5 Fort Worth Family-Owned Restaurants Talk Cooking With Love — In Celebration of Valentine’s Day

Beyond enriching Texas’ culinary traditions, our southern neighbor offers a broader perspective on Valentine’s Day. Celebrated as Día del Amor y la Amistad (Day of Love and Friendship), February 14 in Mexico is a time to appreciate not only romantic partners but also friends, family, and other loved ones. Embracing that same spirit, we spoke with the owners of beloved Fort Worth family-owned restaurants, wine bars, and bakeries — each a longtime supporter of Fort Worth’s Food & Wine Festival — about the relationships that fuel their passion and keep their kitchens thriving.

Like Father, Like Son at Don Artemio

Rodrigo Cárdenas Garza’s earliest memories centered around helping his father, Juan Ramón Cárdenas, prepare family meals and run the family’s restaurant in Saltillo, Mexico. Juan Ramón says working in a restaurant teaches important life skills that he wanted to pass down to his son, who is now the culinary director at Fort Worth’s Don Artemio.

“In the restaurant business, you are in the front line with workers,” Ramón tells PaperCity. “You can see how people struggle in life to get ahead and feed their families. That makes you more aware of all the things that your people need.”

Cárdenas says those formative years taught him how to run a restaurant and manage employees. While Ramón continues to lead the original Don Artemio in Saltillo, his son oversees the Cowtown location, which earned a James Beard Award nomination in 2023. Father and son have a good personal and professional relationship, with Cárdenas adding one key to maintaining a family-owned business.

“Work is work, and family is family,” he says. “Whenever it is time for work, we work. When it’s family time, we don’t have to talk about work.”

Sisters of The Emporium Pie Team

Landon Perdue, the eldest of three sisters behind top Fort Worth family-owned bakery Emporium Pies, says their childhood in Allen, Texas, revolved around exploring their passions.

“We were really close growing up,” she recalls. “My mom’s family lived out in Lubbock. Before Christmas time, we’d pile into the Suburban, eat sandwiches, and watch movies on a little tube television.”

In late 2022, Perdue had the opportunity to purchase a small chain of pie bakeries. Although her sisters, Jen Abohosh and Addie Roberts, had their own successful careers at the time, Perdue pitched the idea of running the shop with her siblings.

“We were very excited,” Perdue recalled, adding that her parents were admittedly nervous about all three of their kids abandoning their careers at once. Today, Roberts runs the production kitchen while Abohosh heads marketing and growth strategies. The sisters communicate through a “Pie Team” text thread. Leading up to Thanksgiving, the sisters crank out over 10,000 pieces, working consecutive 24-hour shifts in the days before the big November holiday.

“That’s not something you can ask or should you ask of an employee,” she says. “In those moments, you’re grateful for how fortunate you are to be in the foxhole with family.”

Keeping It in the Family at Tommy’s

Kelly Smith says that preserving the family-owned feel of Tommy’s three Fort Worth restaurants has been key to the chain’s success. Her parents founded the first Tommy’s in 1983. When Smith was ready to open a third location, she asked her wife, Holly Edwards, to consider taking an active role in managing the three locations. Edwards, who comes from a background in high-end retail, says her previous career taught her skills that she now uses daily when working with Smith.

“Customer service is important, whether you are selling burgers or shoes,” she says, adding that she and Kelly communicate well and know when to compromise.

Holly often jokes with employees that if she and Kelly were parents, she’d be the “fun” one, while Kelly would be the one laying down the rules. Most days, the duo floats between locations, maintaining an active owner presence that has been the hallmark of Tommy’s for more than four decades.

Kelly says working with Holly has been a joy. Their personal travels often lead to new recipe ideas, including a Fort Worth Food and Wine Festival award for their kimchi burger.

Husband-and-Wife Owners of Malai Kitchen Give and Take

Mornings for the Wages family start with preparing their kids for school before splitting off to one of four family-owned Malai Kitchen restaurants across North Texas, including one at Fort Worth’s The Shops at Clearfork. Yasmin Wages says one of the reasons the couple opened a restaurant was to spend more time together.

“We used to work for different restaurants,” she says, “and wouldn’t spend much time together. If we opened our own restaurant, we thought, we could work together. That was the plan. As we grew, we realized it didn’t make sense for us to be together. We have to divide and conquer most of the time.”

She says she works well with her husband Braden because they are willing to “give and take” when needed.

“We believe in getting to a solution without fighting,” she says. “Who wins is never something that we celebrate or even remember. We keep the focus on the guests.”

Having children has taught the couple to empathize with workers who call in with sick kiddos.

“Before, we didn’t know the struggle,” Yasmin says. “Now I totally get it. It changes how you manage your team a little bit. You have a lot more patience.”

Braden says working with his wife allows them to celebrate wins together. Reaching certain milestones becomes more of a family affair.

“There’s no way I could have gotten to where we are without Yasmin,” he says.

Breaking Bread With Dena and Trent Shaskan

Chef Dena Shaskan and her husband Trent have always found ways to support each other’s culinary ventures. Dena heads a newish downtown Fort Worth wine bar, Wines From a Broad, while Trent bakes sourdough loaves via Icon Breads.

“We’ve learned to let the other partner do what they do and not force them into what you do,” Trent says. As the relationship between partners matures, you realize everyone has their special talents. For me, bread is an excuse to have conversations.”

Having a business partner with whom you have a close relationship allows for flexibility, Dena adds.

“You can wax and wane out of roles as needed,” she says. “If you need to be somewhere else or if one person is stronger or weaker in certain areas, you fill in those gaps. Eventually, you know each other so well that you don’t have to have a meeting about it. When you run a family business, you realize there are more important things than winning an argument.”

Having a family informs how the Shaskans treat their own workers.

“Our staff has become like family,” Dena says. “I expect them to give their all, just like you would with your own kids.”