Wondering where to take out-of-town guests in Fort Worth this Christmas? Here’s a guide.
Christmas is indeed the happiest time of the year.
‘Tis the season for trimming the perfect tree, drinking eggnog and enjoying the yuletide season with family. It is also when guests from out of town arrive to share in the merriment. Entertaining them can be chore — especially if you have no idea where to take them.
Do not worry for Fort Worth has plenty to offer. But where do you begin?
From food, drink, music to a festive ice rink, here is a Fort Worth guide of things to do and places to visit with your out-of-town guests.
A Fort Worth for foodies
In the past year, the Star-Telegram has asked our readers their favorite places to eat tacos, pizzas, burgers and fried chicken. Thousands responded with nominations and even more voted for their favorite picks.
Our people have spoken and this is what they think are the best eats in Cowtown.
TACOS
After more than 192,000 votes over four rounds, these are the restaurants and food trucks that got the most votes.
The top-finishing restaurant was Los Pastores (3806 E. Rosedale St.). Flores Foods (4025 Hemphill St.) was the winning food truck.
Rounding out the Top 5 for Readers’ Choice were Birrieria y Taqueria Cortez restaurant (2220 E. Rosedale St.), JesCrave food truck (3004 Cullen St.) and El Rincon del Taco food truck (2 Gaffield Rd., Justin).
This unscientific poll started with 50 restaurants and food trucks nominated by Star-Telegram readers.
PIZZAS
Growing up on the East Coast, Charlie Green wanted to bring an exceptional pizza product from New York City to the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.
After sampling dozens of pizzas, he met Sal Vatore Olivella, a fifth-generation pizza maker from one of the oldest families in Naples, Italy.
“The family was among a handful of people that practically invented pizza as we know it today,” Green said. Named after Olivella himself, they opened a restaurant near Southern Methodist University.
Fifteen years later, Olivella’s Pizza & Wine came out on top in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Readers’ Choice contest for best pizza. Nearly 29,000 votes were cast by Star-Telegram readers this month on our ballot of 15 restaurants, all of which were the top nominated pizza places around Fort Worth.
In the final round, Olivella’s — known for its Neapolitan classic round pizza and Roman style thin crust — garnered 47% of total votes, followed by Pizza Buzz (5418 Basswood Blvd.), Mama’s Pizza (1813 Berry St.), i Fratelli Pizza Fort Worth and Buffalo Bros.
Olivella’s operates a small, mostly carry-out restaurant on Camp Bowie Boulevard, along with the restaurant in University Park near SMU and a third in Northeast Dallas.
BURGERS
Sweet Sugar High won the mobile food truck category and Hookers Grill won the restaurant category in the Star-Telegram Readers’ Choice Best Burger contest. They bested 21 nominees after two rounds of voting — with thousands casting a ballot for their favorite bite. The other eight finalists also staked a spot in many of our readers’ appetites.
Sweet Sugar High’s burger menu is simple and compact:
Smashburger is their signature burger and perhaps their most popular item.
Mac Daddy is served with a dollop of real mac and cheese.
Big Hog Mac, true to its name, is served with a heaping portion of pulled pork and comes with or without the mac and cheese.
Big Boy Mexicano comes with homemade salsa, grilled jalapenos and onions. It is served with a healthy sprinkling of Cotija cheese and a quick drizzle of Juan’s special sauce: “So it’s got that sweet spicy, savory all-in-one flavor,” Catherine Fernandez said.
Judging by the reviews, the burgers here are righteous.
“So filling and cured my pregnancy craving for a burger,” a Facebook reviewer wrote. “I would’ve taken a photo but I already scarfed my food down.”
The burgers are made with either Wagyu or regular 80/20 beef patties. Layered on the patty is American cheese, then the freshest lettuce and seasoned tomatoes. They are served in a brioche bun — “They complement the flavor really well because they have a sweet buttery texture to them,” Fernandez said. — with a sweet and tangy sauce.
They try to serve at least 5 days a week, barring time constraints with catering jobs. You can follow the trail of the Sweet Sugar High food truck through their Instagram account, where they post their hours, location and menu. Just don’t ask for French fries.
Hooker’s Grill — Ruth Hooker is the owner and operator of this burger restaurant located in the Stockyards (213 W Exchange Ave.) that is known for its fried onion burger. She knows that a customer can get a burger at another restaurant, fast food joint or even a gas station. So when they make their way to the family-run eatery, it’s special.
“If somebody’s coming here to have a burger, I know they have passed about 20 burger places to get here,” she said. “I do not take that lightly. We understand when someone comes here, it’s because they wanted to.”
The flagship menu item at Hooker’s Grill is the fried onion burger. It is essentially a patty cooked on the flat top grill with plenty of onions on top. As the meat cooks and is flipped over, the onions get caramelized on the grill, adding to the full flavor of the burger.
Other menu items include a chili dog, grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwich, hamburger steak and even a veggie burger, which Hooker said was added to make sure there was something for everyone on the menu. Another notable item on the menu is the Indian taco, inspired by Hooker’s own Native American, Choctaw heritage.
FRIED CHICKEN
The Babe’s Chicken House — This fan favorite has locations scattered across North and Central Texas, from Roanoke to Granbury. The restaurants serve fried chicken that tastes just like the ones people grew up with.
Paul Vinyard, owner of Babe’s, said he’ll never forget the first time someone cried at his Roanoke fried chicken restaurant.
He walked into the dining room to find a woman bawling at her table and he was unsure how to help. He thought: Is the food that bad? Did someone say something to hurt her feelings? Finally, he asked her what he could do.
“I’m sorry. Your fried chicken tastes just like my mother’s,” Paul recalls her saying. She had died six months before, the customer told him.
