All "Melting Pot's" are local !

Urban melting pot
From Egyptian to vegan, a quirky smorgasbord of dining diversity is blooming on this neighborly row just south of downtown Fort Worth
By JUNE NAYLOR
SPECIAL TO THE STAR-TELEGRAM

When your appetite demands something far afield from what you'd find at any old interstate exit, only one reach of restaurant real estate in Fort Worth will feed your fancy.
Surrounded by the medical district just south of downtown, Magnolia Avenue graciously provides us with an unconventional, chain-free dining haven.
The site where the south-side renaissance began more than a quarter-century ago, Magnolia between Eighth Avenue and Hemphill Street boasts a dozen restaurants in a 14-block stretch that offers the greatest density of dining diversity in Tarrant County. Middle Eastern, Mexican, vegetarian, seafood, Creole, Mediterranean, Thai, Italian and home cooking are all represented, and each place thrives on the individuality of its food, staff and customers.
If you've been ignoring the Magnolia dining district because road work on Rosedale and Hemphill streets has made navigation tricky, there are a couple of ways around all the upheaval. You can avoid obstacles by either traveling south on Main or Jennings to Magnolia or by cutting through the Mistletoe neighborhood from Forest Park to Mistletoe Boulevard to Eighth Avenue.
Like the historic Fairmount neighborhood extending immediately to the south, Magnolia marches to the beat of its own drummer. Rising amid churches, schools and buildings that date from the earliest days of the 1900s, this collection of restaurants eschews trendy tendencies and draws energy from the district's passion for restoration and its spirit of renewal. Go in search of revitalization, and be well fed.

Bud Kennedy, Amy Culbertson and Patricia Rodriguez contributed to this story.

1 King Tut: It's been 14 years since owner Amin Mahmoud turned us on to shawarma at his cafe that celebrates the Egyptian culinary treasures of his youth, and we're still as smitten as we were at the start. Lamb and chicken are the best varieties of this comforting dish, made with wide, tender cuts of meat simmered with onion and tomato and drizzled with the sesame sauce called tahini. Warm wedges of pita come alongside, as do sauteed rice and a peppery vinaigrette that Mahmoud sells by the bottle.

If you take a gaggle of diners, share the eight-item meze plate, laden with riches -- feta cubes, olives, hummus, creamy eggplant dip and more. Vegetarian delights include couscous crowned with sauteed veggies in tomato sauce.

Tremendously popular at lunch, the ebulliently decorated King Tut is a comfortable place for a dinner with family or pals -- but know that there's no bar, and you can't bring in wine or liquor.

1512 W. Magnolia Ave., 817-335-3051

2 Hoagies Heroes: You may have driven by this teensy, unassuming sandwich shop a hundred times and never noticed it. Well, stop it. Go, order, enjoy. Once you do, you'll want to go again and again, if for no other reason than that you need a dozen visits just to put a dent in the menu.

Officially, there are 37 sandwiches on the list, but with the myriad of ingredients available, you could come up with thousands of variations.

Our favorite on a recent visit was the Super Sub, a compilation of roast beef, ham, turkey, Genoa salami, Swiss and American cheeses, lettuce, tomato, pickle and onion that would have made Dagwood weak with desire. The hot Polish sausage with sauerkraut, spicy mustard and Swiss was gratifying, too, but the chicken salad was too heavy on the mayo for our taste.

Bargain hunters will love this place, as 4-inch sammies start at $1.95, and you can get a big 'un, measuring a foot long, for less than $6.

1500 W. Magnolia Ave., 817-877-0817.

3 Benito's: Here's a place for anyone who's tired of the same old boring Tex-Mex plates. Specializing in dishes from Mexico's interior, Benito's commitment to the ways of true Mexican dining shows in the absence of automatic delivery of chips and salsa to the table (they don't do that in the Old Country, folks).

Forget the chips, and wait for the hot tortillas and fiery pico de gallo that do come gratis with meals and are divine with such appetizers as the gooey, chorizo-studded flaming cheese and the molcajetes filled with fresh, chunky guacamole.

Enchiladas come packed with old-fashioned picadillo, or ground beef freckled with bits of potato, or green chile and chicken. For a comfort dish, there are fried pork chunks with squash and tomatoes, and the chicken en adobo is a baked bird in a brick-red chile sauce that will soothe you to your soul.

Breakfast is served at any hour, but it's particularly delicious at 1 a.m. on weekends. Margaritas are a specialty in this friendly, spacious, serape-adorned cafe, and there's a nice selection of Mexican beers.

1450 W. Magnolia Ave., 817-332-8633

4 Nonna Tata: This tiny treasure is the talk of Fort Worth's foodie circles, but there is nothing pretentious here -- just the passionate, individualistic cooking of Donatella Trotti, who vividly re-creates dishes she remembers from her childhood in the Italian lake country where she grew up.

