New Seafood Haven to Open in Fort Worth, But This Restaurant Group is Only Getting Started With Its Texas Expansion

Plank Seafood Provisions is coming to Fort Worth, with a new restaurant in The Shops at Clearfork. Plank will open late in the fall, taking over the space that previously housed Twigs American Kitchen, Flagship Restaurant Group CEO and founder Nick Hogan tells PaperCity Fort Worth. Hogan says that the space has just been leased.

This is just one step in Flagship Restaurant Group’s Texas expansion, though. Hogan has big plans for the Lone Star State.

Fort Worth’s new Plank Seafood Provision will be the third Plank restaurant. The first washed ashore in landlocked Omaha, Nebraska in 2013, the second arrived in Austin’s Domain mixed-use development last year.

Of course, the largest and most longstanding Flagship restaurant chain remains Blue Sushi Sake Grill, which will be in 13 states with 16 locations by the end of this year. The first Blue Sushi restaurant opened in 2002 (yes this is the restaurant group’s 20th anniversary year), in Flagship’s home base of Omaha. The first Blue Sushi Sake Grill restaurant in Texas opened in Fort Worth in 2010 — and it is still a fan favorite along West Seventh Street.

“People forget this, but that was the same time that the Travel Channel and Food Network launched,” Hogan tells PaperCity. “There was a changing of the guard ― when going out to eat was supposed to be experiential. Texas was a little ahead of the curve.”

There are two other Blue Sushi restaurants in Dallas and one will be opening soon in Houston’s M-K-T Heights mixed-use development (the first for Houston). Hogan and Flagship also have their eye on Austin and plan to open a few more Blue Sushi restaurants in Dallas too.

Walking The Plank

Plank Seafood Provisions is known for its coastal interior theme, what Hogan calls “an elevated, yet whimsical” environment, and its Conscious Earth program that maintains its commitment to environmentally-responsible sourcing of the freshest seafood. Plank is upping the game in seafood.

When the Fort Worth Plank Seafood restaurant opens, its menu will be similar to the Austin Plank’s menu. Where everything was either wild caught, raised or harvested ― from Maine to Massachusetts and Louisiana, or the even more distant shores of Greece, Spain and France — is listed right on the menu.

The Plank Seafood in Austin brings an open kitchen setup, complete with a full raw bar and  a wood-fired grill. There are orange and royal blue booths, communal tables and a four-seasons patio. Both other Plank Seafood restaurants incorporate a private dining room into the mix. No word yet on what the Clearfork Plank restaurant will look like. After all, the ink is still drying on the lease.

Oysters are shipped in daily from both Prince Edward Island and the Virginia coast, served on the half shell with horseradish, hot sauce and mignonette sauce. Other raw bar specialties include tuna tartar, whitefish ceviche, two massive seafood towers and American caviar.

Most shared plates are priced in the teens, while main courses hover in the thirty dollar range. Seaside cocktail creations include the Sea Foam Margarita topped with salt air foam, the Oaxacan Negroni with a dash of mezcal, and the Overboard Oyster, a stylish shooter with plank-infused vodka.

Seafood is certainly a missing element in Clearfork, so Plank should be a winner.

“Two of our other partners are graduates of the University of Houston hotel and restaurant management (program),” Hogan says. “So Texas has really become our home away from home.”

“We are looking to a sustained push in Texas over time. There has been a reset in the restaurant industry, and with that there’s a lot of opportunity,” Hogan says. “The secret really comes down to the management of each store, and their engagement in each unique community.”

You can expect more new openings from Flagship Restaurant Group, including the possibility of new Plank Seafood Provisions restaurants in Houston and San Antonio. Flagship also plans to open more Anthem Tex-Asian pubs (the first one is in Austin). Hogan believes Anthem would do well in both Houston’s Montrose neighborhood and Dallas’ Deep Ellum. There also will be more new Blue Sushi restaurant and Hogan notes that Flagship has other new American and Mediterranean restaurant concepts in the works.

But first, Fort Worth is getting its own Plank Seafood this fall at 5289 Marathon Avenue in The Shops at Clearfork.