Rafain Brazilian Steakhouse, Fort Worth. All Good.

Marian after dinner and all smiles after a very enjoyable evening

Every once in a while I receive an invitation to sample the fare of a new, soon-to-open restaurant. Such was the case Friday night when Marian and I attended a media-event for the new Rafain Brazilian Steakhouse at West 7th (opening Tuesday, June 24).

A Brazilian Steakhouse as you well know is a little different than the American version. The primary observable difference being that servers carry skewers of assorted cooked meats from table to table. And the Brazilian Steakhouse always features a salad bar, unlimited servings, and fixed pricing. It works well and is particularly enjoyable with a group although Marian and I enjoy it just as much as a couple.

But about this steakhouse. . .

The "salad bar" at Refain Brazilian Steakhouse is better described as a salad/antipasto bar. It's really not fair to call it just a salad bar. There is the assortment of traditional salad fare: romaine, iceburg and other lettuce varieties, but also fresh vegetables like whole steamed asparagus, steamed broccoli,  a selection of breads and olives, and traditional antipasto items like albacore tuna salad, raw salmon, and blocks of assorted cheeses. And more, fifty items in all. I loved the cucumbers, tomatoes, and herbs in a light vinaigrette and the red onions in balsamic vinegar.

Now, it's easy to have a salad bar with a selection of 50 items. It's not easy to have a salad bar where the food is displayed handsomely and where each individual item is prepared properly, kept at the appropriate temperature, and can stand on its own if chosen by itself. That's difficult because it takes time and oversight and someone caring. Refain does it very well.

But of course this is a steakhouse and, as I mentioned, in Brazilian churrascaria style, diners are served by gauchos with skewers of assorted cooked meats. Normally, I would keep close to the skewers of beef, but I wanted to try a little of everything so I did: Parmesan crusted pork, bacon-wrapped chicken breast, lamb, filet-mignon, spicy Brazilian sausage (was that ever good) and just when I was gasping for air, slices of roasted pineapple lightly dusted on the sides with cinnamon. By the way, most important to me: the meats are served right-off-the-grill hot. Brazilian-style is charcoal grilled which gives a smoky flavor and a little crust.

Lest I forget, add to each table a serving of polenta, piping hot bread rolls with a center of melted Parmesan, and mashed potatoes. All good.

But dining is more than good food and drink, it is good company, good conversation, and a comfortable, relaxed setting. In our view, besides the great food, Refain's provides the right setting and a helpful staff for a completely enjoyable evening.

This is the second restaurant in the U.S. for the Refain family (the other is in Dallas) who also own and operate a handful of restaurants in Brazil as well as a convention hotel in Brazil.

Refain Brazilian Steakhouse
2932 Crockett Street, Fort Worth, TX 76107
Opens Tuesday, June 24 for dinner. Opening for lunch at a later date.
Price: $31-$50 (price-fixed). Unlimited servings.

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Marian with the first serving of lamb (I think)

My first serving from the salad bar, the fried polenta is the dish behind the salad plate

The salad bar

 Marian with Restaurant Manager, Donilo Magalhaes (sorry for the out focus shot)

Marian with some hitchhiker she picked up on I-30. 

The Baseball Metaphor.

I'm lying here listening to the Texas Rangers play the Oakland Athletics. They're playing in Oakland so the game is on late in our Central Standard Time. The Rangers just hit into a double play and a third out followed quickly, we're down 4-3 in the 7th.

My son sent me a text the other day saying how nice it was to have the game on in the background of whatever he is doing. I agree. For me, it's a habit going back to childhood lying in bed with an AM-band transistor radio listening to Richie Ashburn do the play by play for the Philadelphia Phillies' games.

And for those of us so inclined baseball became the metaphor for life. Just tonight I used the phrase "it's a Mays/Mantle comparison," meaning whether you come down on the side of Mays or Mantle as the best player you're right.