Where else in Fort Worth would you find risotto al salto -- fried into a thin, crisp cake -- or deeply flavored petals of bresaola -- air-dried beef -- slicked with olive oil and scattered with shards of Parmigiano?

The menu changes from day to day; sometimes the hours do, too: Currently, Trotti serves lunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, dinner from 5:30 to 9 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays and until 10 p.m. on Fridays; she closes Saturdays and Sundays and takes reservations only for Monday evenings.

Bring a bottle of wine; Trotti won't charge you a corkage fee (though she might take a sip, if you offer).

Cozy, cute (if occasionally cramped) and cheerful, Nonna Tata has finally given Fort Worth a truly special neighborhood Italian restaurant.

1400 W. Magnolia Ave., 817-332-0250

5 Spiral Diner & Bakery: This funky, laid-back cafe isn't just the best (and possibly only) vegan restaurant in Cowtown, it's a really good restaurant, period. Even confirmed carnivores will find something to tempt them on the vast menu.

Perhaps a Thai-style red curry with broccoli, tofu, peppers and organic brown-rice noodles; or a fresh green salad enlivened with raisins, spiced walnuts and a terrific, garlic-tinged tahini dressing; or a decidedly unglamorous but highly satisfying protein platter, with quinoa, black beans and salsa cooked into a kind of tasty vegan stew.

Then cancel out your virtuous choices with something decadent from the bakery, perhaps a slice of moist, sweet German chocolate cake.

You'll also find a juice bar serving fresh-squeezed juices and smoothies, all kinds of espresso drinks, an interesting selection of beers and an assortment of flyers and newsletters supporting progressive causes.

The emphasis on egalitarianism can seem a little scoldy -- a note on the menu reminds diners that employees are there to "help," not to "serve" -- but we've found the staff genuinely friendly and the atmosphere warm.

1314 W. Magnolia Ave., 817-332-8834, www.spiraldiner.com

6 Servant's Kitchen: Divine inspiration led owner-chef Iting Chu to open a charming eatery late last year. She quit her job as a nurse practitioner when the spirit of gospel music turned her toward Christianity and, in time, a calling to feed people. Her combined passion for service and seafood resulted in Servant's Kitchen, which offers a blend of Asian and Creole favorites.

A recent visit delivered a charming plate of seared teriyaki salmon atop soba noodles and sauteed mushrooms, onion and peppers, although the promised basket of hot bread never materialized. Regulars return time and again for the gumbo -- a concoction loaded with shrimp, crawfish, oysters, scallops and cayenne -- while landlubbers opt for the big burgers.

One wall of the small restaurant showcases aged brick covered with painted vestiges of old grocery ads for such products as Mrs. Baird's Bread; Chu has added her own touches with copper countertops, pendant lighting and Bible verses painted on chair seats.

Service can be on the slow side at lunch and dinner, but it's always exceptionally welcoming.

1310 W. Magnolia Ave., 817-0111

7 Junsuree Thai: The only place in the neighborhood for Thai specialties such as coconut soup, spicy beef salad and an assortment of curries, served in a plain, dark setting. Dinner is unremarkable, but at lunch hospital-district workers and neighborhood residents drop in for the buffet, drawn by reasonable prices ($7.99) and good variety (at least eight entrees, plus a tiny salad bar and rice in three varieties: white, brown and fried.) The buffet runs weekdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., but it's at its best earlier in the lunch hour; as the day wears on, the offerings may be sparse, and the more delicate items such as pad thai don't hold their bright flavor as well.

1109 W. Magnolia Ave., 817-927-3220

8 Scampi's Mediterranean Cafe: Since 1995, restaurateur Ann Diakis and her dad, Theo Diakis, have offered Italian fare and cuisine from their Greek homeland to the neighborhood. The result is a bustling lunch joint by day and a casual cafe for a leisurely dinner on weekends.

At the noon hour on weekdays, options include antipasto and Greek salads, lasagna and Greek specialties; among the latter, we found moussaka -- the traditional layered concoction of eggplant, potatoes and ground beef -- to be especially homey on a recent visit.

On Friday and Saturday nights, when reservations are usually a good idea, start with the spinach salad, topped with feta, mozzarella and toasted almonds; your best bets for an entree are the Greek-style lamb chops rubbed with lemon and oregano, or the chicken sauteed with wine, artichoke hearts, mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes and topped with feta crumbles.

You're welcome to bring your own wine, but know there's a $3 corkage fee.

Take-home goodies by the pint include tzatziki (yogurt-cucumber-garlic dip) and red-pepper hummus, and you can buy quart-size containers of caponata (an eggplant-zucchini-tomato relish) and marinara, among other offerings.

1057 W. Magnolia Ave., 817-927-1887, www.scampiscafe.com

9 Palermo's Italian Cafe: Before adventurous eaters from outside the neighborhood discovered Magnolia, Palermo's was the south side's dominant pizza-and-pasta cafe, the neighborhood Italian place where everybody went for a teenager's birthday or an easygoing dinner with wine.

