther City BBQ, 201 E. Hattie St., and Smoke’N Ash BBQ, an Ethiopian- and Texas-style barbecue restaurant in south Arlington.
State Rep. Ramon Romero said he called Birreria y Taqueria Cortez owner Rogelio Cortez and Cortez pretended not to know about the award.
“Rogelio goes, ‘What is Michelin?’ “ Romero said. But Cortez was kidding.
“They have stayed true to their roots,” Romero said. “They put their heads down and work every day. They work hard and people love them — that’s why this is so great.”
Birreria y Taqueria Cortez’s Facebook page celebrated: “The American Dream is real!”
Also among the “recommended” were Mister Charles and El Carlos Elegante in Dallas, both from the same company which is about to open a Fort Worth restaurant, The Chumley House, 3230 Camp Bowie Blvd.
Another “recommended” restaurant, Terry Black’s BBQ of Austin, is about to open a location at 2822 W. Seventh St.
Michelin “Recommended” restaurants are a notch below the “Star” or “Bib” awards.
Fort Worth restaurateur Jon Bonnell, chef at Bonnell’s and Waters and a leader in the restaurant community, sent congratulations.
“I’m glad that Texas and Fort Worth are now on their radar,” he wrote in a text message, “and cannot wait to see what the future holds for this great city.”
Adrian Burciaga of Don Artemio Mexican Heritage, a 2023 national James Beard Award finalist, celebrated fellow restaurateurs’ Michelin Guide honors “as great recognition to be some of the best in the world.”
Felipe Armenta of restaurants including The Tavern, Pacific Table and Press Cafe wrote in a text message: “This is a good thing for the state of Texas.”
Mitch Whitten of Visit Fort Worth, a sponsor of the Michelin project, wrote in a message: “We are proud that Fort Worth’s diverse food scene was recognized,” saying the winners’ hard work “represents our city through and through.”
The ceremony was emceed by TV host Java Ingram, with remarks by Michelin and Texas tourism officials.
A Michelin Guide Texas video included scenes of the Sundance Square Plaza mural “Chisholm Trail” (Richard Haas, 1985), the Fort Worth Herd and the Hotel Drover, Autograph Collection, which was earlier the winner of a Michelin Key hotel award.
Goldee’s BBQ, a weekend-lunch-only restaurant at 4645 Dick Price Road south of Kennedale, has gained statewide and national attention since 2021, when it was named the best barbecue joint in the state by Texas Monthly magazine.
White and partners Jalen Heard and Lane Milne, childhood friends from Arlington, were recently honored by Food & Wine magazine in New York as three of America’s Best New Chefs.
Panther City BBQ has grown from a trailer to a patio to an all-day restaurant and bar.
Panther City is open for lunch and dinner Wednesdays through Sundays. Chris Magallanes and Ernest Morales co-founded the restaurant in 2018 on the site just off Interstate 35W.
Both restaurants also operate a second spinoff location that is less crowded.
Goldee’s also sells pork ribs, beef ribs, chicken and fries at Ribbee’s, open for lunch and dinner Thursdays through Sundays at 923 E. Seminary Drive.
Panther City BBQ also operates a midprice barbecue stand, Fort Worth Barbecue Co., in a historic restaurant at 826 Taylor St. downtown. It’s open from 10:30 a.m. weekdays for lunch but closed weekends.
Smoke’N Ash BBQ, 5904 S. Cooper St., first opened in 2018 in a strip shopping center on Matlock Road. It won praise for its basic brisket and pork ribs before owners Fasicka and Patrick Hicks added Ethiopian barbecue and gained national fame.
Texas Monthly magazine and The New York Times are among the outlets whose reviewers praised dishes such as the missir wat lentil stew, Ethiopian spicy beef tibs stew and Ethiopian-spiced collard greens.
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Smoke’N Ash is open for lunch and dinner Tuesdays through Saturdays, lunch through late afternoon Sundays.
The world-renowned Michelin Guide sent inspectors to Texas restaurants last spring for the first time, promoting the rollout with marketing help from Travel Texas and Visit Fort Worth.
The announcements follow the news that two Fort Worth hotels made Michelin Guide’s top national lists of “key” lodging.
The Bowie House, Auberge Resorts Collection, 3700 Camp Bowie Blvd., is one of only three hotels in Texas rated “two Michelin Keys” on a scale of three. Guide reviewers define it as “exceptional.”
The Hotel Drover, Autograph Collection, 200 Mule Alley, also made the list. It was among more than 200 hotels and 17 in Texas rated “one Michelin Key.”
This story was originally published November 11, 2024 at 12:00 AM.