Who hasn't said after a successful activity "I just hit one out of the park." Or the opposite. Maybe the boss threw you a curve ball when he said you could have Friday off but asked you to work Saturday. And your plans for Saturday are now a big swing and a miss. But the boss plays hardball and you just have to deal with it.

Many people face life with two strikes against them and hope just once someone would throw them a softball instead of the brush-back.

But that's life. If you bat near .300 you're doing pretty good. And if you really don't like something you can take your bat and ball and go home.

Captain America, the Winter Soldier and Downtown's Newly Renovated AMC Palace 9

If you like comic book hero movies you'll probably like Captain America, The Winter Soldier. Unlike some comic book movies this one has a attention-grabbing plot and at the heart of the plot is the always enjoyable political and philosophical question, "Can one perform an evil act if it accomplishes a great good?" I shouldn't be imputing grand significance to a comic book story but I like it when there is such a theme weaving in and out of the story line.

SHIELD, the CIA/NSA-type agency that Sgt. Fury has led since after WWII has grown powerful. HYDRA, the evil opposite and enemy of SHIELD, is alive and well, and has infiltrated the highest offices of SHIELD, and, without giving away too much, has proposed a plan to rid the world of all the bad guys in the world before they act badly.

Captain America being an old school kind of guy--remember it's not been long since he's being out of the frozen tundra--and intuitively understanding the higher philosophical ideal sees the corruption for what it is, the desire to control through power, and comes to the defense of the Good, the True and the American way.

The movie has some suspense, a few very good chase scenes, hand to hand combat in the new style, and lots of things shooting and blowing up. Add Scarlett Johansen and Emily VanCamp (Revenge) and what else could a guy ask for?

I was a Sgt. Fury comic book reader back in the day when it was set in WWII and was about thirteen when SHIELD was started and Fury took the helm. I loved it back then and think Samuel Jackson makes a great modern but tough Fury. Anthony Mackie who plays the Falcon and Chris Evans, Captain America, work well together. Robert Redford is great. Put it all together and this is not a bad movie.

As to the AMC. It's really hard to criticize a place that has honest to goodness fully reclining chairs.  They're very big, very comfortable, electric, and I have to say they're almost a cause for embarrassment when you first go full recline though I'm not sure why. AMC will soon be selling beer and wine which for me would only mean that post-pint and in full recline mode I'd be asleep within minutes no matter what was playing. Food and drinks are at the counter, unlike a Movie Tavern, and priced like any movie theater. The particular theater Captain America played in was small, maybe 100 seats, but very comfortable, the screen is digital as I guess they all are now. I get sticker shock at movies these days but if you're going to go to the movies this AMC is a good one.

Best of Fort Worth, Texas, 2014.

It's been a few years since I have done a "Best of." Three to be exact. A lot has changed. Honestly, Marian and I don't go out as much as we once did and I'm not always going to be able to say with any kind of authority that restaurant X is better than restaurant Y because I may not have been to restaurant Y.

But here's what I like best in Fort Worth right now -- and of course we'll start with the hamburgers.

1. The better than fast-food burger and fries: I like 5 Guys when I'm going for a good hamburger. I know there are lots of options now in Fort Worth, Dutchs, Jakes, Smashburger, M&O, Kincaid's, the Chop House in Arlington, but when decision time comes it's tough to beat the burger-fry combination at Five Guys downtown.

2. Fast-food burger and fries: Whataburger and In-and-Out. I like them both for different reasons. There's something about the efficiency of In N Out that I like but I probably choose Whataburger more often.

3. Beef Fajitas: still number 1 with no competition is Pappasitos. Their Tuesday night 2 for 1 special on Fajitas is a great deal and enough food for two meals for two people.

4. Coffee: you might not like this but I still say a fresh cup of Starbucks dark roast is as good as you can get in the city. And thankfully they've stopped hawking Pikes Place which in my view is just god-awful. I tried the special brewed coffee at Starbucks a couple weeks ago and thought it bitter and over-priced. I think it was $3.25 a cup.