On a recent visit, Palermo's proved it's still reliable, opening with a handsome helping of bruschetta, followed by a copious platter of linguine arrabiata and a surprising tortellini special with ham in a delicate brandy-cream sauce.

In the dining room, a dozen friends toasted a 30th birthday with $5 glasses of wine; in a corner nook, teenage girls lifted pieces of Palermo's brick-oven thin-crust pizza.

A menu update is promised soon.

1000 W. Magnolia Ave., 817-878-2400.

10 B.J. Keefer's: After 20 years, the street's favorite burger grill is looking a bit tired. But B. J. Keefer's still grills up half-pound sirloin burgers on puffy custom buns, just like founder and former owner Bill Keefer did back when his restaurant seemed like a south-side version of Fuddruckers.

The relish and condiment bar is shorter and skimpier now, but the new owners kept the seasoned home-fried potatoes. New is a Joe's-style neighborhood pizza-and-pasta menu, including $2 pizza by the slice. The secret surprise might be fresh-baked Pillsbury cookies, four for $1.

909 W. Magnolia Ave., 817-921-0889

11 Hot Damn, Tamales!: The Stavron girls -- originally daughter Angele and now mom Ione -- have built up a following for their made-in-house tamales, in such flavors as wild mushroom with Texas goat cheese. Most of the business is in catering, mail-order and take-home tamales, but the storefront space has a couple of booths and a limited dine-in menu -- a tamale plate or a dailyspecial such as chiles rellenos (Wednesdays) or Mexican skewers (Fridays), plus Mexican apple cobbler and Key lime pie.

These new-style tamales are made with vegetable oil, not lard, which results in a dense log of cornmeal that cries out for sauce. On a recent visit, we had copious cups of brightly flavored salsa to eat with our crunchy tortilla chips, but the tamales in our trio sampler (with rice and excellent black beans) were served naked.

Usually open 11 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays only, Hot Damn, Tamales! will open 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays October through December and 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Sundays in December, for the holiday tamale trade.

713 W. Magnolia Ave., 817-926-9909, www.hotdamntamales.com.

12 Paris Coffee Shop: The most famous cafe on Magnolia came from still another Greek immigrant. Gregory Acikis, who instantly Americanized his family by changing his name to Smith, bought the Paris some 75 years ago, and it's run today by son Mike Smith, who greets customers at the door before pointing them to their booth, table or counter stool.

Smith is on the job at 3:30 a.m. each day, baking the pies for which the Paris is renowned; to be on the safe side, reserve a slice of your favorite before ordering lunch, in case they sell out. Then turn your attention to the day's specials, the best of which include chicken livers on Wednesday, chicken and dumplings on Thursday and fried chicken on Friday.

Legendary sportswriter and novelist Dan Jenkins is a regular, and he swears by the enchiladas and the chicken-fried steak. Breakfast favorites include the spinach-feta omelet and corned-beef hash.

In an old Safeway store building at the corner of Hemphill Street, where the streetcar ran between downtown and the south side, the Paris tells the story of Fort Worth in its collection of vintage black-and-white photos.

704 W. Magnolia Ave., Fort Worth. 817-335-2041.

13 Maria's: Far from the yuppie-fied west end of Magnolia, the Flores family serves up old-fashioned Tex-Mex plates in a tiny breakfast and lunch cafe with the gritty feel of the old working-class Magnolia. Though it's outside the main dining district, we've included it here to make a baker's dozen. Magnolia restaurants.

Tamales are handmade and mild, but the real story at Maria's is breakfast, from the chilaquiles to the saucer-sized pork chops. Families from St. Mary's Catholic Church next door crowd around the big tables on Sundays, and at lunch on Saturdays, somebody always needs a bowl of menudo.

The building is 80 years old, and Maria's has been there 26 of those; it's a Magnolia mainstay.

401 W. Magnolia Ave., 817-924-6091

1. King Tut, 1512 W. Magnolia Ave.

2. Hoagies Heroes, 1500 W. Magnolia Ave.

3. Benito's, 1450 W. Magnolia Ave.

4. Nonna Tata, 1400 W. Magnolia Ave.

5. Spiral Diner & Bakery, 1314 W. Magnolia Ave.

6. Servant's Kitchen, 1310 W. Magnolia Ave.

7. Junsuree Thai, 1109 W. Magnolia Ave.

8. Scampi's Mediterranean Cafe, 1057 W. Magnolia Ave.

9. Palermo's Italian Cafe, 1000 W. Magnolia Ave.

10. B.J. Keefer's, 909 W. Magnolia Ave.

11. Hot Damn, Tamales!, 713 W. Magnolia Ave.

12. Paris Coffee Shop, 704 W. Magnolia Ave.

13. Maria's, 401 W. Magnolia Ave.

June Naylor, 817-390-7818 june@junenaylor.com

source: http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/living/food/15507098.htm