Thanin Viriyaki
In a city where the smoke from backyard pits and the sizzle of brisket on the grill have long marked Fort Worth’s culinary heartbeat, few restaurants have captured the city’s soul like Drew’s Place.
Since 1987, Drew and Stephanie Thomas have been serving up southern-fried staples in a bustling corner of Fort Worth’s Como neighborhood, turning a former dentist’s office into a gathering place where generations of local families have celebrated milestones, shared stories, and savored the flavors of home. This week, Drew’s Place cemented its spot in American food history: it’s one of 50 small restaurants nationwide to receive a $50,000 grant from American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, honoring it as a true culinary and cultural landmark.
For locals, Drew’s Place sits alongside Fort Worth icons like Carshon’s Deli, Joe T. Garcia’s, and the Paris Coffee Shop — a testament to its status as a city staple. The restaurant’s story begins in Forest Hill, where the first iteration of Drew’s Soul Food opened its doors. The move to Como brought the restaurant into a 1960s dentist’s office, “complete with a lattice roof, rock wall, and other elements of midcentury modern decor, most of which the couple has kept intact,” our food writer Malcolm Mayhew pointed out in Feb.
For more than three decades, Drew’s Place has become synonymous with Southern comfort food. Their crunchy fried chicken is legendary, converting first-timers into regulars with every bite. However, the menu itself extends well beyond the chicken: smothered pork chops, chicken-fried steak, collard greens, broccoli rice cheese casserole, cornbread, and other housemade staples recall the kind of home-cooked meals that define Texas comfort food. And for dessert, the sweet potato pie is a tender, sweet punctuation to a perfect meal.
Drew’s acclaim stretches beyond Fort Worth. The restaurant has appeared in numerous publications, including ours, where the local eatery earned the coveted cover of our February 2025 issue.
This initiative — which is in its fifth year — has invested over $8 million in 180 restaurants across the U.S., Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, supporting family-owned establishments that preserve culinary traditions while nurturing their local communities, according to a release.
Madge Thomas, Head of Corporate Sustainability at American Express, shared, “Our 2025 grantees reflect the deep-rooted food traditions that define American communities, and we hope these grants spark ripple effects that sustain them in the future.”
Drew’s Place 5701 Curzon Ave., Fort Worth, TX, drewssoulfoodfwtx.site
