Tired of steak for New Year’s? Here are some other Fort Worth dinners to ring in 2023

Bud Kennedy

New Year’s Eve is an easy night to find dinner.

Just pick a restaurant. Almost all are open.

But what’s interesting this year is that bookings aren’t heavy so far. The prime steakhouses are filling up, but most restaurants remain nearly wide open.

Call quickly for a table at Tarrant County’s busiest steakhouses: B&B Butchers, Bob’s Steak & Chop, Capital Grille or Reata, along with the year’s most heralded new restaurant, Don Artemio Mexican Heritage.

Most prime steakhouses have early and late tables available.

Italian restaurants have the most space available, including three new standouts in Fort Worth: Caterina’s, il Modo at the Kimpton Harper and Tre Mogli Cucina Italiana.

One warning: Ask the price. Don’t overpay for a dinner that isn’t something extra-special.

Many couples will be perfectly happy in a dark, cozy booth at Campisi’s Italian in Fort Worth or in one the 1950s-style booths at historic Candlelite Inn in Arlington.

(If dinner doesn’t work out, then get someplace better booked now for Valentine’s Day.)

Here are a few random choices for New Year’s:

▪ Ellerbe Fine Foods, 1501 W. Magnolia Ave., might be the nicest Fort Worth restaurant that isn’t a steakhouse.

The $120 New Year’s Eve menu features salad or sausage-and-corn Cajun chowder, blackened redfish or a baseball-cut top sirloin and praline crunch cake; 817-926-3663, ellerbefinefoods.com.

Sky Creek Kitchen is a new hotel restaurant in Southlake.
Sky Creek Kitchen is a new hotel restaurant in Southlake.

▪ Sky Creek Kitchen in the Delta Marriott Southlake, 251 Texas 114 East, is serving a $110 dinner with a choice of scallops, osso buco or Wellington, with a poached pear dessert; 682-477-4606, skycreekkitchen.com.

Winslow’s Wine Cafe is in a former gas station on Camp Bowie Boulevard.
Winslow’s Wine Cafe is in a former gas station on Camp Bowie Boulevard.

▪ Winslow’s Wine Cafe, 4101 Camp Bowie Blvd., is a good value.

For New Year’s, Winslow’s is serving a $75 five-course dinner featuring beef tenderloin, salmon or stuffed zucchini with blueberry-lemon bread pudding or chocolate mousse; 817-731-6515, winslowswinecafe.com.

Beer goes with prime rib New Year’s Eve at the Flying Saucer Draught Emporium.
Beer goes with prime rib New Year’s Eve at the Flying Saucer Draught Emporium.

▪ The Flying Saucer Draught Emporium, 111 E. Third St., is underrated as a restaurant.

The New Year’s menu features more than beer: an $85 prime rib dinner with charcuterie, salad and either Black Forest cake or carrot cake; 817-336-7470, beerknurd.com.

The 97 West entrance has a neon cowboy under the old-time “Drover” sign.
The 97 West entrance has a neon cowboy under the old-time “Drover” sign.

▪ If there’s any space left, 97 West Kitchen in the Stockyards is serving a $125 dinner at the Hotel Drover, 200 Mule Alley.

The choices include lobster tail, roast duck, sea bass, a filet with fried oysters or a New York strip; 682-255-6497, 97westkitchenandbar.com.

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