When I was a student at TCU, there were a few establishments where you could often find me. When I wasn't at the library, of course, I would frequent spots like Snookies, The Cellar, Texadelphia, Jon's Grille, Oui Lounge and Ocean Rock, just to name a few. There's one thing all of these places have in common. None of them exist anymore. Snookies became The Tavern; The Cellar closed recently to become a parking garage; Texadelphia eventually became a Buffalo Bros (but look for a new one to open soon); Jon's would become Dutch"s; the Oui is now Fred"s; and Ocean Rock is now Rock Bottom, or The Rock or The Bottom. I can't keep up.
While change and new beginnings are an inevitable fact of life, each time one of these staples closed, it was just plain sad. I returned to a Fort Worth filled with new places that I was excited to try, but missing some old friends.
I thought competition was strong then, but I hadn't seen anything yet. The local restaurant world has become even more ruthless. "The Fort Worth restaurant biz is a cruel villain sitting in a swivel chair stroking a hairless cat," said "Chow, Baby" in a Fort Worth Weekly blog post. This month, writer Celestina Blok explores some of the restaurants that were chewed up and spit out by said "biz" over the last year in her feature, "The Chopping Block," on page 72.
Where you couldn't find me in college was anywhere on the Trinity River, because basically, "life on the river" just wasn't a thing yet. Since then, development, residential and commercial alike, has made its way to the banks of the Trinity in the form of homes, restaurants, shopping centers, mixed-use developments, mixed-use developments–and did I say mixed-use developments? Writer Jennifer Casseday-Blair takes us on a tour of the Trinity from established neighborhoods to new housing developments and everything in between with her perfectly flowing story on page 58.
I checked out one of the new Trinity River haunts recently when Press Café opened at the Trailhead at Clearfork. The food was delicious, the scenery was perfect and the patio is next level…literally. I hope this spot is a sign of much more to come. But really, I just hope it sticks around for a while.
