Crystal Wise
Trey Chapman
Like a foodie’s version of saying grace, it’s a pre-meal ritual for Trey Chapman to snap a pic of whatever dish might be in front of him. The photo of the culinary adventure will ultimately get an amusing caption and appear on the Instagram feed for Trey’s Chow Down, the food blog he’s been tirelessly updating since 2005.
Thanks to Chow Down’s popularity — coupled with his extroverted personality and fashion sense — Trey has become one of the most recognizable figures in the Fort Worth culinary scene.
Rocking colorful sport coats and thick-rimmed glasses that would make Buddy Holly proud, Trey attributes his combination of flavor and style to his parents, Barney and Carol — themselves heirs to a thriving restaurant business. The Chapmans, who became restaurateurs with the 1905 opening of Lacy’s in Lake Worth, owned a plethora of Fort Worth eateries by the time Trey was of age to wash dishes. Filling almost any available role at his family’s dining spots, Trey became the Tarzan of restaurateurs — growing up around chefs, waiters, and busboys and spending 40 years working at seemingly every diner and dive the city had to offer.
By virtue of this experience, Trey gained a heartfelt appreciation for any meal he is ever served.
“When people realized how much experience I had in the restaurant business — and that I knew what I was talking about — they trusted my reviews,” Trey says. “That's when the blog took off. That's when I realized it would be different.”
On the cusp of the digital age, when Facebook was a mere 1-year-old, Trey launched a website to share his thoughts on local restaurants. He became a food blogger before blogging about food was even a thing, and his site became the de facto source for all things delicious in Fort Worth. Today, Trey has expanded his brand to include podcasting, travel blogging, and regularly hosting food segments on the local FOX and ABC affiliates.
“The podcast has been a success because I’ve wanted to get on networks to spread the news about food,” Trey says. “I enjoy doing it because I can highlight restaurants and promote food and chefs. People work hard, and I want to put them on my platform.”
Far from being smug or elitist with his culinary choices, Trey reviews anything from $1 tacos to $500 four-course meals.
“I like to help the people working hard,” he says. “I know the heart behind those grills. I love doing it and hearing their stories. Nothing goes better with food than stories.”
