Southlake Gets Its Own Tap Room — Cowtown Brewing Expands Into a New Space

Fort Worth’s own Cowtown Brewing is expanding, with plans to open a second location in the former Ginger Man space in Southlake Town Square as early as late October. The new spot will be one of the first ever tap rooms in Southlake. Cowtown Brewing first opened on Belknap at the edge of downtown Fort Worth in October of 2018.

Its award-winning beers and tender barbecue have proven to have real staying power, even through a pandemic. With its interesting lineup of German-style beers, the two owners — Billy Avila who is in charge of development, and Shawn Kidwell, who serves as head brewer — are ready to branch out.

“All brewing will be done on Belknap, but we are excited to bring the first real tap room to Southlake,” Avila tells PaperCity Fort Worth. “We’ll feature 24 taps including our core line, as well as our rotating seasonals and a few special collaborations that we are working on with other breweries.”

Cowtown Brewing is well known as a lager house, and its lineup speaks with a distinct German accent. Its core beers include High Brau which is a Dortmunder lager; a classic Kölsch style blonde called Rhinestone Cowboy; Cold Fort Worth Beer, a light lager; Horse With No Name, an India pale lager; and a couple of New England IPAs ― Agree to Disagree and Everybody’s Doing It. There is also a Mexican style lager called La Mera Hora, and an Irish red dubbed O’Dell.

While fans of the original Cowtown Brewing may go in part for the succulent barbecue, it’s still undecided if the soon-to-open Southlake tap room will have barbecue. Avila describes it as a lighter fare eatery with some bar food staples such as brats and flatbreads. A good portion of the current Cowtown Brewing’s regular diners make the trip from Southlake already, so they expect to be well received in the area.

“From our perspective, we have been looking for a location to grow our footprint,” says Avila, who lives in Southlake himself. “And when this spot came around, we jumped at it. We are going to try to open it up and brighten it up before opening.”

It turns out there is no need for a complete overhaul.

The new Cowtown Brewing will be equal parts casual indoor and spacious patio seating. It measures in at about 4,000 square feet in all with seating for around 120, both inside and out. Expect a mix of high tops and scattered picnic style seating, much like at the original location.

Get ready to raise a pint to your first dedicated tap house, Southlake. Cowtown Brewing plans to open by the end of October or early November.