Drew’s Place — Off of Camp Bowie Boulevard, on the corner of Horne Street and Curzon Avenue is a community staple of the Como neighborhood called Drew’s Place.
Owned and operated by Drew Thomas, wife Stephanie and their daughter, Krystal, Drew’s Place, 5701 Curzon Ave., serves up home cooking and soul food with crowd pleasers like fried chicken and homemade desserts.
Drew’s Place’s most popular dish is fried chicken — an item that was not listed when it first started. The restaurant was one of three finalists in the Star-Telegram’s Readers’ Choice poll for the best fried chicken.
Jesús Family Restaurant — Beef enchiladas, hard-shell tacos and burritos are staples at Jesús Family Restaurant, but it is the fried chicken that has customers craving more.
For over 50 years, the family-run restaurant has been serving Tex-Mex at 810 S. Main St. Hamburgers, fried pies, chicken-fried steak and fried chicken round out the menu that has rarely changed since Jesús Borja opened the restaurant all those years ago.
Cowtown watering holes
From rooftop bars to hipster speakeasy taverns, here are a few watering holes to take your visitors.
ROOFTOP BARS
If you enjoy overlooking the city skyline with an alcoholic beverage in hand, perhaps a rooftop bar could in the cards for your next night out in Fort Worth.
From sprawling hotels to historic buildings, the Fort Worth skyline is one of a kind in Texas. Here’s where to find rooftop bars in the city.
SPEAKEASY-STYLE BARS
If you’re looking to enjoy a low-key night in Fort Worth, a speakeasy-style bar might be a good option.
Speakeasies were secret establishments that illegally sold alcohol during the Prohibition period between 1920-1933.
A hundred years later, the concept of lounges emulating speakeasies has grown in popularity over the last couple of decades with several in the Fort Worth area.
Here are seven speakeasy-style spots in Fort Worth to check out.
Funkytown’s music scene
If you are looking for a rocking good night while your guests are in town, here is a list of Fort Worth’s venerable music halls and a concert lineup through the end of the year.
This list includes Fort Worth staples like Magnolia Motor Lounge, Lola’s and Tulips. Relax and enjoy live bands play country, blues, rock and jazz.
Celluloid chic: A Fort Worth theater to experience
Driving into the Fort Worth Stockyards along the red brick road of Main Street, a theater with as much history as Cowtown greets locals and travelers alike.
On the outside are dozens of lit light bulbs under the marque with a non-operational neon sign above it reading “New Isis.”
Pedestrians walk by, curiously looking at the entrance or peering into the windows.
It’s been a while since anyone has been able to visit the theater.
For longtime Fort Worth natives, the Isis Theatre, located at 2401 N. Main St., may be remembered as the deteriorating theater that was shut down for over 30 years.
Before working as publicist for the Downtown Cowtown at the Isis Theatre, Fort Worth resident Lee Littlefield said he remembers driving past the boarded up building years ago wondering what would become of it.
Until theater professionals Jeffrey and Debbie Smith bought the building in 2016, the future of the over 100 year old building was uncertain.
It has been a year since the Isis Theatre, also known as Downtown Cowtown at the Isis Theatre, reopened. This single screen theater shows movies three times a day, seven days a week and features a 1920s style cocktail lounge.
What sets the theater apart from the typical multiplex cinemas of today is that anyone can pick a movie from the rotating list of 40 titles to watch—they just have to be the first to show up ahead of the screening time.
— Megan Cardona
Texas-sized Christmas light display
More than 1 million holiday lights are shining bright on Fort Worth’s Christmas season.
Lightscape brought custom-designed artistic light installations, tunnels, sculptures and flowers to the Fort Worth Botanic Garden off University Drive. Until Jan. 8, visitors can explore a one-mile winding walking trail.
The event, presented by Bank of America and produced by Sony Music, is the first time Lightscape has come to North Texas after sold-out runs in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago in recent years.
The light show first launched in 2014 at the Royal Botanic Gardens in London and later expanded throughout Europe, the U.S. and Australia. Each trail across the world is designed to highlight the individual location’s unique environment.
In true Texas fashion, the walking path features illuminated bluebonnets and installations curated specifically for Fort Worth including lilies, falling leaves, singing trees, lomandra grasses and roses.
— Jenny Rudolph
Largest outdoor ice rink in DFW
The newest attraction in Grapevine — the “Christmas Capital of Texas” — the Peace Plaza Ice Rink, opened Nov. 18. It will be open to the public until Jan. 8. Tickets are $20 per person and can be purchased online at ChristmasCapitalofTexas.com, as well as in-person based on availability.
Joining the city’s numerous holiday festivities, the 4,500-square-foot ice rink will be located on Peace Plaza in front of Grapevine Main Station, home to Harvest Hall.
“Just when you thought the Christmas Capital of Texas couldn’t get any bigger, now visitors will be able to enjoy the largest outdoor ice rink in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex,” said PW McCallum, executive director of the Grapevine Convention & Visitors Bureau, in a press release. “We’re thrilled to add this magnificent new attraction, and we look forward to the fun holiday memories visitors will create at the Peace Plaza Ice Rink.”
On the ice rink, skaters will have a view of the towering live Christmas tree that stands over 50 feet tall. Christmas attractions within walking distance include photos with Santa near the North Pole Neighborhood, shopping and dining along Historic Main Street, the North Pole Express and the new Holly Jolly Bar in Harvest Hall.
Skating sessions are one hour long with 15 minutes in between each. You can check-in with your confirmation email or mobile ticket for your selected date and time. Skaters can park at the Grapevine Main Parking Garage (255 E. Dallas Rd.) or the Grapevine Convention & Visitors Bureau (636 S. Main St.).
— Dalia Faheid