5. Steaks and finer dining: I haven't been to any of the newer steak restaurants at least at the Fort Worth locations. I had been to Bob's in Dallas and the Capital Grille in Washington and Philadelphia which I liked. Marian and I did go to Eddie V's for our anniversary and I liked it with some reservation.The twice-baked potato was very ordinary and the steak was not what I had hoped for but everyone says good things about Eddie V's and they're probably right. I'm going to go back and try again. I still miss the Swiss House on University: mandatory coat and tie, piano, beef-Oscar.

6. Mexican. In Fort Worth I still think Mi Cocina is very good. For family run restaurants I like Benitos on Magnolia. I think La Familia has gone down in quality in the last couple years. Marian and I really like Lupe's in Lincoln Square in Arlington. It's real food, cooked with some care and their brisket tacos are as good as you'll get.

7. Retail disappointment of the year. The loss of Barnes and Noble at University Park. I have nowhere to go now when the wife is shopping down there and I just hate to see bookstores closing everywhere.

8. Pizza. The best pizza is probably Il Cane Rosso, new on Magnolia.

9. Thai: Spice on Magnolia

10. Best new development in the planning: 34 acre Left Bank development on the Trinity at 7th. "Centergy’s plan calls for about 1.5 million square feet of construction, 1,500-1,700 residential units, 100,000-120,000 square feet of retail space including a 50,000-square-foot grocer, and a 150-200 room hotel on the river levee." Fort Worth Business Press 

11. Favorite new spot for a night out dinner: Bird Cafe'

12. Most changed area in the last three years: Magnolia, 7th, or Sundance. Pick one.

13. Best new development: Sundance Square

14. Most unexpected outdoor venue: Panther Island Pavilion

15. Sounds good I need to go: Coyote Drive In movie theater and Melt ice cream cones, on Rosedale.

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Bird Cafe' Sundance Square

If you have traveled much and been the decision maker on all things travel related: hotels, restaurants, coffee shops, or the gas station most likely to have clean restrooms, you know you get some right and you get some wrong. I hope to bat about .700, 7 out of 10 is a good guessing-right record.

One of the things I do to improve the odds is to make rules, rules that I have developed through observation, and failure. They work sometimes and sometimes they don't. Like gas stations, "dirty on the outside, dirty on the inside," works most of the time.

One axiom I keep fairly strictly is to never eat at a restaurant that caters to customers who are there for reasons other than the food. A restaurant overlooking the Grand Canyon sort of thing. There going to be busy whether the food and service is good or not and it usually isn't. The San Antonio Riverwalk comes to mind. Parts of center-city Philadelphia come to mind. The Vatican Museum cafeteria comes to mind because it was the only bad meal I have ever had in Italy. There are exceptions: Thrashers french-fries at the beach is one.

Sundance Square could become such a place, not on the scale of the examples mentioned above of course, but the convention business is growing and downtown is attracting more and more visitors. If you went to the Main Street Arts Festival on Saturday night you know what I mean. You could not move on Main Street it was that crowded. We're all happy about it but will the restaurants go all touristy on us?

That's a way too long introduction to our visit to the Bird Cafe'. So if you've read enough and are looking for an opinion, here it is: I loved it.

The food is very good and I'm picky. Marian had the fish and chips and with her being British she should know the good from the bad, and she loved it. I had an assortment of tapas-type things including hummus which was very good. The pita bread was a little stale, a fresh, warm baguette with the hummus would have been perfect, but all in all mine was a good meal. too.

And, though a simple pleasure, something I particularly liked was the bottle of carbonated water for $2 refilled at no additional cost.

All that and great outdoor seating; inside seating with slightly more formal settings if you like.

Which brings me back to my original point: people will be frequenting the restaurants around the Square if only for the setting. And that's like gravity pulling the owners to decrease costs and increase profit. I hope I'm wrong, I like it down there as it is.

The Bird Cafe is at the old Flying Saucer location on the Square. And it's good.

Bird Cafe website.