Crystal Wise
The east side will soon be home to one of the city’s most ambitious new restaurants. La Onda, opening this spring in the burgeoning Riverside Arts district, at 2905 Race St., will specialize in raw and cooked seafood dishes and craft cocktails. The restaurant takes over a historic bungalow last occupied by the Gypsy Scoops ice-cream parlor.
The concept is the first joint venture for local couple Victor and Misty Villarreal. “I’m handling the food; she’s handling the drinks,” says Victor, a Fort Worth-based chef who has worked in some of the city’s most high-profile restaurants, including Grace and Clay Pigeon. “It’s 50-50 all the way.”
Victor’s Latin-inspired food menu will focus on raw and cooked seafood. Dishes will include seasonal oysters and mussels on the half shell; a smoked clam and scallop ceviche; seafood charcuterie boards (amusingly called “sharkuterie”); and raw seafood towers with oysters, shrimp, and mussels.
He’s planning on serving dry-aged fish, too, along with an item you don’t see on a lot of Fort Worth menus: caviar. “When you say ‘caviar,’ people automatically think crazy-expensive,” Victor says. “But we’ll have at least four or five different kinds in different price ranges.”
Misty’s cocktail menu will focus on drinks made with artisanal mezcals and pisco, the latter of which Misty describes as an underrated Peruvian brandy. There will be a house sangria made with Verdejo wine, a coconut-ginger margarita, and rotating agua frescas, in both boozy and booze-free varieties.
The interior walls of the historic bungalow will be covered in Latin-inspired artwork from local artists. Outside on the front porch, there will be a small seating area for those who like to sip and linger.
Crystal Wise
Victor and Misty Villarreal
Victor and Misty met two years ago when they both worked at the Fort Worth Food Hall. Misty was general manager and bar manager while Victor ran a food stall called Abe Froman’s. When business at the Food Hall began to wane, Villarreal’s mind began to wander, his thoughts turning toward, as they had for years, opening his own restaurant under his own roof.
Misty encouraged Victor to pursue his passion, helping him map out the restaurant’s concept. The two began dating, then eventually became partners in life and business.
“The Food Hall was a great experience — it taught me how to run my own kitchen, manage my own staff, all the things a restaurant-owner needs to learn,” Victor says. “But it also brought Misty and I together. And without her, I wouldn’t be doing this.”
