Olaf Growald
It’s like a scene from “The Last Picture Show” or something you’d come across while zooming down Route 66, this ramshackle building eking out of a dusty stretch of U.S. Highway 80. Faded by the sun and time, its old signage boasts of “indoor plumbing,” and the front door squeaks like the screen door to your grandmother’s house.
Step inside, and you’ll find old-school Italian food served in an equally old-school setting: pizza and pasta and freshly made bread served on tables lined with checkerboard tablecloths. Here, among the dim lights, glittery red booths, and the jukebox that plays 33 1/3 records by Elvis, The Beatles, and Dean Martin, time has stood unapologetically still.
Olaf Growald
Margie’s Original Italian Restaurant is one of the city’s oldest eateries, dating to 1953. That year, Italian immigrant Margie Walters opened the restaurant with her mother and brother, who all moved to Fort Worth two years prior. Walters passed away in 1991, and the restaurant’s lease was picked up by Keith Kidwell and the late Paul Willis, founder of Fuzzy’s. Kidwell owns another historic restaurant, M&M Steakhouse, on the city’s north side. It recently closed — another win for COVID-19.
Amid the pandemic, Margie’s, too, was in danger of closing permanently. But Kidwell has managed to keep the doors open, much to the delight of regulars who swear by Margie’s signature dishes: housemade lasagna, slathered in tomato sauce and cheese; escargot; crab and lobster cheese dip; and excellent pizza pies, their crusts a perfect balance of pillowy and crunchy.
Olaf Growald
If the pandemic’s second wave shows mercy, the fruits of Kidwell’s labor could pay off in strides, thanks to something that has long eluded the area: progress. After years of inactivity, this desolate slice of the far west side is starting to come alive.
Behind Margie’s is the new Westland Gardens, a hip nursery and garden store that also sells fresh produce. Within minutes are high-end housing developments, such as Montserrat and its next phase sibling, Montrachet, as well as the brand-new Ventana development. A whole new generation of Fort Worthians could be on the cusp of discovering this unpolished gem of a restaurant.
Olaf Growald
“Obviously, that’s what we’re all hoping for,” Kidwell says. “Any time you have people coming to a new area, places like Margie’s have the opportunity to benefit from it, places that are one of a kind.”
Growth has been a long time coming. Decades ago, businesses thrived along this spine of Highway 80, once a major thoroughfare. But they began to fade in the 1970s when then-new I-20 bypassed the area.
Olaf Growald
What’s kept the restaurant alive is Kidwell’s admirably stubborn attitude toward not changing it. “The pizza oven I’m using now is at least 45 years old,” he says, laughing. “That’s what people love about Margie’s, the fact that it has practically been the same since the 1950s. It’s one of the last restaurants in Fort Worth to have that historical feel — and that’s worth preserving.”
9805 Camp Bowie West, margiesitaliankitchen.com
