9 New Fort Worth Area Restaurants You Need to Know — A Funky New Back Room, Latin Street Food, Fancy Ice Cream and More

Fall is shaping up to be a feeding frenzy with new Fort Worth restaurants popping up all around the city — and beyond. Including the bustling suburbs of Southlake and Mansfield.

This is the Fort Worth restaurant news you need to know:

The West Seventh Corridor will soon welcome another location of fast casual Mediterranean restaurant CAVA. It is currently under construction at the corner of Foch Street at 2736 West Seventh. The other Fort Worth CAVA restaurant (which opened in June of 2021) is still going strong at Waterside.

On Race Street, the first brick-and-mortar restaurant of birria taco sensation Calisience is taking shape. While Calisience is still putting on the finishing touches before opening its doors for dine-in, you can satisfy any birria taco and birria ramen cravings with to-go orders for now.

“Our official opening date is November 1,” Calisience owner Jacqueline Anaya tells PaperCity Fort Worth.

One additional bonus of this move to a permanent space? Calisience’s menu will expand a bit with Anaya getting access to a new full-size kitchen. “We’re adding appetizers for sure — and a full bar will be available by New Year’s Eve,” Anaya says.

New Southside Restaurants

When Funky Picnic Brewing and Cafe’s next-door neighbor Black Cat Pizza shuttered last spring, it opened up a new possibility. Now the local brewpub is getting in on the speakeasy trend by opening its own in that next-door space.

The Back Room at Funky Picnic is open Fridays through Sundays only for now, from 3 pm to 11 pm. The walls of the space feature black and white images of century-old Prohibition protests. The cocktails are classy and the leftover pizza oven is being taken advantage of too.

Elsewhere in Fort Worth, Boca 31 is bringing its Latin street food to the former Funky Town Donut space at 1000 8th Avenue. There are already Boca 31 restaurants in Keller and Denton, but the latest from Chef Andres Meraz is a to-go-only breakfast haven. Signage is already up on the door.

Boca 31’s snug space sits across Rosedale from the new home of Hurtado BBQ. (PaperCity Fort Worth first reported about the Texas Monthly Top 50 barbecue joint’s Fort Worth move last July.) Pitmaster Brandon Hurtado has promised to continue feeding Fort Worth’s hungry medical district a hearty breakfast.

Now, Hurtado BBQ is finally in its soft opening, bringing Mexicue to Cowtown.

WestBend Restaurant Additions

VanLeeuwen Ice Cream is coming to Fort Worth’s WestBend neighborhood, expanding its already robust Texas ice print. Houston boasts three VanLeeuwen Ice Cream shops and Dallas brings one of its own.

VanLeeuwen is known for flavor combinations like marionberry cheesecake, royal wedding cake with elderflower and lemon and bourbon cherries jubilee. Or how about really getting wild? VanLeeuwen has a Grey Poupon with salted pretzels flavor.

This area of Fort Worth is getting downright sweet. VanLeeuwen is parking itself next door to Suzie Cakes.

Fort Worth is getting its own Sweetgreen with an October 11th opening date set. The salad haven also will be calling WestBend home soon. It’s taking over the former South Hampton Sandwich Co. space. Sweetgreen adds even more healthy bowl options to an area which already has HG Sply. Co. and will welcome the upscale Quince Restaurant soon.

Southlake Restaurants to Watch

Southlake is also getting its own Sweetgreen restaurant. You’ll find it at 1111 East Southlake Boulevard in Park Village in a 2,800-square-foot space near RA Sushi and Malai Kitchen.

Southlake Town Square welcomed sushi restaurant Nikko recently. Next up? The fast-casual Original Chop Shop is coming to 2101 E. Southlake Boulevard. Known for healthy food — including fresh juices, smoothies, bowls and chopped salads — Southlake’s Original Chop Shop is scheduled to open early next year.

Dallas is also getting yet another Original Chop Shop restaurant at 11700 Preston Road. That’s expected to open by December.