Celestina Blok
Business Press Restraurant Reporter
Juan Solis, part owner of The Usual craft cocktail bar, looked to his mother, Tina, a native of Mexico, to plan the menu for his first solo restaurant venture, Tina’s Cocina, which is set to open in mid-September at 961 W. Magnolia Ave. “My mom came up with the menu,” he said. “We’ll serve basic dishes with fresh ingredients.”
Boasting high quality, affordably priced “working class food,” Tina’s will serve traditional Mexican taqueria dishes such as tacos, tortas, burritos and quesadillas as well as less familiar items such as fideo (vermicelli noodles simmered in tomato sauce), albondigas (a Mexican meatball soup) and posole (a stew typically made with hominy, shredded pork and fresh cabbage). Chorizo and barbacoa will be made in-house and Solis has plans for vegetarian options, including spinach and mushroom tacos. The casual, BYOB restaurant will be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and will offer a take-out window for late-night orders as well as a covered patio. Solis also hopes to open a Tex-Mex-style sports bar next door early next year.
Pour House to revamp as a craft beer destination While the West Seventh Street bridge gets its highly anticipated makeover, the nearby Pour House is quietly undergoing a major transformation of its own. Revamping itself as a craft beer destination, the Pour House will add 70 microbrew taps by month’s end, with a focus on local beers. The Garage, the Pour House’s neighboring night club that opened in 2011 offering a lounge scene, specialty cocktails and dance music, will turn into a game room with pool tables, dart boards, shuffleboard and Golden Tee golf. A new, scaled-back menu of dishes that pair well with craft beer will be launched when the renovation is complete. Meanwhile, The Pour House’s full menu is available in The Garage while the bar and restaurant is under construction. The main bar, which formerly anchored the space, will be moved and the entire venue will get a facelift to add more light. Eric Tschetter opened the Pour House downtown in 1995 but was forced to close in 2008 after XTO Energy purchased the bar’s building. Tschetter reopened in 2009 at 2725 W. Seventh St.
Openings Adam Jones’ new Little Red Wasp, named for his wife’s childhood nickname, is now open at 808 Main St. in downtown, offering lunch (starting Sept. 9), dinner and late-night dining seven days a week until midnight. Located a block from Jones’ Grace, which is also named for his wife, Little Red Wasp is serving “knife+fork” sandwiches ($10-$19), entrée salads ($12-$19) and daily features such as spaghetti and meatballs ($16), Arctic char ($26) and New York strip ($36). Brunch service will begin Sept. 21. Also open is Max’s Wine Dive at 2421 W. Seventh St., offering dinner daily and daytime hours Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Touting festive pairings such as hot dogs and shiraz or fried chicken and champagne, the Houston-based chain features an extensive wine list with bottles for retail sale.
Meanwhile, Sera Dining & Wine is set to open this month in the former Sapristi space at 2418 Forest Park Blvd. The French-Spanish-inspired specialty tapas restaurant will bring Brandon Hudson, former sous chef at Dallas’ Smoke, and former Sapristi general manager John Marsh back to Fort Worth as the two have partnered to open the venue, with Hudson serving as executive chef. The menu will feature shareable plates such as crispy sardines with Meyer lemon aioli and slow-cooked suckling pig with quinoa and herbs. The restaurant will be open for dinner Tuesday through Saturday and once a month for “Sunday supper.”