One of Fort Worth’s most well-known culinary teams will open an upscale Italian restaurant on the west side of downtown.
Called 61 Osteria, it will open on the street level of the First on 7th tower, a midcentury modern-style building at 500 West 7th St., whose current tenants include the Buon Giorno coffeehouse and Neighbor’s House Grocery, a combination restaurant and grocery store.
The restaurant will be operated by Adam Jones, the well-known restaurateur who also owns downtown fine dining spot GRACE and its bistro sibling Little Red Wasp. Joining him as executive chef will be Blaine Staniford, who also serves as executive chef at GRACE and Little Red Wasp.
GRACE
Blaine Staniford will be the executive chef at 61 Osteria, a new Italian restaurant opening downtown in 2022.
According to a release, dishes will emphasize fresh, locally sourced grains, flour and produce from Texas farms and mills. The menu will include items such as prawns with charred lemon, pappardelle pasta with pork ragu, and bisteca alla florentina, dry-aged bone-in ribeye with heirloom tomatoes, wild arugula, and 25-year balsamic vinegar, according to a CultureMap story. A wine list will emphasize Italian producers; craft cocktails will pay homage to Italian classics, says the CultureMap story.
With floor-to-ceiling windows spanning its western and southern walls, diners will be afforded views of Burnett Park. The restaurant will also offer a shaded outdoor space amid modernist sculptures by famed designer Isamu Noguchi.
“The location of 61 Osteria is very cosmopolitan — the park, the sculptures, the midcentury look, the huge patio, all the glass,” Jones said in a release.
The number 61 holds a certain amount of significance for Jones: it’s the year he was born. Coincidentally, the recently refurbished First on 7th building originally opened, as a bank, in 1961.
61 Osteria is expected to open mid-2022.
