Fort Worth’s Popular Press Cafe Is Coming to Aledo — Restaurant King Felipe Armenta Listens to His Fans

After years of pleading from his loyal devotees living in the Aledo area, restauranteur Felipe Armenta is finally planting one of his restaurants in the city’s downtown. Armenta tells PaperCity that his FAR Out Hospitality has a spot in the works. It will be the second iteration of Armenta’s popular Press Cafe, which built a following in Fort Worth.

The new Press Cafe will take over where the former Bistro 1031 left off at 109 S. Front Street, adjacent to Aledo Commons Park and Aledo City Hall. A new downtown master plan for Aledo was developed in recent years ― and it includes the construction of a new Aledo Municipal Complex.

Like the rest of the FAR Out Hospitality stable of restaurants — which includes Tavern, Pacific Table, The Grill, Maria’s Mexican Kitchen, Towne Grill, Cowboy Prime, the soon-to-open Le Margot on Hulen and the first brick-and-mortar for Armenta’s barbecue spot F1 Smokehouse under construction on University ― the Press Cafe menu is curated by veteran chefs. That would be Felipe Armenta himself and Graham Elliot, who now oversees culinary for this always expanding restaurant group.

Armenta tells PaperCity Fort Worth that he now anticipates Le Margot will open before F1 Smokehouse ― permits pending.

Pressing On To Aledo

Anyone who’s a regular has their go-to dishes at Press Cafe, ones they return to time and again. Longtime favorites include those flash-fried caramelized Brussels sprouts, the deconstructed tuna salad with fresh fruit and heirloom tomato slices, and the ancient grain rice bowl, which can be enjoyed as is or topped with your choice of protein. Of course, no Press Cafe meal is complete without several forks attacking a slice of Pennie’s Cake – with its lemon curd and raspberry filling – an ode to a Milk Bar specialty cake.

Newer additions to the menu are equally addictive. The lemon zest-forward house ricotta with toasted ciabatta is dreamy. And the shrimp kabobs include a generous skewer of blackened shrimp atop Mediterranean couscous.

Even before it gets the full FAR Out makeover, the layout of the Aledo restaurant space that Press Cafe is taking over already resembled the original Press to an amazing degree. That includes its patios opening onto a green space, a right-facing bar and an upper dining room with its own balcony. Still, you won’t recognize the space after Cohesive Design gets finished with it.

Kellye Raughton of Fort Worth’s Maven Interior Design Studio is the designer behind other recent FAR Out designs, like the dramatic interiors of Armenta’s Maria’s Mexican restaurant as well as the complete refreshes of both Tavern on Hulen and Pacific Table on University Drive in Fort Worth.

“Kellye is doing all of our interiors for all of our restaurants going forward,” Armenta told PaperCity Fort Worth in a recent interview. “It’s been a great collaboration. We understand each other so well, we often finish each other’s sentences.”

But, on this Aledo Press Cafe, they’ll be working with Cohesive Design instead.

The second-ever Press Cafe will feature a full bar with wines, both by the glass and by the bottle, locally brewed bottled and draft beers, and hand-crafted cocktails. Press Cafe – Aledo will be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner daily, with brunch offered on Saturdays and Sundays.

You finally got your wish Aledo. Press Cafe is scheduled to open this fall.