Eating Your Way Through Fort Worth at the Food & Wine Festival

Eating Your Way Through Fort Worth at the Food & Wine Festival

Hey DFW! Ready to go on a food adventure with me?! So for those of you who have been following me on Instagram, you may have noticed that I have been exploring Fort Worth and we have been LOVING it! There is so much to Fort Worth that we were not aware of especially when it comes to foods! Typically we always eat in Dallas or Southlake for date nights . Now we found some new spots to eat at all in Fort Worth. Be sure to stay tuned to my Fort Worth Travel Guide blog post coming up. One way we were able to explore the local foods of Fort Worth was through their annual Fort Worth Food & Wine Festival in April. I have never heard of it before and I was so happy to have experienced it and I am going to share with you why you should go to the Fort Worth Food & Wine Festival too!

WHAT IS THE FOOD & WINE FESTIVAL?

The Fort Worth Food & Wine Festival is an annual 3-day festival during Fort Worth’s Festival Season. In the month of April, Fort Worth has a few different festivals. I have always attended the Main Street Arts festival every year since I was teen, but the Food & Wine Festival was something new. I was excited to experience it because it is the best way to experience foods from the locals in Fort Worth. The goal of the festival is to raise awareness of the Fort Worth food scene and give back by way of grant programs and culinary scholarships.

The restaurants that participated are not chains such as Olive Garden but pretty much only have locations or 1 location in Fort Worth. We were amazed of all the yummy food and drinks that we got to experience. So it is a great weekend get a taste of some amazing spots in Fort Worth without driving all over the city and you can do it in a 3 day weekend.

There are about 6 different events for the actual festival: Tacos & Tequila, Main Event, Desserts After Dark, Culinary Corral, Burgers, Brews & Blues and Ring of Fire. We attended 3 of them: Desserts After Dark, Culinary Corral, Burgers, and Ring of Fire and were loved this combination because we got a variety of foods to taste. They give you a cool plate that has a nice spot for your cup to sit on. You go to station to station and try out the foods that are available comfortably. I love the design of the plates because it allows to always have 1 free hand. So you can go around to each station multiple times if you like until you pop!

“DESSERTS AFTER DARK” – FORT WORTH FOOD & WINE FESTIVAL

After we had dinner in a cute area of Fort Worth (Fort Worth Travel Guide coming soon), we headed over to Whiskey Ranch in Fort Worth for the “Desserts After Dark event of the Food & Wine Festival. This location was about 15 minute drive from Downtown Fort Worth. Whiskey Ranch is actually a distillery but has an outdoor space that they used for the event. As you soon as parked you can hear the funky music playing and you could smell all the yummy sweet desserts.

There were different local bakeries and dessert places displaying their sweet treats for you to try. The portions of the desserts that we got to try was substantial so definitely don’t eat a super big dinner to make room. There was a variety from cakes, pies, cheesecakes, you name it. One our favorites was Cinnaholic with their cinnamon sweet treats with alcoholic. It was so good! The chocolates from Dr. Sue’s Chocolate was so good that I came back for more. One of the best chocolates I ever tasted! Loft 22 Cakes was definitely a favorite. My husband had it first and then called me over. So moist and good! We definitely want to visit their shop.

At each festival event, we saw booths of different schools such as the Culinary School of Fort Worth and each item the schoolsmade were always VERY”GOOD! At the Desserts After Dark, we tried Culinary School of Fort Worth’s “Gateau Basque’s dessert it was soo good! This is a traditional french pastry dessert from the Basque region of France. This flakey with blueberry filling pastry was so good! It was my first time eating or even hearing about a gateau basque dessert. It will definitely be on my list to try when we are in France in June. The two chefs behind the creation is Lauren & Joris Buffa – which I think it is the cutest couple you will ever meet. Joris is from France so I thought it was a perfect dessert choice to have especially being something from “home”.

There were other sweet options such as cakepops, waffles and chocolates from Kate Weiser. Another nice option at Desserts After Dark were the drink options. There were various of alcoholic drinks to try such the different cocktail options from Branch & Bird, Bird Cafe and Four Sisters which was an alcoholic coffee with TX Whiskey. It was quite good and I am not a big coffee drinker. Fours Sisters was a taste of Vietnam which I thought it was cool to taste my first coffee from Vietnam.

“CULINARY CORRAL” – FORT WORTH FOOD & WINE FESTIVAL

Day 2 of the Fort Worth Food & Wine Festival we attend Culinary Corral which I highly recommend attending this one! This was our favorite event. The events we attended were all good but we loved Culinary Corral due to all the variety of choices for food and drinks. There was a little bit of everything to statisfy everyone taste buds. My floral maxi dress that I am wearing at this event you can shop here.

Our first item that we got to try was a yummy drink option from Caffe Del Fuego an Austin based company. This was an ice cold coffee drink with liquor and it was soooo good that we came back 2 more times! You can drink it straight or with cream which they mixed it with half & half. It is the best coffee drink ever! You can buy it at Total Wines and believe Specs as well. The yummy salmon bites from Rise Souffle was so good! I came back for seconds. avocado toasts from the Local Food Kitchen was another favorite of mine. It was a perfect mix of salt and sweetness with the bacon jam. I am not a big avocado fan, but I definitely enjoyed that one.

There was also chicken and waffles which was really good and filling from FNG Eats and Italian meatballs from Aventinos which was really good and received our Italian stamp of approval, Lake Worth High School really surprised me. Sometimes you tend to not expect much from a high school but “Bistro 4210‘s” Lemon Curd Tartlets and Black Bean soup were AMAZING! Like I am a big soup fan and black beans are not my favorite bean of the bunch but it was sooo good and flavorful. The lemon tart was the perfect mix of lemon, tartness and sweetness. I came back for another! Never judge a book by its cover.

At Culinary Corral, there were a few different outdoor lounges including Tipi Lounges and outdoor stations of food. It really had a rustic Fort Worth feel which I liked. This was definitely one of the bigger events with just so many food options. We actually stayed for 3 hours. There was one Tipi lounge that featured Titos Vodka which they made a yummy grapefruit cocktail. Then they had a fun trailer for more drink options which I tried the tequila.

“RING OF FIRE” – FORT WORTH FOOD & WINE FESTIVAL

Day 3 of the Fort Worth Food & Wine Festival was a real treat. The last event was the Ring of Fire. Can you guess what type of food was served by the title? We got to try all the best meats and BBQ that Fort Worth has to offer. It was very good! Because there was a lot of meats, it is one of the more heavier events since meats was the main dish at ever station where as with Culinary Corral there were lighter food options.

A few of our favorite meat dishes we ate was Cousin’s BBQ. They served both meat and a veggie which I thought that was a nice break up. The sausage was so good especially the beef ribs. They had already ran out of brisket by the time we arrived. Flores BBQ was also real good as well. We went back twice as well as Magdalena’s. As far as drinks, the best drink option was Roxor’s Gin. I am not a gin fan but the tropical drink they served was sooo good! That is one gin I would buy for sure. This had a the longest line for drinks as well. There were variety of meat options from beef, sausage, lamb, barbacoa and some yummy deserts too!

We definitely enjoyed our time here at the Fort Worth Food & Wine Festival. Just another reason why Fort Worth is so awesome and that you should visit! Check out my Fort Worth Travel Guide here that is coming up next! Thank you for having me Visit Fort Worth!