For Cliburn’s international crowds, Texas cooking but also Thai, Turkish

June 5,2017

By Bud Kennedy

The world comes to Sundance Square every four years, and even piano virtuosos need to eat.

In a city known for barbecue, chicken-fried steak and Tex-Mex, all three can be found within a few blocks of Bass Performance Hall. But there is much more on Fort Worth’s menu, and new restaurants downtown that deserve a try.

One block away

▪ Bird Café diagonally across from Bass Hall outranks Cheesecake Factory as the best restaurant nearby, not only for the clever gastropub menu but also for the Gentling brothers’ original artwork.

Scott and Stuart Gentling, the late brothers who painted the pastoral cloud scene on the Bass Hall ceiling, painted 40 birds for their definitive 1986 “Of Birds and Texas,” which The Dallas Morning News called the state’s “most magnificent book ever.”

The 1889-vintage red brick Victorian’s handsome trim includes a fascinating sandstone of an owl and a mockingbird. Dallas restaurateur Shannon Wynne appropriately named Bird Café as a winged counterpart to his other airborne brands, Flying Fish, the Flying Saucer and Dallas’ Meddlesome Moth.

Bird Café’s original gastropub menu was too heavy, but chef Scott Curtis’ 2016 rewrite brought more salads and lighter fare. The three-cheese grilled cheese-and-soup combination or smoked cheddar burger are always an easy lunch, or choose weekend brunches with pecan-cheddar biscuits or pecan-horseradish-cheddar grits.

Bird Café is open for lunch and dinner daily and offers free Sundance Square valet parking for diners; 155 E. Fourth St. (enter on the plaza patio), 817-332-2473, birdinthe.net.

(The cousin Flying Saucer, 111 E. Third St., serves burgers, pizzas and platters later: weeknights until 11:30 p.m., weekends until 12:30 a.m.)

▪ Thai Tina’s is an insiders’ secret for Bass Hall concertgoers, not only for the Thai dishes served inside the Embassy Suites hotel but also for the free hotel valet parking for diners.

Thai Tina’s is in its ninth year downtown, offering curries, spicy basil dishes, soups and satay for concert or lunch crowds. It’s open for lunch and dinner daily; 600 Commerce St., 817-332-0088.

▪ Del Frisco’s Grille is the better of the chain restaurants, serving simple burgers, flatbreads, salads and a few steaks and larger entrées until 11 p.m. weeknights and Saturdays, 9 p.m. Sundays.

It serves a less expensive lunch menu with daily specials until 4 p.m., and brunch specials on weekends. Current specials include $5 happy hour cocktails, wine and beer, served with $6 appetizers such as nachos or cheesesteak eggrolls; 154 E. Third St., 817-887-9900, delfriscosgrille.com.

Two blocks away

▪ Mi Cocina and Taco Diner, a block apart, are corporate cousins serving Tex-Mex and Mexico City-style cuisine. Both are known for simple platters, better-than-you’d-expect salads and inventive salsas — ask for them all.

Both also open at 10:30 a.m. for the early guest or concertgoer; Mi Cocina, 509 Main St., 817-877-3600, micocinarestaurants.com, or Taco Diner, 156 W. Fourth St., 817-566-0357, tacodinerrestaurants.com.

▪ Waters Restaurant is chefs Jon Bonnell and Anthony Felli’s new fine-dining seafood house, serving shrimp, oysters, tuna, halibut, scallops and more at expense-account prices; 301 Main St., 817-984-1110, waterstexas.com.

▪ Yolk, from Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood, is one of America’s best breakfast chains and offers stunningly generous and good breakfasts and lunches daily until 3 p.m.; 305 Main St., 817-730-4000, sundancesquare.com/yolk.

Four blocks away

▪ Grace is downtown Fort Worth’s finest chef-driven, locally owned restaurant. Chef Blaine Staniford presides over a menu combining traditional rib-eyes and strips with chicken, lamb, pastas and seafood.

Grace’s summer special offers two steak-and-scallop dinners for $99 with a choice of salads, sides and a shared butterscotch pudding or Valrhona tart for dessert; open nightly for dinner only, 777 Main St., 817-877-3388, gracefortworth.com.

▪ Istanbul Grill, a new Mediterranean and Turkish restaurant, is an instant hit and downtown’s highest-rated restaurant on social media.

Stick with the basic lentil soup and grilled salmon, or venture out to the lamb hünkar beğendi (“The sultan was pleased”) or chicken delight; lunch and dinner daily, 401 Throckmorton St., 817-885-7326, istanbulgrilltx.com.

▪ Reata is where “cowboy cuisine” began, and has branched out from chops and chicken-fried steaks to add Texas redfish, game dishes and a wide selection of brunch plates and salads,

It’s open for lunch and dinner daily (but not in midafternoon). Ask for a rooftop table for a wide-angle view of downtown and Sundance Square; 310 Houston St., 817-336-1009, reata.net.