Best of 2007 (some surprise entries)

For the Best of 2010 go to: Best of 2010
Best of 2007 -- Fort Worth and Area:

Italian: Ruffino's. Pleasant dining atmosphere. Unhurried. Needs better bread.
Mexican: Mi Cocina - downtown and Cantina Laredo - downtown. Good food, more expensive than La Familia, but in my opinion, the food is better, too.
Pizza: Charlies Pizza on Meadowbrook Drive. Real New York style made by a real New Yorker.
Bread:
Whole Foods - Arlington. The only authentic bakery in town anymore.
I know the pastry chef of the North Dallas store. They're serious about their bakery. The Dallas-Fort Worth area does not have many old stand-alone bakeries. I wish we did.
La Madelaine's at one time had an authentic French baguette and other good baked goods. But don't get me started on that trainwreck passing itself off as a bistro.
Forget Corner Bakery.
Panera's has some decent breads, especially when they are fresh.
Central Market's breads all taste the same.

Intermission:
Bread is a perfect item for combining the five elements of pleasureful food: taste, texture, aroma, appearance and temperature. Does anything taste better than the aroma and appearance of fresh-baked, crusty bread? Some breads are chewy, others airy, some are better warm, others toasted, etc. Most local breads are all appearance and none of the other four. If a bagel-shaped bread product is not made from boiled batter it is not a bagel. It is a roll. Just as a patty made from a vegetable to look like a hamburger is not a hamburger. It is a veggie-burger.

Speaking of Bagels: Yogi's on Hulen. They are good.
Donuts: Pauls, off Magnolia. Good people, good donuts.
Chinese: I have no idea.
Sandwich: Carshons is our readers choice for sandwiches and F&FW agrees. Central Market at I30 and Hulen, also.
Burger: Kinkaid's, Tommy's, Boogie Burger. All good. You can have the nouveau places including Pappa's. Too expensive.
Coffee: Starbucks on University. Busy enough to have to make it fresh all the time. And nice folks as well. We need more locally owned coffee shops. Eurotazza is good. 4-Star is another local trainwreck.
Steakhouse: Del Frisco's, Downtown.
Best Destination Restaurant: Reata
Barbecue: Angelos on White Settlement.
Dining Restaurant Downtown: The Chop House on Main Street.
Beer Downtown: The Flying Saucer.
Beer elsewhere: Ginger Man on Montgomery and Bull & Bush.
Ice Cream: Braum's, $1.50 for a single dip of pretty good ice cream.
Biggest rip-off ice cream: Marble Slab.
Margarita: Mi Cocina.
Fajitas: Papasitto's on I30. Good beef, fresh flour tortillas. Cantina Laredo is a close second.
Sushi: Hui Chuan Sushi, on Camp Bowie.
Thai: Suk a Thai, in Arlington.
Nicest Small Restaurant Atmosphere: Zambrano's downtown.
Best Place to use wifi: Panera Bread on University.
Best View of Fort Worth: From the hilltop at Channel 5
Bet You'd Love It: the bicycle walking path on the North side of downtown
Best Bicycle Shop: Colonel's, TCU area
Best Bookstore in North Texas: The used Bookstore in Denton.
Best Place to buy vegetables: Fiesta Market on 8th Street
Best Radio Sports Talk: The Ticket, 1310 am.
New Night time drive-by: Lancaster south downtown. The street lights are in and look great. Coolest re-developing street: Lancaster Boulevard downtown
Best Pool Tables: Fox and Hound, Downtown.
Only Great Pool Tables in DFW: Dave & Busters / Dallas (also, real snookers table)
Best Date for the 50+ crowd: Dine anywhere downtown, attend a show at Bass Hall, or walk and have coffee and desert as you go.
Best Movie theater: Rave at North East Mall.
Most Improved Park: Botanic Gardens. Been lately? it's worth a visit.
Most Underappreciated Great Amenity: Trinity River Park and Botanical Gardens.
Favorite Architecture: Modern Art Museum
Most Dependable Good Meal: Charleston's on Hulen. Okay, it seems no one under 50 is allowed in, but the food is still good.
Most Looked forward to Development: Omni Hotel and Dallas Cowboys are two but there are many more.
Biggest how much money are they losing development? Montgomery Plaza. How long can the condos stay empty?
5 Year Prediction: The Dallas Cowboys Stadium will change Arlington for good and in a smaller way the entire Dallas - Fort Worth area. This really is big. Dallas will receive the least benefit of the major cities in DFW. What city receives the most benefit? Arlington, of course, then, Fort Worth, DFW Airport, Grapevine (hotel accomodations), Grand Prairie, Irving (the new use of the old stadium property will be better for them) and finally Dallas. The "center of gravity" in DFW has been shifting west and north and that trend will continue. The Cowboys stadium and the Texas Motor Speedway make Tarrant County a place with 2 of the countrys largest performance venues.
5 Year Prediction #2: Remember the old Graduate movie line: "think plastics." Well, if you are starting in business today, "think shale, Barnett Shale." Its effect on Fort Worth will be long lasting.

