A hot summer of Fort Worth restaurant openings: French, BBQ, sushi and fusion mashups

Fort Worth landed major new French, seafood and barbecue restaurants in a remarkably busy summer 2023.

But the city also lost some of its favorite restaurants for years, some simply over rent or lease disputes.

For example, the bitter end of a longstanding lawsuit pushed The Original Mexican Restaurant to a new location on North Main Street after 93 years on the west side.

Here’s a look at some of the city’s biggest gains and losses in a very busy summer 2023:

Pick: Barbecue or French?

▪ F1 Smokehouse, 517 University Drive, is a new, flashy West 7th-area barbecue restaurant and bar that started as a Clearfork food truck.

It’s one of two showy new restaurants that opened within weeks from chef Felipe Armenta’s FAR Out Hospitality, with menus by TV celebrity chef Graham Elliot.

Has any other restaurant partnership ever even attempted this?

Within two months, Armenta and Elliot opened both F1 — serving smoked prime rib, a bacon-Swiss “barbecue burger” and pepper Jack queso with brisket — and an upscale French restaurant.

▪ Le Margot, 3150 S. Hulen St., serves steak frites, an escargot puff-pastry “pot pie,” mussels and daily sepcials such as coq au vin or bouillabaisse.

Far Out now has eight restaurants, including popular local stops such as The Tavern, Pacific Table, Press Cafe and Maria’s Mexican Kitchen.

Coming next: Cowboy Prime, Elliot’s signature prime steakhouse, planned at 128 E. Exchange Ave. There’s already one open in Midland.

More new barbecue

▪ Brix Barbecue, 1012 S. Main St., also graduated from a food truck to a restaurant serving eight smoked meats, a hot chicken sandwich and a “Le Brix” burger.

▪ Brix brisket is also served as Tex-Asian fusion at the new Eazy Monkey, 401 W. Magnolia Ave., serving brisket wontons aad brisket burnt-end bao.

Eazy Monkey, by former steakhouse chef Andrew Dilda, also serves a “Japanese chicken-fried steak” with curry gravy, a fried-rice cheddarburger, orange-jalapeno chicken-and-waffles and Polynesian-style crab Rangoon nachos.

▪ In another barbecue breakthrough, nationally acclaimed Tex-Ethiopian restaurant Smoke’N Ash BBQ moved and reopened at 5904 S. Cooper St., Arlington.

▪ It didn’t involve an opening or closing, but the Star-Telegram Readers’ Choice poll picked mostly old-school barbecue restaurants as favorites.

The No. 1 pick was Hickory Stick BBQ in Everman, followed by David’s Barbecue in Arlington and new-school Hurtado in Arlington and Fort Worth. No. 4 was Sammie’s in Fort Worth.

Check into hotel dining

▪ Musume, 810 Houston St., an upscale sushi and Asian fusion restaurant, was the first of several stunning new Fort Worth hotel restaurants.

▪ Coming soon: Bricks & Horses, inside the Bowie House, Auberge Resorts at 3700 Camp Bowie Blvd., and Emilia’s and The Blue Room, Mediterranean and fine-dining restaurants inside The Crescent, 3300 Camp Bowie Blvd.

New seafood and sushi

▪ Walloon’s, 701 W. Magnolia Ave., is an oyster bar and seafood restaurant from chef Marcus Paslay and company (Clay Pigeon, Piattello, Provender Hall).

But Paslay drew even more attention in buying Mercado Juarez Cafes, timeless Tex=Mex restaurants in Fort Worth and Arlington.

▪ La Onda, lauded by Bon Appetit as one of 2022’s 50 best new restaurants in America, reopened at 1165 Eighth Ave. serving “shark-cuterie,” caviar, clams and a shrimp chimichurri torta.

▪ In Keller, Little Lilly Sushi expanded to a second location at 1004 Keller Parkway.

Keller also welcomed a new barbecue restaurant, Outpost 36, 1801 S. Main St., and an ice-cream-and-doughnuts shop, Sugar Llamas, 242 Rufe Snow Drive.

Bojangles, Sickies and chains

▪ Bojangles’ arrival in Texas led a long list of chain restaurant and fast-food openings.

The legendary North Carolina chicken chain opened at 201 E. Euless Blvd. in Euless and also in Lancaster. But the Texas restaurants offer only tenders and sandwiches, not Bojangles’ famous bone-in chicken.

▪ North Dakota-based Sickies Garage, serving 21 “extreme” burgers, chicken sandwiches and platters, opened at 6770 Forest Bluff Drive near Western Center Boulevard.

It’s drawing crowds for dizzying burgers topped with jalapenos and either cheese curds or peanut butter, or served on a doughnut, or ... you get the idea.

Gone with the (summer) wind

▪ Shinjuku Station, one of the pioneer restaurants in the Near Southside renaissance, closed. Owners cited the economy, heavy construction in the area and the lingering effects of the COVID pandemic.

▪ Nearby, the Radler Biergarten, which served a substantial sandwich and hot dog menu, had a small fire and has not reopened.

▪ A once-popular chain restaurant, Romano’s Macaroni Grill, closed a location in expensive real estate on South University Drive.

▪ At least two hot chicken restaurants closed as that fad began to fade.

Burnin’ Mouth Hot Chicken on Eighth Avenue came from California. Helen’s Hot Chicken on Horne Street came from Nashville.

▪ Also closed: Station Patio Ice House in Keller and comic-themed Fanboys Grill in Fort Worth.

Amy’s Restaurant, a menudo and huevos rancheros hangout on North Main Street, lost its lease and promised to reopen elsewhere.