Fort Worth Club offers Friday night dining and dancing

Members of the Fort Worth Club and their guests are in for a treat! Beginning September 16th the club will offer dinner and dancing on Friday nights with the music of the Crawfish Band and Trey and the Tritones.  The evening entertainment will take a break during the holidays, but then we hope it will be back in January.  If you are a dancer, you’ll love this!

The Vault re-visited…

We finally made it into the Vault last night to see (and taste) for ourselves. If you like a quiet atmosphere, stay upstairs in the dining room. If you are the life of the party (or just like to be around the one who is) the downstairs area may be more your style. Each floor has its own fireplace (okay, so what if we won’t get to use it until next February?)… and these are the only real fireplaces we have seen in the downtown area. When it was cold last winter we kept looking for a place to go warm up with a brandy in the evening, but we were disappointed in other restaurants/bars that what appeared to be a fireplace was all for show (no flue, no warmth).

The downstairs just screams “take me to the kasbah!” There are cool nooks and crannies to hold intimate conversations where you can hardly be seen, but there is also flatscreen tv for those inclined to stay glued to a screen. The food proved to be traditionally Mediterranean —- we were very happy to see a wide range of fish on the menu with few high-carb offerings —- which means we can go there after vacation and remain on a much-needed diet after living (and eating out in) downtown for the past couple of years! The tidbits we sampled had a burst of flavor worthy of making the mouth water just hoping for more — lamb with a honey-saffron coating, bruschetta and small but spicy potato pieces (that I couldn’t pronounce the name of much less spell). The menus are varied — lunch, tapas and dinner-sized plates — with plenty to please the palate whether you want a small or large meal, even including burgers for the kids and a steak for the meat-and-potatoes types. We can’t wait to get back from vacation and go downstairs for the actual Grand Opening!
http://www.PrudentialTexas.com/MarieFerguson

Best Steakhouses in Downtown area

First, I have to tackle the misconception that there are 7 new steakhouses coming to the area, for a total of 11, as reported by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram… the last time I ate at Eddie V’s Edgewater Grill in Austin, it was an excellent seafood restaurant, and I don’t recall seeing steak on the menu….. there may have been a steak, but no one seemed to be ordering it. Same idea with calling the upcoming Vault…. the sign on our building says it is going to have mediterranean food and martinis. Anyway, here goes…

1. Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse is the mainstay
2. Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse is a new contender just across the street, so we’ll see what that does to Del Frisco’s prices and reservation list…
3. Mercury Chop House is excellent (and Tower residents get a 20% discount —- hint, hint, you other guys!)
4. Reata — while this really is a steakhouse, their other dishes are much more unique, so try the tamales instead and go to one of the earlier ones for steak! And go upstairs on the rooftop for a nice view, too!
5. Texas de Brazil — really a churascaria rather than the traditional steakhouse —- is a unique place to eat dinner, but since it is all-you-can-eat the general belief is that adding so much salt to their meat is how they keep you from eating too much to put them right out of business.
Coming soon to an Omni Hotel/Residence near you (if you live downtown, that is) will be Bob’s Steakhouse. I’ve never been to a “Bob’s” before. I hear they are excellent from people who love Del Frisco, and may also give the reigning champ a run for their money and their customers. (Not to build it up unduly.)

Not in Downtown…. OK, I know the “Startle-gram” (remember, I used to be a journalism teacher, so it’s ok for me to call them whatever I please) says it is downtown, but if I can’t walk there…… duh, it’s not! Lambert’s Steakhouse is excellent and very new to the “near-downtown” area, near Angelo’s Barbecue. There are other restaurants that serve steak, and some are near the downtown area, but if you are a Fort Worth native, much less a true Texan, a lot of them don’t count as a steakhouse…..just because they have a steak on the menu…. then a friend emailed me a couple of days ago and asked why his favorite, Silver Fox, was not on the list. (Not to slight anybody, but it is not really downtown, is it?)