An Afternoon Beer

Americans don’t drink much beer in the afternoon. Sure, there is your local Billy down the street who drinks morning, noon, and night. But on the whole, Americans only permit themselves to drink certain times of the week. One of the main reasons for this, I think, is the lack of good pubs. England is full of afternoon drinkers and it is most certainly because there are an abundance of good, comfortable pubs there. If a man in England has a free afternoon and wants to spend it drinking beer, hanging out, and maybe reading the paper or a book, he can just hop down to his local pub, order a pint, find his favorite spot and thence enjoy his whole afternoon. An American has no such luck. There is no local pub for him to hop down to and none of the bars here are conducive to just hanging out, reading, or relaxing. American bars are designed for maximum stimulation. There are TV’s everywhere and the music is always 10 decibels too high. A man cannot read or relax in this surrounding. That is why I was so happy to discover the Ginger Man Pub located at the intersection of Montgomery and Camp Bowie.

The Ginger Man has plenty of local and international brews (alas! No Abbot Ale on draught!) and what seemed to be a decent selection of wines. What makes the Ginger Man different, though, is the ambiance and décor that make it perfectly suited to an afternoon of drinking. There are plenty of comfortable places to sit, no loud TVs, no cocktail waitresses constantly asking “are ya’ll okay?”, and no blaring music. It is, as I said, the perfect place for a good afternoon beer. They also have a dedicated area for darts and they actually give you decent darts with which to play. So if ever you are looking for a place to have a good afternoon beer, a game of darts, and some conversation: let me suggest to you the Ginger Man Pub.

Gingerman Pub
3716 Camp Bowie Blvd
Fort Worth, TX 76107
(817) 886-2327

http://ftworth.gingermanpub.com/

Why Food Reviews?

I have never been helped much by restaurant reviews. Either the reviewer is overly swayed by a restaurant's reputation and popularity or considers a good value the super-sized Beltbuster. I read the local press' “Best Of” annuals and I am usually disappointed in their choices and sometimes downright upset; which is why I started writing reviews myself, to exorcise this demon of food commentary and at the same time, to help the hungry wayfarer find a good place for lunch, dinner, coffee, or just a quiet place to read.

Qualifications: I have lived here 25+ years and have watched downtown Fort Worth change from a night time ghost town to a very enjoyable place to visit and to show off to friends. My father and grandfather owned and operated an Italian restaurant near Philadelphia. I watched them, and listened, and taste-tested. When my grandfather retired he set up a kitchen in his basement. I grew up on his tomato sauces, lasagna, and beef braciole, and on my grandmother's Ricotta cheese pie, and on my mother's Veal Parmesan or cream chipped beef on toasted English muffins. They taught me the difference between dining and eating, and the enjoyment of a noisy, robust dinner table, with real food.