The Best Bites and New Experiences at the 2026 Fort Worth Food + Wine Festival

This year’s Fort Worth Food + Wine Festival started with a minor scuffle over strategy. My friend suggested we do a flyby of all the food and drink stations before committing to a first bite. We only had about an hour of early access with our VIP tickets, but I was already within the gravitational pull of Soy Cowboy’s robata oysters, and the half-shell morsels topped with miso-garlic butter, citrus ponzu, and parmesan were a flavorful start to a dizzying day of wining and dining.

Early delights at the festival’s new Fork + Fire event included Toro Toro Fort Worth’s costilla a la leña, a cut of smoked short rib topped with lettuce, peanut sauce, avocado sauce, and pickled chiles. The bright accouterments cut through the richness of the smoky dish. Rough Creek Lodge Ranch and Resort also served a variation on a Texas cuisine favorite: baked quail with a sherry-and-maple glaze, served over cheesy green chile grits.

Just minutes in, we realized we needed to pace ourselves. There were three hours to go and dozens of tents and bar stands yet to be explored.

Texas’ Top Chefs and Bakers Gather in Cowtown for Fork + Fire

Like other major cities, Fort Worth’s annual food and wine festival offers the chance to sample small plates from top local restaurants and wineries from across the country. The festival raises funds for the Fort Worth Food + Wine Foundation, which supports local culinary scholarships, grants, and programs that strengthen the city’s food and hospitality community. The event also serves as a reminder of how tight-knit Fort Worth’s restaurant, bar, and distillery scene is.

At this year’s new Fork + Fire event, acclaimed chefs from across Texas gathered to show off some of their best dishes. Topping my must-try list were the Trill Burger, guava tres leches, and chilled smoked clam. We recently published a festival preview featuring interviews with the chefs and bakers behind those plates, which piqued my interest.

“I’m a hugger,” Executive Chef Eduardo Osorio said in greeting as we tried Meridian Dallas’ clam. The meat was lightly smoky and delicate, benefiting from the melon’s mild sweetness and the nuoc cham’s complex flavors. In a nearby tent, Austin’s Mariela Camacho served one of the most sublimely pleasurable small plates of the day with her guava tres leches. Guava notes hit first, followed by rich cream and subtle hints of rum. While we chatted up Camacho, Bob Somsith from Austin-based Lao’d Bar came by to introduce himself to her.

“You both drove from Austin to Fort Worth to meet for the first time?”

Somsith laughed, replying, “It’s because we all work so much. I meet many Austin chefs at out-of-city festivals.”

Somehow, that led to a sidebar conversation about Oak Cliff — where Somsith grew up, and my dad taught public school — and how much he loves living in Austin. The cheekily named Lao’d Bar served a memorable ribeye steak skewer that hit smoky, sour, salty, spicy, and herbal notes all at once. They also won the top prize that day. Congrats, Bob! Other great dishes that day included the Trill Burger, which indeed lives up to the hype, Dayne’s Craft Barbecue’s steak frites, and Hao Tran’s dutifully traditional Hanoi-style grilled pork with vermicelli noodles.

The Main Event

The Main Event was equally memorable the day before. Many of Fort Worth’s most notable chefs — Jon Bonnell, Antonio Votta, Jenna Kinard, Juan Rodriguez, and Marcus Paslay — were helming tables and greeting guests. B&B Butchers & Restaurant brought in a stalwart, smoked bacon with blue cheese and honey, while Rodriguez’s slow-roasted pork with arroz and pickled slaw spanned savory to tangy.

Madrone’s notably long line boded well for Jenna Kinard’s forthcoming restaurant within The Public Market. One week after his first wine pairing dinner at Duchess, we caught Chef Marcus Kopplin serving a delightful duck confit with mole negro, lime creme, and cilantro. Voters had the final word that day, and Antonio Votta, Executive Chef at Bricks and Horses, snagged the best dish award that evening.

We ended the experience at the rooftop bar at Press Cafe for the VIP party, where we chatted with Chef Michael Arlt of The Mont and then Dayne and Ashley Weaver, whose reach recently leaped from local to international with their first barbecue restaurant in Taiwan. We missed Thursday and Sunday, but those days saw Lucky G’s Bistro and Lil’ Boy Blue BBQ take the top prize, respectively.

Well done, Fort Worth Food + Wine Foundation.