Olaf Growald
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a way of slowing things down for a lot of folks in 2020 — not so for Chris Reale who, this year, was given the reins to two of Fort Worth’s oldest institutions.
Reale is the owner and operator of Roy Pope, the 77-year-old West Side grocery store he’s revamping with restaurateur Lou Lambert and real estate veterans Rodger Chieffalo and Mark Harris. By early next year, the same group also plans to finalize its purchase of Paris Coffee Shop, the 95-year-old diner on Magnolia Avenue.
But there’s another project keeping Reale busy in 2020 — a drumming gig with alternative metal band My Perfect End.
“Metal’s weird; I don’t listen to metal often at all,” Reale says. “I got into metal because it’s demanding. I love fast-pace, odd time signatures, pushing myself as much as I can.”
Reale’s been putting time in the studio recording singles for My Perfect End — the first band he’s played for in a while. He used to play all the time as a teenager, jamming out with a thrash metal group made up of guys older than he was. He even played a few gigs at Ridglea Theater, just down the street from Roy Pope.
A desire to become a chef, however, won out over any dreams of becoming a rock star. Reale hopped around several food joints — his first cooking job was at Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse downtown — but his breakthrough came from Lambert’s Fort Worth, the namesake restaurant of his future business partner.
“I wanted to go to culinary school, and [Lambert] just put the kibosh on it,” Reale says. “He was like, ‘No, that’s a horrible idea. You already know how to cook … You need to understand the business.’”
So, Lambert took Reale under his wing. Even after the restaurant closed in 2012, the two continued working together on various food concepts, including the Campo Smokehouse food truck that used to be parked out at Clearfork. Now, the duo and their partners are knee-deep in the renovation of Roy Pope, anticipating a reopening in early 2021 — right around the time the sale is expected to close on Paris Coffee Shop.
Reale admits the days can get quite long working between both projects. It helps, though, to have an outlet to blow off steam — preferably, something loud and bangy, with an appropriately complex rhythm.
“[Music is] just for me,” he says. “This is what my heart needs.”
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My Perfect End, recording their first music video for their song, “Beautiful Victim.”
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Chris’ “home away from home,” El Pescadero in Baja California Sur.
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Roasting a pig for an episode of Cooking Channel’s “Man Fire Food.”
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Chris and Lou Lambert (left) doing what they do best.
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Chris once cooked for the Bush family at their ranch in South Texas.
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Chris’ “two kids,” Peter and Banks.
My Favorite Local Metal Bands
Aesop
In Resistance
Orchards
A Tragedy at Hand
Dispositions
My Top 5 Metal Albums
Oceano - Ascendants
And Hell Followed With - Proprioception
Lamb Of God - Ashes of the Wake
Pantera - Vulgar Display of Power
Living Sacrifice - Reborn
