New taco restaurant in Fort Worth will bring back original menu items by standout chef

Bud Kennedy
·1 min read

West Magnolia Avenue is getting a new taco restaurant and bar, but the flavors will be familiar.

Tres Amigos Tacos & Tequila will replace a previous taco bar-and-grill at 909 W. Magnolia Ave., according to a city permit application.

Tres Amigos will bring back recipes by late Fort Worth chef Paul Willis, co-founder of several Texas restaurants including the former Cabo in Sundance Square. Willis was also behind the original Yucatan Taco Stand when it opened in 2008 in the same Magnolia space.

Willis’ prolific work also included a stint as late country singer Toby Keith’s personal chef. Willis originated menu items still served recently at Lucile’s Stateside Bistro and H3 Ranch and led several other taco restaurants, steakhouses and bars including Buffalo Gap Steakhouse, Pedro’s Trailer Park and an early Fuzzy’s Taco Shop.

The patio of the Yucatan Taco Stand bustles with customers across from one of the many medical towers constructed along and near West Magnolia Avenue on the south side of Fort Worth, TX Thursday, March 19, 2015.
The patio of the Yucatan Taco Stand bustles with customers across from one of the many medical towers constructed along and near West Magnolia Avenue on the south side of Fort Worth, TX Thursday, March 19, 2015.

Willis died in 2013.

The latest version of Yucatan closed in mid-February. It was popular when it opened as Yucatan Taco Stand and expanded to four locations. But it eventually staggered through a series of ownership and management changes.

In 2019, it was sold again and renamed Yucatan Tequila Bar and Grill.

Tres Amigos will join a stretch of busy restaurants on West Magnolia Avenue, including the new Walloon’s, the remodeled Paris Coffee Shop, Cane Rosso, Brewed, Gus’s Famous Fried Chicken, Shaw’s Patio Bar & Grill and Heim Barbecue.

Chef Paul Willis in the original Yucatan Taco Stand August 19, 2008. The restaurant will reopen as Tres Amigos with some Willis recipes.
Chef Paul Willis in the original Yucatan Taco Stand August 19, 2008. The restaurant will reopen as Tres Amigos with some Willis recipes.