By Celestina Blok
Business Press Food Writer
Although M&O Station Grill, the six-year-old burger joint located at 200 Carroll St. between White Settlement Road and West Seventh Street, has won awards in local burger competitions, the small diner hasn’t been able to sustain a dinner crowd large enough to warrant staying open during evening hours. Now owner and chef Danny Badillo will try breakfast instead. “The line is usually to the door for lunch most days of the week,” Badillo said. “Lunch keeps us going.” Badillo says offering bottled beer didn’t work to attract more area workers for dinner. He hopes early morning hours and hot breakfast entrées will draw more of the industrial district’s workforce. Signature plates, including huevos rancheros and stacked enchiladas topped with fried egg, range from $6.25 for a basic two eggs with bacon and toast to $9.95 for thinly sliced smoked salmon over cream cheese-slathered bagels. Omelets range from $8.25 for ham and cheese to $8.99 for green chili chicken and chili cheddar cheese. Area workers on the go regularly fill the dining room at nearby Daybreak Cafe & Grill (open daily at 5 a.m.) for cheap breakfast burritos, egg plates and coffee. Badillo hopes they might be interested in M&O’s hefty, griddle-seared brisket and refried bean burrito ($4.99), which can come with scrambled eggs for 95 cents more. M&O Station Grill won second place in last month’s inaugural Battle of the Burger at the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame. The restaurant, which is adjacent to the free Leonard’s Department Store museum, is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Pop-N-Cream coming to Montgomery Plaza Fort Worth will get a new candy shop this summer when Pop-N-Cream opens in Montgomery Plaza. The brainchild of Dallas-based general contractor Frank Bowles, Pop-N-Cream will serve two to three dozen flavors of Blue Bell ice cream along with gourmet popcorn and more than 200 colorful candy offerings. Bowles built two gourmet popcorn stores for a client in Dallas before deciding to try out the concept for himself. “I studied it for three years,” Bowles said of the gourmet popcorn and candy shop model. “I think that ice cream is a natural addition to popcorn and candy.” Popcorn varieties will include seven cheese flavors, jalapeno, pickle, and zebra – caramel corn drizzled with light and dark chocolate. “It’s habit-forming,” Bowles said. Bowles’ niece will manage the shop, to be located at 2600 W. Seventh St. in suite 135. A late July opening is anticipated. Cafe Medi expanding to Keller Hurst’s Cafe Medi, which has built a loyal following in the Mid-Cities for Middle Eastern, Greek and Mediterranean cuisine, will open a second location in July in Old Town Keller. The eight-year-old restaurant will take over the former Milk & Honey Co. space at 129 Olive St. Manager Elena Baker says much of the restaurant’s growing customer base comes from the Southlake and Keller areas. The new location will feature a patio and private party room along with the same BYOB designation and menu (which includes a hookah list) as the original locale.
Hot Damn! Tamales now open late Hot Damn! Tamales, located at 713 W. Magnolia Ave., is now open until 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, offering tapas, beer, sangria and live music. The sharable small plates change weekly but popular favorites so far include tomato sauce-doused goat cheese and a chicken salad potato stack. Hot Damn! Tamales, known for its gourmet tamale varieties including wild mushroom goat cheese and cowboy barbecue, is open for lunch Monday through Saturday at 11 a.m. and brunch on Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.