Crystal Wise
Restaurateur Brian Sneed at Quince in Fort Worth.
There’s on-the-job training and then there’s Brian Sneed’s version of on-the-job training.
In preparing for the opening of Quince, his popular WestBend restaurant that overlooks the Trinity, Sneed treated his chefs to trips to restaurants around the world — to New York, Mexico, and other locales near and far — so they could experience the same culinary euphoria that inspires him.
By exposing them to the sights, smells, and tastes of some of the world’s most renowned restaurants, the restaurants that served as Quince’s blueprint, Sneed is ensuring that Quince will be a truly unique destination for Fort Worth diners.
“I took the chefs to my favorite culinary destinations, including New Orleans; Lima, Peru; Mexico City; New York City; and others,” he says. “These are the cities and the restaurants that inspire our menu. We are continually training and applying that training to our menus.”
Crystal Wise
The end result is a menu that spans as many flavor profiles as it does continents. There are pastas, ceviches, yakimeshi (Japanese fried rice), sushi, hamburgers, seafood, grilled meats, breakfast dishes, and much more. An extensive drink menu includes wines from around the world, craft cocktails, and specialty carajillos (Mexican cocktails spiked with espresso), along with non-boozy options such as smoothies and juices.
Sneed calls the menu, brought to life by executive chef Gonzalo Martinez, “a global collective.”
The same global-cuisine-with-a-killer-view approach has been a bona fide hit in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where Sneed opened the original Quince in 2016 through the investment group Rooftop Venture Partners. The company’s name is a nod to Quince San Miguel’s rooftop dining space and its exquisite views of the surrounding area, which include the historic La Parroquia, a 17th-century parish church known for its neo-Gothic, ornate architecture. Thanks to those views, Robb Report Magazine named the restaurant the “No. 1 Rooftop Restaurant in the World” two years in a row and also called it the “No. 1 Rooftop Destination in the World.”
A third location of Quince recently opened in west Austin, on a waterfront property docked right on the banks of the picturesque Lake Austin. Like its siblings, it, too, offers Instagram-ready views.
Although opening restaurants was never a part of Sneed’s life plan, in a way he’s been preparing for Quince since childhood, even if those preparations weren’t deliberate.
As a native of Metairie, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans, he grew up surrounded by beautiful architecture and incredible food. But at that point in his life, his interests were steeped in playing basketball and becoming a doctor.
“Growing up in New Orleans was a lot of fun,” he says. “I love the lifestyle that never passes up an occasion to celebrate. Fortunately, I was also able to focus on school and basketball.”
After high school, Sneed moved to Fort Worth to attend Texas Christian University, where he was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity and a pre-med major. Just a few months before he graduated in 1993, he had an epiphany.
“I decided as a senior I had no desire to be a doctor,” he says. “I graduated and immediately started working for a startup hedge fund. That led me to being a partner in a $2 billion fund.”
Sneed spent the next two decades in the hedge fund industry, traveling the globe to meet and often entertain brokers and other clients over dinners at top-tier restaurants. “I never missed an opportunity to try the latest and greatest restaurants,” he says. “All of those experiences, along with growing up in New Orleans, helped expand my palate and restaurant experiences for the future concept of Quince.”
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The city that truly inspired him, he says, was San Miguel, Mexico, where he found a dilapidated building rooftop with potential written all over it.
“It was initially more of a selfish investment in a concept and menu I wanted in one of my favorite cities,” he says. “At that point in time, about eight years ago, rooftop restaurants were more often bars with limited or subpar food. Even in the most spectacular locations around the world, I found the food and experience rarely matched the location. I wanted a place that heightened all the senses, and most destination restaurants don’t do that.”
Along with globe-trotting food meant to appeal to a vast swath of diners, from foodies to hipsters to regular ol’ diners to kids, Sneed puts an emphasis on good service.
“I was a server for several months when I was a senior, and honestly, I wasn’t very good or focused at the job,” he says. “Due to this, I am always impressed with our server teams and managers and how good they are with clients, their knowledge of the menu and making clients feel special. We really encourage our servers to get to know the clients and talk to them about more than the food and drinks.”
Sneed says many diners ask him why the Fort Worth location didn’t come first. He’s lived here, after all, for 30 years. Well, he says, it could have.
“If I had had my way, Fort Worth would have actually been No. 1,” he says. “More than 10 years ago, I made an offer on another plot of land up the river, but the owner turned down my offer and I ended up finding the rooftop in San Miguel while having drinks with a buddy in the courtyard below.”
But the success of the original gave him the knowledge to open the Fort Worth location.
“I truly love Fort Worth,” he says. “I’ve lived here for 30 years, raised my family here, and wanted to bring my concept home. I felt Fort Worth would embrace it and appreciate it the most. Maybe it’s a little selfish, but I wanted our kids to have a Quince in their hometown.”
