Best Of Fort Worth. 2010 (updated to 2020)

It is 2020

We're all beaten down by the Covid and its effects

But  it did give me some time to update the Best of.

Food and Fort Worth's 

Best of Fort Worth(

(2020)

Best new retail and restaurant development: The West 7th and So7 (South 7th) developments have to be the biggest, and in my opinion the best, mixed-use development we have seen for many years. What the Target area south of Montgomery Plaza did wrong, West 7th has done right. The area south and west is developing now and adding to the whole cool vibe. Sundance Square, if I may say respectfully, feels a little touristy compared to what's going on at 7th Street.

I wrote that in 2010. In 2020, I would say that the hottest area of development is the near Southside and South Main. Restaurants, bars, coffee shops, apartments, etc. It's booming. Second to that in the "developing fast" is the number of young people moving to the Meadowbrook area on the eastside. Watch that. New start-ups like Coffee-Folk are doing very well.

Sundance Square is the realcenter of downtown since they made a formal square with fountains. It still tend to draw the corporate/tourist crowd but with the shopping, restaurants, entertainment, hotels, and bars are right there it is a great place to spend an evening
 
Best Mexican Restaurant / upscale:

2010: I still think Mi Cocina's downtown is the most enjoyable upscale Mexican restaurant, when you look at it from food quality, service, location and price. Their recent corporate problems notwithstanding, I like to go there. Cantina Laredo is a pretty close second, but doesn't have quite the buzz of Mi Cocina's. Chuy's is a step down in atmosphere, but I liked their sauces and will be returning.

2020:We still go to Mi Cocina but for the money Benito's is the best in town. Their pork verde asada is spicy and delicious. It's not in the upscale category but for good Mexican food it's our favorite. Also, Lucita's on 1st Streetat Beach is good.

Mexican Restaurant / small building.

2010: Salsa Fuego was selected 3 of 50 in the "Best Mexican" in Texas Monthly magazine and it too deserves the praise it gets. It's a long way from my house so I have been only twice. But it's good. Melis, on Vickery is good for a quick taco or burrito. And El Pollo Regio on Belnap is really good -- okay it's not going to win any restaurant design awards but I love the half-chicken with beans and rice.

2020: "Street tacos" like Fuzzy's" are everywhere. Personally, I think they're overpriced and I prefer to take my chances with the taco trucks that sell the same thing at half the price. Want good inexpensive Mexican food? Go to the grocery stores like Mi Tierra get in line with the locals and you'll get pretty good food at a great price.

Fajitas:

2010 and 2020:

The best fajitas in town, in my opinion, are at Pappasito's. Their Wednesday night two-for-one fajitas is a ridiculously good deal. Many of Pappa's dishes, including the cabrito and shrimp, are really good, as well. Uncle Julio's is a Pappasito's knock-off. It's good and well attended but it's just too noisy for me.
Still the best fajita meal in town.

Worst Mexican:

2010: Last year, I criticized the Yucatan Grill. They are, by all appearances, surviving well without me. This year we are giving the You call this Mexican food? award to Habenero's in south Arlington. It makes Yucatan Grill look good. God-awful food, with guacamole that I swear was made without an avocado. 

2020: Yucatan Grill is under new management. I'm not sure if it is being renamed.

Pizza:

2010: Cavalli's in Irving is the best in the DFW area. Il Cane Rosso, is a very close second. Patrizio's is good. Many of you like Rocco's. It's okay by me. The great thing about Cavalli's is that it is the least expensive and it is the best. Fireside Pies? Well, we won't go there for now. All of the above are southern-Italy style thin-crust pizza. The New York style pizza which I like is getting harder to find.

2020: We go to Picci Pacci. It's the best New York style pizza in town.

Bread:

Good luck. In my opinion there is not anywhere in Fort Worth that you can get an honest Artisan loaf of bread. So, I started making my own.

Burgers: 

2010: My current favorite is M&O Grill. Consistently good hamburgers. Five Guys on Hulen is new, and also one of my favorites, Smashburger is good, they are new, on University and in Arlington, and, drum roll please, In-N-Out Burger will be on 7th Street in 2011. I have not been to an In-N-Out, but everyone tells me they are good. Not new, but still good: Fred's, Kinkaids, Tommy's, Love's, Jakes. My least favorite "gourmet" burger is Dutch's and Pappas. Sorry, nothing personal, but that's the way I see it.

2020: When we want a good burger we go to Five Guys.

Coffee:

2010: Buon Giorno. New, with very good coffee. Buon Giorno roasts their coffee beans at their store in Grapevine. The Grapevine location has been operating for several years, in contrast to most independently owned coffee shops which have the lifespan of a tsetse fly. They must be doing something right. Avoca on Magnolia opens soon. Aduro Bean is a local roaster with excellent coffee for home brewing. Cafe Brazil will be coming to Fort Worth at TCU, soon. More on that as it develops. I still like McDonald's coffee in the morning. Starbucks: I have loved you, but please bring Sumatra back. Pike's Place is nasty.

2020: Coffee Folk and only Coffee Folk. The best cappuccino in DFW. I kid you not.

Italian Restaurant:

2010: My father and grandfather owned and operated an Italian restaurant. It's hard for me to get spaghetti and meatballs out even today, probably because I want to to taste my grand-pops sauce and never do. Nonna Tatta, La Piazza, Ruffino's (under new management) get good reviews. I have heard good things about Taverna, downtown.

2020: I don't even try to buy Italian food in Fort Worth.

