Tim Love Brings in a New Chef for His Flagship Lonesome Dove Restaurant — a PaperCity Exclusive

It’s not easy running a food empire these days. That’s why its all hands on deck at Love Style Inc. ― celebrity chef Tim Love’s omnichannel company featuring his many restaurants, catering arm, retail merchandise and event venue enterprise.

Just before Fort Worth’s beloved Bird Cafe shuttered for good, its head chef Brian Olenjack flew the coop. Tim Love scooped up the talented chef and his fellow Reata Restaurant alum, installing him as the culinary director of all Love Style’s restaurants, which are scattered from Fort Worth and Denton to Austin, Houston and Knoxville, Tennessee.

“It’s been great for me, we’re going strong,” Olenjack says.

“Brian, has had an amazing career, and I feel very fortunate that he has joined my team,” Tim Love tells PaperCity Fort Worth. “He has great leadership skills, tremendous food knowledge and experience, and is very excited to be a part of our growth.”

Now, Love has tapped yet another former Reata executive chef to join his team. Andrew Dilda has just taken over the reins as chef de cuisine of Love’s flagship Lonesome Dove Restaurant in the Fort Worth Stockyards, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

This is not Dilda’s first rodeo with Love Style Inc. He’s been in one of Tim Love’s kitchens before ― having opened Woodshed Smokehouse as its chef de cuisine.

“Andrew has grown quite a bit in the last eight years ― into a very mature, and smart chef,” Love says. “He takes his work very seriously, and executes it with great pride. I’m very happy to have him back in the team at my flagship.”

One of the founders of premium meat supplier Fort Butcher, Dilda sold his interest in the growing company recently and says he just knew it was time to get back in the kitchen.

“It’s history man. Even when I was at Woodshed, this was the gig I wanted,” Dilda tells PaperCity Fort Worth. “What Tim did for the culinary scene in Fort Worth and the entire region is massive. It’s just such an honor to be a part of it.”

Recent weeks have also seen the rollout of a new delivery-only concept that Love calls Burritos, Fajitas and Ritas.

Essentially, it is a “ghost kitchen” that is being run out of his some of his restaurant kitchens ― at Lonesome Dove Austin, Lonesome Dove Knoxville, Tim Love Catering in Fort Worth, Queenie’s Steakhouse in Denton and Woodshed Smokehouse in Houston.

Orders can be placed on the website for delivery or pickup of dips like Love’s Badass Queso and fresh guacamole, along with $11 burritos filled with skirt steak, organic chicken or summer squash for a vegan option.

The fajita setups are intended to serve two people and come with all the fixings (grilled onions and peppers, sour cream, cheddar cheese, Mexican rice with lime and cilantro, refried beans, fresh pico de gallo and two sauces ― one a smoked tomato and the other a creamy jalapeño). To wash it down, you can order pre-mixed margaritas presented in individual serving bottles.

“The concept is going nuts. We are already in five cities and counting,” Love says. “It is my intention to keep my company positive and on a forward path.”

With this new takeout-only concept exploding, and two new heavy-hitters like Brian Olenjack and Andrew Dilda on the team, Love Style Inc. is moving full steam ahead.

“We have a lot of new and exciting things on the horizon and building a great team is always paramount for me and my company,” Love says. “These are just a couple examples of some major moves that are in our future.”