Popular TCU sports bar Buffalo Bros to open in this area south of Fort Worth
Buffalo Bros, a TCU-area pizza-and-wings hangout that has become one of the region’s most popular sports bars, will open its third location and first outside Fort Worth, owner Jon Bonnell said.
Buffalo Bros will take over a former barbecue restaurant at 139 W. Ellison St. in Burleson, facing the central-city plaza and park, Bonnell said.
A Heim Barbecue restaurant opened there in December 2023 with city support but closed a year later to move to Weatherford.
“We love the location because Old Town Burleson has such a great feel, a vibe that’s hard to replicate,” Bonnell wrote in a text message.
“Families, neighbors and friends love to congregate in the area,” he wrote: “ ... There is a contagious energy that draws locals.”
Remodeling due at former Heim BBQ
The new Buffalo Bros will focus on remodeling and outfitting the first floor for now and adding more restrooms, Bonnell said. A rooftop patio will reopen later.
The restaurant was originally listed as 5,500 square feet, but Heim operated it at 9,400 square feet in two stories with the patio.
“We promise an expanded bar, cold beer on tap, and plenty of TVs, the BBros way,” Bonnell wrote.
Old Town Burleson has grown steadily since a Babe’s Chicken Dinner House opened there in 2005.
More than a dozen restaurants call Old Town home, including Razzoo’s Cajun Cafe, Twister Sisters Tap House, Grumps Burgers and Station 330. The area is surrounded by free parking.
Buffalo Bros’ original location, 3015 S. University Drive, has been listed among the “Best College Sports Bars” in the U.S.
It draws TCU fans and has become a home-away-from-home for Buffalo Bills football fans missing both their team and Buffalo, New York-style chicken wings, tenders and subs.
That original location is now expanding, adding a dining room in the vacated space next door vacated by the University Pub. The Pub will close in the early hours May 18..
Buffalo Bros also serves sandwiches such as Buffalo-based Sahlen’s hot dogs and a roast “beef on weck,” referring to a caraway-seeded kummelweck roll.
The Buffalo guy behind Buffalo Bros
Bonnell’s business partner, Ed McOwen, is a Buffalo native who always wanted to open a Buffalo-style sports bar when he was chef de cuisine at their original restaurant, Bonnell’s Fine Texas Cuisine.
The first Buffalo Bros opened in 2007. A second location downtown in Sundance Square followed in 2019.
The TCU location was named to Yahoo! Sports’ list of 30 “Best College Sports Bars” in 2012 and to a similar list by a food website, The Daily Meal, in 2014.
Bonnell opened his original restaurant, Bonnell’s, in southwest Fort Worth in 2001 after he returned to his native Fort Worth from cooking in the New Orleans French Quarter. The restaurant will celebrate 25 years in October.
In 2013, he added Waters Restaurant, serving prime seafood. In 2017, it moved to Sundance Square downtown.
This story was originally published May 8, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