Not many places could support this much beef….. we think Fort Worth will do just fine!
http://www.PrudentialTexas.com/MarieFerguson

Not all the gas in Fort Worth comes from the Mexican food…

Yeah, OK the Mexican beans can have some ill effects on the digestive system… but one of the things that is keeping Fort Worth way more than solvent right now is the Barnett Shale. It’s gonna last for years, and hopefully will get us through the credit/lender epidemic that plagues much of the country. Sideways drilling, duh….. I guess if you live downtown you don’t have enough acreage to make any money from the drilling…..maybe you kept your mineral rights when you sold before moving here. At least your not sitting in the traffic anymore. Meet me at Cantina, Mi Cocina or (OMG I’d have to get in the car) Joe T’s….. and let’s have some good ole Mexican beans!!! http://www.PrudentialTexas.com/MarieFerguson

Liquor Laws and filling commercial space in The Tower

For months, we had heard the rumor that a convenience food store was going to be included in our building. Along with those plans came the explanations of why there was NOT going to be one in the only location which wasn’t already spoken for —- Texas liquor licensing laws were going to keep us from being able to buy milk and bread so close to home. Because there is a church a block away facing that side of the building no place that sells alcohol was likely to move in. That includes a food store because it’s not the milk and bread they make money from, it’s the beer and wine that brings the profits. Okay, we understand that there is a law on the books that makes this difficult, but there is also another restaurant which sells liquor even closer to the church’s front door. What about them? They had to move the location of their door to the side street in order to comply with the laws! How stupid is that?!? It’s ok for the restaurant/bar to be there as long as the door is not in plain view? I guess the fact that it is not open while church is going on has nothing to do with it? We would love to see the law revised so that people who live in a multi-use building can have available the things they need without driving 2.5 miles to the SuperTarget —- actually, you have to drive a lot farther than that because while the SuperTarget usually stocks milk and bread, they hardly ever have club soda anymore for the Scotch drinkers in the Tower — I guess we bought it all. (There is one convenience store downtown, but they don’t have soda either, so we have never actually bought anything there.)

So if those who change laws are listening… you already have plenty of booze in the building across the street and a block down from the church (although it is not being sold unless you walk around the building to the side where the restaurants are open on Sunday serving brunch)! Now you guys are talking about allowing liquor sales on Sundays like other states. Could you please include revising the part of the law that doesn’t let us have our little store in the building?!? We are tired of driving to a liquor store to find the club soda!! http://www.PrudentialTexas.com/MarieFerguson

Best Restaurants in downtown Fort Worth ~ good grub!

There are….. ummmm….. 60+ something restaurants downtown…. which is not exactly the Weight Watcher’s dream. But if you like to party, you know you are in the right place. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, more locally known as the “Startle-gram”, recently reported that there will soon be 11 steak houses in the downtown area……ok, gimme a break. The last time I went to Eddie V’ Edgewater Grille in Austin they MIGHT have had one steak on the menu for those who don’t like the best seafood around, but I doubt if many people actually order it. And the up-and-coming, highly touted, much anticipated Vault on the street level of the Tower was listed as a new steak house by the S-T, but the wording on the signage says it will serve Mediterranean cuisine, not steak.

Our faves (of presently open venues):
Steak….. still Del Friscos, with the newly opened Ruth’s Chris running a close second presently
Seafood…. Daddy Jack’s has a knock out menu, and be sure to try Dominick’s Special Salad
Mexican…. Cantina Laredo (which evacuates to our SB level during storms, complete with margaritas and tablemade guacamole — see previous blog entry)
Italian…. ok, this is hard, because I have to separate dinner from brunch. And from pizza….Anyway, we love both Ferre, across from Bass Hall, which offers a bit more gourmet pizzazz, but we actually enter through the back door at Taverna, which has the best Sunday brunch around for the money.
Brunch…. Taverna Ristorante for the price, quality of food and bottomless Bellini’s and Mimosa’s. We also love their pizza and other Italian menu.
Pizza…. now there’s a surprise involved in this one. There are all kinds of great pizza places downtown, from Sammy’s, Taverna, Uno, and (really!) the Fox and Hound’s pizza is excellent, but the hippest place with great pizza and wine is Zambrano’s.
Asian…. nothing else is like Piranha Killer Sushi —- we also love to go to PF Chang’s, but since we believe the hotter, the better —- none of this “Yankee-fied” Mexican or Oriental is good enough for us! FYI – outside of the downtown area, if you really want some great Thai cuisine, go to our old hang-out “Thai Chili” in Southlake Town Center.

There are lots of other fantastic eateries in Fort Worth, but if you live downtown, they don’t really count if you have to get the car out!!! (OK, only on special occasions!) Happy eating!
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