The Problem With Polls . . .

Polls are accurate up to a point. They are indicators of public sentiment. But the devil is in the details, the details being: how the polling question is asked, or when, where and to whom a question is asked. For instance, Republican candidate, Mitt Romney is doing terribly in our poll of "Who Will Be the Next President". But 80% of our readers are from the Fort Worth area and Mitt Romney has relatively low name ID here. He is spending his advertising dollars in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina where, to finish the thought, he is doing very well in the polls.

The problem with a "Best of" poll, as in the case of the hamburger poll, is that the results can not reflect all the intricacies. What I mean is that name identification is a factor that can't be weighed in a poll like this. Which is why, when a newspaper does a "Best of" poll for restaurants by category, I consider them mostly popularity contests, not best food contests. Usually, you get a better idea of the real Best by asking the food editors where they spend their money.

Kinkaid's has been around a long time, has a loyal following and I like their hamburger. It is my first choice for all around value, plus, I love the simplicity of the place. But does it have the best hamburger? If you weigh in the factor that Fred's has a lot less name ID but still received (as I write this) 25 % of the vote, it made a very respectable accounting for itself. Tommy's isn't what it once was and it doesn't surprise me that it isn't doing well.

By the way, for those of you interested in this kind of thing, Tradesports is a fascinating way to follow trends in sports and politics. Essentially, Tradesports is a futures market for events. Any event can be traded. I am told that they are better indicators of future events because of the seriousness of those putting their money into their prediction.

And that's it for the hamburger poll. Kinkaid's is the winner but Fred's is a top choice.

A Tale of Two Coffee Shops

One cafe has no menu, no prices posted, no items posted, and a line of 3-5 people every time you go. I guess they figure you know what they serve, why bother with a menu. The other has plenty of easy to read signage, hundreds of possible items to order, plenty of seating and no line. What's the difference?
Here's the difference:
Yesterday, I had coffee in Cosi's, a publicly traded company that is a bistro, cafe, bar, La Madelaine's type place. They have never shown a profit. Last year they lost $80 million. I had coffee, a bagel, and an earful of complaining employees about ten feet from me. The coffee, by the way, was lukewarm when served. Terrible.
Today, I had coffee at La Colombe. The cafe with no visible menu. But they do have hot, fresh coffee. I don't know how much money La Colombe is making, but it has to be a bunch. $1.50 for a cup of coffee, $2.00 for a croissant and the line is like the line at Starbucks on University, it's always there.
The CEO of Cosi's said that when they get their spending under control they will be doing better (todays WSJournal). I have a suggestion for the Cosi CEO and former Burger King exec -- when you start serving good coffee and good food you'll start getting some customers.
La Colombe knows the secret: please the customer. Simple. Customer wants good, hot coffee at a reasonable price. Great, that's what we'll do. Cosi's knows that appearance and image work . . . for a while . . . until you run out of first time buyers.

Can I say it one more time? I like Starbucks, but I hope that a local Fort Worth or Texas based company will do the same thing. Provide a pleasant atmosphere, wifi, great coffee, a light food menu and make a profit at the same time. Eurotazza, c'mon you can do it.

What's Right About Central Market & Why I Worry

What's right is somebody cares. I mean the management at Central Market care about their product. I've met them, from the top down, and it shows, or at least it has for the last 5 years. They work in a Disneyland for grocery shoppers, and most of them enjoy it. It shows in the way the fresh foods are cooked and presented, the way the breads are displayed, and even in the cleanliness of the aisles. The cost of this care may be a higher prices, sometimes, but not compared to dining out for a comparable meal. Consider this: In less than 5 minutes, you can make the salad of your choice, with 15 different fresh vegetables, plus chicken and cheese and those kinds of things, grab a small fresh roll and a drink, and still be around $10. Can you get a comparable salad for lunch at a restaurant? Probably not. It's not cheap but it's not high rolling either.
Now to my concerns.
Every enterprise, once it surpasses a certain benchmark in gross sales, success in public perception and overall profitability, has to decide how to address the question of how much quality-management-service it needs while keeping these same levels of profitability and growth. In Central Market's case, they have to decide if each store is to have an on-site, experienced GM, assistants that are well trained in their departments, and employees that actually enjoy what they are doing. That is difficult to do. And expensive. Like any business, if it's not profitable, it can't continue, but if it is profitable, the temptation exists to fiddle with the formula t try and "squeeze out" a little more profitability.

I worry that a boatload of bookkeepers at the end of some long, Central Market office hallway, are looking over their little spreadsheets, asking the purchasing agents, "why can't you buy this cheaper? Or, "Can we buy less expensive cuts of meat for our sandwiches?" I worry that they will pursue short term gain, and eventually lose the "it" that they speak of when they say, "he gets it", referring to this grocery store concept. Places like Central Market need high employee and shopper enthusiasm for food in order to maintain the standard, and bookkeepers seldom understand loving something outside of the dollar based price-benefit equation. That's what I worry about. That they will forget that there is just a little of "art for art's sake" in the concept.

Is the Central Market division of the HEB Grocery Stores profitable? I don't know, HEB is not a publicly traded company, so it is not public information. I hope it is very profitable. And if it is I hope they don't mess with a good thing.
Have I noticed a downward trend? Only slightly, in that less frequently do I notice the managers walking the floor, and more frequently do I notice long lines forming, and employees just trying to get through the day. But that could just be a temporary lull after a pretty energetic start, or it could be a trend, whichever, I hope it doesn't continue.