Our favorite bites at Fort Worth Food and Wine Festival’s Main Event
I had 22 bites at the 2026 Fort Worth Food and Wine Festival. And yes, I’m very full.
Local chefs gather for this four-day event put on by the Fort Worth Food and Wine Foundation to show off their culinary talents. It’s quite the deal — guests get the opportunity to try dozens of restaurants for one ticket price.
I attended The Main Event, which featured 21 local restaurants and over 25 beverage vendors. There were a lot of tacos and pasta and surprisingly, little barbecue. Some chefs offer bites similar to what is offered on their restaurant menus; others curate samplings that are exclusive to the event.
Chef Antonio Votta of Bricks & Horses offered caviar cornbread, which was a crowd favorite. This may seem simple, but each ingredient was carefully selected. They used local Texas pecans from the TX Pecan Company, mandarin-scented crème fraîche and caviar from Petrossian.
“Our concept focuses on refining local comforts, so I always start there. I aim to create a bite that incites thought and offers a wide range of flavor notes,” he said when I asked how he came up with the dish. “From there, I conceptualize textures that hit every sense to ensure the final result is complex, flavorful, and memorable.”
When I asked about what other chefs’ dishes he was excited to try, Chef Votta said, “Honestly, all of them!” That perfectly reflects the level of craft present at the festival. When it comes to creating one bite for a guest to try, creativity is explosive.
What I ate at Fort Worth Food and Wine Festival’s Main Event
Let me just say the theme was pork, pork, pork and tacos, tacos, tacos. For it not being the Tacos & Tequila event, I was surprised by all the tortilla-wrapped dishes. But then I remembered, we are in Texas and that is what people eat for breakfast, lunch or dinner anyway.
Note: For the sake of story length, I cannot highlight all the restaurants and chefs.
The Sicilian Butcher had a whole Parmesan wheel from which vodka pasta was served. So salty, perfectly spicy and the pasta tasted incredibly fresh.
Rough Creek Lodge had antelope sausage in a garlic roll with a chimichurri sauce. The sausage resembled chorizo and paired well with the herbs.
Piatello had crispy calamari with salty fried olives. Salt is the main flavor, but that’s what makes it so yummy.
Perini Ranch Steakhouse had a smoked peppered beef tenderloin slice, which was so tender, soft and buttery.
Ellerbee’s Fine Food featured deviled egg tartlets with bright dill and a sliver of salmon. It was sophisticated, fresh and easy to eat.
Top 5 bites at Fort Worth Food and Wine Festival
Out of the 23 servings I tried, I crown these as my favorites because they were so good, I finished the whole sampling.
In no particular order:
- Caviar cornbread from Bricks & Horses: so buttery, yet salty, with a splash of bright citrus. It simply melted in your mouth.
- Quail schnitzel from Bonnell’s Fine Texas Cuisine: thin, crispy crusted quail on angel hair pasta that had a creamy spice. Loved that they had a whole fryer set up in their tent.
- Chef Tommy’s bacon from B&B Butchers: thick-cut fatty bacon with broiled blue cheese that didn’t overpower the flavor. Set off by a sweet honey drizzle. Sweet, salty, fatty.
- Carnitas tacos from Reata: Crispy corn tortilla with carnitas pork that melted in your mouth, drizzled with a unique curry-flavored sauce. In my opinion, this was the best pork dish at the event.
- Short rib from Winewood Grill: Tasted like home, with rich short rib braised in red wine atop the velvetiest mashed potatoes. Again, the whole bite melted on my tongue.
Festival guests had the chance to vote on their favorite bites. Once those results are released, I’ll be interested to know whether others agreed with me.
This story was originally published April 10, 2026 at 9:37 PM.